THE GAINS AND LOSSES OF N. A. ORLOVA’S TRANSLATION AND ANNOTATION OF BAI JUYI’S QUATRAINS

Abstract

In 2017, N. A. Orlova, a sinologist at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, published Bai Juyi: One Hundred Jue-ju Poems. On the one hand, according to the requirements of modern translation science, the book, based on the original text, combined with the historical and cultural background of ancient China and philosophical and religious concepts, refined the translation words and corrected some mistakes of her predecessors. On the other hand, it suits the mainstream tradition of Russian poetry and greatly improves the artistry of translation. However, there are some flaws in Orlova’s translation, such as over interpretation and improper interpretation, which need the joint efforts of Chinese and Russian literary translators to further improve.