Abstract

Jing Ye Si, composed by the poet Li Bai in Tang Dynasty, is a widely known poem in China and it also has been translated into various English versions, which is very popular for its simplicity and profoundness. Jing Ye Si and translation has been widely researched from various aspects with plentiful and substantial achievements. This paper attempts to probe into the study of Jing Ye Si translation from the perspective of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). It is to compare and analyze the poem Jing Ye Si and its four English versions from two aspects: the experimental function and the textual function. This paper shows that SFL has important guidance for poem translation, and Obata’s English version of Jing Ye Si is most consistent with the requirements of SFL.

Key words: Jing Ye Si; poem translation; the experimental function; the textual function

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction-1

2 Literature Review-1

2.1 Previous Studies of Jing Ye Si and Its Translated Versions-2

2.2 A Critique of Previous Studies-2

3 The Theoretical Framework-3

3.1 Two Functions in Systemic Functional Linguistics-3

3.1.1 The Experimental Function-4

3.1.2 The Textual Function-5

3.2 Effects of Systemic Functional Linguistics to Translation-6

4 Contrastive Study of Jing Ye Si and Its Four Translated Versions from the Perspective of SFL-.6

4.1 Analysis from the Experimental Function-8

4.2 Analysis from the Textual Function-12

4.3 A Summary of the Analyses-13

5 Conclusion-13

References-15

Acknowledgements