Title: The C-E Poetry Translation Thought of Wang Rongpei

Abstract: Wang Rongpei is an established poetry translator who believes that poetry is translatable in an unusual way and that the most ideal translator is an independent Chinese translator. He attaches much importance to target readers while proposing to adopt contemporary English to render the content and the flavor of the original poems. He embraces the various schools of C-E poetry translation and puts forward the poetry translating principle of “vividness on the basis of expressiveness.” According to Wang, C-E poetry translation is literary translation rather than academic translation, and for the same Chinese literary piece, there may be two versions: one is a popular version by using an adapting method and the other is a classic version by using a literal translation method. This paper probes into the C-E poetry translation thought of Wang Rongpei, so as to shed light on the current English translation of Chinese literature and Chinese poetry.

Keywords: Wang Rongpei, English translation of Chinese literature, C-E poetry translation, contemporary English, vividness on the basis of expressiveness, English translation of Chinese Classics

Author: Zhizhong Zhang, Professor, Translation Department, College of Foreign Languages, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.