TRANSLATION OF ALLUSIONS IN THREE ENGLISH VERSIONS OF TRUYỆN KIỀU BY VLADISLAV ZHUKOV, MICHAEL COUNSELL AND HUỲNH SANH THÔNG

Abstract

ABSTRACT Translating allusions is a great challenge in poem translation, especially in a classic work as Truyện Kiều. So far, there have been a large number of studies on Truyện Kiều’s translations but those on the translation of allusions in this work are quite limited. With three English versions of Truyện Kiều by Vladislav Zhukov, Michael Counsell and Huỳnh Sanh Thông, this research was conducted to shed light on the strategies to translate allusions, as well as to compare the level of faithfulness, clarity and naturalness of the translation in these versions. Document analysis and interviews were adopted as instruments to collect data. The final outcomes indicate the prominent use of adaptive replication and replacement as the major strategies to translate, respectively, proper-name allusions and key-phrase allusions. The result from both fixed-response interviews and open-ended interviews reveals noticeable differences among the translations in three chosen versions. These differences are reasoned out as the diverse in translators’ aims and approaches. Sacrificing a certain degree of faithfulness, Counsell’s translation is the clearest and the most natural translation with rhymes and the omission of many allusions. Zhukov’s translation is considered beautiful and artistic but not clear and difficult to understand. The translation which equally satisfies all criteria is Huỳnh’s. Recommendations for further studies are provided.