A Comparative Study On The Translations Of Annotation In Three English Versions Of Hong Lou Meng

HLM, as one of the most excellent masterpieces in Chinese classical literature, ischaracterized with deep ideological value and brilliant artistic achievement that aredisplayed in the religious philosophy, state policies and family discipline, buildingcomplexes, clothes and utensils, medicine and daily foodstuff, the four traditional skills(lyre-playing, chess, calligraphy and painting) and many other cultural factors mentionedin the novel. Thus, translators are confronted with a huge challenge to overcome theaforementioned cultural obstacles. Therefore the concept of “thick translation” theoryproposed by Appiah (1993:331) lays a theoretical foundation for such a kind of problems.According to Appiah, the profound language and cultural context in a source text can beindicated through annotation, commentary and long preface added to the translation.This research, taking Hawkes’, the Yangs’ and Bonsall’s versions as a researchsubject, has concluded the translator’s strategies on note-making under the framework ofthick translation theory. Detailed analysis was carried out in terms of transliteralannotation, literal annotation, free annotation, cultural annotation, and utterancesannotation trying to discover translation strategies that each translator applies to deal withannotation and the weakness and strength of annotation inserted in text and outside thetext.This research has found that (1) notes on the culture-loaded words of HLM in Yangs’version are slightly shorter than both of the notes in text of Hawkes and notes outside thetext of Bonsall. Tables listed in chapter4show that free translation in Yang’s version ismore used in categories of linguistic elucidation, cultural objects, cultural names, culturalbehaviors and place names while cultural level is reached by categories of allusion/proverbs, books/dramas/articles/paintings and historical/mythical characters.(2) Though the notes in text of the Hawkes’ version are relative short as the limited spacethe amount of information involved in is not fewer than Yang’s and Bonsall’s note andeasier to be understood. With carefully processed the notes or the explanations in textcould be accepted by readers. Free translation is the most important way to deal with theculture-loaded words and that the transliteration is used in categories of place names andhistorical/mythical characters.(3) Notes in the Bonsall’s version present the nature of technicality. Comparing to Yangs’ and Hawkes’ versions the amount of handlings inBonsall’s to every category is homogeneous. The most outstanding feature is that greatportion of background cultural information and explanation is noted outside the text. It canbe viewed as valuable study materials for foreigners learning more about Chinese culture.Annotations added outside the body text could cover more intensions from literalintention to contextual intention due to they are less influenced by the limited writingspace so they have the obvious advantages in dealing with categories of allusions/proverbsand Books/dramas/articles/paintings. As to cultural words annotations inserted in the textin Hawkes’ version are concise and clear, which help readers’ understanding of the culturalinformation and could be as a paradigm for application and popularization.