The Beauty of Lyrical and Narrative Poetry-A Study of the Literariness of Watson's Translation of Song Dynasty Poet Su Shi

The translation of Su Shi, or Su Dongpo, a famous poet of the Song Dynasty, and his literary and cultural reconstruction in the West give testimony to how China Studies (or Sinology) in Western countries has been developing and how it is likely to evolve in the future. This study focuses on the translation of Su Shi by Burton Watson from the perspective of lyricism and narrativity, aiming to explore the literary features and influence of Watson's Su Shi translation over American Sinological scholarship. Song poetry is basically characterized by its features of lyricism and narrativity, which are typically found in Su Shi's works. Watson's translation of Su faithfully reproduces those two features of Su's poems, which in fact seem very much akin to the modern lyric and narrative tradition of the West. Hence, Watson's Su Shi becomes readily digestable and acceptable to his English-language readers. Su's being the most representative lyrical and narrative poet of the Song Dynasty, the dissemination and reception of his works among Western audiences can be seen as a token of effective exchange between Chinese and Western literatures and cultures in the contemporary times.