Abstract：Ancient Chinese poetry is the treasure of Chinese literature. To translate this Chinese treasure into English for readers in English-speaking countries is not only the need of the cultural exchange between China and the West, but also the pursuit of translation circle. Image is an important concept in ancient Chinese poetry. Since image carries rich Chinese culture, the process of translating poetry into English is also the process of reorganizing and reappearing the image of the poetry in English. The Everlasting Regret is the representative work of Bai Juyi, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, and is also one of the best works of Chinese classical poetry, which contains rich images and many cultural connotations. From the literature on image translation, it’s easy to find that there are few researches on image translation from the perspective of reception aesthetics.

This paper studies the translation of images in ancient poetry from the perspective of reception aesthetics, taking Xu Yuanchong’ s translation of The Everlasting Regret as the case of study, and discusses translation methods of images. It is emphasized in this thesis that in the process of image translation, the translator should fully understand the connotation of the image in ancient poetry, and employ the corresponding translation strategies and methods to achieve the best translation, so to promote the spread of Chinese classical culture, and improve the cultural exchange between China and west countries.

Keywords:  image translation  reception aesthetics  The Everlasting Regret

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Background and Significance of the Study-1

1.2 Objectives and Structure of the Thesis-2

Chapter Two Literature Review-3

2.1 Introduction to Reception Aesthetics-3

2.2 Main Concepts of Reception Aesthetics-3

2.3 Implications of Reception Aesthetics for Translation Studies-4

Chapter Three Study of Translation from Reception Aesthetics-A Case Study of The Everlasting Regret-6

3.1 Brief Introduction to Image-6

3.1.1 Definition of Image-6

3.1.2 Typical Images in The Everlasting Regret-6

3.2 A Brief Study of Xu Yuanchong and His Translations-8

3.3 Commonly Used Methods in Image Translation-8

3.3.1 Compensatory Translation-8

3.3.2 Fuzzy Translation-10

3.3.3 Modified Translation-13

Chapter Four Conclusion-15

References-16