| Hong Lou Meng is the summit of classical Chinese novel, and the study of thisnovel and its related topics, such as the study of Cao Xueqin and his family, of thecomments of Zhi Yanzhai and other commenters, of its different versions etc, hasformed a special branch of knowledge called redology, of which the translation andinternational communication of Hong Lou Meng is an integral part, contributing a lotto the sustainable development of redology. The large-scale and systemic study of thetranslation of Hong Lou Meng will produce a subdiscipline called Hong Lou Mengtranslation studies, of which Hong Lou Meng translation criticism is both the initialstage and kernel part. This research investigates the English translations of Hong LouMeng from the perspective of extended rhetoric in order to promote the sounddevelopment of Hong Lou Meng translation studies and lay a firm foundation for thesystemic construction of translation rhetoric by taking full advantage ofinterdisciplinarity, namely, the mutual reference and utilization of knowledgeresources between translatology, redology and rhetoric.Chinese rhetoric mainly deals with how to write by focusing on the discussion ofsound-tuning, word-searching, sentence-forming, rhetorical-device-employing,text-arranging as well as genre and style while western rhetoric mainly relates to howto speak in public, taking persuasion as its core. Rhetoric, both home and abroad, hasexperienced a paradigm shift from narrow rhetoric to extended rhetoric. Narrowrhetoric takes language as its major concern while the major concern of extendedrhetoric is man. Extended rhetoric takes full advantage of the theoretical resources ofnearby disciplines, such as literary theory, esthetics, philosophy, narrotology andcognitive psychology etc, and places greater emphasis on the cognitive aspect ofrhetoric and the study of man. In the realm of extended rhetoric, the propositions canbe taken for granted that where there is language, there is rhetoric, and that man is arhetorized existence. In fact, the research objects of narrow rhetoric, such asrhetorical devices, style etc, are not excluded in extended rhetoric. The three-level construction of extended rhetoric proposed by Tan Xuechun and Zhu Ling, that is,rhetorical technique, referring to the construction of language fragments, rhetoricalpoetic, referring to the construction of text and rhetorical philosophy, referring toman’s spiritual construction, provides a framework for this research.The study of the English translation of rhetorical devices in Hong Lou Mengfocuses on word-searching, allusion, pun, simile and metaphor. Word-searchingusually implies some kind of rhetorical device, such as metaphor, personification,oxymoron etc. The translator should reproduce the subtlety of word-searching byactivating his or her rhetorical cognition in order to obtain a similar artistic effect tothat of the source text. Allusion is the most typical manifestation of intertextuality.Here allusions intimately related to the themes of Hong Lou Meng are chosen to beanalyzed, such as the theme of the love between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, the themeof the ups and downs of the Jia family etc. It is suggested that the translatorappropriately compensate for the loss in dealing with those allusions in order toprovide some communicative clues or context for the target reader. Since pun islargely untranslatable, it is necessary to make some compensation when the deepmeaning of the pun is not sufficiently translated. For example Yang Xianyi adds somenotes and D. Hawkes provides some explanations in his appendix for some of theuntranslatable puns. However, in many cases, the double meanings of the pun are lostin their translations. It is advised that note-adding should be necessary in translatingimportant puns if the deep meaning can not be reproduced, which is also themanifestation of cheng (sincere or honest) to the author and xin (true or faithful) tothe source text. The translation of simile or metaphor should, if possible, reproducethe image of the vehicle and, as to the similarity between the tenor and vehicle, thetranslator may both reproduce it to enhance expressiveness or conceal it to promoteimplicativeness of the target text.The study of the English translation of rhetorical poetic mainly includes therhetorical archetypes contained in the title of the novel, narrative discourse and genreand style. The title Hong Lou Meng contains three interrelated rhetorical archetypes,namely Hong, Honglou and Meng, which respectively corresponds with three themesof the novel---the elegy of female beauty, of feudal noble families, and of life itself. Comparatively speaking, Yang’s translation better reflects the rhetorical archetypes inthe title of the novel, especially his dealing with Hong. From the perspective ofreproducing rhetorical archetypes in translation, it is suggested the title of the novelbe translated into Red Mansion Dream so that the semantic relation of the source titlecan be reproduced by adopting this defamiliarized translation means of imagecombination. The translation of narrative view should reflect consistency as well asreasonableness of the narrative pronouns. In addition, the translation of character’sview should reproduce