Reproduction Of "Three Beauties" In The Classical Poetry Translation From Chinese To English

"Poetry is to express one's will," and poems, important means of narrating a story or expressing our feelings and emotions, occupy a prominent position in the development of the history of literature both at home and abroad from ancient times to contemporary age. Poetry translation is one of the most difficult jobs in the field of translation, especially the classical poetry translation from Chinese to English. As the golden treasury of Chinese history and culture, the Chinese poetic language is extremely terse and implicit, and bears beauty in meaning, sound and form. Therefore, translators should undertake the responsibility for reproducing the three beauties of classical Chinese poetry to a great extent to enable the people in the English-speaking countries to better understand and appreciate more classical Chinese poems. Furthermore, only if we reproduce the three beauties of Chinese poetry to the full, can we bring about more and more good English translations. In this thesis, I have laid much emphasis on the reproduction of the original beauty in meaning, sound and form based on the "three beauties" principle put forward by Professor Xu Yuanzhong.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter I is a brief introduction aiming to have a bird's-eye view of Professor Xu's "three beauties" principle. He holds that in verse translation, translators should try their best to retain the original beauty inmeaning, sound and form. Chapter II deals with the major poetry translation schools and their representatives. Prof. Xu Yuanzhong is a typical representative of metrical school and he insists that poetry school be rendered into poetry and that the translator rhyme his translation if the original is rhymed. Prof. Weng Xianliang is a typical advocate of prose school. He holds that poetry may be rendered in the form of prose verse so that it will not be subject to the limitations of the rhyming scheme. Arthur Waley belongs to free verse school and he maintains that it is impossible not to sacrifice sense to sound if one uses rhyme. Chapter III analyses the common ground of Chinese and English poetry and their respective characteristics. Although Chinese poetry differs from English poetry in many respects such as syntax, the rhythmic patterns and sound and rhyme systems, they have a lot in common: both Chinese poetry and English poetry have the characteristics of vividness, music and images. Chapter IV probes into the possibility of reproducing the original beauty in meaning, sound and form hi the classical poetry translation from Chinese to English. Many pieces of good English translation are offered as examples to verify and expound the "three beauties" principle. Finally a brief conclusion presents a clear sketch of what has been discussed in this thesis.