On Translating the Poetic Images from Chinese into English

Despite the concern over the loss of poetic images in the translation process, the translation practice of poetry never ceases. As the result of different approaches to the poetic imagery, the poetic images might be preserved, lost or replaced by others. The hermeneutic approach, with a view to preserving the alterity of an alien culture, would like the original image to be preserved as much as possible. The comparative literature approach is concerned with the misreading unavoidable in the translation process and cultural interaction. And the cognitive linguistics approach both admits the linguistic relativism and tries to offer a solution to the disparity in cultural connotations of the poetic imagery. Nevertheless, with the duel between domestication and foreignizaiton pacified by the cultural interaction, more poetic images would be preserved in translating Chinese poems into English.