语言学专业留学生论文—从文化差异的视角对比《红楼梦》的两种译本

 

Acknowledgements

 

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this thesis.

 

My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Ms. Shen Jieyu, my supervisor, for her constant encouragement and guidance.

 

As a responsible supervisor, she has given me constructive suggestions from the selection of an appropriate topic to the arrangement of the framework during the course of my working on this thesis. Due to her serious and earnest instructions, I had a clear thinking on the framework before I made a beginning of this thesis. I must also thank her for a very insightful and helpful review of the early draft and the subsequent revisions. In addition, I thank her for teaching me some basic and essential knowledge on paper’s writing in her daily lectures.

 

I should finally like to express my gratitude to my beloved parents who have always been helping me out of difficulties and supporting without a word of complaint.

 

Ⅰ

 

Abstract

 

With the unprecedented quick speed of globalization and cultural integration, maintaining diversification and multiculturalism-oriented ethnical cultures has become all the more indispensable in translation. The same is true with the translation of Chinese classics. The artistic achievements of A Dream of Red Mansions stand bolt upright in the Chinese novel history and are greatly admired by Chinese people. As the Grand View Garden of the Chinese traditional culture, it is known as the quintessence of Chinese traditional culture during the period of 4000 years from the beginning of Chinese nation to the mid Qing Dynasty.

 

Translational activities are influenced by several sociol-cultural factors between countries. How to keep honor to inferior culture and keep balance among translator, source culture, target culture and writer is significant in the process of translation. With the framework of Newmark’s theory of semantic translation and communicative translation, this paper intends to make a comparative study of the two versions of the dream of red mansions translated by yang hsien-yi and David Hawkes respectively, concerning the different approaches they have adopted in the translation of culture-specific information.

 

Key words：A Dream of Red Mansions; translation; cultural differences; intercultural communication

 

 

Ⅲ

 

Contents

 

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………Ⅰ

 

Abstract………………………………………………………….…………………Ⅱ

 

摘 要………………………………………………………………………………Ⅲ

 

Chapter 1 Introduction……………………………………………………………..1

 

1.1 The Significance of the Research…………………………..………………..2

 

1.2 The Organization of this Paper………...…………………………………….3

 

Chapter 2 Literature Review……………………………………………………….4

 

Chapter 3 The Relation of Culture and Translation…………………………….6

 

3.1 Culture and Translation……………………………………………………6

 

3.2 The Relation between Culture and Translation……………………………7

 

Chapter 4 Cultural Differences in the Two Different Translations of A Dream of Red Mansions…………………………………………………….…………………9

 

4.1 Thought Patterns……………………………………….……………………9

 

4.2 Values……………………………………………….……………………10

 

4.3 Tradition, Customs and Life Style…………………….…………………12

 

4.4 Religious Differences……………………………….……………………15

 

4.5 Cultural Differences……………………………….………………………16

 

Chapter 5 Conclusion………………………………………….…………………20

 

Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………….22

 

Chapter 1 Introduction

 

Despite changes of history, Chinese people’s love towards A Dream of Red Mansions never declines. Meanwhile, A Dream of Red Mansions has been spread wide abroad along with the development of cultural exchanges between China and other countries. People, whatever language they speak and whatever different customs they have, will all be deeply fascinated with A Dream of Red Mansions if they get chance to know this novel. The artistic achievements of A Dream of Red Mansions stand bolt upright in the Chinese novel history and are greatly admired by Chinese people. It is the Chinese unique culture that makes them infatuated. Culture enthusiasts as well as investigators of China and Western countries can not only appreciate the beauty and cultivate taste, but also can have a good knowledge of the previous life and history described in this book.

 

Chinese culture is unique and has its own system, which makes great contributions to the human civilization worldwide. The novel, A Dream of Red Mansions, involves nearly every aspect of Chinese culture. They can be summarized as follows: folk custom of seasons and festivals, folk custom of weddings and funerals folk custom of food, clothing, shelter and transportation, folk custom of religious belief, folk custom of entertainment, folk custom of life and family rite and folk of language, etc.

