





































Education, Language and Sociology Research 

ISSN 2690-3644 (Print) ISSN 2690-3652 (Online) 

Vol. 5, No. 3, 2024 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr 

23 
 

Original Paper 

On the Faithful Creation in Ezra Pound’s English Translation of 

Chinese Poetry in Cathay 

Wenyan Guo1 

1 School of English Studies, Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an, China 

 

Received: May 9, 2024          Accepted: May 30, 2024        Online Published: June 23, 2024 

doi:10.22158/elsr.v5n3p23          URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v5n3p23 

 

Abstract 

Ezra Pound’s English translation of Chinese poetry has played a great role in promoting the spread of 

Chinese ancient poetry to the outside world. However, Pound’s translation has not been fully recognized 

in China due to his free and creative translation, and even criticized in the translation circle. Based on 

the interpretation of Pound’s own translation thoughts and analysis of some examples of Pound’s 

translation of Chinese poetry, this paper demonstrates that Pound’s translation is completely faithful to 

the original in terms of images, form and effect. And his creative translation indeed makes the translation 

more in line with the emotional expression of the original poem, revealing the unique poetic and aesthetic 

significance of Chinese poetry. Through this paper, the author believes that the greatest fidelity to poem 

translation lies in the intensify of the emotion and the preservation of the meeting point of poetics, so that 

to reproduce its aesthetic significance and achieve unity with the soul of the original poem. 

Keywords 

Ezra Pound, poem translation, faithful creation, images 

 

1. Introduction 

This introductory chapter is to address the major ideas and elaborate the major elements of the thesis. To 

begin with, it provides some background information about Ezra Pound and his translation view. 

Secondly, it explains the theoretical notion of creative treason in literary translation. And the third part 

shows the purpose and significance of this study. 

1.1 Introduction to Ezra Pound and His Translation View 

Ezra Pound (1885-1972) is one of the greatest poets in American history. He pioneers the Imagism 

movement in American literature, which has a profound impact on the American literary arena. In fact, 

Pound is also an accomplished translator. He translates many ancient Chinese poetry such as ShiJing and 

poetry between 618-907, and compiles them into a book of poems called Cathay, which makes a hit in 



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the west in the twentieth century. As a literary work, Pound’s translation has gained a great reputation, 

promoting the spread of Chinese culture as well as the change of literary thoughts in the West. From the 

perspective of translation studies, however, Pound’s translation has been misunderstood and criticized by 

many scholars and critics. 

Over the past few decades, many scholars have conducted many researches on Pound’s translation. But 

in terms of his translation view, there is no comprehensive work to summarize his translation thoughts. 

We can just find his view on translation from some of his articles and letters. As Professor Zhou points, 

the core of Pound’s translation thought is to try to ignore the original text, and to realize the 

communication and interaction between the translator and the original text (Zhou, 2011, p. 153). His 

translation is the perfect crystallization of translation and creation. Due to this kind of translation view, 

his translation is “unfaithful” translation from the point of view of translation but beautiful creations from 

the point of view of literary creation. 

In terms of the content of original texts, Pound believes that the only thing worthy translating is the 

beauty of the original or the “intensity of emotion” of the original (Pound, 1968, p. 268). Many scholars 

have argued that Pound’s translation is not faithful to the original text. In fact, unlike the universal 

“faithfulness”, Pound emphasizes “faithfulness” to the original text in terms of meaning and atmosphere, 

which means faithfulness to the whole effect but not to the details. In order to achieve the overall fidelity, 

translators must understand the original text as a whole at first and then try to reproduce the spirit and 

inner vitality of the original. The purpose of translation is not to pursue the details or rigid form but the 

“emotion” or “effect” of the original text. 

From the perspective of the form of the original text, Pound argues that the translation does not have to 

follow the form of the original text exactly. He focuses more on the “thought form” and “texture” of the 

original text. Coinciding with the deconstructionist view, Pound believes that the meaning and content 

of texts is fluid, and the form of the original text can be ignored in translation practice. Translators can 

use any form that can convey the “thought form” or “texture” of the original text to translate the original 

content. In his view, the “spiritual resemblance” in translation is much more important than the form of 

the original text (Ma, 2015, p. 98). For example, in the translation of poetry, Pound does not intentionally 

focus on the rhyme or the arrangement of verses of the original poem, but adheres to his own rhythmic 

principles and advocates free verse. In this way, translator can fully utilize their own artistic imagination 

and creativity to convey the beauty of the original work. The original text can also achieve its 

development and maturation through different forms of translation and keep alive. 

Also, Pound’s translation is a kind of “creative translation”, and he himself firmly holds the idea that 

translation is a “creative attempt” (Nadel, 2008, p. 33). He advocates adoption and rewriting in translation, 

which refers that a translator could translate a text in his/her own way by using his/her imagination. 

