A Comparative Study of the Translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets from the Perspective of “Three Beauties”

Abstract

The sonnet is a relatively old form of poetry that originated in Italy and was later introduced to England. Shakespeare’s sonnets are a type of sonnet composed of rhyme, pentameter and iambic pentameter, which occupy an important place in the world’s poetry and literature and have been translated in various ways in China. Chinese translators have gone through various explorations on the way to translate Shakespeare’s sonnets and have tried many different translation methods. However, when we look back at previous translation studies, most of them analysed the translations from the perspectives of meter, style, and rhetoric, but few of them analysed the translations in perspective of contemporary Chinese poetry translation theory, for reveal the extent to which different translators reproduced the aesthetic characteristics of the sonnets. Xu Yuanchong’s translation theory system has inherited the essence of traditional Chinese translation thought, among which the principle of “three beauties” takes “beauty” as the principle of pursuit, which breaks the traditional “faithfulness-centered” translation idea and concentrates on the aesthetic requirements of contemporary poetry translation. The two Chinese translations of Shakespeare’s sonnets, namely Tu An and Dai Liuling’s translation, have different identities and reproduce the beauty of the original poem to different degrees. Under the guidance of the translation principle of “three beauties”, this thesis compares and analyses the two translations, and studies the aesthetic reproduction of “sense, sound and form” by the two translators, aiming to enlighten the translators in the process of poetry translation and to inspire the cause of Chinese poetry translation.