On Classical Chinese Poetry Translation: A Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

As one of Chinese cultural symbols,classical Chinese poems have been translated by different famous translators from home and abroad.They adopt various translation strategies and methods to create a good translation version.So how to evaluate their translation works is really a challenging and controversial issue.This thesis,enlightened by Eugene Nida‘s Functional Equivalence Theory,analyzes translation works of three representative translators with different cultural backgrounds,who are Arthur Waley,Ezra Pound and Xu Yuanchong.This thesis tries to analyze the feasibility of Functional Equivalence Theory on classical Chinese poetry translation.Firstly,features of Chinese and English poetry are introduced.The thesis analyzes Functional Equivalence Theory‘s application on Chinese poetry translation briefly and questions its feasibility.Next,common grounds and differences of three translators‘ translation theories are shown and discussed.In chapter three,the author analyzes the use of functional equivalence in three translators‘ translation works on meaning,form and style and reconsidered the application of Functional Equivalence Theory on Chinese poetry translation.The author points out that equivalence contain so many aspects like a poem‘s form,meaning and style.These aspects cannot be treated separately.The equivalence of certain aspects may not lead to equivalent aesthetic feelings of the readers.Meanwhile,due to the specialty of poems,readers from different cultural backgrounds cannot have the same response.Moreover,it is difficult to evaluate the criteria of ?the same response?.At last,a conclusion is made that Functional Equivalence Theory is of great contributions in directing Chinese poetry translation practices.However,it still has limitations.Based on the analysis,it is suggested that translators pay attention to achieving functional equivalence of the whole poem instead of focusing on certain aspects.Furthermore,translators should consider the aesthetic feelings of the readers,adding the readability of translation works.