论《红楼梦》两个英文全译本中意象图式的再造

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Chapter 1 Introduction

§1.1 Language, Translation and Culture

Language is the principal means whereby we conduct our social lives. When it is

used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex

ways (Kramsch, 2000:3). Translation is an act, in other words a process of translating

from one language into another. As a special language activity, it is bound up with

culture in complex ways. It is said that translation can “introduce new concepts, new

genres, new devices, and the history of translation is the history also of literary

innovation, of the shaping power of one culture upon another” (Susan Bassnet and

Andre Lefevere, 1990:ix).

Throughout its long history, translation has played a crucial role as inspiration,

catalyst, stimulant and model. Confirmations come from two simple facts: the

prosperity of literature from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty(马

祖毅 , 1998:18) and the modernization of Chinese literature in the twentieth century.

However, among those translations, we find that after Ming Dynasty, the import of

foreign culture outweighs the export of Chinese culture. Meanwhile, the influence of

Chinese culture over Western culture, particularly over the Anglo-American culture, if

compared with the influence of Western culture over Chinese culture, will be put to

shame. It is really not a good phenomenon since the power of culture decides, to a large

extent, the status of every member of the global village. Therefore, in this context, the

spread of Chinese culture and the preservation of its root and uniqueness grow all the

more imperative. Translation is an important domain. It is a reciprocal and mutually

beneficial interaction and exchange of cultures. In other words, when assessing a

translation work, the preservation of culture factors should be considered principally.

§1.2 A Survey of Hongloumeng Translation Studies

Hongloumeng, as one of the greatest Chinese classics, must be one of the most

necessary works to be well translated. It is agreed that Chinese fiction reaches its

On the Reconstruction of Image Schemas in Two Complete English Versions of Hongloumen

culmination in the novel Hongloumeng which is well known for its true-to-life and

profound description of the then feudal society. The linguistic and artistic achievements

of Hongloumeng represent the climax of the Chinese classical culture. No other works

can compare with it in terms of surprisingly rich and broad cultural connotation. And

none can surpass it in its successfully employing Shi (poem)，Ci (Ci poem)，Qu (verse)，

Fu (poetic prose)，riddle and other forms of verses to reflect the personalities and fates

of the major characters. No doubt Linshu puts it this way in 1907:

In so far as it narrates the changes of fortune and the vicissitudes of life, in a

refined, meticulous style, with rich, varies colorings and a carefully worked-out

overall plan, it is perfection itself. (

中国说部，登峰造极者，无若石头记，叙人

间富贵，感人情盛衰，用笔慎密，著色繁丽，制精严，观止矣。

) (

林纾

, 2006:83)

Yang Xianyi and his wife Glady Yang, David Hawkes and his son-in-law John

Minford have done a very good job in translating Hongloumeng respectively. The

former translated it into A Dream of Red Mansions, while the latter rendered it as A

Story of the Stone. Their hard work does pay off. This can be seen from the favorable

judgments and high praise they receive in the translation circles as well as from

interested readers both at home and abroad. The birth of two completed versions fills

the blank of translating Chinese classical literature. It represents a landmark in the

history of translating Chinese into English. The versions offer precious experiences and

insights for Chinese classical translation, and provide new direction or way of thinking

for translation. It is worthwhile to study them carefully.

We notice that many images in Hongloumeng had been changed when they are

translated into the target texts, especially for the cultural images. What’s more, those

changes in this paper, which I would like to call them “aberrances”, are mostly different.

Then a question arises: what is the essence of these aberrances? This question is very

serious; because it may help us to choose a suitable translation direction.

To answer this question, we should firstly make it clear what are the translators’

purposes. From the analysis of the motivation of translators in chapter 3, there is no

doubt that Yang Xianyi and David Hawkes have the same expectation. That is, they

both want to translate a representative Chinese novel well and introduce the brilliance of

the Chinese culture to English readers. However, their emphases are different:

Chapter 1 Introduction

…the purpose of Yang Xianyi is to introduce Chinese culture as much as

possible to TT reader while that of David Hawkes is to please the TT reader. Mr.

and Mrs. Yang translate Hongloumeng for the special reader who is interested in

Chinese culture while David Hawkes for the ordinary reader. (

郭建中

,1999:285)

Now the question turns to be “how the differences affect the aberrance of the

images”.

However, lots of people who study this question couldn’t give a convincing

analysis because of the following limitations.

1) Some translation studies analyze the process just in linguistic level and ignore

the cultural factors that have a great influence on the translator.

Under the influence of structuralism, the traditional translation Studies almost

focused on the translation production, and made a static description of the translation

activity. In other words, people just express the translation phenomenon from the point

of view of symbols coding and decoding, but fail to account for features of literary

translation, especially the cultural factors.

