On The Translation Of Images In Mao Tse-tung’s Poems From A Translator’s Subjectivity Perspective

Researches on images in Mao Tse-tung’s poems have concerned moreabout which version is better, ignoring the deep reasons for numerousversions, namely, the discussion of translator’s subjectivity. This thesisaims to conclude the main factors that influence the manifestation oftranslator’s subjectivity. Through a comparative study of three Englishversions of Mao’s poems, the manifestation of translator’s subjectivity inthe translation of image will be further analyzed.This thesis will select three representative English versions of Mao’spoems at home and abroad, that is, the official version published byForeign Language Press, Willis Barnstone’s version and Xu Yuanchong’sversion. And then the thesis will present a comparison among differenttranslators, mainly from translators’ cultural identities, translationpurposes and the historical environment translators situated to furtheranalyze the manifestation of translator’s subjectivity in the translation ofimage of Mao’s poems and the influence of these factors in translators’adoption of translation strategies.Finally, it’s concluded that it’s the concurrent effect of the three mainfactors that the three English versions of Mao’s poems are finallyproduced, which further explores the connotation of translator’s subjectivity in a dialectical way. It’s proved that translator’s subjectivityis of dual nature and it’s a dialectical unity of the translator’s subjectiveinitiative and passivity. Although restrained by a lot of factors, translatorsstill fully exert their subjectivities to create unusually brilliant versions.The thesis attempts not to concern which version is better, but to give areason analysis for translators’ different exertions of subjectivities toprovide some help to translation practice and translation criticism.