A Comparative Study of Metrical Poem Translations in Two Translations of Hong Lou Meng, with Reference to Critical Discourse Analysis

This study makes a comparative study of metrical poem translations in two translations of the Chinese classic Hong Lou Meng with reference to Critical Discourse Analysis. Its main purpose is to discover the degree to which cultural ideology, social environments and power relations obviously play major roles in the two different versions by different translators. Adopting the ideological framework of CDA by Van Dijk informed by Lefevere’s notion of ideology (2004a), this study examines two different Chinese-English translations of the complete collection of metrical poems from Hong Lou Meng to pinpoint the interwoven relation between ideology and translation. The findings of the study illustrate that translators’ ideologies play an important role in the translation of metrical poems, and relevant strategies applied in the translation help the target texts to be better accepted in the target culture. These results provide important clues for the promotion of translation of Chinese classic literature in English-speaking countries.