Image Reconstruction In Translations Of Lin Daiyu's Poetry In Two English Versions Of Hong Lou Meng

Lin Daiyu is one of the most important protagonists in Hong Lou Meng. Her poetry, bearing the distinct characteristics of the character, is the part and parcel of the novel together with other poems in it. There are a great number of images in her poetry, which signify her features. The reproduction of these images in the English versions is crucial to the translation of Lin Daiyu's poetry.It has been widely accepted that imagery is the soul of poetry. Therefore, the reproduction of it is the crux of the poetry translation. The image-G actualization theory, which proposed by Professor Jiang Qiuxia, suggests that image-G is the holistic concept of imagery in a literary work. Image-G exists ubiquitously in literary works. Successful literary translation is to recreate image-G in the translated text. There are numerous images in Chinese classical poems, and due to the paratactic characteristics of Chinese, the combination of images in poetry is highly flexible. Through the combination of imagery, the holistic entity which can express the poet's feelings and intention is built up. Successful image reproduction, especially successful image-G actualization is indispensable for successful poetry translation. Based on the theories of poetics and the Image-G Actualization theory, the present study conducts a comparative research into the translating strategies of the reproduction of individual images employed by Yang Xianyi et al. and David Hawkes respectively in the two English versions and their reproduction of image-G both from the micro- and macro- levels.According to classical poetry theories, imagery in Chinese classical poetry can be categorized in light of different criteria. The author first categorizes the specific images in Lin Daiyu's poems into five groups (descriptive images, rhetorical images, symbolic images, synaesthetic images and abstract images) based on the poet's intent. On this basis, the author conducts a comparative study on the translating strategies applied by Yang Xianyi et al. and Hawkes in translating these different kinds of images in their translated versions. Through the analysis of the reproduction of individual images, the author finds that individual images are reproduced in the two English versions via different strategies and the translators adopt literal translation more frequently than other strategies, such as free translation, substitution etc.. The Yangs employ literal translation more frequently for the purpose of maintaining the source language culture. David Hawkes also adopts literal translations more frequently, but for those images which are different from those in the target language culture or may cause difficulties in understanding to target readers, he employs strategies of free translation and substitution. They adopt different strategies in transferring images on account of different foci.On the basis of the comparison of different translating strategies of individual images, the author analyzes the actualization of the holistic image—image-G of Lin Daiyu's poetry in two English versions resting on the Image-G Actualization theory. For the reproduction of image-G, Yang Xianyi et al. actualize image-G more intactly than Hawkes does. Moreover, they represent the gestalt qualities of the original version in his rendering and provide more room for the target readers to experience the aesthetic effects of the original poems.By the comparison of the two translated versions, it is proved that in literary translation, particularly in poetry translation, the actualization of image-G is more important than that of the specific linguistic elements. The subtleness of poetry lies on the imagery, especially the holistic imagery. In poetry translation, based on imagery, the individual images should be kept consistent and harmonious with the context. The whole is built on the parts while the parts are actualized within the whole. The harmonious arrangement of the parts influences the expressive force of the whole. What is the most important is that image-G determines the integration of the individual images. The translator should give priority to the whole.