Kenneth Rexroth’s Translation of Du Fu Poetry from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

Abstract

Kenneth Rexroth, a well-known American poet and translator, has contributed to Du Fu poetry translation in the Western society. From the perspective of Nida’s functional equivalence theory, this research takes Rexroth’s English translations of Du Fu poems as a case to study the translation strategies adopted by Rexroth. This explores translation strategies of Du Fu poetry from the perspective of functional reciprocity theory, and is supposed to provide references for the English translation of the ancient Chinese poetry in the future. The above examples all reflect the faithfulness and accuracy of the free translation under the theory of functional equivalence, and accurately express the connotation of the original poem. Above all, the translator has adopted literal translation when translating the above verse. in order to achieve the requirement of the theory of functional equivalence, which enabled the target readers to have the same experience as the original readers. This was the most fundamental purpose of using the literal translation here.