 

Therefore, the thesis takes Chapter Three in A Dream of Red Mansions as study object and chooses two authoritative English versions: A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Xianyi and The Story of the Stone translated by David Hawkes as comparative objects. By comparing these two English versions of A Dream of Red Mansions, this essay shows that cultural differences play an important

 

Among the Chinese classics, A Dream of Red Mansions has been most widely read and studied by the general public and scholars since the later part of the 18th century. This work vividly and realistically unveils a pure world of that dynasty. Besides its mythical beginning, more than 400 human characters come to life in the Jia palace throughout the one hundred and twenty chapters of this book.#p#分页标题#e#

 

1.1The Significance of the Research

 

Compared with translations of other genres of works, translations of literary works are more difficult. Vocabulary in literary works is more flexible in its amount and in its range and it is more descriptive than illustrative. Natural scenes, psychological changes and feelings are all common items in literature and are hard to translate. Furthermore, translating literature requires the translators to preserve the specific personality and the unique style of the original writer in their translations. This is hard to reach, even for those experienced translators. Overall, literary translations are more flexible and dynamic.

 

Some translations focus on translations processes without giving any attention to the studies of translated works. They would not like to spend much time on reviewing, criticizing and analyzing both source texts and target texts. In their mind, it's important to provide target readers a translated text to read, but it's unnecessary to comment on how to appreciate and understand this text. The result is that though the numbers of translated Chinese books recent years have been largely increasing, their qualities and the influences have failed to improve proportionally domestically and abroad.

 

The studies concerning A Dream of Red Mansions' translations have roughly experienced three stages. At the very beginning, all studies were executed separately and individually. The study focuses were on separate facts. In a whole, the studies

 

were independent without any definite goal. They kept at the level of "summaries". Then, the researchers realized the importance of the entirety of the text and began to adopt a macro perspective. They began to introduce modern research methods into their work. For example, comparison: comparison between the two complete versions; comparison between the two complete versions; comparison between the translation strategies (domestication vs. foreignization) etc. While now, the studies are much more objective and more systematic. Through deep and careful revisions and retrospection, both researchers and translators can benefit a lot not only in translation practices, but also in translation studies. This is the paramount purpose of studying A Dream of Red Mansions' translation in a scientific systematic way.

 

1.2 Organization of the Paper

 

This thesis consists of 4 chapters. Chapter 1 is the introduction of the Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions and the main translations. In Chapter 2, the author makes the literal review of the domestication and foreignzation both at home and abroad. In Chapter3, the author introduce the cultural differences in the two translations of A Dream of Red Mansions in several aspects. Chapter 5 contains a brief summary and conclusion.

 

Chapter 2 Literature Review

 

Since the two translations of A Dream of Red Mansions written by Yang Xianyi and The Story of the Stone written by Hawkes came into being, many papers about A Dream of Red Mansions and its translations were published in many domestic journals.

 

The study of A Dream of Red Mansions has become a special learning: Red-ology. But how about the study of the translations of A Dream of Red Mansions? From 1980 to 1989, there are total 5 published papers. While from 1990 to 1999, the number of papers that about the translations is 16. From 2000 to 2012, A Dream of Red Mansions and its translations were paid more attention by many researchers. It means that the English version of A Dream of Red Mansions receive more and more attention and gradually become the hot topic.

 

From the perspective of the object , the majority of the papers take the A Dream of Red Mansions and The Story of the Stone as the object. We can conclude that the appearance of this two translations have a crucial impact on the research of A Dream of Red Mansions.

 

From the perspective of the measure, many papers use Analytical method and Inductive method, that is comparison---analysis---conclusion. Translation is the primary used in the researches, which also refer to literature, linguistics, aesthetics and so forth.

