The Application Of Domesticating Strategy In Translating The Translator The Mirror And The Dream

As one of the four Chinese literature classics, The Dream of Red Mansions (The Dream for short) is of high ideological and artistic values. In academia, it is widely accepted that its writer is Cao Xueqin. However, someone believed that its stories came from a book named The Mirror for the Romantic (The Mirror for short), the author of which is someone else who has not been verified yet. Researches on this issue are very limited, and many arguments lack reliable evidence. In the second half of the20th century, David Hawkes, a British sinologist, translated The Dream into English. Moreover, in his article The Translator, the Mirror and the Dream-Some Observations on a New Theory, he explained which versions he had chosen as source texts for his translation and why so, and tried to analyze the relation between The Mirror and The Dream by means of case study and citing various authorities. My translation project is to translate this article into Chinese in order to present Hawkes’ ideas to readers, and through which, finally, to provide new thoughts for the studies on the origin of The Dream.Meanwhile, after translating Hawkes’thesis, I analyzed the main translation strategy during the translation process by way of case study. There are roughly two methods of translating:domesticating translation and foreignizing translation. Translators usually choose one of them based on the language and cultural features of the source text with text type, translation goal, and target audience in consideration. In my thesis, I give a sketchy account of the theoretical development and representatives of the two methods, after which, I find that I have adopted domesticating methods in my translation, using specific strategies such as adding words, omission, concretizing pronouns, using expressions loaded with Chinese characteristics, restructuring sentences, and adding notes. I hope that this thesis can make a little contribution to exploration of strategies for literary criticism translation into Chinese.