A Tale of Two Grannies：On the English Translation of the Language of Grannie Liu and Grandmother Jia in Hong Lou Meng.doc

红楼梦 中刘姥姥与贾母的语言英译 a tale of two grannies：on the english translation of the language of grannie liu and grandmother jia in hong lou mengthesis statement: successful translation of the language of grannie liu and grandmother jia not only requires a faithful conveyance of meaning, but also demands an accurate portrait of the two characters personalities. outline:. introductiona. the literary value and important position of the novel hong lou mengb. the success of the two complete english translations. literature reviewa. different chinese originals of hong lou meng for the two english translationsb. the english translation of the characters language in hong lou meng. a comparative study of the english translations of the language of grannie liu and grandmother jia a. the english translation of grannie lius language1. grannie lius language that reveals her profundity and insightfulness2. grannie lius language that reveals her tactfulness and smartnessa) conversation with the doormenb) conversation with zhou ruis wifec) conversation with wang xifengb. the english translation of grandmother jias language1. grandmother jias language that reveals her amicability2. grandmother jias language that reveals her knowledgeability3. grandmother jias language that reveals her decisiveness and calmness. conclusion摘 要刘姥姥和贾母是红楼梦中一对鲜活生动、独具个性的艺术形象，在小说布局上起着至关重要的作用。刘姥姥的几进荣国府、贾母在贾家至高无上的地位都使得这两个人物成为了贯穿全书的重要线索。与小说中喜好吟诗作对的小姐们不同，刘姥姥和贾母的语言通俗直白、简明易懂。虽然在社会地位、教育水平上存在着巨大的差距，但刘姥姥和贾母同样精明能干、见解独到。因此，如何在英译文中通过看似简单的语言体现这两个人物独特的性格特征便成为红楼梦译者必须考虑的问题。本文选取了突出刘姥姥精明深刻、机智得体以及贾母见识广博、果断冷静等性格特征的对话作为研究对象，从如何通过人物语言展现人物性格这一角度，比较分析了由霍克斯、闵福德及杨宪益、戴乃迭分别翻译的两个英文全译本对这些语言的翻译。在借鉴了如张映先、吕敏宏、刘源甫等人对红楼梦人物语言英译研究的基础上，笔者认为为了忠实再现刘姥姥和贾母的人物形象，译者不仅需要准确传达人物语言字面上的意义、在必要时添加适当的注释，而且还应该在译文中保留原文所传达出的情感信息，以求最大程度地展现人物的性格特征。关键词：刘姥姥 贾母 语言 翻译 性格特征abstractin hong lou meng, grannie liu and grandmother jia are two successfully created literary images with distinctive personalities, both of who play a crucial role in the structure and layout of the novel. grannie lius several visits to the rong mansion and grandmother jias superior position in the jia family make the two characters an indispensible storyline throughout the whole novel.unlike the young ladies who are fond of composing poems and citing lines from former literary works, grannie liu and grandmother jia boast a language feature of simplicity and clarity. although the two are strikingly different in social status and educational background, both characters have a deep insight about life with original views and opinions. therefore, how to well translate the two characters language so as to vividly reflect the personalities of grannie liu and grandmother jia remains a critical issue for the translators to deal with.this paper chooses the dialogues that best reflect grannie lius profundity and tactfulness, grandmother jias knowledgeability and decisiveness as the research object. from the perspective of characterization, the author compares the translations of these dialogues in the two english versions translated respectively by david hawkes, john minford and yang xianyi, gladys yang. based on the previous research conducted by zhang yingxian, l minhong, liu yuanfu, etc. on the english translation of the characters language in hong lou meng, the author concludes that in order to faithfully depict grannie lius and grandmother jias personalities through translation, a translator should not only accurately convey the literal meaning of the characters language by adding appropriate notes when necessary, but also preserve the sentiment information revealed in the original novel so as to exhibit to the english readers the distinctive personalities of the two characters.key words: grannie liu grandmother jia language translation personality4. introductionhong lou meng is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest literary works in the history of chinese fiction. it is a record of the prime time of the qing dynasty under the governance of emperor kangxi, yongzheng and qianlong, a treasure house of classical chinese poems and lyrics, and an encyclopedia of chinese traditions and customs. since its first coming out several hundred years ago, hong lou meng has enjoyed an unprecedented popularity in china among both experts and common readers. scholars such as hu shi, yu pingbo, and zhou ruchang wrote abundant annotations and commentaries about the novel, while common readers shed tears for the tragic fate of the various characters. during the hundreds of years, dynasties alternated and time changed, yet the popularity of hong lou meng never dwindled. the enormous artistic value of the novel also attracted the attention of a great number of translators from both home and abroad, who tried to introduce to foreign readers the great chinese literary work through their translations. of the different translated versions, the english translations of hong lou meng are among the most influential ones, as they unveil the mystical chinese fiction before the readers of the worlds most widely used language. at present, there are two complete english translations available of hong lou meng that are most commonly known, one translated by david hawkes and john minford, the other by yang xianyi and gladys yang. both translations succeed in telling the english readers the tragic yet beautiful love story between baoyu and daiyu as well as the bitter and unsuccessful marriage story between baoyu and baochai. through complete translations, the translators managed to reveal to the english readers the distinctive personalities of the novels various characters, such as baoyus loveliness and kindness, daiyus literary talent and vulnerable beauty, baochais purity, coldness and tactfulness, wang xifengs arrogance and duplicity. the translators also attached great