Presentation of Poetic Space in Chinese Classical Poetry and its English Translation

Chinese classical poetry is often discussed in relation to paintings, which involves the presentation of space. Studies on the establishment of space in Chinese poetry and its representation in translation have been rare. This research provides a case study on the Chinese classcial poem “The Waterfall in Mount Lu Viewed from Afar” and its translation. It aims to investigate how poetic space, which can be defined as the world presented in a poem, is established via the organization of language, and how the poetic space is re-established in translation. In this investigation, the presentation of poetic space is analyzed with reference to the two perspectives of parts of speech and word order which have direct influences on the construction of poetic space. It has been found that even when the semantic meaning between the original poem and its translation is equal, the poetic spaces in the two versions may still vary. Therefore, analyzing poetic spaces can provide a different perspective on guiding and evaluating the translation of Chinese classical poetry.