在《红楼梦》所塑造的形形色色的鲜明人物形象中，服饰对于表现一个人的个性，地位以及精神风貌都起着举足轻重的作用。古典文学的服饰描写最大的特点是其文化色彩十分浓厚，一个民族所熟知的服装对异族文化背景下的人来说也许是闻所未闻，更何况《红楼梦》所描写的主人公们又是一群衣着打扮极其讲究的贵族青年。如第三回“宝

黛初会”时对宝玉的服饰描写：

头上戴着束发嵌金紫金冠，齐眉勒着二龙戏珠金抹额，一件二色金百蝶穿花大红箭袖，束着五彩丝攒花结长穗宫绦，外罩石青起花八团倭缎排穗褂。

这段描写，使人读了像看了彩色照片一样有光彩夺目、眼花缭乱的感觉。其实宝玉的这身打扮，在明清两代的实际生活中并不存在，只有在戏曲剧场上才能找到。曹雪芹把书中人物的服装戏剧化，是为了“真事隐去”的政治目的，也是为了艺术装点，使人物的服饰更为花团锦簇，增添美感。因为束发冠、抹额、箭袖、宫绦、朝靴等服饰在中国古典戏曲中经常可见，中国读者对这些服饰并不陌生，可是怎样才能将宝玉的这一形象准确而又生动的传达给英文读者呢?我们来看一下杨宪益和霍克斯的译文：

杨译：

He had on a golden coronet studded with jewels and a golden chaplet in the form of two dragons fighting for a pearl.His red archer's jacket,embroidered with golden butterflies and flowers, was tied with a coloured tasseled palace sash. Over this he wore a turquoise fringed coat of Japanese satin with a raised pattern of flowers in eight bunches.His court boots were of black satin with white soles.

霍译：

The young gentleman who entered in answer to her unspoken question had a small jewel-encrusted gold coronet on the top of his head and a golden headband low down over his brow in the form of two dragons playing with a large pearl. He was wearing a narrow-sleeved,full-skirted robe of dark red material with a pattern of flowers and butterflies in two shades of gold.It was confined at the waist with a court girdle of coloured silks braided at regular intervals into elaborate clusters of knotwork and terminating in long tassels.

Over the upper part of his robe he wore a jacket of slate-blue Japanese silk damask with a raised pattern of eight large medallions on the front and with tasselled borders.

On his feet he had half-length dress boots of black satin with thick white soles.

首先从篇幅上看，杨译明显要简短很多，因为霍译多采用描述的方法，详尽地描写每件服饰的特点。如“箭袖”，是指便于射箭穿的窄袖衣服，与中国古代常见的宽袖长袍有别。杨译archer's jacket是典型的直译，但是这一直译并不能使英文读者明白“箭袖”是怎样的一种服装。而霍译 narrow sleeved robe则意译出了该服装的主要特点。

再如“抹额”即束额巾，亦称“抹头”，是一种与束发冠同时佩戴的围扎在额前用以压发束额的首饰。而杨译chaplet是指花冠串珠之类的饰物，英文读者可能很难想象一个打扮讲究的小伙子把chaplet戴在头上的样子。而霍译headband则是在英美等国家中常见的一种扎在头上的束发带，能够使读者立刻产生与抹额相似的意象，这可以说

是归化译法中成功的一例。从这两例可以看出，杨译以原文为中心，尽量采取直译的方法以达到简洁和忠实的目的。霍译则以目的语读者为中心，使用归化和意译的方法比较多，因此他的译文往往更容易被英文读者接受。