论李清照诗词中自然意象的英译(2)
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background Information
Ci-poem is a special form of literature, which bears unique features of its own. Ci-poem is often on a par with poem. In a sense, Ci-poems can be said to be more beautiful, because they usually express more refined, more subtle and more delicate feelings than poems. Countless poets of different factions have emerged on the poetic stage during the long feudal society. However, outstanding potesses were few and far between. As a great poetess of Song poems, Li Qingzhao is well-known both in China and aboard. She was regarded as the leader of the graceful faction according to the style of her Ci-poems.
In 1926, Bing Xin, a famous Chinese writer, translated 25 pieces of Li Qingzhao’s Ci-poems in her graduate thesis for a master degree. It is the first time that Li Qingzhao’s works were introduced to the west. Then, more and more people began to translate her Ci-poems, including Xu Yuanchong, Lin Yutang, Chu Dagao and Hu Pin-ching in China, Rexroth Kenneth and James Cryers in other countries. Till now, nearly thirty books about the English versions of Li’s Ci-poems have been published, followed by many studies on the translations. However, most of the studies mainly focused on comments on the translations and the comparison of different English versions. There are few studies on the translations of natural images from intertextual perspective, while Li Qingzhao used lots of natural images in her Ci-poems to express her feelings. From intertextual perspective, these images are intertextual signals relating to one another. Therefore, this thesis aims to study the transference of natural images by comparing two English versions of Li Qingzhao’s Ci-poems.
1.2 Research Significance
Translation is difficult. The translation of classical Chinese lyrics is more difficult, especially the images in these lyrics. So the author endeavors to classify the natural images in Li Qingzhao’s Ci-poems and analyzes some natural images as intertextual signals. Then these intertextual signals transferred by different methods are linked with each other in one Ci-poem and are related to Chinese culture. Thus, in every practice, translators can not only choose signals from the target language but also signals from the existing translation versions. And it will bring some convenience to the future translation of classical Chinese lyrics.