A Study Of Wang Hongyin’s Translation Of Chinese Yuan Qu Poems Into English

The Tang Shi poetry, Song Ci poetry and Yuan Qu poetry are regarded as the three heights in the history of classical Chinese poetry. However, scholarly efforts in the study and translation of Yuan Qu poems are far fewer than those of Tang Shi and Song Ci poetry. Today, the transmission of traditional Chinese culture and literature to the outside world calls for more academic attention and efforts on the translation of Yuan Qu poems. Wang Hongyin is an accomplished literary translator in China, who has rendered a lot of Yuan Qu poems into English. His 100 Yuan Qu Poems in English published by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press in 2013 is praised as a recent excellent work by a Chinese scholar in the field of study and translation of Yuan Qu poems, with some theoretical and practical breakthroughs. By studying his translations, we can summarize his translating experience and may contribute to the development of the English translation of Yuan Qu poems. Therefore, a study of Wang Hongyin’s English translation of Yuan Qu poems is of practical significance and academic value.This study aims to explore Wang’s principles, strategies, and methods of translating Yuan Qu poems into English. The object of study is the Chinese Yuan Qu poems and their English translations collected in his 100 Yuan Qu Poems in English(mostly Sanqu poems). The key research questions include: What are the main theoretical principles Wang holds and the strategies which Wang employs in his translation of Yuan Qu poems? How does his theory cohere with his practice? What are the theoretical and practical achievements he has made in his translation of Yuan Qu poems? Drawing on the research results in answer to the above questions, the author also has some considerations on how to solve the obstacles resulted by the differences between the two different languages and cultures in translation of Yuan Qu poems. In this study, the methods of literature research and case study are adopted.The major findings are as follows. Wang Hongyin’s main principle over his selection of the original works is that the selection of the original works should be based on considerations of their thoughtfulness, artistic features, and translatability. According to his main translation principle, as the process of translating Yuan Qu poems is one of artistic recreation, more attention should be paid to the literariness, readability, and accessibility of the translated versions. His main strategies include his pursuit of the basic balance between foreignization with regard to the essential aspects of the original and domestication through adequate modernization for the contemporary readership, and his adequate priority given to rendering the cultural meaning and theme of the original poems properly. As for the Sanqu and the Taoshu poems, he renders them in somewhat different ways to display some different features in their translations. In translating practices, by making skillful use of modern English and modern poetic forms, and giving play to the differences between Chinese and English and possible association therefrom, he strives to create an ambience for translation reading and render his translations easily accessible and intelligible to the English readership; he pays much attention to the modernization of Yuan Qu poems through translation. As evidenced by the author’s research, his practice of translating Yuan Qu poems complies with his theoretical principles and strategies. Wang Hongyin’s theoretical and practical achievements are mainly represented by his new strategies of translating Yuan Qu poems; his new ways of rendering the original tune names and of breaking through the limitation of the original prosody in order to introduce the translated Yuan Qu poems more accessibly to the western readers; thus promoting the modernized orientation in Yuan Qu poems translation and laying some theoretical and practical foundation for future systematic study of the Yuan Qu poems translation. His translation provides us with rich experience concerning translating Yuan Qu poems into English, which is also inspirational to the theoretical exploration and practices of translating ancient Chinese poetry into other languages.