A Study Of English Versions Of The Book Of Songs From The Perspective Of Eco-translatology

As a precious treasure to promote China’s excellent traditional culture,poetry is of vital and incomparable significance to China’s long traditional history and culture.The Book of Songs is even more a glorious starting point for the development of contemporary Chinese realist language and literature.Because of its rich and diverse artistic connotation,ideas and pinnacle skills,it has a vital position in China’s cultural history.With the continuous enhancement of our country’s comprehensive national strength,the country’s traditional culture has received extensive attention from all over the world.After inheriting the essence of traditional Chinese poetry and culture,The Book of Songs also began to explore its path to the world.Language translation is a cross-domain cultural communication activity with a long history of civilization.Its emergence and evolution are inseparable from the culture of our human society,and it depends more closely on the ecological environment.With the global upsurge of ecological theory,many foreign scholars have also begun to conduct translation theoretical research from the ecological perspectives of adaptation,selection,and survival.Based on the theory of eco-translatology,this thesis selects two English versions of The Book of Songs translated separately by James Legge and Xu Yuanchong in different periods and different regions,using the “adaptation and selection” and “three-dimensional transformations”in eco-translatology.The conceptual analysis compares the translation activities of the two translators so as to interpret and appreciate The Book of Songs and its translations more thoroughly and comprehensively.The study mainly focuses on the following two aspects.First,by comparing James Legge and Xu Yuanhong’s inner and outer environment,selective adaptations to their specific translational eco-environment are elaborated.Second,combined with the analysis of some typical examples,translators’ adaptive selections from linguistic,cultural,and communicative dimensions are discussed,respectively.Results manifest the following points.First,the two translators both make their own adaptations and selections at different dimensions.Second,Xu’s version is better than Legge’s in linguistic and cultural dimensions.Third,they are both successful in the communicative dimension.This thesis analyzes and compares these two English translations of The Book of Songs from the perspective of eco-translatology,providing theoretical and practical significance for future research.For one thing,the eco-translatology theory offers a new angle for the English versions study of The Book of Songs.Moreover,it verifies its full explanation and guidance for related studies,which stimulates the enthusiasm of Chinese scholars in constructing original translation theories.For another,the study in this thesis found that the study of the translation of Chinese traditional cultural classics based on eco-translatology is conducive to better reflecting the cultural value and cultural connotation of traditional cultural classics in the translation.It is also conducive to spreading Chinese traditional culture to Western countries and showing the soft power of Chinese culture.