Research On Xu Yuanchong’s Methods Of Reproducing Images In Li Bai’s Poetry

Classical Chinese poetry (CCP) is the brilliant reflection of the traditionalChinese culture with cultural connotations and its glitter lies in the meticulouslyformed images. As the most distinguished Romantic Poets in Tang dynasty, thedistinctive personality of Li Bai’s poetry exists in his selection and arrangement ofimages. Based on this, the thesis makes a comparative study of Xu Yuanchong’s andother translators’ versions of Li Bai’s poems, with Xu’s Three Beauties principle andThree Transformations principle as the analytic framework, to find how to convey tothe implicit meaning of images in the translation. Thus the thesis manages to justifythe practical value of Xu’s Translation theories on the translation activity of classicalChinese poetry and his great contribution to poetry translation. Xu Yuanchong’stranslation and his translation thought have received more and more attention from21st century. These researches are mainly from two aspects: micro aspect and macroaspect. The micro research always compares Xu’s and other translators’ translation ofthe same works by using one or two theories, or makes an interpretation on Xu’stranslation by using some certain translation theory. While the macro research alwaysfocuses on Xu Yuanchong’s translation thought from the aspect of intertextuality,hermeneutics or cross-culture. Few researchers focus on the image reproduction in XuYuanchong’s translation of Li Bai’s poetry. So the thesis makes a systematicalanalysis of image in Li Bai’s poetry from Xu’s two principles, in order to justify itspractical value and great contribution to poetry translation.The whole thesis can be divided into six chapters: Chapter one is theintroduction. Besides the introduction of Li Bai and the features of his poetry, and thetranslation history of Li Bai’s poetry and the survey of studies on the translations of LiBai’s poetry are also included in this chapter. Chapter two, it has been mainly focusedon that Xu Yuanchong’s view on poetic translation, especially his Three BeautiesPrinciple and Three Translations Principle, whose feature is stressing on thetranslators’ subjectivity and readers’ response. Chapter three, starting with understandings of the differences and similarities of images between Chinese andwesterners, the features of Li Bai’s poetic images have been discussed in detail andthe images in Li’a poetry are divided into three categories in this chapter in order tomake a further study in Chapter four. And in the last part of this chapter, the linguisticdifficulties and cultural barriers when transferring Li Bai’s poetic images are putforward. In Chapter four, the reproduction of Li Bai’s poetic images in XuYuanchong’s and other translators’ version is analyzed by his principle of threebeauties. Chapter five, with Xu’s principle of three transformations, studies are givenwith examples to the three translating means of generalization, equalization andparticularization adopted by Xu in his translation of images in Li Bai’s poetry.Chapter six is the conclusion of the whole thesis.