On April 26, 2017,Professor Xie Yanmingshared his ideas about the translation of classical poetry from Chineseinto English with the teachers and students from School of Foreign Languages of WIT.

Professor Xie Yanming is from ZhongnanUniversity of Economics and Law, and serves as the master tutor of MTI program at WTI.

At the very beginning, abrief introduction about poetry translation was given by Professor Xie. "To translate or not totranslate--that is a question." Translation, at a degree, is the creation.We give a new life to a poem, and let it imprisoned in a language and morereaders inflicted.     

             （Prof.Zhaois giving a brief introduction of Professor Xie.）

        (Professor Xie’s translation work)

Afterwards, Professor Xie got to the point bysharing his two works to the audience. The first poem was Thoughts on HisDeceased Wife, which was received warm response, followed by the Spring Hike:To the Tune of Think of the Imperial Country, the second poem, which wastranslated by himself.

The most important part ofthis lecture is some poetry genres comparison of the two languages. Professorbriefly introduced three poetry genres: Ballad, Sonnet and Limerick. Firstly,the Ballad, shown by the example of Calling Ospreys, created by folks andconsisting of four quatrains, usually tells readers a story. Secondly,Professor Xie introduced Sonnet to usby his translation work --Turtles Live Long, which impressed the audiencemostly was the last sentence, the usual ending of this kind of poem: I am soblessed and fortunate enough/ so I chant my ambition firm and tough. Finally,the Limerick usually in iambic pentameter was introduced, with the example ofMiscellaneous Poem by himself.

At last, as an ending,Prof.Xie claimed that during a poetry translation, rhythm, form, meaning andfeeling should all be taken into consideration.

 In the session of Q&A, Professor Xiewas asked to share his own experience and feelings during his poetrytranslation. Heimpressedevery participant by his artistic talent and vivid examples. What a feast ofpoetry!     

       (All seats are occupied.)

      (conclusion)