However, this kind of creative translation is not a random nonsense and arbitrary fabrication. On the 

contrary, Pound’s creative translation is based on the identification of the original text. He pays more 

attention to the potential of the original text to stimulate new ideas, and then inherits the beauty of the 



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original and derives a new text under new historical conditions (Zhu, 2005, p. 201). Pound himself also 

points out that no matter how creative a translation is, it must strive to retain the “fervor” of the original 

(Pound, 1968, p. 200). Translation should be produced within the bounds of the original and not 

completely unrelated to it, otherwise it is to be criticized and condemned. 

To sum up, in Pound’s eyes, translation and composition are closely intertwined. As Nadel commented, 

throughout Pound’s life, his poetics and his translation practices interacted with each other as a symbiosis. 

His translation practice reinforced his poetic or literary innovations, and his poetics guided his 

translations in turn (Nadel, 2001, p. 57). That is to say, in his view, translation and creation are the same 

thing; translation is in fact a re-creation or rewriting based on the source text. Therefore, in Pound’s 

translation, he disregards the diction and form of the original one. Yet he grasps the very central emotions 

of the source text, or what we call the meeting point of poetics, and then he re-creates and rewrites the 

original text in his own way. By this way, Pound’s translation seems unrelated to the source text, but it 

conveys the emotion and effect of the original one. From this perspective, Pound’s translation view is to 

a large extent similar to Qian’s “realm of transformation” 化境, which refers that translation should be 

“transmigration of the soul” of the original text (Qian, 1975, pp. 8-9). They all believe that the text form 

can be changed, but the original thoughts, emotions and style need to be expressed in translation. 

1.2 On the Theoretical Notion of Creative Treason 

The concept of “creative treason” is proposed by the French literary sociologist Robert Escarpit in 1987 

in his book Sociologie de la Litterature. He states that translation is always a creative treason, and he 

believes that the irritating problem of translation might be solved if we were willing to accept that 

translation is always a creative betrayal. Translation is a kind of betrayal because it places literary works 

in a totally unanticipated frame of reference, that is language; translation is creative because it gives the 

work a new face and second life, a new literary communication with a wider audience (Escapit, 1987, 

pp. 137-138). From the linguistic point of view, Escarpit believes that translation is merely a conversion 

between two linguistic symbol systems, the referent and denotation of the language change in the process 

of translation. So, translation is a betrayal because of the loss of language. Although he does not realize 

the influence of cultural factors on literary translation, he establishes the relationship between the 

translator and the reader in translation. 

In China, the concept “creative treason” has its roots in the development of comparative literature and 

translation studies. In 1987, the term “creative treason” was included in the book A Handbook of Chinese-

Western Comparative Literature (1987, pp. 95-96). In this handbook, it defines “creative treason” as 

follows: First, “creative treason” refers to the “misunderstanding” of previous works by modern readers, 

e.g., Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe are regarded as children’s works 

in modern times, which is contrary to the original intent of the authors and works. Secondly, it refers to 

the rewriting of foreign works to suit the interests of local readers in violation of the original intent, such 

as Pound’s adaptation of Chinese poems. Thirdly, it refers to the theoretical errors in translation due to 

the limitations of the language. It is also pointed out that translation is a kind of ‘creative treason’, which 



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is expressed in the form of deletion, addition and paraphrase in translation (1987, pp. 103-104). Xie, T. 

Z., a scholar of Comparative Literature, explains in his book Medio-translatology that “creativity” in 

literary translation demonstrates subjective endeavors of the translator to approach and reproduce the 

source text through artistic creativity, and “treason” reflects objective betrayal to the source text in the 

process of achieving his or her subjective purposes, while practically, “creativity” and “treason” cannot 

be separated in literary translation, since they are a harmonious whole (Xie, 1999, p. 137).  

The introduction of this theory by Xie has immediately aroused the great interest and attention of the 

Chinese scholars from the circles of both comparative literature and translation studies, especially since 

the new millennium, papers and books about “creative treason” has constantly been published in 

academic journals and magazines. 

Professor Xu, in his book On Translation, states that the proposal of “creative treason” provides a new 

perspective in the analysis of translation, especially the essence and task of literary translation. In his 

point of view, the value of this theory lies in its manifestation of the innate limits of translation, and 

especially in the restriction of “creativity” on “treason”. “In other words, its value is mainly in creativity. 

Theoretically, to ratify the value of creative treason is to a large degree to recognize the creativity of the 

translator” (Xu, 2009, p. 343). 

