英文摘要 |
One of the most representative translations of Cao Xueqin's Hongloumeng, David Hawkes' The Story of the Stone invites numerous thematic studies on the translation of various cultural and linguistic elements. The translation of the sophisticated emotional drama underlying the text, despite its significance in expressing the theme of love in the original novel, has not been often discussed. To redress this omission, this paper aims to examine how Hawkes employs rhetorical skills to reconstruct the subtle drama surrounding the characters' emotions. Through a textual analysis comparing an excerpt from Hawkes' translation of Chapter 8 in Hongloumeng with the original, this paper shows that while most of the drama is successfully reconstructed, some dramatic effect is lost because the translator appears to have overlooked the drama contained in some subtle expressions in the original. True representation of the close relationships among characters of different classes in Chinese society is also found to be lacking in the English translation due to the effects of the inherent class-consciousness of the English language. |