A Study On The Translation Of The Prophecy Poetry In The Story Of The Stone From Hermeneutic Perspective

Translation is not a simple work of copying the original text only by his literal interpretation of the original, but on the contrary, it needs a process of understanding and hermeneutic viewpoint when a translator is engaged in his translating. Language needs interpretation, especially the language of literary works, among which the language of the poetry needs most. The significance of literary works is not fixed when the work is composed and varies from different readers in different times. Literary works are endowed with the quality of openness. This thesis makes an analysis of the translation of prophecy poetry in Hongloumeng by Hawkes, how the openness of the work and the ontological properties of understanding reflect in the translation of Hawkes and how they affect the choice of the translation strategies of Hawkes according to the key concepts of Gadamer’s hermeneutics-prejudice, historicity of understanding, fusion of horizons and effective history.The thesis introduces firstly the three concepts of Gadamer’s hermeneutics firstly. Gadamer rehabilitates the concept of "prejudice" in understanding. According to Gadamer, the process of reading is the one of interpreting in which new significance is gained. Misreading, intentionally or unintentionally as well as the differences in understanding is unavoidable due to the historicity of the subject and the historicity of the process of understanding. Completely objective understanding does not exist. The process of understanding is the process of fusion of horizons of the translator and the text and cycles infinitely. The interpretation of text is infinite and as to the translation, there is not the only correct and ultimate translation.Then the thesis focuses on the historicity of the original work as an object and Hawkes as a subject after the brief introduction of the prophecy poetry, the prophecy poetry in Hongloumeng, the forms of establishment of prophecy in Hongloumeng, Hawkes and his translation-the Story of the Stone. The prejudice of Hawkes as a subject and a translator is penetrated from four aspects:rhythm, the use of the word, cultural imagery and allusion of the prophecy poetry in Hongloumeng. With such analysis, we see that the fusion of horizons is the result of understanding. The thesis further explores why Hawkes mainly uses the translation strategy of domestication when translating cultural connotations.It is concluded that the significance of works can not be absolute due to the openness of literary texts and the infinite cycle of understanding is determined by ontological properties of understanding. Philosophical hermeneutics provides new dimension and paradigm for translation study. The reason why Hawkes adopts domestication strategy rather than foreignization strategy when coping with cultural connotations is made clear and the reason why there is more than one correct translation is explained.