A Comparative Study On The Translation Prophecies In Three English Versionsof Hong Lou Meng

The encyclopedic Hong Lou Meng is written in Qing Dynasty. It is a great novel with an artistic touch. It is unrivalled by any novels in the world. The author Cao Xueqin was a noble of the ruling Man with all kinds of knowledge including poem, novel, drama, medicine, cuisine, and religion. His novel, written with his tears and efforts of more than ten years, reflects the society of Qing Dynasty and daily life of his noble family. Paragraphs of Chapter5, Jinling Prophecies are a critical part of Hong Lou Meng. In the language of poems, the prophecies predict the destiny of the leading roles. Considered more than20chapters had been "lost", the Jinling Prophecies could not be more important. The translation of this masterpiece has always been a catchphrase in the translation circle in China. Around the1980s, Davis Hawks, John Minford and the Yangs published the translation of Hong Lou Meng. This is not only an event of The Red Study Circle, but also an event of the translation circle home and abroad. As the essence of Hong Lou Meng, Jinling Prophecies deserve the attention.The language of Hong Lou Meng is Modern Vernacular Chinese. Written less than300years ago, its language is similar to the modern Chinese spoken language. However, Jinling Prophecies are poems. They tell the fortunes of the girls in a mysterious way. The translation of Chinese poems is difficult and meaningful in theory and practice. It is well-known that the poems employ a lot of structures, metaphors and puns. Currently, there is limited number of researches on the translation of prophecies, not to mention thorough studies on them.This thesis will explore the translations from the perspective of functionalist equivalence theory and compare the three English versions, thus find a better way to translate Jinling Prophecies. The corpus is from the English version of Hong Lou Meng of the Yangs, Hawks&Minford and Bonsall whose work was only disclosed in2007. This thesis will discuss the translations and the techniques in details, evaluate them and provide some suggestions on the translation of Chinese classics.