importance to the translation of the novels numerous traditional chinese poems, lyrics, songs, lantern riddles, drinking games, etc., aiming to retain the varied language styles of the original work. this paper chooses grannie liu and grandmother jia as the research object, focusing on the english translation of the language of the two characters, mainly from the perspective of characterization. as both characters have quite a number of dialogues throughout the novel, the author will select to analyze major speeches that best reflect their personalities. by comparing the two different english translations of these dialogues, the author attempts to discuss and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each translated version. the thesis consists of four chapters. chapter one gives a brief account of the background of the research and the main contents of the paper. chapter two reviews the former research conducted on the english translation of the characters language in hong lou meng, concentrating on how to faithfully reveal the characters personalities in translation. in chapter three, the author will analyze in detail the english translations of several key dialogues of grannie liu and grandmother jia. the last chapter is the concluding part, summarizing the whole thesis. . literature reviewa. different chinese originals of hong lou meng for the two english translationsaccording to professor chen guohua, the two complete english translations were based on different chinese editions of the novel. hawkess translation is mainly based on the printed 120-chapter cheng yi edition (445); while the yangs translation is based on two separate books: the first eighty chapters are translated from the photostat edition published by the peoples literature publishing house according to a lithographic edition printed by you zheng press, with a preface offered by qi liaosheng; and the last forty chapters are translated from the 120-chapter cheng yi edition. according to the publishers note of a dream of red mansions translated by yang xianyi & gladys yang, foreign language press, 1978, vol. 1, p. ix in “the translation of hong lou meng into english: a descriptive study”, professor chen hongwei and jiangfan pointed out that both hawkes and the yangs were very careful when choosing the chinese originals, which distinguished them from earlier translators who had no awareness of the differences in the chinese editions. hawkes chose the printed 120-chapter edition as the major reference due to its completeness and popularity, yet he also consulted the manuscript copy from time to time so as to best reflect cao xueqins original ideas. by comparison, the yangs adhered to the manuscript copy for their translation of the first 80 chapters, which was believed to be more faithful to caos original work. meanwhile, in order to offer a complete version of translation, the yangs also adopted the cheng yi edition edited and published by the peoples literature publishing house for the translation of the last 40 chapters (chen & jiang 50). although there are differences in the chinese originals, through careful comparison, the author finds out that the content of grannie lius and grandmother jias language and their speaking styles are basically the same, which ensures the possibility for the discussion below. b. the english translation of the characters language in hong lou mengcharacterization is one of the central tasks of a novel, and “dialogue is an important writing device in characterization” (zeng 114). through individualized speech and dialogue, a writer is able to vividly unfold before the readers the distinctive personality of each character. therefore, the success of a translated novel largely depends on the reproduction of the “spirit, essence, style and charm” (zhang & gai 9) of the original dialogues. to well translate the language of the various characters in hong lou meng, a translator should, in the first place, have a thorough and faithful understanding of the personality of each character revealed through the original texts. according to professor zhang yingxian, literary translation is sure to involve the translators creative imagination, which may lead to deviation of understanding if used improperly. thus, a translator should avoid semantic misunderstanding and preconceived emotions so as to offer the target readers an accurate portrait of the characters images in the translated works (47-50). second, a translator should try his best to convey the detailed meaning of the original dialogues. as hong lou meng is rich in the use of chinese idioms, proverbs, slangs in the characters language, scholars such as liu shicong, gu qinan, l minhong proposed to offer explanatory notes when necessary to help foreign readers to grasp the in-depth meaning of the colloquial expressions that were carefully designed by the writer to contribute to the portrait of the characters personalities. third, in addition to offering an accurate translation of the literal meaning of the characters language, a translator should also pay attention to the feelings and emotions conveyed by the language and try to preserve the same sentiment information in the translation. according to professor liu yuanfu, in hong lou meng, the sentiment is the core of the dialogues that makes the characters language lively and vivid. as the chinese language inclines to use suggestive and indirect ways to express emotions while english is relatively more explicit and straightforward, it becomes the translators task to retain the original sentiments by well handling the differences in words and expressions (111). . a comparative study of the english translations of the language of grannie liu and grandmother jia according to mr. zhou ruichang, the arrangement of the plot and characters in hong lou meng reflects the concept of “symmetry, balance, contrast and contradiction” (290). for