On Lin Yutang’s Translation Of Classical Chinese Poetry

Lin Yutang, a renowned writer, linguist and translator of the20thcentury, has beendedicated to the cultural communication between the east and the west. However, due tosome reasons, he used to be ignored by Chinese academic world. It was not until the endof1970s, that he began to get the attention he deserved in China. Up to now, theresearches on Lin Yutang still focus on his original works, while his translation works,especially his translations of classical Chinese poetry are rarely paid attention to.However, his contributions and achievements in that field should by no means be ignored.On the other hand, as an extremely demanding job, poetry translation has always been acontroversial topic and many problems in this field are still to be solved, so researches onit are quite necessary. The thesis makes a comprehensive, systematic and detailedresearch on Lin Yutang’s theories and practice of poetry translation. The first chapter isliterature review. In the second chapter, Lin’s two essays “On Translation” and “OnPoetry Translation” are reviewed and his views on poetry translation—natural use ofrhyme or preservation of rhythm without rhyme, recreation of Yi Jing, and the threestandards for literary translation, namely faithfulness, expressiveness and beauty—aredistilled. In the third chapter, examples of his translation works are analyzed to find outwhether his theories have been represented in his practice and whether they are practical.Moreover, his translation works are also compared with those of other translators’ to findout the common features and the individualities. In the fourth chapter, his poetrytranslation theories and practice are evaluated. The thesis reaches the followingconclusions:1. Lin Yutang’s theories on poetry translation have been generally wellrepresented in his translation practice, except that he would sometimes make changes tothe original for the sake of rhyme, most of which are well founded, but some of which areunacceptable as they have damaged Yi Jing of the original or expressiveness;2. LinYutang’s theories are practical and make a useful contribution to the translation ofclassical Chinese poetry;3. Lin Yutang’s practice of translating classical Chinese poetrymakes a great contribution to the spreading of Chinese culture.