Chinese Classical Poetry Summary

A Comparative Study of C-E Translation of Chinese Classical Poetry of Beauty in Sense under Xu Yuanchong’s Translation Principle of Beauty in Three Aspects Introduction Chinese classical poetry is a literature genre of long history in Chinese, it is mainly categorized into four types, which respectively are shi, ci, qu fu. The nature of poetry is to express the poet’s emotion. Best poetry works were frequently composed in either period of prosperity or period of turbulence. This is because such social environment can stimulate people’s emotion. There is a saying goes, “loving to be beautiful is a nature of human beings.” With the development of the globalization, the transmit of culture plays an important role in it. In this situation,

It help to enhance implications, while at the same time, it also make the poetry more abstruse for readers to understand and appreciate. Chinese classical poetry is full of allusions which are derived from Chinese traditional culture. So it is important to try to convey as much as the implied meanings of allusions as possible. It will be hard for target readers to get abundant and profound spiritual enjoyment as much as we do if these allusions are faithfully translated into English, which means simply translated in accordance with their literal meanings, no matter how many annotations are added in the translation. Such kinds of faithful translation will lead to the least faithful effect due to the differences between tow cultures and languages. That is why the audiences frequently found the translated versions of some great foreign poetry turn to be comparative nothing more than ordinary ones. The richer the national flavor contained in the source text, the more difficult it will be for target audiences who are usually not familiar with the source language culture context so as to appreciate the profound beauty. The liberal translation is used more often than the literal translation, which means to translate the implied meanings. So that the audiences who are unfamiliar with background information, literature and culture can appreciate the translated versions as much as we get from the original ones. It should be noticed that in classical Chinese poetry, allusions frequently come from Chinese historical or cultural backgrounds, but in English poems, that usually come from the heritage of occidental civilization. So it calls for common shared knowledge shared by the readers to understand allusions, the translator can add