| This paper outlines some of the more prevalent mythologies that have emerged in the discourse surrounding the translation of Chinese poetry into English: (1) the Myth of the Literal Translation, which claims to translate with heightened accuracy and precision; (2) the Myth of the Original Chinese Poem, which assumes translators have an original standard, or point of reference, with which to work; (3) the Myth of the Literary Translation, which calls for aesthetically pleasing translations in the target language; and (4) the Myth of Imagism in the Chinese Poem, which portrays the work of the imagistic modernist as an ideal model for translating Chinese poetry.; These myths all exhibit two similar characteristics: (1) the presence of what Stanley Fish has called “interpretive communities,” and (2) Orientalist practices as outlined by Edward Said in Orientalism (1978). These characteristics reveal the problematic and political nature of translation between cultures. |
