A Comparison Of The Translation Strategy For The Chinese Character Xi In Major English Versions Of Qu Yuan’s Poetry

Culture is essential in maintaining the everlasting vitality of a nation. Chinese classics are the crystallization of the wisdom of our ancestors and an important part of Chinese culture. Translating Chinese classics is a key step to introduce Chinese culture to the world. Qu Yuan’s poetry, an outstanding representative of Chu Ci, is a shining pearl in traditional Chinese culture.Qu Yuan is one of the Four World Cultural Celebrities because of his great works, which is profound, far-reaching, and permanent to the influence of the later generations. Qu Yuan have initiated the Sao style of verses, which has unique style, harmonious pronunciation and meanings, free flowing rhythm and rich emotions. The most distinguishing characteristic in Qu Yuan’s poetry is the frequent use of character xi, which is an indispensable component of verses with xi. Sao style of verses is unique because verses with xi are flowing and flexible. Scholars in different dynasties have done numerous researches to study Qu Yuan’s poetry and they think character xi has emotive function, grammatical function and aesthetic function. According to the position and function of the character xi in Qu Yuan’s poetry, verses with xi can be classified into three types: Li Sao-pattern, Ju Song-pattern and Jiu Ge-pattern. Character xi has different functions in different patterns of verses, so proper translation strategies should be adopted to keep both the original style and meaning of the poetry.Character xi is the soul of Qu Yuan’s poetry and it should not be neglected in translation. The thesis attempts to find proper translation strategies of character xi in Qu Yuan’s poetry. By using Eugene Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory as the theoretical foundation, focus on the character xi, the marker of Sao style and apply the latest research findings to translation. Some versions of Qu Yuan’s poetry will be studied and the translation strategies adopted will be discussed. By comparative analysis, the author tries to make best use of advantages and bypass the disadvantages of the adopted strategies in existing translation versions, and find the best solution.The study of Qu Yuan’s poetry has great achievements, but they are not used in translation in time and few researches have been done on character xi. Qu Yuan’s poetry has been influenced by religion and culture of Chu area. And there is no good translation standard of Chinese classics, especially poems. So it is a challenging work to translate Qu Yuan’s poetry for translators. The thesis tries to begin the research with character xi, then verses with xi and the Sao style. After analyzing the existing translation versions of Qu Yuan’s poetry and combining the latest achievements of scholars in China, proper translation strategies will be found to show the beauty of the original texts. It will develop the excellent traditional culture of China and advance development in the study of Chu Ci.