lexical markers of the character’s view and his or her mindstyle. As to the translation of the presentation of the character’s speech or thought, thetranslator should both faithfully reproduce it, especially regarding the importantspeeches or thoughts of important characters, and reasonably transform it accordingto specific context at the same time. As to the genre of poetry, Yang translatessomewhat accurately but lacks flexibility while Hawkes tries his best to strictly rhyme,and sometimes alters the meaning of the original poems to secure rhyme or rhythm.In Hawkes’ translation, there are also many cases of transforming narrative genre intopoetic genre, which increases the esthetic and artistic appeal of his translation.Hawkes’ extensive use of integrated compensation makes the overall style of histranslation take on the tendency of becoming amplified compared with the source textor Yang’s translation. Compensation in the form of note may solve this contradictionand better embodies the concept of thick translation.Rhetorical philosophy here mainly refers to the philosophical meaning ofrhetorical discourse, which reflects the speaker or the writer’s world outlook, lifeoutlook and value outlook etc. The study of the English translation of rhetoricalphilosophy mainly includes oppositional rhetoric, female rhetoric and proverbialrhetoric. When translating rhetorical philosophy, the translator should thoroughlyunderstand the meaning of it in order to accurately express it in the target language.Generally speaking, all of the translations have their own strengths and weaknesses,and thus, when making evaluation, the critic should analyze them case by case. Thisis especially true of oppositional rhetoric. Regarding oppositional rhetoric, Yang’stranslation of the opposition between you (being or existence) or and wu (non-beingor non-existence) is relatively accurate, while Hawkes’ translation of the opposition between hao (good or won) and liao (end or done) borders on perfection, especiallyhis translation of Hao-Liao Song. Female rhetoric in the novel is the most importantrhetorical manifestation of the author’s tendency of respecting yin (female) anddebasing yang (male), which has profound meaning and subversive power inpatriarchal society. Jia Baoyu’s female view is “virgin worship” instead of femaleworship (more inclusive). When translating his female rhetoric, the translator shouldpay attention to the difference between girl and woman or female, and to the lexicalconsistency and comparison with the male. The translation of proverbial rhetoricshould manifests a kind of proverbiality, such as exquisite in sound, symmetrical inform, succinct in language and profound in thought. Many of the proverbial rhetoricin narrative discourse possess a kind of “double voices”, and thus the translatorshould recognize which is the author’s voice. In addition, the translator should alsoknow something about the source and evolution of the proverbs, which will help himor her accurately translate them.Rhetorical technique and rhetorical poetic chiefly embody the artistic quality ofthe novel while rhetorical philosophy chiefly embodies its ideological quality.However, either art-oriented or idea-oriented translation criticism of Hong Lou Mengmay to a large or small degree involve the three levels of extended rhetoric. Thesource-text-based comparative translation criticism between source text and targettext is most popular, and the major part of this research also belongs to such kind oftranslation criticism. Another mode of literary translation criticism is suggested here,a mode that takes the target text as an independent text, which is instrumental ingiving credit to the translator’s “creative treasons”. There is much subjectivity inliterary translation criticism, which gives rise to argumentation. Based on S.Toulmin’s argumentation rhetoric, the author puts forward a model of argumentationrhetoric based on the interaction between two argumentation subjects. This modelincludes the shared fact, the warrants of each subject and their respective claims, andit is further exemplified by Hong Tao’s metacriticism of Hong Lou Meng translationcriticism. The author also proposes a standard of cheng xin for literary translation.Here cheng means sincere to subjects and xin means faithful to texts and cultures,with the former representing intersubjectivity and the latter intertextuality and interculurality. Cheng is the inner quality while xin is the outer expression. Cheng xinis not only the standard of translation, but also of translation criticism andargumentation rhetoric. There is inner tension in cheng xin, which enhances itsflexibility as a standard. Moreover, cheng xin embodies the Zeitgeist of internesswhich is characterized by dialogue and harmony.On the whole, this research can be categorized as Hong Lou Meng translationcriticism. There are many topics which have been far from thoroughly investigated,and still many others have been just mentioned or even not mentioned at all. So manyunploughed topics serve to provide vast room for further ploughing, which isbeneficial to the sound development of Hong Lou Meng translation studies and thesystemic construction of translation rhetoric. |
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