A Study on the English Translation of Li Bai’s Poetry from the Perspective of Deconstructionism and the Three Beauties Translation Theory: Taking Xu Yuanchong’s English Translation Version as an Example

Abstract

Li Bai’s poetry, as a brilliant gem of Chinese classical literature, whose English translation has always been an important topic in the field of translation. This paper takes the English translation of Li Bai by Xu Yuanchong as the research object, combines deconstructionist translation theory with Xu Yuanchong’s “three Beauties” translation theory, to conduct an analysis from the three dimensions of word choice, rhyme construction, and image communication. The study found that the uncertainty of meaning and the subjectivity of the translator emphasized by deconstructivism were organically integrated with the beauty of meaning, sound and form pursued by the three beauties in Xu Yuanchong’s translation practice: Xu Yuanchong breaks the shackles of “faithfulness” in traditional translation through creative rebellion, deconstructing the fixed meaning of the original text while reconstructing the aesthetic value of poetry in a way acceptable to the target language readers. My paper verifies the guiding significance of the combination of the two theories for the English translation of classical poetry through specific cases, providing a reference for the crosscultural dissemination of Chinese classical poetry.