| As one of the four greatest classical novels in China, Hong Lou Meng has obtained achievements that no other novels have ever reached. It covers the Chinese traditional culture, conventions and customs, poems and verses, medicine and food, art and clothes, etc., especially the poems, which not only reflect the ideas and values, spiritual pursuits, personality and temperament, and cultivated manners of the poets, but also imply the development of the plot, the fate and outcomes of the characters. The styles of verses are various, with concise and condensed language. Some of the poems may have implied meanings to satirize the authorities, and most of them are targeting at expressing the personal feelings and emotions, ambitions, reminiscent mood, etc. All in all, the poems have become an indispensable part in Hong Lou Meng. However, poems in Hong Lou Meng are the most difficult part in translation. It is always hard to translate the poems with such concise and condensed language.Translation requires profound understanding of the source text and the ability of recreation. However, it does share some commons with principles of hermeneutics——the theory of interpretation and understanding. According to Gadamer, one of the chief representatives of modern philosophical hermeneutics, the interpreter, as a historical being, may understand the source text in the light of his own experiences and knowledge, or prejudices, restricted by his historical, cultural, social, and personal factors. Therefore, the thesis applies the main ideas like historicality understanding, fusion of horizon, and effective history in Gadamer's Truth and Method to the analysis of poems translation in the three compete translated English versions.The thesis can be divided into five chapters:The first chapter is a brief introduction to the motivation, significance of the thesis and literature review of poems translation in Hong Lou Meng. The second chapter is the theoretical elaboration and an analysis of the causes of different translations, mistranslations, cultural filtration and the necessity of re-translation under the guidance of principles of hermeneutics. The third chapter is a brief description of the three English versions, and also the features and difficulties in poems translation. The fourth chapter is the main focus of the thesis, in which main ideas of Gadamer will be applied to a detailed analysis and comparative study of the poems translation in three English versions, covering the form, words choosing, images, theme of poems, etc. The fifth part is a conclusion as well as further implications of the whole thesis. To fuse the horizon of the original text better, interpreters do not only need to be skilled in both languages, but also have to be proficient in historical and cultural elements carried under both languages. The author argues that only the interpreter keeps his fusion closely to the horizons of the author, text and even the readers, can the better interpretations be achieved. However, Due to historicality of each individual and text, the misunderstanding is always unavoidable. From this sense, the historical limitations seem more obvious in BSB's version. H&M's version has done well in fusing the horizons of the target language and readers, while Y&Y's version has fused the horizon of the original text better. The three versions have also reflected that with effect of history new understanding and interpretation would always come into being. Although the different translation skills have been used, Gadamer's hermeneutic principles can still give us a new and efficacious way to interpret the different versions. With such an analysis, it is hoped that a better understanding of the three versions can be achieved. It is also hoped that this paper can shed some light on translation theoretical studies. |
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