On Translation of Poetry in Hong Lou Meng From the Perspective of Skopos

DOI: 10.5176/2251-3566_L319.471

Authors: Ms. Renzhuo Han

Abstract: Hong Lou Meng, is one of the China’s four Great classical novels. It is considered a masterpiece of Chinese literature and is generally acknowledged to be the pinnacle of Chinese fiction. There are many studies on Hong Lou Meng, as an integrated part of the novel, poetry is not only closely related to the development of the theme, but also reflects the personality of characters, is an integral part of the plot development. There are many translation versions about Hong Lou Meng. In the 1970s and 1980s, Hawkes' version (David Hawkes & John Minford) - The story of the Stone and Yang's version (Gladys Yangand Yang Hsien-yi)- Adream of RedMansionsare the best translations recognized by the world. Skopos theory is a concept from the field of translation studies. It provides an insight into the nature of translation as a purposeful activity, which is directly applicable to every translation project. Under the guidance of different translation purposes, translators adopted different translation strategies. Therefore, in this paper, by comparing the difference between the versions of Hawkes and Yang Hsien-yi from the perspective of Skopos to have a better understanding of the function of the different participants, different text types in the formation of the translation purposes. It is also helpful to interpret the translator's translation model, and to analyze the reasons and motivation of the translation strategies,andtodeepentheunderstandingof theversion

Keywords: HongLouMeng,poetry, translation,Skopos