example, many of the characters in the novel appear in pairs and echo each other, such as jia baoyu and xue pan, lin daiyu and xue baochai, qingwen and xiren. of the various character pairs, grannie liu and grandmother jia form an important pair. unlike the young protagonists, both ladies are widows in their old age; nevertheless they still remain the centre of their own family. both play a crucial role in the structure and layout of the novel. in hong lou meng, apart from baoyu and daiyus tragic love story, baoyu and baochais sad marriage story, grannie lius several visits to the rong mansion, grandmother jias superior status in the family and her complicated kinship with other major characters all make the two elder ladies another principal storyline of the novel. grandmother jias special position enables her to be “everywhere” in the story-according to wang hao, grandmother jia appeared in more than half of the first eighty chapters (95); while grannie lius first visit to the rong mansion opens a door for ordinary readers to get to know the characters and stories of the jia family, who otherwise might feel confused about the first five chapters that consist of abundant classical chinese poems and lyrics. due to the above reasons, the author chooses both grannie liu and grandmother jia as the research object in this thesis. a. the english translation of grannie lius languagethe features of grannie lius language can be summarized in the following terms: vivid, funny, concise, vulgar yet tactful and profound. her lines composed at the drinking game “大火烧了毛毛虫 the chinese texts quoted in the paper are from the you zheng edition prefaced by qi liaosheng published by peoples literature publishing house, 2006 (the first 80 chapters) and the printed cheng yi edition published by peoples literature publishing house, 1974 (the last 40 chapters) (a big fire burns the hairy caterpillar) (yang hsien-yi & gladys yang vol.1 599)”, her remarks on sticking flowers all over her hair “我这头也不知修了什么福, 今儿这样体面起来 (i dont know what meritorious deed my heads done to deserve this good fortune) (yang hsien-yi & gladys yang vol.1 581)”, and her famous self-description “老刘, 老刘, 食量大似牛, 吃一个老母猪不抬头 (old woman liu i vow, eats more than any cow, and down she settles now to gobble an enormous sow) (yang hsien-yi & gladys yang vol.1 587)” are all good examples to show grannie lius humor. after a careful comparison of the english translations of these lines, the author thinks that both hawkes and the yangs succeeded in preserving the funny elements in their translations, thus will not discuss this part in detail. the following analysis will mainly focus on the profundity and tactfulness of grannie lius seemingly simple and vulgar language in the english translations. 1. grannie lius language that reveals her profundity and insightfulnessgrannies lius first appearance in the novel occurs in chapter six, where she was talking to her son-in-law gouer and criticizing his passive attitude towards life. this dialogue vividly portrays the image of an uneducated yet shrewd countrywoman, who is sober-minded about the current hardships yet still optimistic about future life. both translators offered complete translations of the dialogue, which successfully reflected grannie lius insight about life. the author thinks that both versions excel, yet at certain points, there is still room for improvement. for example, when criticizing gouer, grannie liu pointed out that although they were living outside changan city, they would still be able to benefit from the prosperity of the capital due to the geographical advantage. this opinion of grannie liu reflects her wit and wisdom in life. in her mind, the city of changan is full of opportunities of making money, but only for those who are able to figure out proper ways. her original sentence was “(如今咱们虽离城住着, 终是天子脚下. 这长安城中, 遍地都是钱), 只可惜没人会去拿去罢了”. hawkes translated this into “(over there in the city the streets are paved with money) just waiting for someone to go and pick it up”, while the yangs version is “changans streets are strewn with money-for those who know how to lay hands on it”. the author thinks that hawkess translation is not as accurate as the yangs, as the former suggests that everybody can easily get money in the capital without making any effort, which twists the original meaning of grannie liu and thus fails to convey the profundity involved in the expression. throughout the dialogue, the colloquial expression “守多大碗儿吃多大的饭 (eat according to the size of our bowl) (yang hsien-yi & gladys yang vol.1 89)” best illustrates grannie lius rational character, which distinguishes her from the extravagant jias. unlike the jia family that blindly pursues a pompous life, grannie liu believes that one should live a moderate life within his or her reach. the simple yet precious insight is exactly what is lacking in the jia family that leads to the eventual downfall. thus, the translation of this sentence plays an essential role in helping foreign readers to understand grannie lius insightfulness.both hawkes and the yangs gave a faithful literal translation of this sentence. yet, a footnote should be added here to explain to the english readers the in-depth meaning of the expression, that is, a family should live a life according to its ability and not go beyond the bounds. the author thinks that only in this way will the foreign readers fully understand grannie lius insightful opinion through her language. according to professor l minhong, due to “the differences in cultural backgrounds, linguistic conventions and language expressions” (62), adding proper footnotes is an effective way to facilitate the understanding of the target readers and preserve the language features of the original text. 2. grannie lius language that reveals her tactfulness and smartnessa) conversation with the doormengrannie lius first visit to the rong mansion starts wit