Poetry, is always a brilliant star in the sky of literature, and has profound artistic quality. Poetry translation also is a hard job in literature translation because those poems are so particular about the perfect combination of sound, form and conception. Many translators have devoted themselves to the field of poetry translation for a long time and made great achievements. On the bases of these theories, the author of this thesis chooses the aesthetic angle to explore this field. This thesis is intended to adopt Xu Yuanchong’s “Three Beauties” theory as a theoretical framework to make a tentative study of the two different Chinese versions (Mr. Guo Moruo’s version and Mr. Gu Zhengkun’s version) of Night. The purpose of doing so is to verify whether resemblance in spirit or form is more important in literary translation. Based on the comparison of form, language, conception and some other aspects of the two versions, the paper finds that the translator should adjust the application to resemblance in spirit and form so as to be faithful to the original works as well as to make the translation perfect.
Key Words: poetry translation; “Three Beauties” theory; resemblance in spirit and form; artistic manner
CONTENTS
Introduction: 1
1. Literature Review 3
1.1 On the Translatabiliy of Poetry 3
1.2 Poetry translation Theories 4
1.3 The General Characteristics of English Poetry 6
2. Theoretical Framework… 9
2.1 Xu Yuanchong's "Three Beauties" Theory 9
2.2 Aesthetics and Poetry Translation 13
3. Comparisons of Resemblances in the Two Versions of Night 16
3.1 Two Translators and their versions 16
3.2 A Comparison of Resemblance in Form 20
3.3 A Comparison of Resemblance in spirit 23
3.4 Summary 26
4. Conclusion 27
Reference: 29
