A Study On The English Translation Of Li Bai’s Poems From Steiner’s Hermeneutic Translation Theory

As globalization has become apparently increasing, there is more blend between Chinese and western cultures. Translating Chinese cultural classics into other languages and introducing them to western readers are the dream of many Chinese. Ancient Chinese poetry is the cultural treasure of the Chinese nation, and poetry in the tang dynasty reached the peak. Li Bai is one of the greatest romantic poets in Tang Dynasty in China and an outstanding representative in the history of Chinese literature. For hundreds of years, his poems were translated into various languages by a great number of Chinese and western translators, most of them were translated in English. So, Li Bai’s poetry was familiar to western readers and loved by many readers.In the 1970s, with the emergence of "cultural turn" in translation studies, the role and position of the translator in the translation process got the attention of the translation theorists. So, research on subjectivity of the translator became a hot issue in translation studies. According to hermeneutic translation theory, translators should be the subject in translation activities. This theory fully affirmed the subjective initiative of the translator in the translation activity, which provided a new perspective for the study of translator’s subjectivity. In hermeneutic translation theory, Gorge Steiner put forward that the translation activity could be divided into four steps:"trust", "aggression", "incorporation" and "compensation", and emphasized translators’ subjectivity can get full play in the four steps of translation process.Taking translated versions of Xu Yuanchong and David Hinton as the texts, this thesis tried to explore the subjectivity of the translator in the translation activity from the perspective of the Steiner’s hermeneutic translation theory. The author divided every step and analyzed how the two translators played their subjective initiative with plenty of examples from different perspectives. Combining theory research and practical application, this thesis explored the positive role of hermeneutic translation theory for translation practice. The author believed that hermeneutic translation theory has a guiding significance for the translation of Chinese poetry. In the great differences between the two languages, translators can play fully their subjectivity to achieve effective translation.