The Comparison Between Cyril Birch And Wang Rongpei’s Translation Of The Peony Pavilion

The Peony Pavilion,as one of the four major classical dramas,marks the peak of the legendary development of the Ming Dynasty and occupies an important position in the ancient and modern dramas both at home and abroad.Therefore,the study of The Peony Pavilion not only has important literary value,but also has an equally important social value.At the same time,as a classic Chinese literary work,the plays has been translated into English in multiple versions.Among them,the English translations of Cyril Birch and Wang Rongpei are the most influential.The thesis takes the English versions of The Peony Pavilion as the object of study and explores the unique artistic value of the two English versions through comparative study.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the paper includes five parts.The introduction mainly introduces the background of this thesis and explains the significance of the study on the English version of The Peony Pavilion.Then lists and summarizes the research status of The Peony Pavilion at home and abroad.Finally,according to the previous research,introduces the innovations,ideas and methods of this article.The first part introduces Tang Xianzu’s The Peony Pavilion and its English version,and focuses on the characteristics of the English versions of Cyril Birch and Wang Rongpei.The second part selects religious cultural images from the English versions of The peony Pavilion of Cyril Birch and Wang Rongpei,and conducts a comparative study from the translation of religious terms and religious cultural scenes.Cyril Birch adopts the methods of combining literal translation with interpretation or combining literal translation with annotation to retain the image of Chinese religious culture to the greatest extent.Wang Rongpei has diluted a large number of religious cultural images,mainly adopts simple and easy to understand language to convey the religious images of the original work.The third part selects the rhetorical devices from the English versions of The Peony Pavilion of Cyril Birch and Wang Rongpei.And makes a comparative study on the translation of the puns and quotations and finds that the two translators adopt different translation strategies in the translation process,which also reflects the unique translation concept of them.The fourth part to explore the reasons for the differences between the two English versions,which are mainly reflected in the differences of the translator’s subjectivity and rational thinking and poetic thinking.They are aimed at spreading Chinese tradition culture,but they adopt different translation ideas in the process of translation.Cyril Birch used the principle of “following one’s heart” and “following one’s own feelings”,while Wang Rongpei adopted the translation principle of “vivid and expressive”.The conclusion part summarizes the full text.