| Shijing is one of the oldest poetry anthologies in the world. As a Confucian classic and the oldest Chinese textbook, Shijing is an important part of Chinese culture. Its English translations will provide a chance for the westerners to learn and enjoy Chinese traditional culture. It is very important for culture exchange between China and the West to translate Shijing into one with the beauties in sense, in sound and in form.Until now, almost every main language has its own version of Shijing, among which the author chooses two for a comparative study---the English Shijing versions of Xu Yuanzhong and William Jennings. Both of these versions are metrical. Because of different ethnic groups, Xu Yuanzhong and William Jennings have different backgrounds and motives, which makes it possible to conduct a comparative study on their translations of rhetorical devices of Shijing.Rhetorical devices play an important role in an expression. Every poem of Shijing uses rhetorical devices. And more than thirty rhetorical devices are used in Shijing, many of which are pioneering. Rhetorical devices are indispensable to enrich the content of Shijing and strengthen its language appeal. So the translations of rhetorical devices will influence the overall level of translations. Translation does not involve only simple transformation between two languages but also how to deal with the sense, sound and form beautifully. In literature translation, especially poetry translation, translators should try their best to reproduce the beauties of the original however different their goals, principles and methods are. The author chooses the Three Beauties theory as the theoretical base to analyze the translations of rhetorical devices of Shijing in Xu Yuanzhong and William Jennings’versions. Xu Yuanzhong holds that translators should convey the original beauties in sense, in sound and in form, and retain the original flavor in their translations.Based on the illustration of The Three Beauties theory, translation aesthetics, the Chinese and western poetics, the three beauties of Shijing, and ten rhetorical devices of Shijing, this thesis analyzes the English Shijing versions of Xu Yuanzhong and William Jennings from the aspects of background, aim, translation theories of translators and evaluation of readers. And the author picks about twenty examples from the versions of Xu Yuanzhong and Jennings to analyze their translations of rhetorical devices based on the Three Beauties theory. |
