Wordsworth's Translation In China

William Wordsworth, a major English Romantic poet and representative of "Lake Poets" in late 18th century and early 19th century, helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with his 1798 publication Lyrical Ballads collaborated with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" (1800) is called the 'manifesto' of English Romantic criticism. Since his poem was first translated into Chinese in 1914, Wordsworth's works have experienced nearly one century in China, during which the poet was considered totally different within three periods of time due to the specific social background and cultural context.This thesis includes five chapters. Chapter One introduces Wordsworth's life, major works and his poetics; Chapter Two narrates how his works were translated before 1949 and explores his influences upon Chinese modern literature and major literary groups; Chapter Three finds out elements like ideology, state power manipulation are the hidden reasons why Wordsworth was neglected or even criticized during this special period; Chapter Four describes the translation environment when Wordsworth resumed his literary position in China and makes an aesthetic analysis between Wordsworth and Chinese ancient pastoral poets Tao Yuanming and Wang Wei. Chapter Five reviews the three phases of Wordsworth's translation and acceptance in China within the framework of such translation theories as Itamar Even-Zohar's Polysystem Theory and Andre Lefevere's Manipulation Theory.Based on the diachronic study of Wordsworth's translation and acceptance, this thesis reveals the interaction between his poetry or poetics and Chinese modern literature and poetry writing, analyzes how ideology, poetics and other restrictive factors take shape, evolve and assume importance in literary translation in a certain cultural context and finally puts forwards some tentative suggestion and research methods for the current historical studies of translation.