ABSTRACT The Three Non-yi (san buyi三不易) constitute the core of Dao’an’s道安 (312–385 CE) translation thought, yet their interpretation has remained unsettled across more than a millennium. Earlier scholarship has generally offered two readings – not easy and not alterable. Drawing on a comprehensive review of Dao’an’s own prefatory writings on translation practice and critique, and on the Chinese philological tradition that understands the character yi (易) simultaneously as jianyi简易 (simplicity), bianyi变易 (alteration), and buyi不易 (immutability), this article argues that the key to recovering Dao’an’s intent lies in prudence (shen慎), his sincerity of “true-heart” directed toward translation. Dao’an’s formulation of the Three Non-yi is not merely a portrayal of the perennial tensions of translatability; it also offers an ethical perspective that supplements the ethic of faithfulness and helps redress the prevalent misunderstandings associated with contemporary deconstructionist approaches. “How could one not exercise the utmost prudence” (讵可不慎乎): this admonition encapsulates a praxis that seeks the immutable within the mutable and accepts the necessity of alteration in order to preserve what must not be altered. This dialectical orientation embodies Dao’an’s acute linguistic observation, practical wisdom, and scrupulous translation ethics, offering enduring guidance for later Chinese translation theory and practice.

ABSTRACT This essay explores the English translation and discussion of Tao Qian’s 陶潜(陶渊明, circa 365–427) Chinese poetry by various translators and literary critics in the West. Arthur Waley, William Empson, Jonathan Culler, James Hightower, Eugene Eoyang, and others have resorted to Tao’s one particular poem “Change of Seasons” 时运 to advance their ideas about literary theory, comparative literature, and Sinology. An old Chinese poem has gained new life in a continuous cycle of translation, interpretation, and circulation in the world republic of letters.

ABSTRACT Adversity explicitation is the verbalization of the covert adversity textual meaning in translation. This paper reports a case study of the Chinese stereotypical adversative 但 “but” as the translation explicitation from the source language of English. The study is carried out on corpora of three different genres: international legislation, financial editorial, and public speech. The quantitative results show adversity explicitation as genre-general as well as genre-specific. The qualitative analysis then attributes genre-specific adversity explicitations to the “imported” intersubjectivity argumentation in international legislation and to the hybridization of this discourse meaning with lexico-grammatical and pragmatic features of the target language. Genre-general adversity explicitations are attributed to English–Chinese contrasts in information structuring. Chinese adversity explicitations can be the choices by the translator to recreate the topic continuity and asymmetric information structure in discourse. The findings of this study suggest how discourse context decides the language pair-specific type of explicitation. It is argued that a motivated and adequate explanation for translation explicitation should be in the framework of cross-linguistic contrasts in genre norms and information structure.

ABSTRACT “Civil governance” (wenzhi 文治) was a key feature of ancient Chinese society, emphasizing ideological control through cultural policies. During the Qing dynasty, translating Han Chinese texts extended wenzhi by aligning translation with Confucian orthodoxy and political needs. The Five Classics were translated, printed, and used in imperial exams and Banner schools to educate Manchu Bannermen, refine morals, and promote orthodox learning. For rulers, these translations facilitated cultural assimilation and governance, while for the populace, they provided access to mainstream Han academic traditions. Since moral education was central to governance, the translation of the Five Classics played a crucial role in ethical indoctrination, statecraft reform, and loyalty to the sovereign.

ABSTRACT This article examines Su Manshu’s poetry translation against the backdrop of the critical transitional phase from classical to modern Chinese literature by introducing “stylistic interference” as both a theoretical framework and a methodological lens for analysis. Drawing on Geoffrey Leech’s stylistic theory and Sherry Simon’s notion of creative interference, this study posits stylistic interference as a deliberate act of alteration – one that reframes the original stylistic features, often at the expense of the formal integrity of the source text. Through close textual analysis, the article delineates three principal modes of stylistic interference: omission, transformation, and the introduction of new stylistic deviations. This study argues that Su Manshu leveraged these modes to simultaneously engage with Western poetic structures while reaffirming classical Chinese aesthetics. By so doing, this study proposes that stylistic interference operates not merely as a strategy of poetic domestication but as a constitutive means of asserting creative agency. This theoretical thinking moves beyond traditional binaries of fidelity and rewriting, contributing to translation studies and stylistics by advancing a systematic framework for examining stylistic transformation as creative rewriting in the act of poetry translation.

ABSTRACT The formation of a salient national identity has been a paramount goal for Iraqis since it binds them together. Therefore, Iraqi National Identity (INI) has received increasing attention from researchers. However, INI remains a noticeable gap from the perspective of translated poetry. To fill this gap, this qualitative study explores the representation of INI in Al-Sayyab’s poetry through translation. Al-Sayyab is purposely chosen because he identifies with INI in his poetry. Of particular significance in his identification is the deliberate use of an idiosyncratic language which is a blend of standard and vernacular. Such a rich cultural content presents a unique challenge as it can be considered a condensed representation of Iraqiness, requiring therefore a comprehensive set of translation strategies to be transferred effectively. To demonstrate that the challenges of this peculiarity culminate in translation, eight extracts translated from Al-Sayyab’s Diwan have been selected as the data. Aixelá model is adopted to examine how translation can efface or recreate INI. The study concludes that when translating INI into English, translation did not function as a means to reproduce the voice of Iraqiness uttered by the poet. Rather, translation has shown an overriding tendency towards not representing INI.

ABSTRACT In today’s digitally mediated world, international advertising campaigns increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to create, adapt and deliver persuasive messages across cultural and linguistic boundaries. The paper explores how AI is reshaping the discourse of global advertising and what this means for linguists, translators, and intercultural communication specialists. From transcreation to cultural misfires, the study examines real-world cases where slogans or brand names succeeded – or spectacularly failed – to resonate with their intended audiences. Drawing on such examples from both recent and more dated campaigns, the paper addresses the linguistic and extralinguistic strategies used in localisation, highlighting both the potential and the pitfalls of algorithmically driven communication. Ethical questions surrounding content authenticity, cultural sensitivity, and the role of human oversight in AI-generated messaging are also discussed. Emphasis is placed on best practices that integrate technological innovation with linguistic expertise and intercultural awareness. The paper concludes with reflections on the future of international advertising and the critical role of applied linguistics in navigating this evolving terrain.

ABSTRACT The interview focuses on Tony Blishen’s approach to translation and the strategies he employs in translating Chinese literature, including Chinese classical poetry, prose, the 17th-century Chinese classic on material culture Zhangwuzhi: Treatise on Superfluous Things and Ma Yuan’s post-modern novella No Sail on the Western Sea. The conversation is enriched with philosophical contemplations, drawing on Daoist concepts of change and non-change, Confucius’ and Wang Bi’s views on image, word, and sense. These philosophical perspectives are applied to practical translation scenarios, addressing issues such as context and expansion, voice and style, cultural customs and values. The discussion also zooms in on specific challenges in translating works on material culture, such as the perception of space, the preference between essence and appearance, and the distinction between action and contemplation. The translator’s general approach, “suit the words to the sense,” and strategies like equivalence of image and controlled expansion are highlighted. The interview concludes that a successful translation must contain the qualities of imagination, visualization, context, and expansion in the appropriate quantities.