Numerals’ Connotation And Their Translation In Tang Poems

Numerals are not uncommon in ancient Chinese poems, especially in Tang poems. At home or abroad, many scholars have done plenty of studies on numerals from such perspectives of culture, figures of speech, vagueness, teaching, or translation, and have achieved innumerable results. Taking some works on rhetoric function of numerals and translation of numerals for examples, however, most of them just give a simple description of what rhetorical functions numerals have and which methods could be employed in translation version. Few of scholars have conducted detailed study on numerals in specific works in the light of theoretical framework, and nearly nobody has disscussed which translation method of numerals to be employed in specific situations. Xu Yuanchong is thought of as one of the most understanding Chinese translators and his literary theories are widely used for appreciation of poetry translation. But few focus on Xu’s numeral translation.The thesis makes an overall research on numerals in Xu Yuanchong’ s Selected Poems by Du Fu and Selected Poems by Bai Juyi by means of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. Three main results are achieved after the research. Firstly, there are as many as two hundred and eight numerals in ninety-nine poems. That is, each poem has more than two numerals on average. The most frequently applied numerals are “一”(one), “两”(two), “万”(ten thousand),“三”(three), “千”(thousand), “百”(hundred). Secondly, all of these expressions with numerals can be divided into two types: numerals for calculation and numerals not for calculation. The former can be divided into two subtypes: numerals for real counting and numerals for fuzzy counting. The latter can be divided into four subtypes: numerals correlated with culture; numerals concerned with rhetoric, numerals connected with idioms and other numerals. Finally, it is found that four major methods for translating numerals in Selected Poems by Du Fu and Selected Poems by Bai Juyi are adopted, that is, literal translation, revision, free translation and omission. Among them, literal translation, free translation and omission are the most common. Free translation is done by the way of equalization, particularization, generalization. While omission is used by means of generalization, equalization or creation for loss and revision is often applied by equalization and taking full advantage of good expressions of the target language. Furthermore, it is found that numerals for real counting are often employed by literal translation, whereas literal translation and omission are chosen for major numerals for fuzzy counting. And Xu tends to choose free translation and literal transaltion for numerals related to culture. Omission and free translation are usually used for those numerals related to idioms. Omission is obviously the method for the translation of other numerals. The four methods mentioned above are used for translating numeral related to figures of speech. Whatever method Xu chooses to translate numerals, he follows his own theory. All in all, the research is to find specific translation methods for the translation of numerals in poetry.