杨宪益版红楼梦中颜色词的翻译分析

杨宪益版红楼梦中颜色词的翻译分析TheAnalysisoftheTranslationofColorTermsinYangs’ADreamofRedMansionsAbstract:HongloumengisoneofthegreatestChineseclassicalnovels.ItnotonlyoccupiesanhonoredplaceinChineseliterature,butalsoenjoysagoodreputationintheworldliterature.By1980s,thetranslationversionofHonloumeng—ADreamofRedMansionshasbeenaccomplishedbyYangHsien-yiandGladysYang.Itmeansalotforthetranslationfield,especiallyforthetranslationofChineseancientnovels.AndquicklytherefollowedlotsofresearchesandcommentsonthetranslationversionofHongloumengfromeveryaspect.Forexample,somepeoplefocusonthetranslationofadages,somearemuchinterestedinthetranslationofdialogues,andsomemaypaymuchattentiontothetranslationofpoems.While,thispapermainlyfocusonthetranslationofcolortermsappearedinthenovel.Therearesomanycolortermswhichareofdifferentsignificance，differentusageandculturalvaluesinthenovel.Theyreflectpeople’shistory,aestheticstandardandnationalinnerworld.Andtheyhaverichculturalconnotationswhichcouldhelpalotinliterature.Keywords:colorterms;translation;ADreamofRedMansions摘要：《红楼梦》是一本中国古典小说，它不仅仅是中国文学史上的一个伟大成就，更在世界文学史上享有盛誉。十九世纪八十年代，杨宪益和他的妻子完成了《红楼梦》的翻译。这对于翻译界意义非凡，尤其是对于中国古典小说的翻译。很快，文学界出现了不少对于《红楼梦》译本的评论与研究，例如，对于体态语的翻译，对于对话的翻译，对于诗歌的翻译。而本文着重于研究杨宪益的红楼梦译本中对于颜色词的翻译。颜色词对于文学有着非凡的意义。它有着丰富的隐语意义，从很大程度上反映着不同的文化。关键词：颜色词；翻译；红楼梦ContentⅠ.Introduction…………………………………………………………1Ⅱ.TheIntroductionofTranslationVersionsofHongloumeng……...1Ⅲ.TheIntroductionofColorterms…………………………………...2A.ThedifferentconnotationsofcolortermsinChineseandEnglishculture…………………………………………………………………….21.Red………………………………………………………………...22.Yellow……………………………………………………………...33.Blue……………………………………………………………......3B.Theclassificationofcolorterms………………………………………41.Basiccolorterms……………………………………………………42.Entitycolorterms…………………………………………………...43.Compoundcolorterms………………………………………………4Ⅳ.TheImportanceoftheTranslationofColorTermsinADreamofRedMansions………………………………………………………5A.Colortermshelpwiththedescriptionoffacialexpressions……………5B.Colortermsimplypeople’ssocialstatus………………………….…..6C.Colortermscanhelptoportrayacharacter’spersonality…………….8Ⅴ.TheMainTranslationStrategiesofColorTermsinYangs’ADreamofRedMansions……………………………………………..8A.Consideraboutthecenterwordandjudgefromthewhole…………....8B.Respectthelanguagehabits…………………………………………9C.Payattentiontothemetaphors………………………………………9D.Usethecompoundwords..…………………………………………10Ⅵ.Conclusion………………………………………………………….10WorksCited…………………………………………………………….11ConsideringtheTranslationofColorTermsinYangs’ADreamofRedMansions第1页共11页Ⅰ.IntroductionLanguageisakindofsocialphenomenonandisthecarrierofculture.Atthesametime，itisanimportantpartofculture．Culturalconceptsunderlinethevarietyoflanguageusageandhabits.Thewaysofthinking,beliefs,andattitudes.However,itisvocabularythatcarriestheculturalinformationmostandreflectsthehumanbeings’socialandculturallifemostobviously.Vocabularyencapsulatesthedifferentcultures，meanwhile，culturaldifferencesresultinconnotativedivergenceofvocabulary.Almosteverylanguagehascolorterms．However，thewordstodescribethesamecolordifferfromonelanguagetoanotherforcertainreasonssuchassurroundings,religiousbeliefsandcustomsofdifferentnations.Differentnationsbecauseofdifferentlocations，histories，religions，psychologiesandsocialcustoms，havedifferentmeanstoexpressthesameconceptandattachdifferentassociatemeaningstoitinfluencedbytheiruniqueculture.Thesedifferentassociatemeaningsaredifferentculturalmeaningsorconnotativemeaningsthewordshave(Li279).Withthedevelopmentofsocietyandculture，colortermsarebrandedwithnationalculture，reflectnationalfeaturesanddisplaydifferentnation’svaluesandaestheticstandards，especiallyinmanyliteratureworks，colortermsarefrequentlyusedandhaveprofoundmeanings.Ⅱ.TheIntroductionofTranslationVersionsofHongloumengAsoneofthemostclassicliteratureworksinChinesehistory,Hongloumengattractedplentyofreaderstoappreciateandscholarstomakeresearcheson,withitsuniquecultureandlong-lastingcharm.Sofar,ithasalreadybeentranslatedto16kindsoflanguages.JustfortheEnglishversionoftranslation,ithasbeenthroughalongandhardtime.From1830to1986,nineEnglishversionsofHongloumengcameout.Amongthemtwoversionsattractmostattention:oneisbyDavidHawkesandJohnMinford(shortforHawkeslater);theotherbyYangXianyiandGladysYang(shortfortheYangslater).InHawkes’version,everysinglecharacteristranslatedcarefully,whichshowshisresponsibilityandfidelitytotheoriginaltext.AsfortheYangs’version,similarintensionanddeterminationaredisplayedintheinstructionandthetranslatedtext.ConsideringtheTranslationofColorTermsinYangs’ADreamofRedMansions第2页共11页ItislikeabridgeofcultureinteractionbetweenChinaandEnglishspeakingcountries.Andofcourse,italsomeansalotforthetranslationfield,especiallyforthetranslationofChineseancientnovels.AndquicklytherefollowedlotsofresearchesandcommentsonthesetwotranslationversionsofHongloumengineveryaspect.Forexample,somepeoplefocusonthetranslationofadages,somearemuchinterestedinthedialogues,andsomemaypaymuchattentiontothebodylanguageest.While,thisessaymainlyfocusonthestudyofcolortermsappearedinthenovel.Therearesomanycolorterms，whichareofdiff