An Ethical Approach To The English Translation Of Hong Lou Meng By Henry Bencraft Joly

After the “cultural turn” in translation studies,the concept of “faithfulness” in traditional translation studies has been deconstructed.In 1894,Antoine Berman first proposed the concept of “translation ethics.” Since then,numerous researches and discussions on “translation ethics” have been carried out in-depth.Among them,Andrew Chesterman,a Finnish scholar,has formed a systematic and feasible model of translation ethics.As one of the famous classical works in China,HONG LOU MENG has been praised for a long time.Its great content and significant research value are self-evident.During the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty,Henry Bencraft Joly,British Vice-Consul in Macao,translated and published the first 56 chapters of HONG LOU MENG(hereinafter shorted as Joly’s version),which is the first English version with the nature of complete translation.It not only surpasses the previous fragmented English translation of HONG LOU MENG but also provides good enlightenment and direction for the later full-translation.Joly’s version has played an irreplaceable key role in the history of the English translation of HONG LOU MENG,which is of great significance to the relevant study.However,since the birth of Joly’s version,its translation has been regarded as “following the original at every step,” which is seen to be good at literal translation.“Foreignization” and “faithfulness” have always been used to describe Joly’s translation of HONG LOU MENG.After careful comparison of Chinese and English texts,it is found that there are still many differences between Joly’s version and the source text,which reflect the different translation ethics of translators under diverse characteristics of the translated text.Based on the Norm-based Ethics,Ethics of Representation and Ethics of Communication in Andrew Chesterman’s translation ethics model,this thesis intends to divide Joly’s translation into three levels: language,style,and culture.Through the comparison with the translation of Yang Xianyi & Gladys Yang(hereinafter shorted as the Yang’s version)and David Hawkes(hereinafter shorted as the Hawkes’ version),the thesis tries to systematically analyze the translation ethics embodied in Joly’s translation by adopting the method of combining quantitative research and qualitative research.Finally,holding a better interpretation of the corresponding translation ethics,this thesis can enhance the comprehension of Joly’s translation characteristics so as to promote the progress of further relevant studies.The study shows that at the linguistic level,Joly follows the Norm-based Ethics and tries to conform to the reading habits of the target readers;at the stylistic level,translation basically represents the form and style of the original text;at the cultural level,most of the translations retain the cultural images and customs of the original text,with annotations to meet Ethics of Communication.In a word,the overall translation tends to be faithful but not completely “following the original at every step”,which reflects distinct translation characteristics under different translation ethics.