A Comparative Study On The Culture-loaded Words In The Two English Versions Of Mao Zedong’s Poetry

China has been famous around the world for its two-thousand-year history ofpoetry and classic Chinese poetry is the most valuable asset in Chinese poetry literature,incorporating both extraordinary grace and eloquent simplicity. Mao Zedong, with hismultiple identities as both a distinguished leader and a talented poet, conversant withthings from the past and the present, made great achievement in poetry. His poetry,which inherits and further develops the traditional Chinese rhymed poetry, is of greatvalue for us to study on.This paper, with specific examples, probes into the translation of the culture-loadedwords in Mao’s poetry on the basis of the adjusted classifications provided by Nida, i.e.ecological culture-loaded words, allusive culture-loaded words, social culture-loadedwords, religious culture-loaded words, and linguistic culture-loaded words, within theframework of the Skopos theory by comparing the most influential two English versionsof Mao’s poetry (Xu Yuanchong’s version and the Harper’s version). At the same time,the translation methods of foreignization and domestication are also explored on thebasis of the analysis of the two English versions.By and large, the two versions, according to the author, can both improve theiraccuracy in the translation of the cultural-loaded words as there is a great gap betweenthe target readers’ cognition system and the connotation of the source text; besides, theHarper’s version should attach more importance to the context so as to avoid twistingthe meaning of the original poem during the translation. Last but not the least, moreannotation should be added to Xu’s version as there appears to be inadequateexplanatory information in his version.