In his paper “Translation and Treason”, Professor Sun argues that the treason in literary translation is 

unavoidable because it is impossible to achieve absolutely faithfulness in translation. And he further puts 

forward five types of creative treason, namely: unconscious treason, expedient treason, tactful treason, 

considerate treason and creative treason (Sun, 2001, pp. 18-22). Then he summarizes two reasons that 

cause treason in literary translation: 1) When literal translation is impossible because of great differences 

between two languages, the translator should strive to break linguistic restraints to produce the equivalent 

target text which in the meantime accords with the norms of the target language. In other words, the 

translator should be good at rendering “canonical and natural source texts” into “canonical and natural 

target texts”. 2) When there are word games in the source text, it is wise to transmit the meaning of the 

deep level at the cost of giving up the superficial meaning, namely to convey the spirit and style, or the 

charm of the original (Sun, 2001, p. 21). 

Also, Prof. Sun, J. C. has some profound ideas on “creative treason” in literary translation. He believes 

that “creative treason” should be the behavior of the translation subject or translator driven by some clear 

re-creative motives. And it is a dynamic paraphrase and conversion of the original work. For example, 

conscious ‘mistranslation’, abridgment, adaptation, etc. all belong to the phenomenon of creative treason 

in translation (Sun, 2001, pp. 118-119). He also points out that the “unconscious mistranslation” and 

“omission” in literary translation do not contain “conscious creativity” and should not be classified as 

creative treason. Successful treason should be a kind of value-added translation, which is manifested in 

the discovery, argumentation, judgment and recognition of new values. 

1.3 Research Significance 

Through this research, the paper attempts to achieve the following goals: 



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Firstly, since the French literary sociologist Robert Escapit put forward the concept of “translation is 

always a creative treason”, it has been warmly received in the academic and translation circles in China, 

with both approvals, misinterpretations and criticisms. Based on an objective and critical analysis of the 

theoretical connotation of the concept of “creative treason”, the author of this essay endeavors to capture 

and convey the essence of the term “creative treason” and expounds its value and significance in literary 

translation.  

Secondly, the study of “creative treason” in literary translation can help readers better understand the 

essence of literary translation and the contributions made by translators throughout the translation process. 

Also, the author hopes that readers could recognize the impossibility and non-necessity of absolute 

fidelity, so as to evaluate translated literary works with a broader view. At the same time, it can also 

improve the social status of translators and promote relevant research on the subjectivity of translators.  

Thirdly, as a translator, Pound has made important contributions to the spread of Chinese culture, 

especially ancient Chinese poetry, but his translations are always regarded as “unfaithful translations” by 

critics. By discussing Pound’s complete fidelity to the images, form and effect of the original texts in the 

process of translating Chinese poems, this paper points out that Pound’s translations of Chinese poems 

are very faithful to the original texts while they are creative. On this basis, this paper tries to summarize 

that the key to literary translation, especially poetry translation, lies in grasping the soul of the poem to 

achieve the “intensity of emotion” and the preservation of the spirit of the original text. 

 

2. Literature Review 

This chapter reviews the previous studies on Ezra Pund and his collection of poems Cathay, through 

which the research gap will be identified. 

2.1 Previous Studies on Pound and his Translation of Chinese Poetry 

Ezra Pound’s life was legendary but ended in tragedy. His panoramic study of literature and science gave 

rise to his pioneering practice in poetry and translation. The Imagist movement he led marked the 

beginning of modernist poetry. Although it didn’t last for a long time, the Imagists marked a movement 

that contributed significantly to modernism and American literature. Later, he supported Mussolini 

during the Second World War, turned to fascism and was condemned as a traitor after the war. In Italian 

concentration camps, he translated Confucian works and wrote the famous Pisa Canto, for which he won 

the Bollingen Prize for Poetry. In his whole life, Pound is a prolific writer and translator with more than 

20 collections of poetry, literary essays and translations. 

At the very beginning, there are some studies focuses on his political and economic ideas. For example, 

Ezra Pound: Politics, Economics and Writing–A Study of the Cantos (1984) by Peter Nicholls, Pound in 

Purgatory: From Economic Radicalism to Anti-Semitism (2000) written by Leon Surette and so on. Based 

on the social context of Pound’s time and the development of his philosophical thought, these scholars 

have sought to identify the internal factors that influenced the development of his thought and to explore 

the relationship between his economic and political thought and his literary creation. They argue that 



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Pound’s political and economic thought was closely related to his literary thought, which together 

constructed his ambition to restore order to a cruel world. These studies rectify the popular prejudice 

against Pound’s radical political-economic ideas. 

Many other scholars have been interested in Pound’s creative translations and have undertaken some 

related studies. Xie M.’s Ezra Pound and the Appropriation of Chinese Poetry (1999) offers a fresh 

perspective on Pound’s translation of Chinese poetry, arguing that Pound is essentially an appropriative 

translator. He examines Pound’s Chinese translations from the perspectives of ideograms, images, 

adverbs and synthetic language, revealing Pound’s uniquely creative translations. From the poet’s point 

of view, William Lim-Yip’s Ezra Pound’s Cathay (1969) attempts to study the poems in Cathay as 

translations, focusing on the three stages from the original work to Fenollosa’s note to Pound’s version, 

with the aim of understanding the poet’s creative thought. The book explores the differences between the 

English and Chinese languages and examines the poems in Cathay from a perspective of comparative 

literary, concluding that despite some mistranslations, Pound could ‘penetrate beneath the literal surface’ 

and enter the ‘central consciousness of the original author by what we may perhaps call a kind of 

clairvoyance’ (Yip, 1969, p. 88).  

