On Reproduction Of The "Three Aspects Of Beauty" In C-E Translation Of Classical Chinese Poetry

Classical Chinese poetry is a treasure of Chinese culture with high literary meritsand aesthetic value. Besides, it is also a bright pearl in the history of world literatureand deserves to be shared with other nations. However, of the Classical Chinesepoems in record, only a small part of them have been translated into English so far.Under this circumstance, it will be of great significance for translators to shoulder theresponsibility of translating Classical Chinese poetry.Tang poetry, as a representative of Classical Chinese poetry, is a type of literarygenre that uses the most polished and tersest language with the richest connotations. Itunifies beauty of sense, sound and form. Translation of Tang poetry is acomprehensive art, and the beauty of poetry in sense, in form and in sound should bepreserved to the largest extent in the translated version. How to make target readersfully appreciate the poetry’s beauty in sense, in sound and in form so as to make thetranslation appeal to the ear, the eye and the heart, therefore, becomes a goal pursuedby every translator.Xu Yuanchong, a prestigious translator with over50years’ translating experience,has made great contributions to the translation of Classical Chinese poetrytheoretically and practically. He has not only translated a large number of ClassicalChinese poetry into English and French, but has also proposed a very useful andeffective theory which is named the Three Beauties Theory, namely beauty in sense,beauty in sound and beauty in form, which serves as an useful theory for poetrytranslation.Chang Hen Ge is a masterpiece written by Bai Juyi, a noted poet in Middle TangDynasty. Backing on the history of Anshi Turmoil and taking Han Yuefu as genre, thelong narrative poem tells a beautiful but tragic love story between Tang Emperor LiLongji and his lover Lady Yang Yuhuan. Chang Hen Ge is one of the greatestnarrative poems of Classical Chinese poetry which is regarded as one of Bai Juyi’smost successful works. This thesis makes a study of Xu Yuanchong’s translated version of Chang HenGe to discuss how he puts his Three Beauties Theory into practice and reproduces thebeauty of sense, form and sound in his translated version. In this way, the author ofthe paper hopes to shed some light on the translation theory of Classical Chinesepoetry. Through ample examples in the paper, the author also hopes to providetranslators with some desirable skills in translating Classical Chinese poetry.