On The Translation Of Mood And Modality In Ancient Chinese Poetry

Ancient Chinese poetry is an important part of cultural exchange. We can make other countries know the Chinese national consciousness and the way of thinking by translating ancient Chinese poetry. As for the question of whether we should translate ancient Chinese poetry into modern Chinese and English is always controversial. Generally, the majority thinks it should be translated and can be translated. But as for the question of how to translate, different translators have different opinions. This thesis tries to study the translation of ancient Chinese poetry from the perspective of mood and modality and tries to find a way to achieve the goal of equivalent translation. We hope to provide some help to the study of translation, and help readers know the affection of ancient Chinese poetry, and then test the availability of the Systemic Functional Linguistics in the analysis of ancient Chinese poetry.This thesis adopts the qualitative research method. The corpus of this thesis is a poem in A Dream of Red Mansions and its three English versions, which are analyzed by using Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics. In the aspect of mood, first of all, we analyze the mood in the original poem, and according to the mood in the original poem, then, we compare the mood in the English versions with that in the original poem. By the comparative analysis, some skills and methods of functional equivalence about mood are summarized. In the aspect of modality, several sentences which contain modality meaning are chosen to compare with their English versions. Context is an important factor in the translation of modality. And some skills and methods which are useful in the translation of modality are also summarized.It is found that the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics can be used for the analysis of the text of ancient Chinese poetry. In order to achieve the goal of equivalent translation, as for the translation of mood, firstly, we should analyze the original poem, and find the roles in exchange, the semantic functions, the degree of mood particles and the speech functions of mood in the original poem, and then translate them into proper subject, finite and residue according to the mood structure of English. As for the translation of modality, first of all, we should make sure whether the original poem contain modality meaning, if it does, we can consider the context of the original poem, and then analyze the modality types, orientation, value and polarity and so on, next, choose proper ways to transfer the modality.So this thesis aims to analyze how the mood and modality of the original poem are conveyed and how it can achieve equivalent translation by analyzing the mood and modality of the original poem and the English versions. Therefore, both theoretical and practical significance are included in this thesis. On the one hand, it proves the availability of ancient Chinese poetry translation from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. On the other hand, the English versions can express the original poem better by analyzing them from the perspective of mood and modality. In this way, Sino-foreign cultural exchanges will be improved and Chinese culture will be known by more and more people.