An Analysis Of Xu Yuanchong And Xu Ming’s Translation Of Dream In Peony Pavilion

As a synthesis of poem, music, dance and stage designing, Chinese opera unfolds thepanorama of traditional Chinese aesthetics before us, which undoubtedly becomes one of themost valuable Chinese cultural treasures. Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), a brilliant playwright inMing Dynasty, is renowned for his Dream in Peony Pavilion, which tells one of the mostcharming and romantic stories in Chinese classical literature. Apart from the elegant languageand far-reaching conceptions, Tang has dealt with the characters’ emotions in Dream in PeonyPavilion with great care and delicacy.This paper attempts to explore Dream in Peony Pavilion based on the theory oftranslation aesthetics. Generally speaking, translation aesthetics is an interdisciplinary subjectof translation studies and aesthetics, which not only concerns about the elements of translation,but also pays a close attention on the reproduction of the beauty in translation. Thus, literarytranslation is an artistic recreation basing on the literary creation. In drama aesthetics, thebeauty of drama is embodied through dance, sound, music and the inner emotion of thecharacters. Therefore, Professor Xu Yuanchong has put forward the famous Three Beautiesprinciple in literary translation, including the beauty of sound, beauty of form, and beauty ofmeaning. The author of this paper believes that translation aesthetics offers a properperspective in drama translation research. The thesis analyzes Xu Yuanchong and his son XuMing’s translation work Dream in Peony Pavilion with Xu’s translation theory as standardfrom the perspective of translation aesthetics—the reproduction of the beauty of image,emotion and language style in the translation work.Through the comparing research between the original work and translation, the author ofthis paper holds that Professor Xu Yuanchong and his son Xu Ming’s translation has successfully reproduced the beauty of the source work of Dream in Peony Pavilion. Theaudience in target language can easily feel the beauty of the original work. In fact, ProfessorXu has done his best to transfer the beauty of the original work; yet as to some really elusiveimages, he deletes them to help the target reader understand the translation. It is safe to saythat their translation is perfect in terms of the fusion of rhythm and meaning, which givesrebirth to the original aesthetic value in the translation work.As a bridge of two languages, the translator is the messenger of cultural transmission. Iftranslators can present the beauty of Chinese culture to foreign readers, there is no doubt thatthe target readers will get some entertainments and enlightenments from reading the translatedworks. More often than not, writers make full use of their life experiences to create beautyin literary work while translators recreate the beauty of literary work in translation. The authorhopes the thesis can contribute to the research of Xu’s English version of Dream in PeonyPavilion and attract more researchers to do further research on the translation of Chinesetraditional drama.