A Case Study Of Arthur Waley’s English Version Of Shi Jing-from The Perspective Of Creative Treason

After1970s, translation research began to diversify and the scholars began to put translation into the historical, social and cultural background. The theory of Medio-transaltology just emerged as the times required."Creative treason", the core of this theory, is aimed at the analysis of individual translation, misunderstanding and adaptation in translated version of literature works, with further exploration of the historical and cultural factors."Creative treason" provides a new pattern for the translation of literature and the research related.As a prestigious sinologist, Arthur Waley showed his preference for ancient Chinese poetry and translated numerous poetry works in his life span, among which The Book of Songs published in1937enjoyed hot popularity and shared great academic value. Based on "creative treason" theory, this thesis analyzes creative treason in the translation of poetic form and content in Waley’s version. The research makes the following findings:creative treason in the translation of poetic form mainly consists of three aspects:the reclassifi cation of poems, the change of genre of some poems and the diversity in rhythm; creative treason in content mainly lies in the translation of the images, including the use of rhetorical devices and special interpretation of some Chinese customs. Meanwhile, the thesis also explores the causes of such creative treason, like the translator’s personal academic background, the historical background and etc.As to the significance, the thesis is an attempt to apply the theory of Medio-transaltology to the research on the translation of Chinese classical poetry. It is conducted with the hope of helping the research on the dissemination of Chinese classical poetry abroad.