 

Since most studies focus on the translation of A Dream of Red Mansions, the studies from the view of comparison are mainly belong to the category of translation. I divided these these papers into five categories from different purposes and entry points. First : Translate and evaluate from the concrete language. Second: Title and the history of English translation. Third: Take the translation of A Dream of Red Mansions as the material to make a comparison. Forth: The position of the cultural

 

information is a hot topic. Fifth: Some papers analyze the translation from the angle of discourse. From the above categories, we can find that the hot topics in the study

 

are language and word, poetry, culture and translation. A note worthing tends is that whether from the perspective of cultural exchange or of translation purpose, more and more researchers are studying and discussing the relations between the translators, the target-text readers, target version and source-text readers.

 

From the above analysis, we can conclude that the content of the research become more and more widely and flourishing, and it made certain achievements in all aspects.

 

Chapter 3 The Relation Of Culture and Translation

 

3.1 Culture and Translation

 

Culture is considered as an all-encompassing term, which defies clear and exact definition. It includes what a society "thinks"(a set of customs, religion, habits and knowledge etc) and what a society "does". It's what a society lives upon and what people use to guide their social life. As long as there is communication, there is the necessity of translation. But what is indeed translation? The transfer school defines translation as a kind of inter-lingual transfer between source language and target language. The semiotic school defines translation as the process of expressing the same ideas or meaning through two different language symbols and so on. In a word, translation is "an incredibly broad notion which can be understood in many different ways.

 

Translation is not simply a matter of seeking other words with similar meaning but of finding appropriate ways of saying things in another language. Different languages, then, may use different linguistic forms. Translation is also the social and psychological activities. One should be familiar with one's own culture and be aware of the source-language culture before attempting to build any bridge between them. As translators, we are faced with an alien culture that requires that its message be conveyed in anything but an alien way. That culture expresses its idiosyncrasies in a way that is 'culture-bound': cultural words, proverbs and of course idiomatic expressions, whose origin and use are intrinsically and uniquely bound to the culture concerned. So we are called upon to do a cross-cultural translation whose success will depend on our understanding of the culture we are working with.Translation is not simply a matter of seeking other words with similar meaning but of finding appropriate ways of saying things in another language. Different languages, then, may use different linguistic forms. Translation is also the social and psychological activities. One should be familiar with one's own culture and be aware of the source-language culture before attempting to build any bridge between them. As translators, we are faced with an alien culture that requires that its message be conveyed in anything but an alien way. That culture expresses its idiosyncrasies in a way that is 'culture-bound': cultural words, proverbs and of course idiomatic expressions, whose origin and use are intrinsically and uniquely bound to the culture concerned. So we are called upon to do a cross-cultural translation whose success will depend on our understanding of the culture we are working with.

 

Cultural translation gained its birth when culture began to be highlighted as different countries or cultures started to be interwoven together. Close intercommunication among different countries and cultures decide their tight cooperation in economy, militarily, and some other aspects of social life. It can be concluded that one major task of translation is to bridge two different cultures.

 

3.2 The Relation between Culture and Translation

 

As the person between original work and reader, a translator must transfer all kinds of information of original work, either linguistic or cultural. Meanwhile, he should take readers’ psychology into consideration and try his best to let readers of translation version have the same, or similar feeling with reader of original work.

 

Traditionally, translation is to render something from one language to another language, including the rendering of differences in language structures. However, another problem should be paid attention to in this process: the cultural differences between source language and target language. This paper tries to argue that translation is not merely selecting equivalent words, but incarnating culture of target language at the same time.

 

As we referred previously, the two English versions were translated by one Chinese translator and one foreign translator respectively. Nida has said: “The rule of language within a culture and the influence of the culture on the meanings of words and idioms are so pervasive that scarcely any text can be adequately understood without careful consideration of its cultural background.”(Nida, Language, Culture, and Translating) In this way, varied cultural backgrounds may lead to various translations. By comparing materials cited from the two English renditions, this paper considers to study on the functions of cultural differences, in7other words, what role was played by cultural backgrounds in this progress?#p#分页标题#e#

 

By citing and comparing examples on various aspects, this paper also tries to show that translation is an action of intercultural exchange, which bridges up the gap between two different kinds of cultures.

