A Study of English Translation of Classical Chinese Poetry from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

Abstract

As a cultural treasure of the Chinese nation, classical Chinese poetry serves as a vital vehicle for promoting traditional Chinese culture internationally. However, linguistic and cultural disparities often lead to a loss of relevance in translation. Framed within relevance theory, this study focuses on the English translation of classical Chinese poetry and explores how translators employ cognitive reconstruction strategies to achieve optimal relevance between the source and target texts. The findings reveal that during the translation process, translators reconstruct relevance at the phonological, lexical, and syntactic levels by identifying communicative intentions, supplementing contextual assumptions, and explicating implicit contextual information, so as to effectively reproduce the communicative functions and convey artistic conception. This study demonstrates the explanatory power of relevance theory in addressing core challenges such as cultural default and aesthetic divergence in the translation of classical Chinese poetry, thereby offering theoretical reference and methodological insights for the cross-cultural dissemination of Chinese culture.