Translation Of English Poems Between The Late Qing Dynasty And The May4^th Movement（1870-1919） From The Persective Of Intertextualit

Chinese translation of English poems can be traced back to1854when a westernmissionary translated the English poem On His Blindness by John Milton. Poetrytranslation tradition has been formed between the Late Qing Dynasty and the MayFourth Movement (1870-1919), bearing its distinctive characteristics of transformingEnglish poems into Chinese ancient poetic form, such as four-character poetic form(or the style of the Book of Songs), five-character poetic form, seven-character poeticform and Sao-style, etc. Many Chinese translators intend to attach great importance torhetorical expression and poetic spirit by transforming English poems into Chinesepoetic form, considering the qualities the two share in terms of stylistic value andexpressive function. It is mainly focused on text analysis of Chinese version in thoseprevious studies, but in this paper, a new dimension—intertextuality is rendered to theresearch.Documentary analyzing, comparative method, case study, etc. are applied by theauthor to do research on Chinese forms for transforming English poems. This thesis ismade up of five chapters: Chapter One is the brief introduction of this research fromsuch aspects as the background, scope, significance, purposes and methodology, andthe outline of this thesis. Chapter Two is literature review. First of all, it introducesthe history of Chinese translation of English poems and the development oftranslation forms. Then it discusses the tradition of transforming English poems intoChinese poetic form between the Late Qing Dynasty and the May4thMovement (1870-1919). By the final analysis, it points out the achievements and shortfalls ofprevious related studies. Chapter three is an intertextuality perspective of turningEnglish poems into Chinese ancient poetic form. It surveys the application ofintertextulity to poetry translation and highlights the stylistic effect achieved bytransforming English poems into Chinese poetic form. The intertextual affinities suchas spirit intertextuality and stylistic intertextuality are well conveyed by the strategyof transforming English poems into Chinese poetic form. Chapter Four is the casestudy. By taking four-character representation of English poems as example, itexplores the intention and effect of four-character poetic form for transformingEnglish poems, separately discussing the quotation, imitation, invention of Chinesefour-character structure as well as application of four-character set expression.Chapter Five is a summary of the findings of this thesis and it points out the opennessand limitations of this study.This thesis highlights inter-dependence and impact between the Chinese andEnglish texts through absorption and transformation. Chinese poetic form is favoredin transforming English poems for its stylistic value and expressive function. Theauthor emphasizes the suitability to convey faithfully the inter-textual affinities,whether in the aspect of spirit or style by translating English poems into Chineseancient poetic form. Those excellent Chinese translations of English poems by ancientpoetic form are well received by Chinese readers. The practice of transformingEnglish poems into Chinese poetic form is the activity of creative translation thatassume literary creativity, contributing to enrich stylistic form of Chinese translationliterature and develop Chinese traditional literary form.