 

Chapter 4 Cultural Differences in the Two Different Translations of A Dream of Red Mansions

 

4.1 Thought Patterns

 

Thought pattern, is a habit or the program of thinking and writing. Language and thought patterns have connections, they interact and connect with each other. The thinking difference between Chinese and English causes expression difference between the two languages.Translators should not only be aware of language change in translation,but also that of thinking difference.

 

In the same way with culture, thought patterns vary from one to another. According to the diagram, (Robert B. Kaplan, Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-cultural Education), an English paragraph normally follows a straight line of development; however, Chinese classical paragraph tends to follow a circular line of development. This shows that each culture has its own special way of thinking.Translation is not simply a matter of seeking other words with similar meaning but of finding appropriate ways of saying things in another language. Different languages, then, may use different linguistic forms. Translation is also the social and psychological activities. One should be familiar with one's own culture and be aware of the source-language culture before attempting to build any bridge between them. As translators, we are faced with an alien culture that requires that its message be conveyed in anything but an alien way. That culture expresses its idiosyncrasies in a way that is 'culture-bound': cultural words, proverbs and of course idiomatic expressions, whose origin and use are intrinsically and uniquely bound to the culture concerned. So we are called upon to do a cross-cultural translation whose success will depend on our understanding of the culture we are working with.

 

Interpreting Chinese into English is not only a matter of rearranging words and word groups in a sentence.

 

If words and word groups of source language don’t fit together in the same way as the words of another language do, the order also needs a change. Besides this, the same words and symbols may create different images in different cultures, in other words, we can also say that one’s thinking mode can hardly divide from his culture and language.

 

“你妹妹远路才来,身子又弱,也才劝住了,快别再提了.”(第三回 p30)

 

“So don’t reopen that subject.”(Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅰ p39)

 

“So let’s have no more of this.”(Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅰ p92)

 

It could be found that Prof. Hawkes’s translation is in the order of English, however, Prof. Yang’s translation structure is very similar to oriental Chinese sentence structure. Under this occasion, Prof. Hawkes’s translation is certainly the one which is more readable and acceptable to foreign readers, and remains the original stylistic color consequently.

 

4.2 Values

 

Values are expressions of what is considered good or evil, beautiful or ugly, and right or wrong. Values are also standards being used by people to judge the actions of ourselves and others around us. (Charles O. Ellenbaum & Gail B. Ellenbaum)

 

Different cultural individuals might have distinctiveness on values. If applied to translation, these differences in ideology could be reflected as differences in language expressing, because language could reflect people’s images on culture.Translation is not simply a matter of seeking other words with similar meaning but of finding appropriate ways of saying things in another language. Different languages, then, may use different linguistic forms. Translation is also the social and psychological activities. One should be familiar with one's own culture and be aware of the source-language culture before attempting to build any bridge between them. As translators, we are faced with an alien culture that requires that its message be conveyed in anything but an alien way. That culture expresses its idiosyncrasies in a way that is 'culture-bound': cultural words, proverbs and of course idiomatic expressions, whose origin and use are intrinsically and uniquely bound to the culture concerned. So we are called upon to do a cross-cultural translation whose success will depend on our understanding of the culture we are working with.