In Qian, Z. M.’s book Orientalism and Modernism: the Legacy of China in Pound and Williams and 

Robert Kern’s Orientalism, Modernism, and American Poetry, they coincidentally adopt “Orientalism” 

in their researches. Through their books, we can find that researchers have begun to pay attention to the 

distance between China in Pound’s eyes and the real China. Robert Kern tries to prove that Pound was 

pursuing the “natural language” and “language with poetic potential”, which has been exploring by the 

American cultural tradition. However, Pound chose the Chinese characters as a “poetic medium” and 

made it a natural representation of this ideal language, which in turn catalyzed American modernist poetry. 

Qian, on the other hand, emphasizes the influence of the East on the West. In his view, Cathay should 

not just be regarded as an English-language poetry, because the influence of Chinese culture cannot be 

ignored during Pound’s transition to modernism. China is not merely the image created by the West, but 

a real place that influences Pound’s creation. Through his exposure to Chinese culture, Pound completed 

Cathay and other modernist poems, and Chinese culture plays a positive role in the development of 

Western modernism. 

2.2 Previous Studies on Pound’s Cathay 

Cathay, a representative work of Ezra Pound (1915), collects English translations of nineteen ancient 

Chinese poems. The Chinese poems selected in Cathay properly represent the Chinese poetry and they 

reflect the typical characteristics of classical Chinese poems—rigid meter and the parallelism in structure.  

For the studies on Cathay aboard, Western scholars mainly put emphasis on the disputes that whether 

Pound’s Cathay is translation or not. Pound’s Cathay has got both praise and criticism among westerners 

largely since he did know little about Chinese but translate many ancient Chinese Poem. Many scholars 

praise Cathay because Ezra Pound’s brilliant English poetry writing skill, which makes Chinese poems 

sound like original English poems. Ford Madox Hueffer said that “The poems in Cathay are things of a 



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supreme beauty. What poetry should be, that they are (Yip, 1969, p. 3).” T.S Eliot comments that it is 

Pound who invented Chinese poems and that westerners could comprehend Chinese poems through 

Pound’s versions. Criticism comes from how far Pound’s version diverts from the original version, since 

he totally ignored Chinese language. William Hugh Kenner, a vigorous interpreter of Pound’s poetry, 

claims that Pound’s Cathay is undoubtedly great English poems rather than Chinese poems; and Pound’s 

version is just serving that present time and situation and it is aloof from the past. Hayot suggests that 

Pound’s Cathay seems to be included in Anglo--Saxon culture and his identity of an orientalist could be 

constructed with the influence of traditional western understanding of the East. Yip seeks to understand 

Pound fully without interruptions of predetermined conclusions given by defenders and critics of Ezra 

Pound, and he argues that no translator can assert that his/her version is the perfect equivalent of the 

source, and so do Pound, thereby, there is no need to be harsh on Pound’s versions. 

In terms of comments in China, Ezra Pound’s version also meets strict criticisms from Chinese scholars. 

Qian, Z. S. (2002) declares that Pound has mixed up translating and writing, and he wrote his own poems 

in Cathay by using Chinese classical poems as blueprints. Qian also said that Pound, with little knowledge 

of Chinese and Chinese poems, misunderstood and misrepresented Chinese classical poems in his works. 

Yu, G. Z. (2002) criticized that most of Pound’s translations are not translation at all, but just a kind of 

rewriting, reorganizing or even a plagiary, and Pound was just expressing his own feelings in the name 

of Li Bai, the original Chinese poet. Pound’s Cathay has received much acclaim in terms of poetry writing 

but suffered much criticism in light of translation levels.  

Ezra Pound’s Cathay has been studied by Chinese scholars from different perspectives. In terms of 

translation strategy, Zhou (2009) analyzes the strategy of foreignization in Pound’s Cathay, holding the 

idea that through the translation strategy of foreignization, Pound preserves the qualities of ancient 

Chinese poetry and realizes the innovation of American Poetry. The most enlightening one is Pro. Wang’s 

paper. In his research, Wang (2005) believes that Pound’s translation should not be criticized as false 

translation. Pound literally makes Chinese and Western culture and poetics compatible by using the 

strategy of creative translation. Also, there are some papers analyze Pound’s Cathay by using different 

kinds of translation theories. For example, in Zhang’s paper (2011), she examines Pound’s translation 

practice by using Skopos theory. In the process of translation, Pound tries to use Chinese culture to 

discover the root causes of American social problems and makes great efforts to subvert the American 

literary tradition, and such a translation purpose causes his “creative treason” in translation. In her 

dissertation, Li, D. (2017) compares the source text and target text in Pound’s Cathay from micro 

phonetics level to macro discourse level and interprets Pound’s translations from the perspective of 

cognitive iconicity theory. And Liu, L. (2012) explores Cathay from the perspective of rewriting theory, 

pointing out that Cathay cannot be regarded unilaterally as an “unfaithful” translation, but rather as a 

rewrite of a particular period under the influence of ideology and poetics. 

