Abstract:

Classical Chinese poetry focuses on poetic flavor and ideorealm. Translation Horizon theory provides evaluation parameters and surpassing mechanism for poetry translation and its quality assessment. Based on the theory, this article takes “Jingjie” (horizon) as the criterion of translation quality and proposes a quality assessment model for the English translation of classical Chinese poetry, specifying the evaluation parameters at all levels and the evaluation steps. The model is then validated by taking three English versions of Wang Wei’s NiaoMingJian as an example. It is found that: the “Jingjie” (horizon) as the criterion for judging English translation of classical Chinese poetry reveals the literariness of the translation more systematically and comprehensively, the evaluation parameters in the model are practicable, and the surpassing mechanism also overcomes the impressionistic judgements and the drawbacks of traditional evaluation model to a certain extent, which provides a new approach for the translation criticism of English translation of classical Chinese poetry.

Key words: poetry translation, Translation Horizon theory, assessment model, NiaoMingJian, Wang Wei