紅樓夢之可譯性及其語義翻譯法與溝通式翻譯法之應用

The Literary Translatability of Hong Lou Meng and Its Use of Semantic and Communicative Translation

Celebrated for the vivid depictions towards humans' personalities, delicate wordings and the intricate plot framework, Hong Lou Meng, written mainly by Cao Xue-qin (曹雪芹) and supplemented by Gao E (高鶚), has aroused wide discussions throughout the world. To generalize the studies on Hong Lou Meng, people dubbed it 'redology,' (紅學). Being as a monumental literary work, translation versions in several languages have circulated all over. The literariness of Hong Lou Meng, however, has given translators a hard time. Those features extolled as merits have become the sources of brainstorming on translation, e.g., poems, puns, literary dictions and culture-related sections. Under such circumstances, studying on translating Hong Lou Meng turns out to be a topic worth looking into. Thus, this paper, through comparisons of four English translation versions of Hong Lou Meng and with conceptions of Semantic and Communicative translation, tries to probe into its literary translatability in four aspects: the poems, puns and culture-related sections, diction and mood. Through the dissection, the conclusion is that, before translating Hong Lou Meng, even other masterpieces, a thorough understanding towards the author's writing style, the context and background information of the book being translated should be attained. Then, the use of semantic or communicative translation methods is alternative, depending on the situation you are in. There are no strict translation rules to follow. And, with the thorough understanding, translators can find out the most ideal way to translate.紅樓夢為曹雪芹所作，由高鶚補之，內容對人性描寫生動、用詞細緻且情節繁複，不僅是中國名著，更在各國掀起研究熱潮，名為「紅學」。本書有不少英譯本，而諸如詩詞、雙關、文言文及中國文化特有之敘述等，雖為中文讀者激賞，卻使譯者吃盡苦頭，也因此，紅樓夢各家譯本之比較便成值得研究之題材。本文比較各家英譯，輔以語義翻譯及溝通式翻譯之概念，旨在探討本書可譯性，其層面分為：詩詞、雙關、文化特有之敘述及用字意境。而結論為，在翻譯紅樓夢或其他名著前，譯者須先全盤瞭解作者之寫作風格、該書劇情脈絡與相關資訊。至於語義翻譯與溝通式翻譯何者較佳，並無正解，譯者必須對該書透徹瞭解，依當下情況作取捨，才能找出最理想的譯法。