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The research of Chinese poetry translation has made considerable achievements. However, there are rare translation studies which can reveal the ways of conveying image in poetry translation more deeply and systematically. The meaning of poetry translation is particularly important. It is directly related to the Chinese and foreign cultural communication even integration. This paper tries to make research on the translation of image in Chinese poetry by comparing the three versions of Tao Yuanming’s On Returning to A Country Life.
2. Literature Review
In the view of western scholars, image seems to be embracive words, which means “Using language to express the things, feelings, thoughts, ideas, behavior, psychology, and sensory or extrasensory experience”, while in ancient China, the word “image” is separated; The “Yi” means the inner abstract thoughts, while the “Xiang” means the external concrete object; That is also to say, the “Yi” comes from the heart and expresses in virtue of the image, the “Xiang” is the sustenance of the meaning.
In modern China, the word “image” is overspread; people are confused with the concepts of image. Jiang Yan (Cong Zihang, 2008: 211-212) writes an article specially enumerating different definitions of image. Some people hold the view that image is not the object itself. Some think that image is the means for creating artistic conception by poets. There are also some people who combine the two into one. In other words, image is the objective things blended in subjective intension.源-自-优尔:,论'文'网]www.youerw.com
Domestic scholars have also studied the meaning and characteristics of image. Liao Qiyi pided the image into three kinds: literal image, perceptual image and conceptual image (Cong Zihang, 2008: 210-211). Liu Huawen does researches on the definition and characteristics of image in aesthetic view. From Liu’s point of view, literal translation is better than free translation in translating image.
The previous scholars help the author to have a better understanding of image from varied aspects like its etymology, definition, its cultural features, etc.
2.1 The Etymology of Image
The earliest remark on image appear in The Book of Changes （《易经》）, in which different images are used to denote natural phenomena. In Appended Statements Xi-Ci（《易经·系辞》）, which is the commentary on The Book of Changes, Confucius explained the relation between “the concept in mind(Yi)”, “images(Xiang)” and “what is said (Yan)”.
Confucius said, “What is written does not give the fullness of what is said(Yan); what is said does not give the fullness of the concept in the mind(Yi).” (子曰：“书不尽言，言不尽意。”)
From the etymology and original meaning of image, it can be seen that image should have two basic meanings. Firstly, image means the total symbolic system consisting of the name and description of an objective thing, which origins from “圣人立象以尽意” in Appended Statements Xi-Ci（《易经·系辞》）. Secondly, image means the imaginary experience at conceptual stage, which origins from Liu Xie, who in the 26th chapter of Carving a Dragon with a Literary Mind, asserts that writers should utilize the deice of image to help convey complicated and profound senses（“独照之象，窥意象而运斤”） (Chen Zhi’e, 1990: 64-65). According to Liu Xie, “image” is the result of poets’ imagination and emotional perception based on the natural objects; it is a combination of subjective and objective world.
2.2 The Definition of Image
Although images in the west and China origin from different historical and cultural context with different philosophical foundation and due to the emergence and influence of the image movement, they both have the characteristics of openness, profundity and systematicness, and now have ended up in the same way. Image is a concept being shared both in Chinese and Western literary theory and poetics. Moreover, image is the structure consisting of one or more verbal images with poets’ emotion and sense, it is a part of the content of poems. Image is a kind of artistic concept created by poets with unique emotions. It combines the objective image with subjective feelings and makes poems full of implication. In addition, image is the term of ancient Chinese literary theories; it is combined with subjective intension and external image.