On The Reproduction Of Xu Yuanchong’s"Three Beauties" In Translation——A Case Study Of Selected Poems Of Mao Zedong

Language is the carrier of human civilization, and poetry is an art of language. Poems will not exist without good wording. Poetizing is difficult, as an ancient poet Jia Dao said,"Find a proper word, and lose several beards." And it is more difficult for good translators. The higher the demand of English translation of Chinese classical poetry becomes, the more difficult the translation is. Yan Fu, a great translator in Qing dynasty, once said that deliberating for weeks to establish a single term. Not only should a translation have faithful ideas of the original work, but also the elegant style and manner of writing should be of the same character as that of the original, and the translation should be as expressive as that of the original composition. Throughout the ages, there are three schools which study poetry translations, that is, metrical verse school, free verse school and prose school. This thesis mainly discuss the representative figure of the metrical verse school—the application of of Xu Yuanchong’s translation thoughts "the three beauties" in the translation of Selected Poems of Mao Zedong.As the founder of People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong is not only a prominent strategist but also a talented poet. He creates more than a hundred poems during his lifetime, among which many are widely known by people. These poems have been translated into several languages in the last century to disseminate his poetry, ideological and political thoughts and Chinese culture as well. Among all those translations, Xu Yuanchong’s version is highly praised. Mr. Xu tries to reproduce the original poems’ beauty in meaning, sound and form. He weighs his words and perfects his skills to create the best translation.The author of this thesis adopts the theory of "Three Beauties" and uses Mr. Xu’s translation version—Selected Poems of Mao Zedong as the case. The thesis analyzes the translation principles followed by the translator in his translating process and induces the translation skills used by the translator to hit the translation targets. On the one hand, to appreciate the beauty in meaning from the perspectives of natural images, cultural images, and allegories; to enjoy the beauty in sound by listening to the stress and rhyme; to admire the beauty in form from the view of the translations’ appearance. On the other hand, the author evaluates and indicates some defects of the translation version, and gives several suggestions. The whole thesis bends on solving four questions below:1.What is the substance of "Three Beauties"?2.How does Xu Yuanchong practise "Three Beauties" into use in his translations?3. What are the features of Mao Zedong’s poems?4. How to translate poems? In conclusion, poetry can be translated if we adopt proper translation methods. Translating verse as verse is feasible. Xu’s "Three Beauties" theory inherits and develops the essence of Yan Fu’s "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" and also has something in common with Nida’s "functional equivalence". Mr. Xu’s translation practices set good references for later generations to translate poems. The principle of "Three Beauties" is appropriate for not only the translating of Mao Zedong’s poems but also of all styles of poem.