2) Some translation studies notice the important part of cultural factors but lack

scientific explanation and walk into extremeness that negates the syntax analyses.

a) Some translation studies even go into the swamp of deconstruction (here I

mean the radical ones who claim nihilism).

b) Some translation Studies support the concept of foreignization and

domestication. This is a great advancement; however, they are still weak in expressing

what exactly happens in translating process. In other words, foreignization and

domestication can be strategies but not tactics.

3) Most of them did not notice the relationship between language and our mind.

Therefore they can not explain what happens in the translator’s “black box” when they

are translating.

§1.3 New Angles of Hongloumeng Translation Studies

In order to keep away from these limitations, we will turn to the cognitive

On the Reconstruction of Image Schemas in Two Complete English Versions of Hongloumen

linguistics theory in this paper which sees semantics as mapping from the linguistic

expressions to cognitive structures and a translation as mental domains of source

language mapping to the target language. We can say that language, as in cognitive

linguistics, functions only as a trigger of conceptual structures, and could not bring us

meaning. In other words, between the language and the meaning, there should be a

special medium, that is, image schema. Image schemas are very important in our

translating activity. As we know, image schema is a cognitive model which is based on

both material images and mental images, and controls the behavior model of human

beings. In translating process, it controls the Translating Behavior Model of the

translators. So we should pay great attention to the image schema integration in

translating.

The other reason for us to use the theory of image schema is that image schema is a

kind of schema whereas an image has been defended as a representation of specific

patterns capable of being rendered schematically. And image, either literature image or

mental image, is an important term in the literature translation. Therefore, this paper

will show some image schemas in Hongloumeng and will examine how they change in

two completed versions A Dream of Red Mansion and The story of the Stone.

§1.4 The Structure of This Thesis

This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 is the introduction. Chapter 2 firstly

presents the theory of image schemas, which includes the definition, classification,

relationship and significant function in mental perception of image and image schema;

it secondly draws a model of the whole translating process to describe how different

kinds of images transmit through the Media (image schemas) and how those image

schemas are built. Chapter 3 skims over Hongloumeng and its English versions; and

then takes some contrastive translations from the Story of the Stone and A Dream of Red

Mansion as examples to simply analyze how the translators deal with the

culture-overlapped image schemas. In Chapter 4, some examples will be used to analyze

how the translators deal with the culture-loaded image schemas. Chapter 5 firstly points

out that the essence of transference of the images (linguistic images and mental images)

is the reconstruction of image schemas in terms of linguistic images, therefore, when

assessing Hongloumeng’s translation, the reconstructing of image schemas should be

Chapter 1 Introduction

considered principally to avoid making subjective judgments; secondly, based on the

analyses in chapter 3 and 4, it lists six reconstructing ways of image schemas and the

corresponding effects.

On the Reconstruction of Image Schemas in Two Complete English Versions of Hongloumen

Chapter 2 Image Schema Translation Theories

According to the statement of Bell R.T., the purpose of translation is

…to reach an understanding of the processes undertaken in the act of

translation and, not, as is so commonly misunderstood, to provide a set of norms

for effecting the perfect translation. In short, instead of making subjective and

arbitrary judgments on the extent to which one translation is better than another

and insisting that goodness resides in the faithful adherence to an imposed set of

commandments, our orientation has to be towards the objective specification of

the steps and stages through which the translator works as the source text in the

original language is transformed into the target text; a focus on the process

which creates the translation rather than on the translation itself. (Bell R.T.

2001:22)

Therefore, this paper concentrates on the transference process of image schemas

instead of the translation production itself.

In this chapter, we will have three tasks: the first one is to explain the concept of

image and of image schemas; and the second one is to describe how images and image

schemas work in the translation process; the third one is to build a model of image

schemas translation.

§2.1 Image and Literary Translation

If we will study image schemas in literary translation, we have to study image in

literary translation first. As Mao Dun pointed out in 1954 at the National Conference of

Literary Translator, “image” is a crucial term in the literary translation:

Literary works are a kind of art created in language. What we demand of them

is not merely the recording of concepts and of incidents. Besides these, they

should possess artistic images that are attractive to the reader. In other words,

the reader must have a strong feeling towards the characters’ thought and

behavior through the artistic images portrayed in their literary works. Literary

translation is to reproduce the original artistic images in another language so

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摘要：

Chapter1Introduction1Chapter1Introduction§1.1Language,TranslationandCultureLanguageistheprincipalmeanswherebyweconductoursociallives.Whenitisusedincontextsofcommunication,itisboundupwithcultureinmultipleandcomplexways(Kramsch,2000:3).Translationisanact,inotherwordsaprocessoftranslatingfromonelanguag...

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