Abstract: The poetic translation of Shakespeare's The Tempest in the five-character-per-line style by Yu Nanqiu and Wang Shuying may be regarded as a special translation in the history of the Shakespearean Study in China. Such a translation by Yu and Wang was hardly a success in the Chinese translation of Shakespeare, but still it is the first and only attempt at translating Shakespearean plays based on the five-character-per-line style of the classical Chinese poetry. As compared with Lin Shu and others who misread Shakespearean plays as “poems” and did the translation by paraphrasing the stories in their Tales from Shakespeare, the translation of Shakespeare's The Tempest by Yu and Wang is a huge step in progress. Their translation of The Tempest in the five-character-per-line style seems unable to present the original content and artstic essence in their entirety, and fails to capture the quintessential subtelty in the classical Chinese poems written in the five-character-per-line style. However, their translation provides us with valuable experiences and lessons that could be used as a source of reference for the Chinese translation of Shakespearean plays.

Key words: Shakespeare, Yu Nanqiu, Wang Shuying, The Tempest, five-character poem, translation