On Wang Rongpei’s Translation Of Tao Yuanming’s Poems

Ancient Chinese poetry translation helps to propagate Chinese culture，promotethe communication with western cultures and develop Chinese culture industry.Splendid as it is, the translation of ancient Chinese poetry has a long way to go.Professor Wang Rongpei is the pacesetter among the countless translators who devotethemselves to the great work of poetry translation. He has a perfection of TaoYuanming’s poems, and he has translated Tao Yuanming’s122poems, in which thereare9Chinese classical poems with lines of four characters each, and the rest are allfive characters of pre-Tang poetries. As we all know, the translator is the most activeand crucial element involved in the translation process, because he is in the positionof the medium. And the translation process will turn out to be impossible without him.He has to make a full use of his translator-centeredness so as to gain comprehensiveunderstanding of the original text and produce appropriate translating in the targetlanguage.This paper is intended to summarize and analyze Professor Wang Rongpei’stranslation techniques and expect better translated works. As a native translator forancient Chinese poetry, Professor Wang Rongpei has full and valid understanding ofthe original works. His translations are all rhythmic and musical, which reproducecreatively the style of the original poems. He uses the literary words to show readerssplendid Chinese traditional culture. Professor Wang Rongpei pays close attention tothe readers’ feelings and renders the imagery features of ancient Chinese poetryproperly. The translation strategy and methods a translator uses also indicates hissubjectivity. Professor Wang Rongpei insists translating verse as verse. He believesthat poetry translation should render the true meaning of the original poems in thesuitable form of poetry. And in his Translating he has invariably adhered to vivid indescription and faithful in meaning，as his supreme goal. The majority of histranslation versions successfully transferred the beauty of ancient Chinese poems towestern readers. His outstanding contribution to classical Chinese poetry translation is beneficial to the further development of Chinese literary translation.Through a detailed analysis of Professor Wang Rongpei’s subjective factors inhis translation activity, the author tries to explore Professor Wang Rongpei’ssubjectivity reflected in his poetry translation theory and practice. Based on his greatgrasp of English lexicology and long-term translation activity, he has formed a set offeasible translation skills and specific writing style. He has always showed specialfondness and enjoyed high reputation for Chinese classic works. His translationmotivation is to show the world the essence of the authentic traditional Chineseculture, that’s why he chose a large number of Classic Philosophical works as well ashis endeared ancient poetry&local operas as his translation objects. He has followedhis own translation principles in his translation practice and invariably adhered to hissupreme goal to be in description and faithful in meaning. He employed bothdomestication and foreignization with skillfulness in his translation practice toincrease the acceptability of his translated works among western readers, fulfilling thetask of spreading the Chinese culture to the world. With his representative work “TaoYuanming’s Poetry” as a case study, the author tries to analyze how Professor WangRongpei’s subjectivity successfully influenced his rendering from such three aspectsas realization of “three beauties”, transference of cultural images, as well asreproduction of literary style.In short, Professor Wang Rongpei’s poetry translation embodies beauties inform, sound and sense. His plain and natural language, fresh and fluentstyle----“describing the most common things in the language of common people”accord with his principle of translation----“being vivid in description and faithful inmeaning”. Professor Wang Rongpei has made a great achievement in poetrytranslation and spreading Chinese culture. He is a loyal advocator and practitioner inthe field of Chinese classics in English translation, so to combine his poetrytranslation theory and practice with the study of translator’s subjectivity is not only abrand-new subject, but also deserves the attention of other scholars to do furtherresearch in this aspect.