Metaphor Translation In Hong Lou Meng

The purpose of this thesis is to propose a more ST-oriented translation strategy in metaphor translation. This proposition is based on the combination of Catford's definition for literal translation, Nida's definition for formal equivalence, and Newmark's definition for semantic translation. This proposition also benefits from Feng Qinghua's research on the translation of figures of speech, Li Guonan's contrastive studies on figures of speech, and Zheng Shengtao's translation approaches on idioms and other figurative expressions. This thesis begins with an introduction to the concept of metaphor as a figure of speech and the problems existing in metaphor translation. Then it tries to search for the solutions by making a brief survey of some representative Western and Chinese translation theories and the treatments for metaphor translation in the framework of them. After that, an ST-oriented translation strategy for metaphor translation is proposed, which involves two procedures: 1) literal translation should always be the first approach in metaphor translation as long as the TL readers can accept to a certain degree; 2) when literal translation fails to transfer the original message of the SL text, a variety of compensation devices should be tried to avoid misunderstanding and help transferring the original message. Finally, a comparative study on metaphor translation is conducted between the two English versions of Hong Lou Meng, which serves as a support for the validity of the strategy proposed.