Abstract

    Mistranslation is often found in literary translated works, so the same with the translation of the Story of the Stone. Admittedly, appropriate and excellent translation of the Story of the Stone contributes to spreading excellent Chinese culture to the world. However, mistranslations will lead to cultural barriers. As we all know that many mistranslations occur because of cultural differences. Thus, cultural difference plays a magnificent role in literary translation. Besides, the Story of the Stone plays an important role in the ancient literature works as it reflects various aspects of society at that time including religion, tradition, customs and so on. This thesis will focus on the mistranslation in the Story of the Stone and analyze the reasons of their occurrence in the perspective of cultural difference.

Key words: mistranslation; cultural difference; the Story of the Stone

摘要

    在文化作品翻译中，误译现象随处可见，红楼梦译本也是如此。众所周知，红楼梦译本合理恰当，可以将我们的优秀文化像向世界传送。然而，误译无疑会损害原著的意义表达和原文本的原汁原味。我们都知道，之所以会有误译是因为文化差异的关系。因此,文化差异对于文学翻译作品的作用可见一斑。此外，红楼梦被认为是中国传统文化的百科全书，因为它包括中国传统文化的方方面面，如传统，宗教，习俗等。所以，从文化差异角度看红楼梦的误译有着非凡的现实意义。这篇论文会注重红楼梦的误译，通过举例子，并从文化差异角度分析产生误译的原因。

关键词：误译；文化差异；红楼梦

1 Introduction
1.1 Research background
    The Story of the Stone, ranks the first in Chinese classic literary works. During the 170 years, it has been translated into English many times, which demonstrates its unique literary status in the world. The first English version could date back to 1830, but it was very rough and far from the original. Up till now, the Story of the Stone has been translated into English many times. Just the name of the book has 9 kinds of English versions, such as Dream of the Red Chamber, A Dream of Red Mansions, The Story of the Stone and so on. Foreign researchers translate it diligently and the most authoritative English version is from David Hawks.