A Study On Cathay From The Perspective Of Translation Aesthetics

In the early 20 th century, poetic innovation movement was vigorously launched by the literary circles of America. Imagism, with Pound as the representative figure, became the forerunner of poetry innovation. Poetry innovation is definitely imperative because the then readers were fed up with Victorian-genteel genre, fixed rhythm pattern, and over-polished rhetoric device. After steeling down in Europe, Pound met Ernest Fenollosa’s widow and got his notes of Chinese classical poetry. Chinese classical poetry’s unique expression of emotions by images coincided with imagists’ proposal of poetry innovation. Then, Pound set out to select some poems to translate and publish.From the moment it was published, Cathay stirred up a huge controversy. Thomas Stearns Eliot thought that after the publication of Cathay, Chinese classical poetry began to draw attention from western scholars. Hugh Kenner comprehensively appraised Pound’s achievements in poetry and thought that the early 20 th century witnessed Pound’s marvelous achievements in poetry in his work Pound Era. There are also some scholars who criticize Pound for the mistranslations caused by his misunderstandings. Yu Guangzhong, a scholar from Taiwan argued that “Cathay was merely Pound’s emotional expression, by making use of Li Po’s poetry.”This study mainly focuses on two questions: 1.How did Pound reproduce beauty in Linguistic Dimension---beauty in form in Cathay? 2. How did Pound reproduce beauty in Non-linguistic Dimension—beauty in spirit in Cathay? The study analyses Pound’s Cathay under the guidance of translation aesthetics. Aesthetic subject and object are the two main research objects in translation aesthetics. Aesthetic subject refers to the person who identifies and analyzes beauty of objects, such as translators or estimators. Aesthetic object refers to renditions, such as Pound’s Cathay.The two questions are answered after the study, and a further understanding to translation aesthetics is achieved. The research leads to the following conclusions: 1. Literal translation is an important way to achieve the goal of reproducing beauty in linguistic dimension. 2. Free translation is the basis of transferring beauty in spirit. 3. Domestication is a useful way to transfer beauty in spirit.