Abstract

William Wordsworth, praised by Shelley as “the first modern poet”, is a major founder of English romantic poetry. His poetry is endowed with very high research value. The Daffodils, as the representative work of Wordsworth, is one of the most beautiful natural poems. It fully embodies his pious love for nature and his view of nature: The relationship between human and nature is harmonious. After introducing to the poem translation and Xu Yuanchong’s Three Beauties Principle, this paper analyzes two versions of The Daffodils on the basis of Three Beauties Principle. By comparing, we can find that Yang Deyu’s translation is more correspondent to the Three Beauties Principle and faithful to the original poem. We can conclude some poetry translation strategies that the translation of poetry should pursue beauty based on the pursuit of “accuracy”. However, it is difficult to make translation correspond to the original poetic text on “three beauties”. We must learn to compromise when translating a poem. Good poetry translation contributes to a better understanding of poetry, promoting people’s aesthetic level and connoisseurship.

Key words: Three Beauties Principle; The Daffodils ; poetry translation

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-1

2.1 Research of poetry translation abroad-1

2.2 Research of poetry translation at home-2

2.3 Previous study on the translation of The Daffodils-3

2.4 A brief introduction to Three Beauties Principle-3

3. The Daffodils and its Chinese Translations-4

3.1 An introduction to The Daffodils-4

3.2 An introduction to Yang Deyu’s version and Sun Liang’s version-6

4. Analysis and Comparison of Yang Deyu’s version and Sun Liang’s version from the Perspective of Three Beauties Principle-7

4.1 From meaning beauty-7

4.2 From sound beauty-8

4.3 From form beauty-9

5. Conclusion-11

Works Cited-13