 

彼时黛玉在窗下对镜梳妆，听宝玉说上学去，因笑道：“好!这一去，可是要’蟾宫折桂’了!我不能送你了。”(第九回)

 

“She was sitting before her mirror by the window and smiled when he told her that he was off to school. ‘Good,’ she said, ‘so you’re going to pluck fragrant osmanthus in the palace of the moon. I’m sorry I can’t see you off.’ ” (Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅰ, p134)

 

“He found her by the window making herself up at the mirror. Her answer to his announcement that he was off to begin school was smiling but perfunctory:’ Good, I wish you every success. I’m sorry I can’t see you off.’ ” (Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅰ)

 

The Chinese idiom “蟾宫折桂” means to win in the imperial examinations. According to an Chinese old tale, there was a cherry bay in the moon, so winning in the imperial examinations is expressed as “蟾宫折桂”. Prof. Yang literally translated this literary quotation to “pluck fragrant osmanthus in the palace of the moon”, as foreign reader may not understand if there are no notes for this idiom. Based on sociolinguistic points, different scopes of sociolinguistics may use various ways to refer to the same thing. Here Prof. Hawkes used adaptation and translated it to “I wish you every success”.Translation is not simply a matter of seeking other words with similar meaning but of finding appropriate ways of saying things in another language. Different languages, then, may use different linguistic forms. Translation is also the social and psychological activities. One should be familiar with one's own culture and be aware of the source-language culture before attempting to build any bridge between them. As translators, we are faced with an alien culture that requires that its message be conveyed in anything but an alien way. That culture expresses its idiosyncrasies in a way that is 'culture-bound': cultural words, proverbs and of course idiomatic expressions, whose origin and use are intrinsically and uniquely bound to the culture concerned. So we are called upon to do a cross-cultural translation whose success will depend on our understanding of the culture we are working with.

 

Concerning the sentence“我不能送你了”, both versions are the same: “I’m sorry I can’t see you off”, they both added “I’m sorry” to cater to English readers and achieve successful inter-cultural communications.

 

“贾母王夫人等因素喜李纨贤惠,且年轻守节,令人敬服,今见他寡婶来了,便不肯叫他外头去住.那婶母虽十分不肯,无奈贾母执意不从,只得带着李纹李绮在稻香村住下了.”(第四十九回p607)

 

“Because the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang appreciated Li Wan’s good qualities and her admirable conduct since her husband’s untimely death. They would not hear of her widowed aunt staying anywhere but in their house. So although most reluctant to impose on them, on the old lady’s insistence Li Wan’s aunt had to move into Paddy-Sweet Cottage with her two daughters. ” (Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅱ, p128)

 

“Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang esteemed Li Wan as a good and virtuous young woman who, having lost her husband at an early age bore widowhood with fortitude and restraint. Now that this widowed aunt had arrived, they refused to hear of her taking lodgings outside, and thought the good lady made many polite efforts to decline, insisted that her and her two daughters, Li Wen and Li Qi, should move into

 

Sweet-rice Village and stay there with Li Wan at the family expense. ”(Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅱ, p473)

 

Following the original text, Prof. Yang used literal translation and reveals the politeness and indirectness of Chinese discourse habit.

 

Another kind of Chinese national psychology is also reflected—avoiding talking about money—which is a custom dated from old time.

 

Concurrently, Prof. Hawkes added “stay there with Li Wan at the family expense” from cultural view. In westerners’ conception of value, money is a powerful thing and a measure of success, for example, they will make out bills clearly even between full brothers. Based on this cultural difference, background information should be provided to English readers to explain why Grandmother Jia insisted in Li Wan’s aunt’s moving into Sweet-rice Village and “stay there with Li Wan at the family expense”.Translation is not simply a matter of seeking other words with similar meaning but of finding appropriate ways of saying things in another language. Different languages, then, may use different linguistic forms. Translation is also the social and psychological activities. One should be familiar with one's own culture and be aware of the source-language culture before attempting to build any bridge between them. As translators, we are faced with an alien culture that requires that its message be conveyed in anything but an alien way. That culture expresses its idiosyncrasies in a way that is 'culture-bound': cultural words, proverbs and of course idiomatic expressions, whose origin and use are intrinsically and uniquely bound to the culture concerned. So we are called upon to do a cross-cultural translation whose success will depend on our understanding of the culture we are working with.#p#分页标题#e#

 

Another example is that Hawkes thinks the translation of the title of “红楼梦” which is translated into “A Dream of Red Mansions” has somewhat misleading because the images in the original title has gone. In Chinese, the word “红楼” specifically refers to the dwellings of rich men’s daughters. It is a sign of opulence and grandeur. But to the western readers, a dream of the red mansions means an images that a sleeper in a crimson-colored room, which is full of charm and mystery.

