Modern Social Science Research

This study investigates the theoretical connotations and practical paradigms of Wang Zuoliang's aesthetics of poetry translation, addressing the research gap in systematic analysis of his strategies, and clarifying its academic value for Chinese translation theory. Methods Grounded in translation aesthetics and poetry translation theory, representative cases of Wang's English-Chinese (Robert Burns) and Chinese-English (The Book of Songs) translations were selected. Close reading and comparative analysis focused on his strategies for linguistic form adaptation, cultural image transplantation, and spirit conveyance. Findings: Wang's core aesthetic principles include: (1) prioritizing spiritual resemblance over formal similarity (e.g., localizing Burns' rhythm); (2) creatively transforming cultural images (e.g., reconstructing "king o' men" as "DiWangXiang"); (3) utilizing target-language poetic resources (Chinese four-character phrases/English prosody); (4) translator subjectivity-driven artistic conception reconstruction. His translations achieve cross-cultural poetic aesthetic reconstruction. Conclusions Wang's translation aesthetics inherits and develops the Chinese "spiritual resemblance" theory, providing a methodological paradigm for resolving contradictions between form-content and cultural fidelity-reader acceptance in poetry translation, with significant implications for contemporary theory and practice.

Wang Zuoliang; Poetry translation; Translation aesthetics; English-Chinese poetry translation