Accordingly, scholars abroad and at home both have studied Pound’s translations in Cathay and 

attempted to examine the value of Pound’s Cathay from different aspects. However, this thesis intends 



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to analyze Pound’s Cathay is totally faithful to the original text in terms of content, form and poetics. At 

the same time, through his creative translation, he intensifies the emotion and effect of the original poems, 

making the original works stay alive in another language and keep their vitality. 

 

3. Faithful Creation in Pound’s Translation 

This chapter is mainly about the faithfulness and creation in Pound’s translation, with the examples 

selected from his translation work Cathay. The analysis of Pound’s translation would focus on, firstly, its 

faithfulness on the images, form and effect of the original poems; secondly, Pound’s strategy of creative 

translation, which includes absolute rhythm and unique space used in translation, which makes the 

translation more in tune with the emotional expression and effect of the original text.  

3.1 Faithfulness in Pound’s Translation 

Pound’s approach to translating Chinese poetry aligns with the deconstructionist view, but unlike the 

deconstructionist, he also places importance on fidelity to the original text. However, Pound’s 

interpretation of fidelity differs from the traditional sense. His focus on fidelity extends to the emotional 

level, encompassing imagery, rhythm, style and the whole effect of the original text (Nadel, 2001, p. 34). 

He believes that the literal imitation is not always useful, unless it serves to reproduce the style of the 

original text. This demonstrates Pound’s commitment to a faithful translation. Actually, in his translation 

practice, he also achieves fidelity to the images, form, and effect of the original texts. 

3.1.1 Faithful to the Images 

“Images” has a very high status in ancient Chinese poetry. Poets frequently utilize images to convey their 

own emotions. For instance, the moon represents nostalgia, autumn represents sadness, and the willow 

tree always signifies farewell. The use of various types of images in ancient Chinese poetry allows the 

author to express their subjective emotions more powerfully, and creates the unique beauty and artistic 

effect of Chinese poetry. As an imagist, Pound also believes that the most important thing in a literary 

work is imagery. He argues that the beauty of the thing itself is the only way for poetry to break free from 

the cage of rhetoric and ornate diction. In his collection Cathay, Pound essentially translated the original 

imagery of Chinese poetry, expressing the author’s emotions in the original poem through the 

juxtaposition and superimposition of images. 

Pound fidelity to images can be seen in his translation. His translation of Li, B.’s 《送友人》is an obvious 

example: 

送友人 

青山横北郭，白水绕东城。 

此地一为别，孤蓬万里征。 

浮云游子意，落日故人情。 

挥手自兹去，萧萧班马鸣。 

 

Taking Leave of a Friend 



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Blue mountains to the north of the walls, 

White river winding about them; 

Here we must make separation 

And go out through a thousand miles of dead grass. 

 

Mind like a floating wide cloud. 

Sunset like the parting of old acquaintances 

Who bow over their clasped hands at a distance. 

Our horses neigh to each other as we are departing. 

《送友人》is one of the most highly appreciated farewell poems of Li, B. It was written for Li’s friend 

who would go on a long journey without certain destination. In this poem, the first stanza is dominated 

by scenery. By using the images of “青山” and “白水”, Li created a very open and bright scene, which 

exactly contrasts with the gloomy sadness of farewell. In the last three stanzas, the poet used images such 

as “孤蓬”, “落日” and “班马”to express the sentiment and sadness of parting with his friend. In Pound’s 

translation, he retained the images of the original poetry and exactly translated them. Also, he translated 

“青山” and “孤蓬” as “blue mountain” and “dead grass”, which was very much in tune with the sad 

atmosphere of farewell.  

We can also discover Pound’s fidelity to imagery from another poem《古风十八》. This poem explores 

the theme of the pursuit of pleasure and wealth by dignitaries, who mistakenly believe that fame, fortune, 

and happiness are everlasting. However, once they lose their power, they are left in a miserable state. 

And two stanzas of the poem describe the extravagant lifestyle of the dignitaries, that is “香风引赵舞，

清管随齐讴。七十紫鸳鸯，双双戏庭幽。” It describes that the dignitaries were so consumed by their 

pursuit of pleasure that they failed to understand the philosophy of life that prosperity comes with decline. 

