On English Translatability Limits of Dress Culture in A Dream of Red Mansions

Abstract

A Dream of Red Mansions, known as the “Encyclopaedia of Chinese culture”, is the pinnacle of Chinese classical literature. Based on the analysis of translation of different dresses in A Dream of Red Mansions by Mr Yang Xianyi and his wife Glaydis Yang, this paper discusses the limits of cultural translatability of dress colours, materials, styles, accessories and patterns, and put forward some complementary translation methods, such as literal translation with explanation, free translation, corresponding translation, rewriting, transliteration. It can be seen that although there are limits of translatability in the original text in some cases, the untranslatability can be transformed to translatability to the maximum extent by using flexible translation methods.