A Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Hong Lou Meng

In traditional translation studies, translation has been thought of in highly mechanical ways: as an impersonal process of transferring a meaning from a source text to a target text without changing it significantly, and the interference from the real world of human interaction and motivation is neglected. But this line of research is very limited in its explanatory power, which forces people to take a macroscopic perspective, that is, a cultural one. Translation indeed is a process of cultural confrontation and cultural negotiation, which implies an unstable balance between the powers that one culture can exert over another. To be exact, the whole translating process, from the selection of the foreign texts to translate to the choice of translating strategies, is manipulated by the power relations between the source culture and the target culture. The status of the source culture in the target culture, the translator's attitudes towards both the source culture and the target one and the purpose of translation all have impact on translation. The translator's attitude to the source and target cultures has either been long established or influenced by prevailing opinions. As a result, it can be asserted that translation is a process of representing the identity of the source culture and at the same time mirroring the image of the target culture. Thus the phenomenon of cultural disparity makes its appearance in translation. In fact, all cultural exchange is unbalanced and unequal. Political and economic inequality causes cultural inequality that makes strong cultures get the upper hand, while the weak cultures face the danger of being assimilated and losing their peculiarities. Cultural disparity is embedded in the whole process of translation, including the choice of foreign texts to translate and the application of translation strategy. Through the case study of translation of Hong Lou Meng, this thesis tries to specifically expound the negative influence of cultural disparity on translation. In order to make it clear, the author compares the translations in different socio-historical background as well as the two complete translations that were respectively conducted in the same era. The comparison indicates that the strong culture always dominates and domesticates the weak culture by way of translation. Last but not least,the author points out that in...