 

4.3 Tradition, Customs and Life Style

 

Customs is defined in English as "Established and habitual practice,esp.of a religious or social kind, that is typical of a particular group of people."The customs system in a society covers many aspects of people's daily life:architecture, diet, wearing, etiquette and so on. But the specific customs system here is much narrower

 

and mainly covers feudal rites in big families, Chinese kinship and humble appellations. To be exact, the focus of this part isn't on giving a complete custom system,instead on giving some representative aspect of the feudal customs system of ancient China.

 

“两边靠门一小桌:李纨和凤姐,虚设座位,两人皆不敢坐,只在贾母王夫人两桌上伺候.” (第三十八回p461-462)

 

“…and the small one near the door on the west for Li Wan and His-feng The seat sat this were unoccupied, however, as they were waiting on the tables of the Lady Dowager and Lady Wang. ”(Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅰ, p461)

 

“A little table was laid for Xi-feng and Li wan on the west side, of the doorway, but this was only for form’s sake, since both of them remained on their feet in order to wait on the other two tables.” (Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅱ, p243)

 

Though both translation versions are faithful, here Prof. Hawkes’s translation sounds more interesting and expressive. In Hawkes’s translation, the cultural words “虚设座位”was rendered into “this was only for form’s sake”, which gives us an impression of Hawkes’s remarkable mastery of Chinese. In A Dream of Red Mansions, when Jia family gave a dinner party, it is true that they did according to Chinese old customs. Based on The Customs of A Dream of Red Mansions (《红楼梦风俗谭》), the most respectable one will sit at the head of the table, with two people sitting on each side, and at the other end of the table no seat will be set, for the sake of serving food.

 

“既要学做诗,你就拜我为师.”(第四十八回p597)

 

“If you want to write poetry you must acknowledge me as your tutor.” (Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅱ, p115)

 

“You can make your kowtow and become my pupil if you like.”(Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅱ, p456)

 

As an old custom in China, “拜师”means making actual kowtow to one’s teacher. Through translating Hawkes reveals this historical background to the target readers，while Prof. Yang’s version gives us a flavor of modern sense which seems not quite go hand in hand with the original.

 

“你不用怕她，等我性子上来，把这醋罐子打个稀烂，她才认得我呢。”(第二十一回)

 

“Don’t be afraid of her. One of these days when I really lose my temper, I’m going to give that vinegary bitch a good beating to show her who’s master here.”(Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅰ, p215)

 

“One of these days when I get my temper up, I’m going to lay into that jealous bitch and break every bone in her body. Then perhaps she’ll know who’s master round here.”(Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅱ, p145)

 

As a thing existed in both eastern and western, vinegary refers to someone who is narrow-minded and jealous in Chinese culture, but is used to describe somebody who is sharp-tempered in the western world. Probably because of this, Prof. Yang and Prof. Hawkes rendered this sentence in different ways.

 

In A Dream of Red Mansions, Xi-feng is famous for her cruelness. She would not let her husband have any connect with any women except herself, so “醋罐子” refers to her. Here Prof. Hawkes leaves out the meaning of “醋” but directly shows the internal meaning—jealous. Referring to dictionary, vinegary means unkind, bitter and sour-tempered (Oxford Advanced Learning’s English-Chinese Dictionary), and this explanation is corresponding to Xi-feng’s personality. Furthermore, it holds the image of vinegary in the meantime. Prof. Yang’s version is more faithful to the

 

original text.

 

“巧媳妇做不出没米的粥来。” (第二十四回)

 

Even the cleverest housewife can’ t cook a meal without rice. (Trans, the yangs Vol.)

