Research on Translations of Witter Bynner and Xu Yuanchong: A Case Study of English Versions of The Everlasting Regret

The Everlasting Regret is a long narrative poem recording the love story of a Chinese emperor and his lover in Tang dynasty, which is famous for its allusions, rhythmic lines and melting plots of the story. Translators from home and abroad have translated this poem and presented the style in various versions. In this article, versions of Xu Yuanzhong and Witter Bynner will be analyzed in order to compare the two translators’ style in translating. In this article, differences in the translation of the title and the general feature of the two versions are mentioned. Differences of translators’ understanding and expression of images in the poem are compared and explained as well. That’s how translators’ features in translating can possibly be summarized.