Empathy In Translation-A Comparative Study Of Poetry Translation In Two English Versions Of Hongloumeng

Hongloumeng is a masterpiece of classical novels in Chinese realism literature. It was written by Chaoxueqin, who had exerted painstaking efforts to revise it five times in ten years. After it became publicized, it immediately shook the society with its depth of thought and power of art. Since the mid-19th century, it has been translated into a number of foreign languages and thus has gained worldwide fame.The artistic value of Hongloumeng is multiple: it lies not only in the richness of contents, but also in its successful integration with almost all the techniques of literary merits. Among them the poetic style is the soul and the splendid flower of the novel, for four genres (shi, ci, qu, fu) of Chinese poetic styles, closely related with the plot development and the characterization of the novel, are delicately scattered in the novel as an indispensable organic component of it. At the same time, the poems in the novel are superexcellent expressions of the writer's feelings as well. This approach both strengthens the effectiveness of plot development and brings out the writer's language art. However, it renders the translation of the poems difficult as well. So much so that some people even think how the poems of the novel are translated is a key factor in judging the success of the translation. Moreover, as far as I know, the comparative studies of Hongloumeng's poetry translation are not comprehensive; most scholars focus their concern on the translatability. Research on how different translators release their own feelings on their translations of the poems has been inadequate; in other words, the issue whether the differences in different versions rendered by different translators are caused by their different empathy still awaits exploration. So, in this dissertation we will make a comparative study on the characteristics and rules of poetry translation in two different versions of Hongloumeng from the perspective of empathy.Up to now, there have been more than 20 translations of the full text or abridged versions of Hongloumeng, two of which are best-known: the one translated by Yang Xianyi and his wife Gladys Yang (Yang's version for short), and the one by David Hawkes and his son-in-law John Minford (Hawkes'version for short). These two versions are both important texts for foreign readers and researchers, and key materials for comparative studies in the translation field. So, in this dissertation we will naturally base our study on these two versions.The issue of empathy in translation will be approached from three perspectives: aesthetic empathy, cultural empathy and pragmatic empathy. After the comparative studies and analysis of the poems in Hongloumeng, we find that Yang and Hawkes both employ the approach of empathy in their translation of poetry. Yang mainly empathizes towards the author and the source text (ST for short); while Hawkes towards the readers and the target text (TT for short). Three possible explanations are proposed in the dissertation for such difference in translation. Firstly, theoretical explanations of empathy. Skopos theory, hermeneutics and deconstruction concept all justify theoretically the causes of the two different empathetic approaches of Yang's and Hawkes'. Secondly, features of Chinese poetic language. Vividness, succinctness and implicitness of Chinese poetic language allow for expansion and provide possibilities for the various versions of the same ST. Lastly, subjectivity of translation. From these two translators'practice, we can see that translation is not so"faithful"or"objective"as the translation theories advocate, translators can't stay"neutral","practical or realistic"in the process of translation, subjectivity is not only inevitable but even indispensable, because the language (the foundation of translation) and the translator (the subject of translation) both bear subjectivity. Such subjectivity is not always a subjective conjecture but a thinking mode of translation, it is a manifestation of the subjective initiative of the translation subject. Admitting this subjectivity doesn't mean the denial of objectivity of translation but a dialectic attitude towards translation.