Translation Equivalence In Two English Versions Of Poems In Hong Lou Meng

This thesis focuses on the comparison and analysis of the translation equivalence achieved in David Hawkes' and the Yangs' translations of the poems in Hong Lou Meng. It consists of four chapters besides the introduction and the conclusion.In the introduction, the theoretical framework and the necessity of the research are explained, and a brief review of relevant literature and the framework of this thesis are provided.Chapter one of this thesis gives a brief account of the theories of translation equivalence, and proposes that when discussing translation equivalence, the type of the text and the purpose of translation should be taken into consideration. In the light of the characteristics of poetry and the purpose of poetry translation, translations of poems should produce an aesthetic effect which is equivalent to that of the original and let the readers of them get the same pleasure from reading as what the readers of the source text get from appreciating the original.Chapter two introduces Hong Lou Meng and the poems in it briefly. Hong Lou Meng is regarded as an "encyclopedia" of Chinese feudal society not only for the richness of its content but also for its "embodying diversiform styles", especially poems, which comprise an indispensable part of Hong Lou Meng and endow the novel with high artistic value. Translations of them should achieve an equivalent effect to that of the original so that the readers of them can appreciate the beauty of the original. Chapter three offers an exemplified analysis and comparison of David Hawkes' and the Yangs' translation strategies and methods to render the poems in Hong Lou Meng into English and the aesthetic effect their translations achieved from the aspect of "three beauties".Chapter four gives an evaluation of the two English versions of poems in Hong Lou Meng. David Hawkes was fully aware of the artistic essence of the poems, exerted himself to represent the beauty of the original in his translations and minimized the loss. The Yangs' translation is more suitable for intercultural communication for its exotic flavor.Finally, the author of this thesis comes to the conclusion that due to the cultural and linguistic gap between Chinese and English, full equivalence is impossible in translating the poems in Hong Lou Meng into English, and Hawkes' translation achieved more equivalence than the Yangs' since his translation purpose accords with the purpose of the original.