Translator’s Subjectivity Displayed In The Translation Of Fuzzy Language In Hong Lou Meng

Hong Lou Meng is one of the four classic literary works in ancient China. Its high ideological content and artistic quality has made it one of the representatives of China’s excellent classical novels. It has been a favor of both scholars of translation at home and abroad for years due to its unlimited possibilities provided on translation and translation studies. Until now, there are no less than nine English versions, of which only two completed versions enjoy high reputation, namely,"A Dream of Red Mansions" by Yang Xianyi and his wife Gladys Yang, and "The Story of the Stone" by David Hawkes and John Minford. The thesis takes the comparisons of the two versions as the research object.One of the most obvious artistic characteristics in Hong Lou Meng is the application of a large number of vague expressions, and they are what we call fuzzy language. Fuzzy language is a necessary part in language system, especially in literary works. The flexible and skillful use of fuzzy language may present an unexpected artistic effect to readers in literary works. However, for most of the time, the unexpected effect is lost in the translating of fuzzy language through inter-lingual transposition. It is a great challenge for translators, and how will they realize the utmost transference of the fuzzy language in the source text to target readers?In recent years, translator’s subjectivity in translation has become one of the hot debates studied by numerous scholars. Translation, which is the communication process and media between two different languages, plays a decisive role in promoting politics, economy, and culture between different communities. However, translation did not gain its deserved attention for a long time in the past. Correspondingly, the subject of the translation activities, namely the translator, had not got their due status as well and they were considered as the servant inferior to the author, In fact, translator’s subjectivity plays an important part in determining if the final purpose of translation will be accomplished, namely, the realization of the cross-cultural communication. The translators’translation purposes, cultural contexts, ideologies and social experiences and so on, will definitely influence translator’s subjectivity more or less, which leads to the diversity in translation.Based on above analysis, the thesis will make a comparison of the translation of fuzzy language in the two English versions so as to find out the influences of translator’s subjectivity on its translation. The author hopes that it can help readers broaden their understandings of fuzzy language and provide a new perspective in the studies of translator’s subjectivity.