A Comparative Study On Translation Of The Chapter Titles In The Two English Versions Of Hong Lou Meng In Lihgt Of The Skopos Theory

Hong Lou Meng is one of the representative works of Chineseclassical chapter novels. With unique form, exquisite language, and richrhetoric characteristic, the special chapters obviously reflect thedistinguished artistic charm of the novel. In the novel, the title of everychapter vividly and tersely summarizes the central content of each chapter.Along with the ingenious diction and sentence structure, the chapter titlein Hong Lou Meng is undoubtedly an unforgettable part to all the readers.Therefore, it is important for translators to pay full attention to translationof the book’s chapters.According to the Skopos theory, the translation purpose decides thetranslation strategy. This thesis chooses the typical examples of chaptertitles of the novel respectively from the two translation versions, and thencompares and analyzes translation strategies of the two versions from theaspects of the reproduction on personal and place names, euphemisms, allusions from literature works or historical stories, the single wordmodifiers, and the typical elements in the neat antithesis structure, such asnumber words, repetition words, and reduplication expression. Throughthe comparative study, the thesis tries to find the similarities anddifferences on the two translation versions’ strategies. Finally the thesisdraws the conclusion that the translation purpose does influence the mainstrategy or method (the Yangs used foreignization more often, whileHawkes mostly used domestication). However, taking the translation ofthe book as a whole, there is no absolute best strategy, the idealtranslation method is to properly combine the two kinds of strategies as awhole in the translation process, which is manifested in both the Yangs’and Hawkes’ versions.