On Poetry Translation In Hong Lou Meng From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

Hong Lou Meng is a masterpiece of classical Chinese literature. Poetry, as an integral part of the whole novel, is not only intertwined with the development of the theme, but also reflects the characters' personalities, and indicates their destinies. Poetry translation, as the most difficult form of translation, deserves further study.Skopostheorie, the most important part of the German functionalist theory, is a burgeoning theory in which equivalence, a conventional yardstick of a translation, is replaced by adequacy. Translation is a purposeful action. The Skopos rule determines the translation strategies employed in a specific translation in order to produce a functionally adequate target text and fully carry out the purpose of translation.The present dissertation applies Skopostheorie to poetry translation in Hong Lou Meng, adopting two renowned English versions respectively translated by Yang Xianyi and David Hawkes for case study. Different agent roles, text types play an important part in forming different translation briefs and Skopoi.In Yang's version, both the initiator and the commissioner are Foreign Languages Press where Yang and Gladys Yang worked. This press has conceived that Chinese literature should be translated into English versions systematically, which is in accord with Yang's ideas—getting foreigners acquainted with our abundant cultural heritage. But the heavy political atmosphere in 1960s restricted his translation. Differently, the initiator and the commissioner of Hawkes' version are David Hawkes himself and Penguin Books. The publishing house aims at recommending a marvelous novel about Chinese social customs to western readers. Hawkes translated it out of the deep love for this masterpiece and the earnest wish to share with western readers his reading pleasure. Besides, Hawkes signed a contract with Penguin Books so that he could enjoy more freedom in choosing the works. The aforementioned factors promote the formation of translation briefs and Skopoi, and influence the choice of translation strategies greatly.The orientation of the target-text receiver is also crucial. Strictly speaking, addressee and receiver are two concepts. The addressee is the prospective receiver seen from the text producer's standpoint while the receiver is the person, group or institution that actually reads or listens to the text after it has been produced. The addressees of Yang's version are some foreigners or experts who are interested in Chinese culture and have a certain knowledge about it. The addressees of Hawkes' version are common English-speaking readers who may not know much about China and read mainly for entertainment. Actually, the receivers of the two versions are not only western readers, but also Chinese enthusiasts for English, especially translation researchers.Reiss's text typology helps the translator specify the appropriate hierarchy of equivalence levels needed for a particular translation Skopos, and sharpens the translator's awareness of linguistic markers of communicative function and functional translation units. Generally speaking, poetry translation belongs to the expressive texts typically. The translator should focus on the source text and try to produce an analogous stylistic effect. However, because of the peculiarity of poetry in Hong Lou Meng, it does not only belong to the expressive text, but also the informative and operative texts. The translator should deal with it flexibly according to the concrete situation.In view of this, Yang and Hawkes form their own translation briefs and Skopoi, guided by which they employ different translation strategies respectively. We can see through it that Yang, regarding preserving and introducing Chinese cultural heritage as his purpose, adopts foreignization, while Hawkes, with the purpose of pleasing target readers, adopts domestication.This dissertation is divided into six chapters. The first chapter gives an introduction to the necessity of the study, lists literature review, and presents hypothesis and structure of the dissertation. The second chapter discusses some central issues about poetry translation, such as (im)possibility of the task, the nature of it and addressee awareness. The third chapter goes to the two specific translation strategies, foreignization and domestication, to see their connection with literal translation and free translation. The fourth chapter makes a study on the functionalist theory and the focus is on the Skopostheorie. The fifth chapter probes into the two English versions from the perspective of Skopostheorie and draws further support from the aesthetics of reception. Then follows the sixth chapter, a conclusion.