A Study Of Yang Xianyi’s Translation Of Tang Poems From The Perspective Of Image Reproduction

Chinese classical poetry, famous for its musicality and uniqueness in language, has been constantly translated into foreign languages, especially in English. The translation works of Chinese classical poetry help foreigners take a closer look at Chinese culture and literature. Thus to many scholars who devote their lives to the translation of Chinese literature, poetry translation is a popular choice.As the soul of poetry, images provide an implicit way of expressing the poets’ appreciation of nature and beauty, hatred of unfair social system, sorrow and happiness. Therefore, translators often regard image as the most important element of poetry and devote much effort to recreating images in English versions.Although many scholars have referred different translation theories to the discussion of image reproduction, some of them only focused on the rendition of a single image. The purpose of poets is to combine images into lines organically, and create a complete picture with them. However, the meaning of a single image is indeterminate it cannot express the complicated and subtle feelings of the poet. Meanwhile, the single image cannot indicate the cause, effect, change and development of the poet’s feelings either. Only when all the images are combined can they serve to express the poet’s complete feelings and the poem’s theme, and effectively play the role that a single image could not. Therefore, no poetry translator can overlook the transference of image combination in translating classical Chinese poetry.In this thesis, the author attempts to classify the lyrics of the Tang Dynasty according to different combinations of images: juxtaposition, skipping, superimposition, crisscross and radiation then make a comparative study between the translated versions of Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang and of other scholars. The methods of comparative study and deduction were employed to analyze the selected materials and the translation methods they used when facing different combinations of images and appreciating the reproduction of images. Finally, the conclusion shows that when dealing with images in juxtaposition, the Yangs adopted the method of equivalence when dealing with images in skipping, they used addition and reduction in translation to keep the symmetry of syntax when dealing with images in superimposition, they adopted the neutralization method, balanced the use of liberal and literal translation when dealing with images in crisscross, the Yangs merged the images and processed them together when dealing with images in radiation, the Yangs took a method of liberal translation or attaching notes of explanation at the end of translation.This thesis is divided into four parts.Chapter one is the literature review of the related theories. It is composed of four parts. The first part gives an overview of studies on images, and a comparison between Chinese concept of image and western concept of image. The second part introduces the five combinations of images. The third part is a brief introduction to Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang. It begins with a brief survey of Yang Xianyi as a translator, consisting of his translation career influenced by social environment and his magnificent accomplishments in translation. The forth part reviews the theories and commentaries concerning Yang’s translation made by him and other scholars.Chapter two is the methodology mainly adopted in this thesis. It included research questions, sample selection, comparison and description.Chapter three is the study on image translation of Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang and other translators. It contains five parts and analyzes the English versions of Tang poems from the perspectives of five ways of image combinations. In each part, the comparative study was employed in poems of the Tang Dynasty translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang and other translators. Chapter four is the ending part of this thesis it concluded the translation methods the Yangs adopted in each kind of combination, limitations of the research and suggestions for further study.