In the two stanzas, Li used a lot of images to describe the extravagance of the noble life, such as “香风” 

“清管” “鸳鸯” and “庭”. In the same time, he adopted the literary technics of allusion, showing the 

beauty of the songs and dances at the banquet by using the words “赵舞” and “齐讴”. In Pound’s 

translation, he not only retained the images, but he fully understood the connotation behind these images, 

which can be found through his treatment of some of the images. For example, he did not translate “清

管” as “tube”, but as “flute”, which refers to the sound of singing and instruments. Originally, “赵舞” 

and“齐讴” refers to the dance of Zhao and the song of Qi, both of which are wonderful and world-famous. 

The poet used these two terms here to convey the beauty of music and dance, rather than to suggest that 

the singers and dancers are really from Zhao and Qi. So, Pound did not translate 赵 and 齐, but 

generalized and translated them as “girls dancing” and “clear singing”. This interpretation is closer to the 

poet’s intention and preserves the original images as well. 

From the above examples, it is evident that Pound’s translation, although considered too liberal by many 

scholars, retains the images of the original poems in Cathay. 

 



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3.1.2 Faithful to the Form 

One fascinating feature of Chinese characters is that many single words still possess complete meaning 

even they are connected without any conjunctions and verbs, which is completely different from the 

English language. Especially in ancient Chinese poetry, poets often juxtapose several images together 

without any connection, which creates a unique atmosphere and gives Chinese poetry a mysterious beauty. 

However, if Chinese poems are translated into English, which has a strict and logical syntax, the 

corresponding prepositions must be added to make the meaning clear and sentences smooth. Over the 

years, many translators try their best to make the translation smooth and reasonable by adding 

connections. However, by doing so, the unique ambiguity of ancient Chinese poetry is lost, and its beauty 

is naturally diminished.  

However, Pound’s translation of ancient Chinese poetry stands out for its unique preservation of form. 

According to Pound, Chinese poetry is characterized by a combination of images, which creates a unique 

beauty of form. The effect of this combination is not simply additive, but explosive, challenging old 

poetic paradigms and promoting creative thinking, thus to strengthen the momentum of specific linguistic 

features (Wei, 2010, p. 2). For example, his translation of Li’s《古风十四》precisely reflects his fidelity 

to the form of Chinese poetry. In this poem, there is a very magnificent line “荒城空大漠”, which shows 

spectacular scenery of desert. The word 空 can be interpreted as the verb “to make empty” or the 

adjective “empty”, etc. Obviously, it is this ambiguity that gives the poem its unique atmosphere and 

effect. Pound translated this line as “Desolate castle, the sky, the wide desert”, and he understood 空 as 

“the sky”. There is no need to comment on whether he understood it correctly or not, because there is no 

one and only interpretation of the line. It is worth noting that he entirely retained the form of the poem, 

and that he had the awareness to juxtapose the imagery to form a painting, which proves that he realized 

the unique form and beauty of ancient Chinese poetry. 

Pound’s translation of Li’s《古风其六》is also an example. The line “惊沙乱海日” described a grand 

and vast scene of the border, and Pound retained the original form of this poem. He understood this line 

as “惊—沙乱—海日” and translated it as “Surprised. Desert turmoil. Sea sun”. Although Pound may 

have compromised some of the meaning in his translation, the images of this line is more important than 

the meaning themselves, and Pound’s creative fidelity in highlighting the images at the expense of the 

content is instead more conducive to convey the effect of this poem. By juxtaposing several images, 

Pound achieved the most economical effect in terms of spatial configuration. In the English, such syntax 

and arrangement does not exist, and therefore, this translation can be considered illogical and 

meaningless. However, the use of full stops and the juxtaposition of several images restore the 

magnificent scenery of the border fortress as in the original poem. At the same time, this type of 

translation leaves behind the conventional methods and introduces a new language mode and style for 

the English poems.  

Apart from the lack of connecting words, another characteristic of Chinese poetry is 对偶, or what we 

called parallel structure in English. This is a significant rhetorical device in ancient poetry, which requires 



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that the words used in stanzas must be of the same or similar nature. By using this kind of rhetoric, the 

stanzas are formally coherent and well-proportioned, which can reflect the balanced beauty of poetry 

(Wang, 1983, p. 200). In Li’s poem《送友人》, Pound translated the lines “浮云游子意，落日故人情” 

as “Mind like a floating wide cloud. Sunset like the parting of old acquaintances”. In this line of the poem, 

Li used the rhetorical device of antithetical parallelism. With each corresponding word being lexically 

identical, the structure is harmonious and well-proportioned, and the content is concise and meticulous, 

highlighting the beauty of Chinese characters and ancient Chinese poetry. Pound intentionally reproduced 

the formal beauty of the source language by choosing two subject and using two “like” to establish a new 

parallel structure, which to a certain extent restores the formal beauty of the poem. 

