The Translation Of The Cultural Content Of The Chinese Idioms In Honglou Meng

This paper explores the issue on the translation approaches of Chinese idioms through the comparison of the two English versions of Honglou Meng in the broad context of Cultural Studies. The idioms in the paper deal with common sayings, proverbs and two-part allegorical sayings, except for set phrases. For there is no ideal translation,some tentative suggestions are proposed and some comments are made to certain versions. The assessment and revision of translation are based on the close relationship between the features of idioms and the communicative process which engenders them. In view of the characteristics of cultural communication translation bears, the author suggests that translation, as the important means in China's international cultural exchange, should focus on semantic translation in order to preserve the cultural identity in C--E translation. The various factors such as translatability, culture, cognition, context and text should be taken into account in the process of translation. The pragmatic meaning should be much more prized than literal meaning. But the literal meaning should be maximally transferred with the precondition of the Successful transference of pragmatic meaning. Because too many idioms are culturally specific, it is impossible for us to define any unique approach in the translating process. While an analytic attitude should be adopted in order to make our translation successful.