Abstract

Birds are the spirit of nature, the darling of poets. They fly through Book of Songs, Elegies of the South to Tang poetry and Song lyrics. They sing not only in nature, but also between the lines and they sing out poets’ aspirations. However, in Chinese-English translation, it is not easy to convey the exact meaning of these bird images, including their textual implications and structural significance. Therefore, the target language speakers will have different responses with the source language speakers, and the beauty of Chinese poem gets lost in translation. In this paper, there will be an exploration of Eugene Albert Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory and bird images in Chinese classical poetry, appreciations of different versions of certain bird image translation by translators from home and abroad. The author will also analyze the functions of bird images in classical poetry and put forward some translation strategies, hoping to contribute the pygmy effort to the dissemination of Chinese culture.

Keywords: Chinese classical poetry; bird image; Functional Equivalence Theory; translation strategies

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

1.1 Research Background-1

1.2 Significance of the Research-2

1.3 Organization of the Paper-2

Chapter 2 Literature Review-3

2.1 Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory-3

2.1.1 Introduction of Functional Equivalence Theory-3

2.1.2 Related studies on Functional Equivalence Theory and its application in translation-4

2.2 Related Researches on Bird Image-4

Chapter 3 An Overview of Bird Images in Chinese Classical Poetry-5

3.1 Definitions and Significance of Image-5

3.2 Bird Images in Chinese Classical Poetry-6

3.3 General Connotations of Bird Images-8

Chapter 4 A Comparative Study on Bird Image Translation from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory-13

4.1 Functions of Bird Images in Chinese Classical Poetry-13

4.2 A Comparative Study on Bird Image Translation-16

4.3 The Principle and Strategies-19

4.3.1 Major difficulties in bird image translation-19

4.3.2 The principle and strategies-20

Chapter 5 Conclusion-24

References-25