A Comparative Study Of The Cultural Semantics Of The Original Poems And Two English Versions

Chang Henge is a long narrative poem of the great Tang Dynasty realistic poet Bai Juyi. It has been translated into English by several translators and sinologists. It has a broad impact in the history of Chinese literature and Sino-English translation. The poetry contains profound cultural connotation which makes its translation be in-depth studied by translated and comparative linguistics academics.The dissertation has reviewed the study about the definitions of words’cultural meaning and the comparation between Chinese and English cultural meaning. It also has reviewed the translation and related studies of Chang Henge. Based on the theories, the paper focuses on the words’cultural meaning comparison between some words of Chang Henge and their translations which came from British sinologist Giles and Chinese translator Xu Yuanchong. Words in six representative aspects of theme, titles, numbers, plants, and religious are selected to be studied in this article, such as Huangdi (emperor), Liu (willow) Furong (lotus), Jiaofang, Liyuan,3,7,9, and Daoshi, etc. First, the article studies and traces back the words’cultural meaning, and then focuses on the comparation of these words and their English translations. The author combines the language and culture in the analysis. Through the analysis of two languages, the article uncoveres the hidden meanings and then reveales the national culture information loaded in Chinese and English.On the basis of comparision, the dissertation summarizes the similarities and differences between the words of Chang Henge and the translations by applying the method of contrastive linguistics. According to the paper, the correspondence of Sino-English words’cultural meanings in Chang Henge can be classified into four aspects, which are consistent, partly consistent, different and missing. The author contineues to discuss the internal reasons and mechanisms of the cultural meanings differences from four aspects, which are historical backgrounds, religious beliefs, ways of thinking and language systems.Bases on the comparison, conclusion and reasons analysis of the words’cultural meaning in Chang Henge, the paper further discusses the practical significance of the study. The author believes that the study plays a positive supporting role in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. It can also help the translation of Chinese poetry to convey the cultural connotation accurately.