A Study on the Imagery Translation of Animals, Plants and Cultural Relics in The Book of Songs from the Perspectiveof Relevance Theory

Abstract

The Book of Songs, the first of the Five Classics, is a classic of Chinese culture. It is the first collection of realistic poetry in China and is the glorious starting point of realistic poetry in China. Imagery is the product of the poet’s subjective emotions and objective objects, and is essential for the poet to convey his emotions and meanings. As one of the traditional Chinese cultural texts, The Book of Songs is rich in imagery of animals, plants and cultural relics, containing a rich cultural heritage and carrying the poet’s deep emotions. Relevance theory is arguably the most popular cognitive pragmatics theory in recent years, focusing on human cognition and verbal communication. The purpose of this paper is to explore the study of animal, plant and cultural relic imagery in The Book of Songs based on the translation theory of relevance theory, to show the aesthetic value of the translation, and to promote the recognition of the artistic value of the traditional Chinese cultural texts represented by The Book of Songs and their dissemination to the outside world.