Abstract Poetry, regarded as the treasure of literature, is the microcosm of a country’s culture. Classical Chinese poetry has become the soul of Chinese culture for its unique charm. To make Chinese poetry known to more foreigners, we need to give Classical Chinese poetry appropriate translations. Before translating a poem, the translators usually consider what the essence is in poetry, as well as what the features of poetry are. They always try to make the translations faithful and equal to the original language, but ignore the aesthetic beauty. However, Chinese classical poems, which are characterized in rich artistic conception, sincere emotions and beautiful words, need to be translated with the same features in target language.

The thesis will focus on comparing three different renditions of classical Chinese poem chunxiao directed by Xu Yuanchong’s “Beauty in Three Aspects” theory.(“beauty in sense”, “beauty in sound”, “beauty in form”) and discuss how to make the three aspects reproduced in the translation from Chinese to English. 

Key words classical poetry；Xu Yuanchong; translation; Beauty in Three Aspects 

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Introduction-4

1. Literature Review-4

1.1 Introduction to Chunxiao-5

1.2 Three English Translations of Chunxiao-5

1.3 Introduction to Xu Yuanchong’s Beauty in Three Aspects Translation Theory-6

2.The Translation of Beauty in Sense-7

2.1 Image and Artistic Conception-7

2.2 Image and Artistic Conception in Chunxiao-8

3. The Translation of Beauty in Sound-9

3.1 Rhythm-10

3.2 Rhyme-13

3.3 Tone and Stress-15

4. The Translation of Beauty in Form-16

4.1 Line Length and Poetic Antithesis-17

Conclusion-19

Bibliography-21