红楼梦英文版原著

《红楼梦》A Dream in Red Mansions or A Red-Chamber Dream

"The Story of the Stone" redirects here. For Barry Hughart's fantasy novel on ancient China, see The Story of the Stone (Barry Hughart).For other uses, see Dream of the Red Chamber (disambiguation).Dream of the Red Chamber (also Red Chamber Dream, Hung Lou Meng or A Dream of Red Mansions) (simplified Chinese: 红楼梦; traditional Chinese: 红楼梦; pinyin: Hónglóu mèng), rarely also called The Story of the Stone (simplified Chinese: 石头记; traditional Chinese: 石头记; pinyin: Shítóu jì; literally "Record of the Stone"), is a masterpiece of Chinese vernacular literature and one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. The novel was composed some time in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty and is attributed to Cao Xueqin. "Redology" is the field of study devoted exclusively to this work, and the novel is generally acknowledged to be the pinnacle of classical Chinese novelsThe novel is believed to be semi-autobiographical, mirroring the fortunes of Cao's own family. As the author details in the first chapter, it is intended to be a memorial to the women he knew in his youth: friends, relatives and servants.The novel is remarkable not only for its huge cast of characters and psychological scope, but also for its precise and detailed observation of the life and social structures typical of 18th-century Chinese aristocracy.This novel was published anonymously, but 20th-century Redologists have ascertained its author to be Cao Xueqin, based on circulated commentaries penned in red ink on many of the early handcopied versions known as the "Rouge Versions" (脂本).The novel is written in vernacular rather than classical Chinese and helped establish the legitimacy of the vernacular idiom. Its author, Cao Xueqin, was well versed in Chinese poetry and in classical Chinese, having written tracts in the erudite semi-wenyan style. The novel's conversations are written in the Beijing Mandarin dialect, which was to become the basis of modern spoken Chinese, with influences from Nanjing-area Mandarin (where Cao's family lived in the early 1700s).

A Dream of Red Mansions

现在大家比较认可的是杨宪益和戴乃迭夫妇翻译的英译本《红楼梦》，译为“The Dream of Red Mansion”。杨宪益夫妇是大翻译家，我本不敢乱说什么，但我想了很多年，还是觉得，这样翻译实际上是翻译错了，斗胆说出来，供大家研究、讨论。我觉得，《红楼梦》里所说的“红楼”并不是“红色公寓(Red Mansion)”的意思，正如“青楼”不是指“青色的楼”，而是指“妓院”一样。这里，“红楼”是指“女儿楼”，或者叫“闺房”，是女孩出嫁之前居住的地方。如果把“红楼”翻译成为“Red Mansion”就完全没有这种“女儿楼”的意思了。但如果仅仅是这个“女儿楼” 的意思，那还比较好翻译，因为在西方，也有女孩出嫁之前居住的“闺房”，如“boudoir”的意思就是“闺房，女人的卧室或化妆室、起居室”。但如果把《红楼梦》翻译为“The dream of Boudoir”仍然是不妥的，因为西方的“闺房”与中国的“闺房”是完全不同的。西方的“闺房”仅仅是女子出嫁之前居住的地方，仅仅是女人的卧室。但中国的“闺房”却有着更为深刻的文化内涵。中国住在“闺房”里的千金小姐是“大门不出，二门不迈”的，实际上，是处在一种自我封闭，或者说，是处在一种被软禁的状态。越是高官贵族的千金小姐，越是处于一种严密的监视和控制之下，处于一种封闭的状态之中，除自己家里人外，不能与任何男性说话或来往。这在西方简直是不可思议的。在西方的封建社会里，女孩出嫁前比中国女孩自由多了，她们可以不受任何限制地与男性来往。西方的封建社会，远不如中国的封建社会那样封建。所以，西方的“闺房”没有中国“闺房”里那种封闭的含义。如果把《红楼梦》翻译成“The Dream of Boudoir”仍然不能准确地表达出中国所特有的文化内涵。其实，归根到底，梦是人做的，不是房子做的，所以，不如索性译为“The Dream of the Girls”。女孩的梦，东西方都有，也都差不多。未婚女子对爱情的憧憬和追求，东西方也都差不多。《红楼梦》实际上写的不是贾宝玉的梦，而是金陵十二钗的梦，更准确地说，是“The Dream of the 12 Girls”。我觉得，这样翻译也许比“The Dream of Red Mansion”更准确一些。或者，干脆回避开，索性就叫《石头记》吧。“The Story of the Stone”就不会有任何争议了。