Comparison And Translation Of Images In Chinese And English Poetry From The Perspective Of Image Schema Theory

Confucius said:thrive in poems, build in etiquette and achieve in music. Poetry is a fine shape of literature adorned with artistic qualities of language to arouse special perceptions for people. Poetry has a long history in Chinese literature and has been a tool of immense importance in reflecting the people’s life in different periods of time. In the process of "Going Global" strategy for Chinese traditional culture, translators of every generation have committed to introducing Chinese poems to foreign readers in an effort to spread Chinese culture all over the world and to enhance their international and cultural influence. It is a well-known fact that English poetry has a long history with various themes. The translation of English poetry will add more new blood to Chinese culture and Chinese poetry. Therefore, it is of great necessity and importance to conduct mutual translation of both Chinese poetry and English poetry.However, the cultural meaning of an image in different languages varies a lot, thus creating some obstacles in translation. Image is the carrier of the poet’s emotion and social background. Therefore, a good and successful translation depends much on the conveyance of images in the target language. Chinese and English poems are different from each other in culture, structure, rhyme, writing style, etc., which make translation a big challenge for translators. A successful translation not only lies in the translation of literal meanings of the source language image, but also in the understanding of its cultural and internal connotation. As a result, the difficulty of image translation increases greatly.Previous studies on the translation of Chinese and English poems put much emphasis on the transference of their structures and rhymes. However, there have been no comprehensive and systematic studies on inter-translation of images in both Chinese and English poetry and on the comparison of different translations of the same image from the perspective of image schema theory. Therefore, this thesis conducts a comprehensive and systematic study on the inter-translation of heavily-cultured images in both Chinese and English poetry from this blank perspective. It first analyzes theoretical basis on image and image schema, then it takes a brand-new perspective of image schema theory developed from cognition to analyze the inter-translation of images in both Chinese and English poetry in term of four typical image schemas (path schemas, link schemas, containment schemas and space schemas), and to compare different translations of the same images from the perspective of the four image schemas. It is found that the majority of translators have managed, with a combination of translation methods such as literal translation, free translation, both literal and free translations and additional elucidation, to have successfully represented the image schemas shaped by images in the source language, thus helping target readers construct the same image schemas in their mind for a better understanding of these images as well as the source poems.It is hoped that this thesis can provide a new perspective for the translation and studies of images in both Chinese and English poetry:appropriate translation methods should be taken to correctly and thoroughly transfer those heavily-culture loaded image schemas of poems in the source language into the same equivalent image schemas in the source language, which can facilitate target readers to obtain the same literal and implied information as well as aesthetic perception from the translated versions.