頂真，又名“頂針”、“聯(lián)珠”、“蟬聯(lián)”或“鏈?zhǔn)浇Y(jié)構(gòu)”，是用前句末尾的詞語(yǔ)作為后句開(kāi)頭的詞語(yǔ)，或用前段最末的句子作為后段開(kāi)頭的句子，能令語(yǔ)氣連貫，表意清新，上遞下接，環(huán)環(huán)相扣。頂真能使句子聯(lián)系緊密，反映事物間的辯證關(guān)系，又能表達(dá)回環(huán)復(fù)沓的思想感情，增強(qiáng)節(jié)奏感。

英語(yǔ)修辭格“anadiplosis” (epanastrophe)的格式與作用同漢語(yǔ)的頂真是一樣的，如：

例 1：It's the profit now, not the product. Half the time, we cheat the foremen, the foremen cheat the management, the management cheats the customers. (J. B. Priestley：The Future of the English)

（參考譯文:現(xiàn)在重要的是利潤(rùn)，而不是產(chǎn)品。經(jīng)常是我們欺騙工頭，工頭欺騙廠方，廠方欺騙顧客。）

例 2: He retained his virtues amidst all his misfortunes —— misfortunes which no prudence could foresee or prevent.

（參考譯文：他身處逆境仍保持其美德——深謀遠(yuǎn)算所無(wú)法預(yù)知和預(yù)防的逆境。）

既然這一修辭方式在漢英兩種語(yǔ)言體系中存在共性，那么，是不是頂真一定可以譯為Anadiplosis呢？下面，我們就從曹雪芹對(duì)甄士隱一家生活環(huán)境的描寫(xiě)入手，分析兩位譯者對(duì)《紅樓夢(mèng)》頂真辭格的翻譯。

1) 這閶門(mén)外有個(gè)十里街，街內(nèi)有個(gè)仁清巷，巷內(nèi)有個(gè)古廟，因地方窄狹，人皆呼作葫蘆廟。廟旁住著一家鄉(xiāng)宦，姓甄，名費(fèi)，字士隱。 (第一回）

這石上所云文字，猶如電影中的遠(yuǎn)景——近景——特寫(xiě)鏡頭一 般，按照從大到小，由遠(yuǎn)及近的次序，流暢自然、條理清晰地展現(xiàn)在讀者面前。這段文字之所以具有這樣好的修辭效果，無(wú)疑應(yīng)歸因于作者在句中運(yùn)用了頂真：街——街、巷——巷、廟——廟，三次銜接，不僅富有音律美，而且語(yǔ)言緊湊，邏輯嚴(yán)密。

那么，這種緊湊、連貫的語(yǔ)言，能否從形式到內(nèi)容，“移植”到譯入語(yǔ)之中呢？

楊譯：

Outside this Chang-men Gate was a certain Ten-li Street, off which ran the Lane of Humanity and Purity; and in this lane stood an old temple, which being built in such a narrow space was known from its shape as Gourd Temple. Beside this temple lived a gentleman named Zhen Fei, Whose courtesy name was Shiyin.

霍譯：

Outside the Chang-men Gate is a wide thoroughfare called Worldly Way; and somewhere off Worldly Way is an area called Carnal Lane. There is an old temple in the Carnal Lane area which, because of the way it is bottled up inside a narrow Cul-de-Sac，is referred to locally as Bottle-gourd Temple. Next door to Bottle-gourd Temple lived a gentleman of private means called Zhen Shi-yin ...