On Cultural Connotations of Animal- and Plant-related Words in Li Sao and Translation Methods

Abstract

Chu Ci is one of the sources of Chinese literature and the treasure of human civilization. It breaks through the traditional forms of poetry and embodies the language dynamics of Chinese poetry, with a profound impact on the literary creations of later generations. With China vigorously advocating the “going out” of Chinese culture, the transmission of Chu Ci has received much attention. However, research on the English translation of Chu Ci and its foreign communication falls behind relatively. Li Sao, the most typical part of Chu Ci, has abundant cultural images that contain affluent cultural information. Cultural image is a metaphor. For people of the same cultural background, the associative meaning of cultural images is clear without much processing effort. Nevertheless, the same cultural image often has different associative meanings due to the differences in culture, geography, living customs, and other aspects of each nation. In the process of translation, the meaning of cultural image changes inevitably. Therefore, in the translation of Li Sao, it is particularly important to reproduce cultural images accurately. This article first introduces the English translation of Li Sao and the relevant study of the translators and analyzes the definition of cultural image. Then the article studies animal images and plant images in Li Sao and analyzes the translation strategies adopted by the four English versions of Li Sao. And on this basis, we have found that only by using the strategies of domestication and foreignization together can the cultural image be reproduced more accurately.