:唐诗300首 Poetry,said Coleridge,is "the best words in the best order".If the equivalent in the translated text is not the best word,we may sacrifice the equivalent to the best,that is to say.we may make the fullest possible use of the best expressions in the target language. That is the reason why equalization,generalization and particularization are used,and that may be ed creative translation or recreation.If the formula for the principle of science school is+1=2",then that for the theory of art school is "1+1>2".For in science,the word goes as far as the sense,while in art,the sense goes beyond the word.Therefore,I think literary translation,and verse translation in particular,is not science but art. In a certain sense,we may even say that literary translation is rivalry between the source language and the target language,to see which can better express the original idea. In reality,we may find such rivalry in the development of art and culture.For instance,the story of the Troyan war spread from mouth to mouth among the troubadours until Homer put it in words in the lliad,so we may say that there was rivalry between the troubadours. Then Chapman in the 16th century and Pope in the 18th translated the lliad from Greek into English,and there arose rivalry between the two languages.In a broader sense,even some of Shakespeare's works may be said to be resulted from rivalry.Was not Hamlet in rivalry with the Danish legend and Romeo and Juliet with the Venetian story?In the 17th century,Dryden rewrote Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and his All for Love was said to have improved and surpassed Shakespeare.Was it not rivalry?Whether Dryden sur- passed Shakespeare or not,opinions may differ and vary.But anyhow,there was rivalry be- tween them,and it cannot be denied that human culture has made progress through rivalry. Tang poems are gems of Chinese literature.In 1929 Witter Bynner published his Jade Mountains in the United States,and in 1973 Innes Herdan published her translations in Eng- land.Both their versions are unrhymed:the former is more beautiful and the latter more faithful.In 1987 Hong Kong published a rhymed version of Tang poems,which won high 七 praises from critics,but some of the translated poems cannot be said to be faithful and beauti- ful.In 1994 my Songs of the Immortals was published by Penguin Books and my Poetry of the South was considered as a high peak even in Eng Miterature by an American scholar in Melboume University.In 1 Minerva Press said my Romance Wewer might vie with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "in appeal and artistry".So I am asked to trans-