A Comparative Research On The Translation Of Metaphor And Simile With Reference To Honglou Meng

Simile/Metaphor has a quite frequency of use in both Chinese and English language, especially in literature works. They are the most common figures of speech in literary writing. Honglou Meng is the"Grand-view Garden"of Chinese language full of artistic style; the use of metaphor truly adds effect to it. Accordingly, the successful reproduction of original simile/metaphor in translated versions is crucial to the improvement of translation quality. Simile/Metaphor is considered as a means of figurative speech in rhetoric. In modern metaphorical theory, metaphor, as one of figurative languages, is regarded not only as a rhetorical means, but also a way of thinking and a way for cognitive research. An in-depth understanding on metaphor is well witnessed in literature translation.From the perspective of vehicle, the thesis thoroughly examined the approaches adopted in the translation of simile/metaphor in Honglou Meng. Taking A Dream of Red Mansions by Xianyi Yang and Gladys Yang, and The Story of the Stone by David Hawkes as the research objects, the author systematically analyzes and concludes the simile/metaphor translation in Honglou Meng. It is of great significance to pick up examples in two versions and make a study on the translation methods of simile/metaphor, and of great value to the study of translation strategy and practice.The thesis makes a comparative study on the simile/metaphor translation in Chinese classical novel Honglou Meng. The study is within the rhetorical category, mainly talks about the translation of simile and metaphor. From the perspective of"vehicle", based on the theory of equivalence, skopos theory, the author classifies three types of metaphor examples in Honglou Meng and analyzes their translation methods in Yang's version and Hawkes's version, then the author holds a discussion about the translatability and untranslatability of metaphor in those examples.Through the comparison of Xang's and Hawkes's version, the author is convinced that the two translators adopt different translation methods though sometimes there exist the same translation methods. When a metaphor in ST has a correspondence in target language, two translators adopts literal translation method (sometimes plus expletory parts) to reproduce the original image in SL to TT, and the equivalence in TT is also achieved. When a metaphor in ST has no correspondence, but the original image can be retained through another established TL metaphor, two translators adopt free translation to replace vehicle with a new one in TT. In this case, the dynamic equivalence is achieved. When a metaphor in ST is totally empty in TT, two translators adopts respective means in translations. Normally, Yang Xianyi adopts vehicle omission in SL by freely translating its connotative meaning to TT. Hawkes, however, mostly translates the original metaphor into a metaphor in TL by literal translation, literal translation with amplification, or vehicle replacement, etc. Their different translation method in this case is due to their different purpose of translation. Yang Xianyi translates HongLou Meng in order to transmit unique Chinese culture to the western world while Hawkes's translation purpose is to bring the greatest reading pleasure to western readers. Thus, Yang Xianyi introduces Chinese culture to the Western world by conveying the metaphorical meaning to TT, while giving up the original image of vehicle which is vacant in TT, whereas Hawkes translates everything in ST to TT by applying all kinds of translations methods (together with expletory expressions) to make his version more popular and easy to understand for Western readers.