Lattice dynamical calculations of ice VIII have been carried out by using a slightly modified set of force constants obtained recently for ice Ih (Li J C and Ross D K 1993 Nature 365 327). A weak interaction was introduced between the two interpenetrated sublattices in the ice VIII structure. The calculated results for H2O and D2O ice VIII are in reasonable agreement with the measured inelastic neutron scattering spectra. The eigenvectors of phonon modes in the range of translational and librational bands have been studied in order to understand the properties of the vibrational modes. It is found that the third peak at 26.7meV in the translation results from weak hydrogen bond interactions,and the first peak (14.7meV) is much higher than it is in ice Ih (～7.1meV), which is partially due to the interactions between the two sublattices.