In A Dictionary of Translation Studies, translation aesthetics is defined as follows:
To reveal translation’s historical relations with aesthetics, to discuss the significance of aesthetics to translation, to understand the scientificity and artistry of translation from an aesthetic perspective, to apply the fundamental principles of aesthetics to set standards for translation of different styles of writing and to analyze, interpret and solve aesthetic problems in the interlingual transfer process。 On the though understanding of attributes of aesthetic object (original work) and aesthetic subject (translator), it anatomizes the aesthetic constituents of the object and the dynamic function of translator, explicate the relations between them and provides types and techniques of aesthetic representation thereby guiding the translation practice。 (方梦之，2004:296)
Practical Translation Aesthetics (1993) written by Fu Zhongxuan can be regarded as the first complete monograph of translation aesthetics in China。 Then Mao Ronggui and Liu Miqing respectively published Translation Aesthetics and An Introduction to Translation Aesthetics in 2005。 It is generally believed that Liu Miqing’s work markes a great advance of the development of translation aesthetics, because it constructs the fundamental theoretical frame and applies traditional Chinese aesthetic theories to translation practices。 The book mainly elaborates on the scientific and artistic quality of translation, the aesthetic origin of translation, the aesthetic object ad subject of translation, the psychological processing in translation and some topics on aesthetic representation。 Since Liu Miqing’s work is considered to be more comprehensive and systematic for the research of literature translation, this thesis would take it as the theoretical basis。
2。3 Concepts Related to Translation Aesthetics
2。3。1 Translation Aesthetic Object and its Aesthetic Constituents
Aesthetic object (AO) refers to object things involved in aesthetic activities。 Not everything in the object world acts as AO。 For instance, a book in a bookstore for sale is not an AO, but when it is read and appreciated by some man and it arouses an aesthetic feeling inside him, the book becomes the AO, or strictly speaking, the beauty embodied in the book becomes the AO。 When it comes to translation, Liu Miqing(刘宓庆) thinks that translation aesthetic object (TAO) is the original text that the translator is going to process and translation aesthetic subject (TAS) is the translator (2012:66)。 When translation activities are limited to literary works, TAO can be definitely defined as the artistic literatures with aesthetic values。 TAO, in fact, is the aggregate of its independent aesthetic constituents, which can be classified into two categories: formal system and non-formal system。 The former includes aesthetic properties derived from phonetic, lexical and syntactic levels; the latter one includes writing technique, the artistic conception, stylistic features and the cultural information。
2。3。2 Translation Aesthetic Subject and its Attributes
Translation aesthetic subject (TAS) is the person carrying out aesthetic activities, namely，the translator, and TAS is in the unity of opposites with TAO。 TAS and TAO are inseparable: firstly, TAS is restricted by TAO。 In the process of translating, the first task facing translator is decoding the aesthetic information in TAO, so since the beginning of translation, the translator has been restricted by the original text。 That’s one basic attribute of TAS。 At the same time, TAS has subjective initiatives, which mean activity, creativity, and self-dependence to motivate the aesthetic potential in the source language(SL) (刘宓庆，2012:134-138)。 Sometimes when translators are baffled by TAO’s untranslatability, they can turn translation into interesting creative activities。 And such ingenious and appropriate creation requires the comprehensive application of experience, intelligence and knowledge。文献综述 从翻译美学角度对比散文诗《匆匆》的两个英译本(4):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_178166.html