A Hermeneutic Study Of Li Bai's Poems In Cathay

Cathay is one of the most influential works of Pound's plentiful translations, and is regarded as one of the most popular poetry anthologies in the early 20 th century. As a translation work, it receives controversial comments. Some translators criticized that it is full of errors and omissions while others argued that translation is also a kind of re-creation, and Pound's creative translation has innovated and enriched translation methods. The author of this thesis holds the same opinion as contemporary British translation theorist Bassnett that the process of translation is a process of creative interpretation. Translator has to interpret the text as a reader at the beginning, and according to Gadamer's hermeneutic theory, interpretation is a kind of dialogue, a process of the reader asking questions to the text grounded on his own experience and requirements. In this process, the reader's understanding is reminded and expanded, while the meaning of the text is exposed in the light of the reader's questions. The result is not in the reader's first sight nor in the original sight the text presented, but in the third sight, the one which combines the above two sights. The translation work is an expression of the fused sight.In this thesis, by discovering the differences between the translation works and the original ones, Pound's interpretation of Chinese poetry is studied. Pound's first sight defines his questions and his requirements. Therefore, his translation work conversely presents these elements fulfilling Pound's needs, answering Pound's questions, and confirming Pound's opinions. This thesis, divided into four chapters in total, consists of two parts: the first chapter as the first part introduces the theoretical basis of this thesis, and the second part, from Chapter Two to Chapter Four, is a careful analysis of the text, finding problems and analyzing them according to the theory. In the first chapter, a brief introduction of Gadamer's Hermeneutics is given, which serves as the theoretical basis on which the analysis of Pound's process of understanding and interpretation relies. The second chapter focuses on the differences between Pound's translation works and Li's original ones. The differences occur due to Pound's creative interpretation, and thus they carry the properties of Pound's own poetic theories and principles of poetry creation. Pound's first sight is presented in the third chapter, which mainly consists of his principles of poetry creation and his acquaintance with Chinese culture and Chinese poetry. In the fourth chapter, the author points out the traces reflecting Pound's principles of poetry creation and his imagist features in his translation, and proves that Pound has adjusted the original meaning of the texts to fulfill his own needs of creation in the process of sight fusion.