An Aesthetic Study On The English Translation Of Li Bai’s Poetry-From The Perspective Of Xu Yuanchong’s "Three Beauties" Principle

Poetry translation belongs to literary translation and is the most difficult of all translation tasks. Classical Chinese poetry is the golden treasure in Traditional Chinese literary history. The language in Classical Chinese poetry is concise and implicit with deep artistic conceptions, thus possessing great aesthetic and artistic values. Translation and aesthetics share a deep relationship in originality, and aesthetics plays a significant role in classical poetry translation. Poetry translation is the recreation of the artistic beauties of source language and it requires reproduction of the beauty in sense, beauty in sound and beauty in form. The author of this thesis holds that the study of the English translation of Classical Chinese poetry from the perspective of aesthetics is of great importance in promoting and publicizing Chinese culture.This thesis first traces both Chinese and western traditions of translation aesthetics, and then a comparative study is conducted on Li Bai’s poetry translated by Xu Yuanchong and other translators on the basis of "Three Beauties" Principle. Through analysis, the author points out that Xu Yuanchong has reproduced original beauties in sense, in sound and in form and his English versions has outshined those of other translators. The author also argues that "Three Beauties" Principle is applicable to poetry translation and plays an important role in poetry translation practice.