On the Translation of Puns in Two English Versions of the Hong Lou Meng
Abstract: Pun is a rhetorical means containing dual or multiple meanings. In Cao Xueqin’s masterpiece Hong Lou Meng, puns play a very important role as a special culture unit. Its low translatability has drawn the attention of translators and researchers. This thesis assumes that all the translation problems on pun should have correspondent solutions, and tests Delabastita’s theory on translations of significant puns in the Hong Lou Meng, so as to spot the distinguished strategies and tendencies adopted by Hawkes and the Yangs in translating puns, as well as to comprehend the reasons behind the different approaches.
Keywords: the Hong Lou Meng, puns, translations, Delabastita, tendencies, reasons
Contents
Abstract 1
摘 要 1
1 Introduction 3
2 Chinese Pun Vs. English Pun 5
2.1 Chinese Pun 5
2.2 English Pun 5
2.3 Comparison of Chinese Pun and English Pun 6
2.4 Translatability and Untranslatability: Chinese Pun into English Pun 7
3 Methods of Translating Puns 9
3.1 Literature Review 9
3.2 Delabastita’s Methods of Translating Puns 9
4 Puns Translations in the Hong Lou Meng 12
4.1 Samples and Analysis 12
5 Possible Reasons for Different Tendencies of Two Versions 23
5.1 Different Patrons and Motives 23
5.2 Different Readers 24
5.3 Different Ideologies 25
6 Conclusion 26
References 27
Acknowledgements 28