 

Even the cleverest housewife can’ t make bread without flour. (Trans, Hawkes Vol.)

 

Geographical distance give rise to the difference of eating habits between two countries. Milk and bread are the main foods in English, while Chinese people take the rice as the main food. Therefor , Prof. Yang , who is born and brought up in his native land,translated the“没米的粥”into “a meal without rice” naturally. Prof. Hawkes translated it into “bread without flour” according to the English food habits. Judging from this, translators’ cultural values determine their translation strategies.

 

4.4 Religious Differences

 

Religious is an important part in human's culture and ideology. The different religious culture represents different cultural background and characteristics. Strictly speaking, religious represents a society's basic moral standard and code of conduct. As the core part of the culture, religious run through all the social life and traditional customs.

 

The center of Chinese traditional religions is Confucianism; while the counterpart in western traditional religions is Christians. These two religions represent different cultures’ concepts of rules.

 

“世人都晓神仙好。” (第一回)

 

“All men long to be immortals.” (Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅰ, p16)

 

“Men all know that salvation should be won.” (Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅰ, p63)

 

“谋事在人，成事在天。(第六回)

 

“Man proposes; heaven disposes.”(Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅰ, p90)

 

“Man proposes; God disposes.” (Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅰ, p152)

 

“神仙”and“天”are basic concepts of Chinese Taoism, so Prof. Yang literally translated them to “immortals” and “heaven”, which reserved the cultural color of words.

 

Thus it’s very faithful to the original text. In the meanwhile, Prof. Hawkes found two equivalent concepts in Christian: “salvation” and “God”, which are more readable and understandable for English readers. Here, concepts in target language which are similar to that in source language could be found, but could lead to the loss of the religious color of the original.

 

“刘姥姥道：‘阿弥陀佛!这全仗了嫂子方便了。’”(第六回)

 

“Buddha be praised! I’m most grateful for your help, sister.” (Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅰ, p93)

 

“Bless you, my dear, for being such a help.”(Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅰ, p156)

 

Different religious colors are revealed in the two interpretations. Prof. Yang’s version is very formal with the color of Buddhism, while the other version is not so formal with the color of Christians. From the point of linguistics, we can find that Prof. Hawkes’s translation is easier for English readers to accept.

 

4.5 Cultural Differences

 

Culture is a large category, which includes human's value system, folk customs, philosophy, history and so forth. Among them, the values are rooted in human behavior in the field of thought moral standards, which includes beliefs, moral values, social views, philosophy and standard of behavior.Each society has its own unique value system and reflected in languages, which bring difficulties to translation. Literature derive from and reflect on culture, and at the same time, it can reflect people's values. In the course of translation, the translator also faces the conflict of different cultural values, and need to reflect his own values in his translation.r

 

“莫向东风怨别离。” (第二十二回)

 

“Blame not the east wind for this separation.”(Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅰ, p324)

 

“And on the wind I drift off broken hearted.”(Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅱ, p448)

 

“怅望西风抱闷思” (第三十八回)#p#分页标题#e#

 

“I gaze around in the west wind, sick at heart.”(Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅰ, p559)

 

“The autumn wind that through the knotgrass blows.”(Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅱ, p250)

 

“对立东风里，主人应解怜。” (第十八回)

 

“Facing each other in the soft east wind”(Trans, the yangs Vol. Ⅰ, p261)

 

“Their mistress, standing in the soft summer breeze”(Trans, Hawkes Vol. Ⅰ, p370)

 

“东风” and “西风” are words with Chinese culture flavor. Under Prof. Yang’s translation, “东风” is literally rendered into “east wind” and “西风 ”into” west wind”, but are freely translated into “summer breeze” and “autumn wind” by Prof. Hawkes. What’s the reason of these differences?

 

Different ways of looking at the original text and different methods of

 

translation are indicated. Prof. Yang’s translation primarily focuses upon the semantic content of the source text; meanwhile the comprehension and response of receptors are focused on Prof. Hawkes’s version.

