楚辞中植物意象的英译对比研究.docVIP

PAGE PAGE 16 楚辞中植物意象的英译对比研究 Chapter One Introduction 1.1 A Brief Introduction to Chu Being one of the two origins of Chinese poetry, Chu Ci occupies a very important place in the history of Chinese literature. It stands for Sao, Style Poetry(骚体诗), which runs parallel with the Feng-Style Poetry represented by Shi Jing. Chu Ci is said to be the earliest collection of romantic poems written by poets of the largest State of Chu along the Blue River or the Yangzi Valley, famous by its time-honored tradition, fantastic imagination and violent emotions of a mystical world. At the early period of romantic literary, the emergence of Chu Ci in Qu Yuan(屈原，340·278 B.C.) was born in an aristocratic family in the State of Chu. As a young man he had grand wishes to serve his king and bring victory to his country, and later, for a time, he held a very high position among the ministers. However, the self-seekers in the court of Chu deceived the king by their lies, making him lose his faith in Qu Yuan. Disappointed, Qu Yuan Ieft the court and came into exile in the South of Chu. There, burdened with the resentment towards the injustice he had endured, the hopeless hope he still laid on his king, and most of all, the deep love and sorrow he felt for his country, he wrote a series of songs and lyrics in the Sao-style, among which the most famous are Li Sao(Sorrow after Departure), all autobiographical epic of Qu Yuan himself; Jiu Ge(Nine Songs), songs sung by priests on religious ceremonies, and in fact they are love songs; Tian Wen(Asking Heaven), a philosophical poem, voicing the poet’s contemplation upon nature and history; Jiu Zhang(Nine Elegies), a series of poems taking the same style of Li Sao, only much shorter. These works, imbued with the spirit of romanticism, are filled with passion and imagination. They express the poet’s pursuit of truth and justice, his love for his people and state, as well as his sorrowful frustration for the ideals which could never be realized.