By analyzing some examples from Cathay, we find that Pound intentionally preserved the formal beauty 

of Chinese poetry in the process of translation by restoring the juxtaposition of imagery in the source 

language as well as by intentionally imitating the form of Chinese antithetical parallelism. In this way, 

Pound got rid of the constraints of English poetic form and created a new form of English poetic 

composition 

3.1.3 Faithful to the Effect 

Pound believed that the primary objective of translation is to restore the emotion of the original text. 

Translation should be faithful to the original in terms of meaning, style, as well as atmosphere, and it 

should value the energy and detail of the original and be able to bring about an epiphany to readers 

(Kenner, 1991, pp. 151-152). That is to say, in Pound’s view, the spirit of the original, or its atmosphere 

and effect, is far more important than the form or details. Due to this kind of translation view, some of 

Pound’s translations in the Cathay were considered to be mistranslated or omitted, but he actually 

achieved fidelity in a higher level, which refers that he re-expressed the essence of the work as well as 

the poet’s emotion when composing the original poems, capturing the atmosphere and emotional effect 

created by the original poems. 

Pound’s translation of《古诗·青青河畔草》demonstrates his fidelity to the emotion or effect of the 

original poem.  

古诗·青青河畔草 

青青河畔草，郁郁园中柳。 

盈盈楼上女，皎皎当窗牖。 

嫦娥粉红装，纤纤出素手。 

昔为倡家女，今为荡子妇， 

荡子行不归，空窗难独守。 

 

Blue, Blue is the grass about the river 

And the willows have overfilled the close garden. 

And within, the mistress, in the midmost of her youth, 

White, white of face, hesitates, passing the door. 



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Slender, she puts forth a slender hand; 

 

And she was a courtezan in the old days, 

And she has married a sot, 

Who now goes drunkenly out 

And leaves her too much alone 

The poem describes a slice of the heroine’s life, which shapes a young woman who yearns for love and 

a simple life with her husband. In his translation, Pound captured the overall tone of the poem, feeling 

the atmosphere as well as the emotional experience. So, his translation, though not word-for-word, brings 

out the emotion and spirit of the original poem. In the first line, Pound captures the spirit of the original 

poem by translating 青青 as “blue”, which symbolizes melancholy and depressed in English. By using 

the word “blue” in the first line, the tone of this poem is set. The whole poem is overshadowed by a light 

sense of sadness. Also, Pound translated “郁郁园中柳” as “willows have overfilled the close garden”. 

The word “overfilled” captures the essence of the original poem. In Merriam-Webster Dictionary of the 

English Language, this word means “to fill excessively, causing overflowing” (Gramercy Books, 1996, 

p. 228). Pound used this word to give willow trees human emotions, not only depicting the lushness of 

the willow in the garden, but also overlapping the heroine’s emotions with willow trees, expressing the 

heroine’s loneliness and despair. In this way, the emotion of the poem is expressed, making the poem fill 

with infinite poetic space. The second stanza shifts from a figurative description of scenery to a narration 

of the heroine’s life experience, telling of the loneliness of the heroine due to her husband’s long absence. 

Pound uses three “And” at the beginning of lines in the second stanza, which creates a sense of urgency 

and acceleration in the momentum of speech. This effectively conveys the heroine’s thoughts and 

complaints.  

In conclusion, although Pound’s ignorance of the Chinese language led to many misinterpretations in his 

translation, the imperfections do not cover up the faults. In terms of the overall effect of the translation, 

Pound was able to achieve a mental and spiritual match with the original poet, and reproduced the 

emotions of the original poem. 

3.2 Creation in Pound’s Translation 

The conventional view of translation necessitates that the translated work is comparable to the original. 

The Western translation theory of invisibility posits that an ideal translation should be transparent, like a 

piece of glass, so that the reader does not feel that they are reading a translated work (Venuti, 1995, p. 

42). According to this theory, the invisibility of translation necessitates the invisibility of the translator, 

whose task is to follow the author of the original work, without being involved in any personal emotions, 

will, aesthetics, or other literary abilities. This leads to a complete lack of initiative on the part of the 

translator in the process of translation, and the translated work is devoid of spirit and vitality, unable to 

carry more communication at the literary or cultural level other than presenting the meaning of the text. 

Creative treason in literary translation, on the other hand, fully mobilizes the initiative of the translator. 



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Translators are able to have their own right, and the literary work is re-interpreted and has a new life in 

the process of translation. In Cathay, Pound used absolute rhythm and unique space in translation to fit 

the emotional expression of the original work better. 

