Abstract

Ancient Chinese classical poetry is regarded as the cream of works of ancient Chinese and is filled with the spirit of traditional culture. Chanting scenery through poems is a common phenomenon in ancient Chinese poetry. However, as Chinese Poetry is always deep in meaning but concise in language, it is not easy to convey the exact meaning of poems in scenery translation. Therefore, the target readers will have different responses with the original readers, and the inherent spirit of Chinese poetry gets lost in translation. In this paper, the author aims to take scenery translation of Chinese poetry as a breach to explore the possible methods of scenery translation from the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory. There will be a discussion of Eugene Albert Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory and scenery description in Chinese classical poetry, appreciations of different versions of scenery translation by translators from home and abroad. In addition, the function of scenery description in classic poetry is also to be studied, and some suggestions and strategies in translation are to be discussed, which are expected to contribute the pygmy effort to the dissemination of Chinese culture.

Keywords: Functional Equivalence Theory; scenery translation; Chinese classical poetry

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

1.1 Research Background-1

1.2 Research Significance-2

1.3 Organization of the Paper-2

Chapter 2 Literature Review-3

2.1 Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory-3

2.1.1 An Overview of Functional Equivalence Theory-3

2.1.2 Applications and related studies of Functional Equivalence Theory in Translation-4

2.2 Related Researches on the Scenery in Chinese Poetry-5

Chapter 3 A Comparative Study on Poetry Translation from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory-6

3.1 Definitions and Significance of Scenery in Chinese Classical Poetry-6

3.2 Functions of Scenery Description in Chinese Classical Poetry-7

3.3 A Comparative Study on Scenery Translation from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory-10

3.4 The Principle and Strategies-14

Chapter 4 Conclusion-18

References-19