Abstract

Characters’ names are quite significant in literary works for the reason that they may be considered as a clue of the plot, a description of the appearance of characters, a presentation of their characteristics or personalities, or even an indication of the culture of a time. On the basis of the English version The Story of the Stone by David Hawkes of China’s greatest novel Hong Lou Meng, this essay discusses the fundamental translation skills applied to the translation of characters’ names under the guideline of Eugene A. Nida’s theory of Dynamic Equivalence. As the names given by the author Cao Xueqin embody rich cultural connotation, the translator has to take the cultural background into consideration. However, because of the cultural differences between west and east, improper and inadequate translations are inevitable, which is strong evidence of the existence of the cultural barriers and provide the room for further improvement.

Key words: Hong Lou Meng, characters’ names, cultural differences, Dynamic Equivalence, translation skills.

摘要

     文学作品中人物的名称扮演着十分重要的角色。它们既是情节发展的线索之一，也反映着人物的外貌、性格和特征。更重要的是，人物名称可能蕴涵一个时代的文化背景。本文以中国最伟大的小说《红楼梦》的大卫·霍克斯译本《石头记》为研究对象，同时以尤金·奈达的动态对等理论为指导，重点研究了《红楼梦》中人物名称的翻译技巧以及隐于其中的文化因素。由于曹雪芹颇为用心地为其笔下的人物命名，使其包含着深刻的内涵和指示，译者在翻译过中必须将文化背景作为重要的考虑因素。但是受到中西文化差异的影响，霍克斯译本中人名的翻译难免出现不恰当或不充分，但这也从反面证明了文化差异的存在，并且为译本的进一步完善提供了一定的空间。

关键词：《红楼梦》，人物名称，文化差异，动态对等，翻译技巧

I    Introduction
Hong Lou Meng, written by Cao Xueqin of Qing dynasty, is crowned as an encyclopedia that reflects the life of feudal China. This masterpiece is famous for its revolutionary spirit as well as its rich cultural contents. Every detail in the story, from the verses, poems and odes to the architecture style, costumes and cuisines, all reflect the custom, traditions and people’s mentality of feudal China. In particular, the characters’ names in the story deeply embody the author’s indication, serving not only as the symbols of the appearance and personalities of the characters, the prediction of their fates, but also the cultural indicator of China’s economic, political background at that period of time. Therefore, the translation of the characters’ names would be a difficult task for translators, even for the masters, because they have to take the cultural background into consideration, overcoming the cultural differences between east and west during the translation process in order to “evoke the same sort of understanding or feeling in the Target Language readers as the names do in the Source Language readers”.