3.2.1 Absolute Rhythm 

Ezra Pound believed that if Chinese poems were to be translated in regular metrical verse, the position 

of the words would be limited, and the translator would often have to add or sacrifice something in order 

to achieve the effect of rhyme. Therefore, Pound chose free verse to present the images and the poet’s 

emotions in the original poem. Also, he believed that there was an absolute rhythm that could correspond 

exactly to the feelings expressed in the poem. (Pound, 1988, p. 9). In essence, the poem must possess a 

rhythm that corresponds to its own expression. As a competent translator, it is his/her duty to find the 

only rhythm that fits the original poem in the translation, so that it can be more in tune with the emotion 

and atmosphere of the original poem, and thus to achieve a good effect. Take Li’s《古风十八》as an 

example: 

入门上高堂，列鼎错珍馐。 

香风引赵舞，清管随齐讴。 

七十紫鸳鸯，双双戏庭幽。 

To high halls and curious food, 

To the perfumed air and girls dancing, 

To clear flutes and clear singing; 

To the dance of the seventy couples; 

To the mad chase through the gardens. 

These lines from Ancient Winds 18 depict a scene in which dignitaries feast and celebrate, singing and 

dancing, portraying the luxurious lifestyle of those officials. Pound’s translation of these lines 

demonstrates his skill in absolute rhythm. Each line starts with an unstressed word “to”, which makes 

the poem flows smoothly from light to heavy, with a rhythm that changes with the dynamic and natural 

music. This kind of rhythm creates a joyful atmosphere of banquets and dances, highlighting the sense 

of pictures. At the same time, Pound also used end rhymes such as “dancing-singing” and “couples-

gardens”, creating a stronger sense of rhythm and emphasizing the beauty of rhyme and artistic 

conception.  

There are many other similar translations in the Cathay. Pound’s creative use of “absolute rhythm” to 

translate Chinese poems better suits the atmosphere and effect of the poems. His creative translation 

method eliminates American poetry’s attachment to stereotyped, dull, and rigid poetic metre, and creates 

free verse, which is more suitable for expressing poetic emotion. 

3.2.2 Unique Space 

Before Pound, many translators translated poems according the line breaks of the original. However, 

Pound created a new method to break the lines in poem, which expresses the poet’s emotional translation 

by adding unique spaces between lines. 



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In the poem《送友人入蜀》, Pound fully utilized this kind of creative technique. 

送友人入蜀 

见说蚕丛路，崎岖不易行。 

山从人面起，云傍马头生。 

芳树笼秦栈，春流绕蜀城。 

升沉应已定，不必问君平。 

They say the roads of Sanso are steep. 

Sheer as the mountains. 

The walls rise in a man’s face, 

Clouds grow out of the hill 

At his horse’s birdle. 

Sweet trees are on the paved way of the Shin, 

Their trunks burst through the paving, 

And freshets are bursting their ice 

In the midst of Shoku, a proud city 

 

Men’s fates are already set. 

There is no need of asking divines. 

This poem describes Li’s friend’s journey from Chang’an to Shu (Sichuan Province). The first six lines 

depict the dangerous yet beautiful scenery of the Shudao. By writing these lines, Li intended to comfort 

and encourage his friend’s determination to enter Shu. In the last stanza, Li suddenly changed the subject 

to the rise and fall of human life, persuading his friend that human’s fate has been destined and that there 

is no need to be upset and worry about. Additionally, Li Bai reminds himself not to be preoccupied with 

fame and fortune, and to love and enjoy the life itself. Pound understood Li Po’s intention and realized 

that the main idea of this poem lies in the last stanza. Therefore, in his translation, he creatively used 

space to highlight this unexpected transition and create a dramatic turnaround effect.  

The “unique space” seems to be abrupt, but in fact it is created by Pound in order to reflect the purpose 

of the theme, which is more conducive to the expression of the original poem. Without this kind of 

creation, the readers would not be able to appreciate the poet’s peculiar conception and the implicit 

emotions in the poem, and the translation would be common and bland. 

 

4. Conclusion 

Due to his bold and innovative translation ideas and techniques, Pound have been misunderstood and 

criticized by many critics in the translation circles at home and abroad. However. through analyzing some 

of Pound’s English translations of Chinese poems and interpreting his own translation thoughts, it is clear 

that Pound’s translation is completely faithful to the original poem in terms of images, form and effect. 

In addition, Pound used creative techniques in the translation process, adopting absolute rhythm and 



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unique space to make the overall translation more in line with the emotional expression of original poems, 

which allows him to achieve a higher level of fidelity. His creative method of translation has many 

undeniable advantages in presenting the language features and emotion of classical Chinese poems, 

which opens up a new way of thinking to translate Chinese poems. In conclusion, this paper argues that 

the greatest fidelity for literary translation lies in the enhancement of the original poem’s emotion and 

the preservation of its effect or emotion, so as to reproduce its aesthetic significance and achieve unity 

with the soul of the original poem. Also, critics and translators should take a dialectical view of Pound’s 

creative treason in the translation of Chinese poems, so as to better guide their own translation practice. 

 

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