A Comparative Study Of The Translation Strategies Of The Festivals In The Two English Versions Of Hong Lou Meng From Cultural Translation Perspective

The translation is not only a kind of cross-language communicative activity; but also akind of cross-cultural communication activity. This activity is a kind of comprehensiveactivity involving different languages, different cultures. So in the translation process toeliminate the obstacles of the cultural background and effectively convey the originalintention in order to achieve the purpose of translation, the translator not only master thesource language culture and target language culture, but also make the choice of translationstrategy influences successful translation.Culture and translation contact closely. In the early1990s, the American scholar SusanBassnett and Andre Lefevere put forward “Cultural Turn”, followed by the terminology“Cultural Translation”. The cultural translation will inevitably involve the problem oftranslation’s strategy; the choice of translation strategy will ultimately affect whether thecultural translation is successful or not. Dealing with cultural differences often resorts to theselection of translation strategies, but the choice of translation strategy is deep in debating andhas not determined. This thesis discusses the adoption and application of translation strategystarting from the debate about translation strategy in the translation field.It has not been decided which the translation strategy---domestication and foreignizationis better. The ways that handle the source language culture are different between thedomestication and foreignization.“Domestication” motif regards target language culture ascenter, and the “Foreignization” motif regards the source language as center. The translationis not isolated, static. The principle of the bilingual conversion should rely on the sourcelanguage culture and be based on the target language. Thus, they should not be mutualcontradiction, because the purpose of literary translation is to represent the original artfeatures.Hong Lou Meng is the grand garden of Chinese nation traditional culture. The festivalcultures represent spiritual and material are Chinese traditional, cultural history are miniatureof Chinese traditional culture. Through cultures which the analysis and comparison thefestival cultural of Hong Lou Meng, we can draw the conclusion that due to the restrictionfactors of translation strategy that includes text, culture, the translator and the reader are in the dynamic change, so “Domestication” and “Foreignization” are not completely absolute andstatic. Both translation strategies have the application value, excessively depending on onetranslation strategy and ignoring another translation strategy is not scientific, we must use adialectical view to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of these two kinds of strategies.In the translation process, translators should consider the text, readers, culturaldifferences and choose scientific and reasonable translation strategy and appropriate using thetranslation strategies, to achieve the transition of cultural information, so as to promotecultural exchange and development.