The Contextual Model for Poem Translations and Criticisms: An Enlightenment from Wang Guowei’s Realm of Poetic World

Abstract

ABSTRACT Combining the poet’s cultivated character, tones and rhythms, and spirit in Wang Guowei’s poetic realm theories with the viewpoints of poem compositions in Shi Sou, the article proposes the four essential elements, cultivated character, genre, tones and rhythms, and style, in poem translations, and argues that the translator should find the poet who has similar cultivated characters with him to translate, and meters and rhythms of translated poems should show the emotions and meanings of the original, and the styles of the translated poems should agree with those of the original ones. The article, therefore, constructs a contextual model integrating the context of situation consisting of the genre (field), tones (meters) and rhythms (mode), and style (tenor) into the context of culture containing the cultivated character and puts forth the principles for poem translations and criticisms.