Abstract
With the spread of classical Chinese poetry abroad, so too has the emergence of research on translating poetry into other languages. The two basic ideas put forward by Eco-Translation are source-ecologisation and target-ecologisation; to this day, they have provided new directions for research on verse translation by stressing cultural-ecological adaptation and translators’ choices in making such translations. However, most of the existing research on verse translation has been based on functional equivalence and Skopos theory, and relatively few studies have combined classical Chinese pastoral poetry with Eco-Translatology. Meng Haoran’s Visiting an Old Friend’s Cottage is chosen as the case study, and with the help of the two perspectives of source-ecologisation and target-ecologisation, it is investigated that at the three levels of cultural imagery, grammatical structure, and rhythm, the translation approaches of the four English versions by Xu Yuanchong, Tang Yihe, Zeng Peici, and Witter Bynner have been studied and compared. Based on the above research, the source-ecologisation method has the advantage of preserving the uniqueness of culture in the rendering of agrarian culture-loaded terms; at the same time, the target-ecologisation method is likely to facilitate imaginative development at the level of grammar and rhythm. These are not choices that need to be selected from; rather, a stratified and integrated translation blueprint should be developed in line with the levels of the text to achieve a good balance of total adaptation and selection in the translational ecosystem. This work provides theoretical support and practical experience for the study of ancient poetry translation and the application of translating classical Chinese poetry into foreign languages.
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How to cite this paper
A Comparative Analysis of English Versions of Visiting an Old Friend’s Cottage Grounded in Eco-Translatology Analysis Perspective of Source-ecologisation and Target-ecologisation
How to cite this paper: Lu Shi. (2026) A Comparative Analysis of English Versions of Visiting an Old Friend’s Cottage Grounded in Eco-Translatology Analysis Perspective of Source-ecologisation and Target-ecologisation. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 10(5), 560-567.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2026.05.009