Aesthetic Perspectives Of Compensation Methods In Chinese-English Poem Translating

When texts are translated from one language to another, their differences in culture and language features will more often than not lead to translation losses. Therefore translation activities are usually accompanied by translation losses, which make translation compensation necessary. Translation compensation strategies are frequently utilized in literature translation, especially in the translation of ancient Chinese verses. The most important goal for many of the elite poem translators is to keep the aesthetic value of the original poems as their main guidelines. To represent aesthetic values in the original poems, translation compensation is applied by poem translation masters.This thesis analyzes those applications of compensation methods in the translation of ancient Chinese verses from an aesthetic perspective. It discusses and summarizes translation compensation for the loss brought by aesthetic defaults between Chinese and English. By conducting analysis of typical exemplifications, the paper will draw a conclusion of compensation methods utilized for reproducing the aesthetic values in ancient Chinese poems and give microscopical tips and suggestions to later translators for avoiding sound, image, form or rhetoric defaults from Chinese into English. This division of poem aesthetics into discrete defaults helps with the purposes of the convenient analysis as well as pinpoints the special poem translation loss.The analysis shows that compensation with a different device is commonly utilized first during the process of compensation application for making up the loss of sound and form effect. Compensation by integration comes the second in the logic way of thinking. Rhetoric and image defaults require a comprehensive use of compensation methods in various situations. For translatable rhetoric, compensation with a different device, compensation with the same device, compensation by integration can create fabulous compensation effects. However, for untranslatable ones, compensation by isolation can be a better choice. In terms of image defaults, compensation by isolation is frequently applied for conveying typical connotations of Chinese culture. When original images cause cultural shock or fail to make target readers understand, compensation with a different device or compensation by integration serve for better compensation effects.