A Descriptive Study of Burton Watson-s English Translation of CHU CI

Burton Watson, the famous American sinologist and translator has an im portant status in the history of translating ancient Chinese classics into Engli sh and the literary and cultural value of his translated versions are not neglec table. To take his English translation of CHU CI as an example, this paper, from the perspective of description, explores the characteristics of mythological im age combination, fragrant grass and sash image combination, and temporal image c ombination in the source poems and translated poems, and point out the main tran slation of literal method. On the basis of this, the article concludes that the translator-s literal translation generally represents the aesthetic forms and fu nction the Chinese poems. But the translation method also arises from cultural m isreading and mistranslation.