A Stylistic Approach To The Translation Of Chang Hen Ge

The aim of this thesis is to analyze how stylistics for literary study can beadopted in the translation of Chinese classical poetry. Stylistics is a meeting ground oflinguistics and literary criticism, which can define the stylistic features of Englishpoetry through linguistic forms. It offers objective criteria to assess the translatedworks. Therefore, some thoughts drawn from stylistics are employed as the guidingtheory in this thesis.The focus of the analysis is on the translation of Chang Hen Ge, a representativepoem by Bai Juyi, whose works are well-known not only in China but also in theworld. Two English versions of Chang Hen Ge are selected, one by Yang Xianyi&Gladys Yang, and the other by Xu Yuanchong. Adequate examples of the two versionswill be cited to compare their stylistic features at five linguistic levels: phonologicallevel, graphological level, lexical level, grammatical level and rhetorical level, and todiscuss how they affect the aesthetic value of the poems. In this way, we may knowhow important it is to take the stylistic features of English poetry into account in thetranslation process of Chinese classical poetry. Stylistics plays an important role notonly in the development of translation theories but also in translation practice.The analytical methods of both linguistics and literary criticism are adopted inthis thesis. In addition, a method of comparison between the two English versions ofChang Hen Ge is also presented throughout. Meanwhile, by means of deduction andcase study, this thesis summarizes qualifications a translator should have and proposesthe principles a translator should observe when translating Chinese classical poetry.