Wu Mi as a New Humanistic Translator

Abstract

Abstract. Wu Mi, one of the chief cultural celebrities during the Republic Period, has been crowned with many titles, such as a poet, a master in Chinese classics, an expert in western literature, the forefather of China's comparative literature and leader of the Critical Review School. However, his identity as a great translator has not been fully recognized in spite of the fact that he had been giving lectures on The Art of Translation for many years and had produced many translations that were not less significant than his academic writings. The crucial role of translation in Wu Mi's academic life, together with the bearings of his unswerving belief in New Humanism upon his translations, has not been sufficiently dealt with among the limited researches that the past two decades have seen. In this paper, a short survey of what he had translated will be offered, and an analysis into why he chose to translate those specific texts will be made. The purpose is not only to demonstrate Wu Mi's greatness as a translator, but more importantly, to show the close link between his translations and the New Humanistic ideal he embraced.