Abstract:

A large number of studies have been done on this novel since the first appearance of A Dream of Red Mansions. But there has been few systematic studies on the Formal List of Twelve Jinling Ladies. And few have done a comparative study on the translations of the Formal List of Twwelve Jinling Ladies. Therefore this thesis is intended to do so.
    On the one hand these verses in the Formal List play an important role in this novel, on the other hand, the text features of this part, such as, metaphors, allusions, puns and rebuses, which made the translation difficult. As a result, the comparative study on the translation may be much meaningful. This thesis adopted to have a detailed study on the translation of the Formal List of Twelve Jinling Ladies by the two famous translators Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang. From analysis of that we can know the “innovations” and “losses” of their translation and detect appropriate approaches to the translation of these verses and discuss what extent can these verses be translated and accessible to English readers.

Key words: translation of the Formal List of Twelve Jinling Ladies; losses and innovations                                                                    
摘要：

自《红楼梦》的两个完整的英译本问世以来,有大量评论文章出现。但是,鲜有将判词部分看作一个整体,对其翻译所进行的研究。本文作者将金陵十二钗判词作为研究的对象,一方面因为金陵判词在整个小说中具有举足轻重的意义,另一方面是因为该部分的文本特点，如比喻、典故、双关和字谜,他们构成了翻译的特殊困难,因而对其翻译的比较研究对汉英翻译理论亦具有重要的意义。本文作者对杨宪益和戴乃迭的金陵十二钗判词翻译进行深入研究，通过研究分析其翻译的“失”和“新”，并探寻金陵判词翻译的有效方法,同时探讨金陵判词可翻译的限度以及英语读者可接受的程度。
   
关键词: 金陵十二钗判词翻译；“失”与“新”

Introduction
Chinese verses are one of the most valuable classic literary treasures we inherit from our ancestors. A large number of Chinese and foreign translators made great efforts to translate Chinese classic verses into English and let the western readers appreciate our classical civilization.
A Dream of Red Mansions is the most famous in Chinese classic literature and the Formal List of Twelve Jinling Ladies is the most important part of this novel. Therefore I choose to study the Formal List of Twelve Jinling Ladies as the theme. Also I choose it for my deep love of this novel and in my own view it is the representative of Chinese classic literature. Translating the verses in the Formal List is such a large and great work, let alone translate the whole novel. That could be described as s masterpiece.