A Multidimensional Approach To The Translatability Of Li Qingzhao’s Ci Poetry

Li Qingzhao was the most outstanding poetess in the history of Chinese literature,and her works have attracted much academic attention. Many translators have devotedthemselves to rendering her poetry into the target language, but there are few studieson the translation of Li Qingzhao’s ci poetry. This thesis intends to cope with thetranslatability issue of Li Qingzhao’s poetry into English from the perspectives ofphonology, semantics and style so as to decide whether the beauty in sound, sense andform can be rendered into English and inspire more discussion on her poetrytranslation. Parallel texts of Li Qingzhao’s poetry are compared to makegeneralizations about the level of their correspondence in terms of translatability. Thefindings from this study show that Li Qingzhao’s ci poetry is mainly translatable whileits translatability varies with the possibility of finding justified correspondences in thetarget language. Also, translatability is not static but dynamic. It is closely related tothe translator’s understanding of the source text and views of translation. Finally, thisthesis proposes that more translators should participate in the translation of classicalChinese poetry and spread the Chinese culture by means of translation.