A Comparison On Realization Of Raiment Translation Between Two English Versions Of Hong Lou Meng (《红楼梦》)

One of the most striking features in contemporary translation theories is the orientation towards cultural transfer rather than linguistic transfer. Generally speaking, there are two principal strategies to deal with culture involved in translation, namely, TL (target language) culture-oriented domestication and SL (source language) culture-oriented foreignization. Domestication means bringing the foreign culture closer to the reader in the target culture, making the target text recognizable and familiar to the readers. Foreignization, on the other hand, means taking the reader over to the source text and in turn to the foreign culture, making him or her see the differences. Because of the differences between the SL culture and the TL culture, a translator is bound to face a choice. So it is inevitable to have the inclination of domestication or foreignization for a translation. It is safe to say that the two translation strategies have always dominated the central place of translation studies.Hong Lou Meng is one of the four classic masterpieces of Chinese Literature as well as gems of world culture treasure house, in which there exists abundant culture. It fully deserves the title of"An encyclopedia of Chinese culture".Therefore, the thesis takes the raiment in Hong Lou Meng as study object and chooses two authoritative English versions: A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Xianyi and The Story of the Stone translated by David Hawkes as comparative objects.Approaches to cultures involved in translation are varied. The thesis takes the group of most typical and influential approaches as theoretical foundation and makes the study on these two versions of Hong Lou Meng. In traditional translation critique, critics are always in favor of one approach and against another. The analysis gets the conclusion that in order to achieve the goal of cultural communication between China and western countries simultaneously,foreignization should always be the first translation strategy in literary translation while domestication should be supplementary.This is only a tentative study and many problems need further research.