 

Owing to the differences of geographical positions, some words refer to different conceptual meanings. To a Chinese, “东风” refers to warm and wettish wind blowing from the Pacific Ocean in spring and summer, and often connects with spring in poems to create poetic images. Take the lines from “The Romance of Western Brower” written by Wang shifu(王实甫) for example, “可正是，人值残春蒲郡东，门掩重关萧寺中;花落水流红，闲愁万种，无语笑东风。” Other examples :“东风发梅柳，万物生春光” (唐德宗) and “二月二日江上行，东风日暖闻吹笙”(李商隐). Through these examples we can see that east wind equals to spring wind in Chinese culture. Moreover, “西风” is always associated with late autumn, as an example:“碧云天，黄叶地，西风紧，北雁南飞，晓来谁染霜林醉，总是离人泪。”(西厢记)。

 

On the other hand, to English reader, “west wind” is warm and wettish wind blowing from the Atlantic Ocean which signs the spring’s coming. Such as the famous quotation from Ode to the West Wind: “If Winter comes, can spring be far behind?”(Percy Bysshe Shelly). In the similar way, “east wind” is associated with summer to an English reader.

 

From the information given above, it could be acknowledged that the meanings of “东风” and “西风” are just the oppositions in Chinese and Western cultures, as a result, referred to Prof. Yang’s translation, if “东风” is simply translated into “east wind”, “西风” into “west wind”, a big misunderstanding will occur to English readers.

 

At the end, I would like to discuss the translation of hong. Yang has translated the place where pao-yu lives as Happy Red Court while in David Hawkes’ version, it

 

is translated as Court of Green Delight. Hong is respectively translated as “red” and “green”. It is worth pointing out that the color red is culture-loaded information in this classic. In Chinese culture, red is regarded as asymbol-sometimes of spring, sometimes of youth, sometimes of good fortune of prosperity,which appeared again and again throughout the novel. Yang is fully aware of this cultural peculiarity of red in histranslation.

 

In this occasion, the version of Prof. Hawkes is more faithful to the original text, and more readable to English readers; the process of inter-cultural communicating and bridging up culture difference is also successful.

 

Chapter 5 Conclusion

 

In the above paragraphs, we can conclude that Prof. Hawkes and Prof. Yang are deserved to be called the great masters of translation.This paper compared the two English versions of A Dream of Red Mansions through analyzing materials on the following five aspects: thought patterns, values, tradition, customs, life style, religious differences and culture differences. Just as Nida says, “The meaning of verbal symbols on any and every level depends on the culture of language community”, language is an indispensable part of culture; interactional and interdependent are the relationship between language and culture. As a complex communicational activity involved two languages and two cultures, the influence of cultural differences to translation is unavoidable, and we can see the great function of cultural differences through former analysis. To conclude, cultural differences should be paid special attention in translating practice, and the translator should be the master of both source language and target language.

 

On the other hand, the aim of translator also affects interpreting. On the whole,Prof. Hawkes has based his translation on the communicative approach and his aim is to let English readers understand more easily; however Prof. Yang’s version is on the basis of sematic approach and his motivation is to deliver. However there is no one communicative nor semantic method of translating a text-these are in fact widely overlapping bands of methods. The same is true with the English Version of The Dream of Red Mansions attempts to transfer the precise flavor and tone of the original classic to the readers hoping that they can have a taste of and appreciate the Chinese cultural peculiarity. David Hawkes lays his emphasis on a readable and understandable text and tries to lessen the sense of foreignness and cultural distance.

 

Chinese traditional culture to the world outside. In this situation, English readers are tending to read Prof. Hawkes’ work. In translating practices, culture differences should always be taken into account, and many translating theories, such as literally translation and free translation, could be used to achieve the success of intercultural communication. While in Prof. Yang’s version cultural information is successfully conveyed, but as for the fully understanding and acceptance of the target readers, there is still much to be desired. However , both of the two versions are of great success in the English translation of the Chinese literature.

 

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