On Translator's Creativity

The thesis starts with a Chinese poem titled Blue-and-white Porcelain. From the analysis of the artistic conceptions of the Chinese version to the conveyance of the artistic conceptions into the English version, the thesis focuses on the indispensability of the translator's creativity in poem translation.The theoretical basis of the thesis is one of the standards of poem translation (i.e. the beauty of sense, the beauty of sound and the beauty of form) put forward by Xu Yuanzhong: the beauty of sense. After a detailed analysis of the artistic conceptions of the Chinese version, two English versions are picked out, amongst many others, between which comparisons are made from the perspective of the conveyance of the artistic conceptions. The first version is to a great extent word-for-word translation, which also falls short of delving into the background of the original, the choice of words and phrases. Consequently, it is made up of mistranslated phrases, ignored images and redundant wording. In contrast, in the second version, the translator has a deep and thorough understanding of the Chinese version, and in the process of translation, he weighs each word and phrase without being constrained to the original expressions and uses certain methods of creativeness without deviating from the original meaning. Both the surface artistic conception and the hidden one are successfully conveyed into the English version.Through the comparison of the two English versions of the Chinese poem Blue-and-white porcelain, it is confirmed that translator's creativity is indispensible in poem translation. Finally, the thesis comes up with several methods of creativeness that can be employed in poem translation.The process of poem translation is far and winding, the translator needs to have a strong power of understanding and a deep insight, to be sensitive to both the source language and the target language, and to possess a delicate aesthetic perception and a good command of language.