A Study Of The English Translations Of Puns On Names Of Proper Nouns In Hong Lou Meng

Hong Lou Meng is generally acclaimed to be the pinnacle of the Four Great ClassicNovels. Due to its writer’s artistic attainments and the social atmosphere at that time, inthe novel, Cao frequently adopted a variety of rhetoric devices, among which the use ofpun is natural and brilliant. Pun, functioning as a double-edged remark and a multi-birdskilling stone, plays a crucial role in promoting the development of the plot, charactermolding and fortune predication. However, it is a challenge to faithfully and accuratelytranslate pun into English. This paper, with the help of Delabastita’s pun translation theory,compares and analyzes the differences and similarities in the translation of puns on namesof character, place and object in the six English versions of HLM, in an attempt to explorethe six translators’ translation styles and the underlying reasons for the differences amongthe translation styles. This paper aims to enrich the research on the English translation ofpuns in literature works.A comprehensive investigation of the research status of pun and translation of puns inHLM shows that few studies home and abroad have been conducted for the translation ofpuns in literature works and even fewer for the English translation of puns in HLM.Among the sparse existing studies, most of them investigate from the perspective offunctional equivalence or Skopos theory but whether the translated text’s function andpurpose is reached is unable to measure. Based on the descriptive translationtheory—“Delabastita’s pun translation theory”, this paper objectively and scientificallyconcludes the translators’ translation styles and explains the reasons for the difference intheir translation styles from the aspects of translator’s ideology, readers’ expectation andpublishing house’s demands. The author of this paper hopes to make some contributions tothe translation studies and practices.To be specific, this paper starting from the definition of pun, through analysis ofS.T., the puns on names of character, place and object are extracted as many as possibleunder the guidance of related reference books. Then, from a micro linguistic point of view, the six translators’ translation strategies, styles and losses and gains are analyzed with thehelp of Delabastita’s pun translation theory. Next, from a macro social cultural perspective,translator’s personal ideology, readers’ expectation and publishing house’s demands areexploited to explore the underlying reasons behind the translator’s translation strategies.Finally, the paper reaches the conclusion: on the basis of adequacy and fidelity, Hawkesvalues stylistic and aesthetic equivalence more than the other five translators and hisversion is more literary; Yang’s and Wang’s versions favor the adequacy of target text,sparing no efforts to popularize Chinses culture in the Western world; Bonsall’s, Joly’s andMcHugh’s versions heavily lean on transliteration and failed to represent the punningmeanings and styles of the source text. Besides the personal factors of translators,linguistic, social cultural factors also restrict the specific translation techniques thetranslators adopt and the translation styles of the translators. In the actual translationpractice and evaluation activities, both linguistic and social cultural factors should beconsidered.All in all, this paper, based on Delabastia’s pun translation theory, explores thedifferent translations of pun on the proper names in HLM, in an attempt to enrich theRedology studies and provide some reference for the English translations of puns inliterature works.