Xu Zhongjie's Principles In Poetry Translation

As the golden treasury of Chinese history and culture, poetry exerts great influence on people's spiritual life from ancient time to contemporary age. Poetry translation, especially translation of classical Chinese poetry into English, is one of the most difficult jobs in the field of translation. The classical Chinese poetry is well known for its terse and implicit language as well as its profound imagery. Therefore, translators should undertake the responsibility for the reproduction of the original in form and spirit and the recreation of the original artistic conception, enabling readers in English-speaking countries to better understand and appreciate the essence of classical Chinese poetry.Xu Zhongjie, an important translator, though not as eminent as Xu Yuanzhong, Wang Rongpei and others, really draws our attention in the field of translation from ancient Chinese poetry into English. While Xu Zhongjie himself never expounds his own translating principles and theories formally and almost no one ever makes special study or research on him, he plays an indispensable role in translation career. In this thesis, the author intends to probe into Xu's potential principles of translation.Excluding the Introduction and the Conclusion, the whole thesis can be divided into three chapters. The Introduction provides some information about translation principle and a detailed description of Dr. Xu Zhongjie's translation career. The Conclusion applies a dialectic attitude on his translation practice proposing his intercultural principle as well. Chapter One is about diction out of deliberate choice, Chapter Two is about expansion of line length and number and Chapter Three is related to his pursuit of grace in rhyme.