2.1 Brief Introduction to Translation Aesthetic Object

Aesthetic object (abbreviated as AO) is defined as the objective things involved in human aesthetic activities. However, it doesn’t mean that all objects in the objective world are aesthetic object. That is to say, AO must be the objective things relevant to aesthetic subject (AS). Translation aesthetic object (abbreviated as TAO) means that the original with aesthetic values that are hidden in its aesthetic attributes. Liu Miqing summarizes them as follows：

First, the aesthetic values of TAO mainly depend on the aesthetic constituents of source language. 

Second, the aesthetic values of TAO should correspond with the aesthetic information of the source text. 

Third, some kind of flexibility should be allowed in translation. 

Fourth, the aesthetic values of TAO are changeable with the development of history. 

Fifth, the aesthetic values of TAO have a number of levels. (Liu Miqing, 2005: 87)

2.2 Features of Translation Aesthetic Object

In An Introduction to Translation Aesthetics, the aesthetic constituents of TAO consist of two systems: formal system and non-formal system. The formal system refers to the external form of the language, involving lexicon, phonology and syntax and so on. The beauty can be perceived visually. The non-formal system, however, differs from the formal system in that its aesthetic constituents are sentiments and artistic conceptions, ideals as well as images and symbols. They are the internal features of a literary work and cannot be perceived directly.

2.2.1 Formal aesthetic system

“The formal system refers to the forms and devices at linguistic level, such as lexical level, phonological level and syntactic level, which are concrete and can arouse certain aesthetic feelings on readers”. (Yang Zijian & Liu Xueyun, 1994: 511)

With regard to translation, the formal aesthetic system can be pided into three levels, namely, the interior level, the conceptual level and the exterior level with emotional sensibility, symbolic sensibility and natural sensibility. (Liu Miqing, 2005:90)

2.2.1.1 Sound level

Sound is one of the basic units loaded with aesthetic values of language. At the sound level, aesthetic representation in translation lies in the equivalence of effect. Sound includes such elements such as phoneme, rhythm and stress. But phoneme is the most important unit representing aesthetic significance and transmitting aesthetic information. Moreover, many other phonetic elements in language also can be used for aesthetic representation, such as intonation, alliteration and onomatopoeia. 

2.2.1.2. Lexical level

Another basic unit carrying aesthetic value of language is lexicon. As the combination of morphemes, syllables and characters, lexicon boasts a demonstrated ability of carrying aesthetic information. (Liu Miqing, 2005: 119) On the one hand, many factors are involved at the lexical level like register, diction and collocation; on the other hand, many kinds of figures of speech at the lexical level also carry the aesthetic information of the source text, such as simile, metaphor, analogy as well as pun.

2.2.1.3 Syntactic level

The aesthetic values at the syntactic level can be pided into three types, that is, frequency, syntactic deviations and the overall arrangement of sentences. As a result of the syntactic differences between English and Chinese, many syntactic devices (such as inversion, parallelism and antithesis etc.) in translation can be adopted to represent aesthetic values. The syntactic level is much more important than other two levels for the representation of aesthetic values in the original. (Liu Miqing, 2005: 129)

2.2.2 Non-formal aesthetic system

The formal aesthetic system is quite concrete and sensible, whereas non-formal aesthetic system is more abstract and intangible. The non-formal aesthetic system is characterized by fuzziness and uncertainty. So it is difficult to grasp the aesthetic values of the non-formal aesthetic system just by seeing any single element of the target language. Therefore, the representation of aesthetic values does not depend on any single paragraph. That is to say, aesthetic values do not hide in any single sound, any single word or any single sentence, but in the wholeness of the sounds, words and sentences. Liu Shucheng once said, “The internal beauty is an essential quality materialized by the perceivable external forms.” (Liu Shucheng, 2006: 75)