A Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Hong Lou Meng From The Perspective Of Translation Ethics

Hong Lou Meng is generally considered as the greatest masterpiece of traditional Chinese literature and a cherished classic of world literature. Not only endowed with tremendous thought-provoking values, this novel has also attained superb artistic achievements and is regarded as an"Encyclopedia"of Chinese feudal society. It covers nearly all the cultural aspects of Chinese society, including social order, political system, cultural values, social convention, religion, philosophy, gender norms, family life, clothing and house wares, architecture and landscaping, calligraphy, painting, poetry, allusion, medicine. The novel is a reflection of Chinese aesthetics and worldview, the culmination of China's rich literal tradition. It sheds light on virtually every aspects of both elite and popular culture. It is a great wonder in Chinese literal history. Hong Lou Meng has been translated into various versions since it was finished writing by Cao Xueqin and Gao E. up to now, there are nine versions in the English language. Among the nine versions, the two best-known are A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Xianyi and his wife Gladys Yang, the renowned translators in contemporary China, and The Story of the Stone by the British sinologist David Hawks and his son-in-law John Minford.Ethics is the study on the conventions of interpersonal relationship in a certain society and their corresponding moral principles. Thus, being a kind of communicative activity, translation in some sense can be regarded as an ethical activity and it needs ethics as its guidance. It is generally believed that the study of translation ethics in the circle of translation theory began in the 1980s, marked by the proposal of the concept of translation ethics by French translation theorist Antoine Berman. Afterwards, Lawrence Venuti, Anthony Pym and Andrew Chesterman also brought forth their own thoughts on translation ethics, among which Chesterman's idea can be regarded as the representative. Chesterman clarifies his idea by elucidating four current models of translation ethics, namely, ethics of representation——to represent the source text, or the source author's intention, accurately, ethics of service——to fulfill the aim of the translation as set by the client and accepted or negotiated by the translator; ethics of communication——to recognize the Other as a'subject', with whom one can indeed communicate, and norm-based ethics——to behave as one is expected in accordance with the norms . In addition, Chesterman adds another ethical model: ethics of commitment——to support the striving for excellence, the wanting to be a good translator. His concept crystallizes the existing ideas about translation ethics, thus providing us with a multi-dimensional perspective for studying diverse translation thoughts and practice.Based on the new and comprehensive theory——Chesterman's five models of translation ethics, this thesis makes a comparative study of two English versions of Hong Lou Meng. The author thinks that the two English versions of Hong Lou Meng employ different models of translation ethics: the Yang's version employs representation ethics and ethics of communication; while in Hawkes'version, he follows norm-based ethics in most cases. Then this thesis explores the presentation of the above mentioned translation ethics from four aspects: translation of allusions, idioms, religious terms and color terms.In addition to introduction and conclusion, the thesis mainly consists of three chapters:Chapter 1 gives a brief survey on translation ethics,including the definition of translation ethics,current studies about this issue,with special focus on Chesterman's elaboration of five models of translation ethics.Chapter 2 makes a comparative study of two English versions of Hong Lou Meng. The author thinks that the two English versions of Hong Lou Meng employ different models of translation ethics: the Yang's version employs representation ethics and ethics of communication; in Hawkes'version, he follows norm-based ethics in most cases. Then this thesis explores the presentation of the above mentioned translation ethics from four aspects: translation of allusions, idioms, religious terms and color terms. This chapter also analyzes the reasons why the Yangs and Hawkes employ different models of translation ethics: they have different purposes of translation; different expectations of readership and different translation strategies.Chapter 3 copes with the conflict between ethics of representation and norm-based ethics. Normally, translators are supposed to confirm to ethics from all sites, which means they strive to faithfully represent source texts, preserve foreign cultural elements in it, satisfy the tastes of TT readers, and in general meet the society's expectation on translation. But, sometimes they go into conflict when it seems that to fulfill ethics of one site has to sacrifice some others. Contradictions exist universally. However, if we analyze further, those contradictions are not all negative, translators can harmonize them through their effort.