Stylistic Analysis Of Liang Zhongdai's Translation Of Shakespeare's Sonnets In Contrast With Other Two Versions

As is known, Shakespeare's sonnet sequence has long been received as a treasuredpearl in the history of English metric poems. With their beautiful language, elaboratestructure, profound implication, wonderful imagination as well as shining fairness, truthand virtue, the sonnets fully display the consummate skill and humanistic ideal of the poet.Translation of poetry, as it is universally accepted, is notoriously challenging and thatis even truer for translators of Shakespeare's sonnets as they are extraordinarily splendid inpoetic language, abundant in imagery and excellent in techniques. In the 30s of the lastcentury, Liang Zongdai, a poet and translator at once, blazed the trail when he had hiscompatriots acquainted with Shakespeare's sonnets after he had translated them into theirlanguage. In doing so, he made unprecedented contributions to the translation of foreignmetric poetry into Chinese. On the other hand, however, scholars of the country seem tohave long been unanimously silent about Liang's endeavors either as a poet or as atranslator who earned a high reputation in the early half of his days. In this light, thepresent study on his translation of Shakespeare's sonnets becomes significant when thosesporadic and fragmentary comments are found superficial, unsystematic and lacking inscientific method.The author of the thesis, with reference to the stylistic theory by Liu Miqing, attemptsa detailed analysis of the stylistic features of Liang Zongdai's translation. Various factorsresponsible for Liang's style will be focused and discussed specifically. Furthermore, inorder to highlight Liang's style, the other two versions respectively by Tu'an and GuZhengkun will be included in the study for comparison and contrast. The analysis aboutLiang's style will involve six aspects, namely, the rhyme and rhythm, the poetic diction,the semantic structures, the mood, attitude and atmosphere, and the aesthetic rhetoric andthe imageries translated. In terms of the aspects responsible for the coming out of Liang'sstyle, a review and summary will be made mainly based on Liang's theoretical assumptionsabout poetry and its translation, strategies to be adopted, his disposition as well as his ability in thinking in images.As style is found to be translatable and translators will and should have their ownstyles, the author of the thesis believes that further studies about translators'style becomenecessary and significant. Based on her study on the stylistic features of Liang Zongdai'stranslation of Shakespeare's sonnets, the author concludes that translators today could learnmuch from Liang who has greatly contributed to the development of translation studies inChina with his unique perspectives on esthetic appreciation, profound understanding ofpoetics, meticulous attitude towards translation, remarkable ability in thinking in imagesand skillful use of poetic language.