On The Translatability Of Classical Chinese Poetry

Classical Chinese poetry (CCP) serves as not only the gem of Chinese literature but also a bright pearl in the crown of world literature. When it comes to the translation of CCP, the disputes and contradictions between translatability and untranslatability have been debated for quite a long time among translators.Through literature review of previous studies on translatability of CCP, the author gets the statement that poetry, including CCP, is translatable in a general sense, but there are limits to the translation of poetry and CCP. The author aims to find ways of decreasing the limits of CCP translation and maximizing the translatability of CCP in this thesis. The author employs the methodology of case study, textual analysis, and inductive reasoning, and conducts comparative analysis of three English versions of Bai Juyi’s Changhenge under guidance of Professor Xu Yuanchong’s Three Beauties Principle, which is the theoretical basis of the thesis, to discuss the limits of CCP translatability from different aspects. From the perspective of Xu Yuanchong’s Three Beauties Principle, three English versions of Changhenge are compared and analyzed from aspects of sound, form and sense. Upon the basis of comparative analysis, the author generalizes the influencing factors of limits of CCP translatability and then gives suggestions for maximizing CCP translatability.