Abstract: Allusion is a tool by which people come to recognize the whole world. It plays an irreplaceable role in ancient Chinese poetry for making them beautiful and flexible. The translation of allusion, however, has become a tough problem, for few equivalent expressions can be found in English to match the allusion as found in Chinese poems. Moreover, as most foreign readers do not have knowledge or the backgrounds of Chinese allusion, they find it tough to understand allusions in poetry, the understanding of which requires a profound knowledge of cultural background. This paper aims to discuss some translation approaches through the analysis of specific examples of allusion in order to explore some practical approaches to translating allusion in ancient Chinese poetry into the target language. 

Key words: allusion, ancient, poetry, translation

摘要：典故，是人们认识世界的一种方式，是中国古典诗词中不可或缺的一部分，它的繁复含蓄及灵活极大地丰富了诗歌的表现力。典故在翻译过程中没有与中文词条直接相对应的英文词条，并且对于外国读者来说，理解典故需要相当大的信息量和背景知识，这些都使得典故成为翻译中一个棘手的问题。本文以古诗词中关于具体事物的典故为切入点，通过对具体诗歌翻译案例的研究，从典故的视角探讨总结古诗翻译的一般规律及技巧，为古诗翻译实践提供参考。

关键词：典故，古代诗词，翻译