The Ekphrasis Of“When You Are Old”

Over centuries,the literary work of “When You Are Old” has undergone a series of transformation from Ronsard’s French poem via Yeats’ s English poem,to Zhao Zhao’s Chinese song and multi-lingual cover songs.Critics have paid much attention to Yeats’ s rewriting of Ronsard’s poem and the Chinese translation of Yeats’ s poems,without notice on the inter-art transmission and transformation of Yeats’ s poem in Chinese cultural context.This paper explores the thematic modification and cultural dissemination of “When You Are Old” in modern China and beyond;from the perspective of inter-art poetics,the paper further elaborates on the “ekphrasis” of Yeats’ s poem achieved by Chinese singer Zhao Zhao,by illuminating the representation features and dissemination effects of the ekphrastic song’s multi-media sign system.This paper further analyzes the drive to the ekphrasis.Yeats’ s “When You Are Old” embodies the poet’s true feelings to his love,thus being admired by the world.It then stood out among the Chinese translations of Yeats’ s English poems in the past century.Moreover,the “aging” theme is in line with the contemporary Chinese ethos,triggering Zhao Zhao’s musical re-creation.The ekphrasis illustrated by Zhao’s song is significant in three aspects.Firstly,this case can be regarded as a cultural prototype,which enriches the world literature and comparative literature studies.Secondly,benefiting from Internet media productivity,Zhao’s ekphrasis has promoted the spread of literary canon.Finally,as a popular cultural product derived from literary canon,the song integrates the advantages of both high culture and popular culture,providing a good lesson for contemporary literary and artistic creation.