约翰.高尔斯华绥名著翻译报告

Chapter One   Introduction 

The source text of the translation task came from a “Bilingual Project” launched by Foreign  Language  Teaching  and  Research  Press  (FLTRP),  aiming  at  benefiting  the students  of  Master  of  Translation  and  Interpreting  (MTI)  from  practice  of  translating original English literatures. The translated works of this project will be published. Up to now, FLTRP has formed partnership with many universities, maintaining a long-term and stable relationship between each other. The cooperation relationship between FLTRP and Shandong University of Finance and Economics were officially established in May, 2013. The 13 students in our class have participated in the cooperation project.   Before  being  accepted  as  one  member  of  this  project,  each  student  needs  to complete  a  translation  test  which  requires  translating  about  1000  English  words  to Chinese. The content of the test is from the short story of Maupassant: A sale. Only if the students passed the test, can he/she be allowed formally to participate in the translation project. Fortunately, all the students of our class got the final qualification to the project. The translation task started in May 2013 and the first draft were demanded to deliver to the supervisor by the end of September for further refining and modifying. After  a  preliminary  review  by  FLTRP,  our  first  draft  was  given  feedback  and correction in January, 2014. Then the translator was finalized one month later.  The  given  task  of  the  present  author  is  to  translate  Galsworthy’s  works  including “Evolution”, “Magpie over the Hill”, “That Old-Time Place”, “Felicity”, “Reflections on Our Dislike of Thing as They Are”, “Romance-Three Gleams”, and “Wind in the Rocks”. The  first  three  ones  are  short  stories  and  the  last  four  ones  are  essays.  During  the translation process, the translator has greatly improved translation skills and accumulated largely translation experiences. Pay attention to the quality of the translation version. Firstly, the translation version should avoid being similar with the already existed translations. Once being detected of plagiarism, the student would be directly rejected by FLTRP. Secondly, proper names and other technical terms in the source text should be translated with established standards according to translation manual. Thirdly, the  translation  version  should  be  faithful  to  the  source  text  and  conform  to Chinese expressions. ay attention to the wrongly written Chinese character in translation version. The  similar  Chinese  character  is  one  of  the  main  reasons  that  people  make mistakes  when  writing  and  reading,  so  the  right  form  must  be  chosen  by  the translator, such as “做” and “作”, “的” ,“得” and “地”. Pay attention to punctuations. The most important thing in using punctuation is that correct punctuation should be used according to standard norms, especially colon, quotation mark and dash. The translator should also pay more attention to  punctuation  correspondence  problems  between  source  text  and  translation version. Concerning the above requirements of the project, the translator came up with the following goals which the translation task should achieve. Firstly, the translation should be faithful to the source text and use the proper words to express the source language. Secondly, differences between the Chinese functional words “的”, “得” ,“地” could bedistinguished and applied properly during the translation process. Thirdly, the translation task  should  be  guaranteed  to  be  finished  and  submitted  to  the  entruster  within  the deadline.
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Chapter Two   Translation Process

2.1 Pre-translation
Searching  for  the  author’s  background  information  is  the  necessary  step  for  good translation.  His  works  are  full  of  reflection  on  the  society  and  he  likes  using  sarcastic language, such as in his works of Evolution, Reflections on Our Dislike of Thing as They Are,  That  Old-Time  Place,  and  Wind  in  the  Rocks.  The  other  linguistic  features  of Galsworthy’s works are concise and beautiful, he always offers readers lively and vivid picture of the landscape, using adjectives and adverbs to sketch the beautiful scene. The translator will analyze this writing style in the last chapter of the report.  The  marriage  of  Galsworthy  had  a  far-reaching  impact  on  his  works.  As  the translator mentioned before, Galsworthy’s wife was his cousin’s ex-wife, they fell in love when  Ada  was  still  in  marriage.  Galsworthy  believed  in  free  love,  this  kind  of consciousness  can  be  found  in  Magpie  over  the  Hill  and  Romance-Three  Gleams. Making  a  general  survey  of  the  translation  task  can  get  better  understanding  of Galsworthy’s  style  and  his  linguistic  features.  The  translator  also  had  studied  two Chinese versions of Galsworthy’ s best-known works, The Forsyte Soga, to absorb the experience from the recognized translation versions, so as to learn how to deal with the author’s writing style, linguistic features etc. After learning about the author, the translator needed to read the whole source text thoroughly. In this process, the translator grasped an overall understanding of the source text  and  comprehended  the  works’  linguistic  features.  According  to  Nida  and  Taber, “translating  consists  in  reproducing  in  the  receptor  language  the  closest  natural equivalence of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style (Nida, qtd. In Liao, 40)”. It is primely important for the translator to grasp the writing style of Galsworthy’s works by understanding the source text since writing style is the soul in both the source text and the translation version for literary works. Inaddition, comprehending the texts is the foundation of a high quality translation.  The  translator  read  through  the  whole  source  text  for  several  times  and  marked names of people and place, difficult sentences and words, then went to the dictionary and other translation tools for help. In this step, the most important for the translator is trying to find out all the different meanings of the same word, and then chose the exact meaning of  it.  It  is  worth  mentioning  that  the  translator  had  prepared  an  Oxford  Advanced Learner’s  English-Chinese  Dictionary  as  well  as  other  electronic  dictionary  for  the translation process, because many words have many different meanings. Moreover, the translator  downloaded  some  online  translation  softwares  such  as  Youdao  Dict  and Kingsoft  Powerword  for  understanding  words.  It  is  also  necessary  for  the  translator  to check the webpages such as Google, Baidu and Wikipedia. Dictionaries are indispensable tool in the whole process of the translation.

2.2 During-translation
Translation process is the most important part in the whole task. After the process of preparation,  the  translator  had  got  a  general  comprehension  of  the  source  text.  The mission for the translator in the next step is to express the comprehension of the sourcetext  in  authentic  Chinese.  The  quality  of  the  translation  determines  the  quality  of  the report.  It  took  the  translator  one  month  for  the  first  version.  During  this  process,  the translator paid attention to the original meaning and sentence structure of the source text, and also found out the long and difficult sentences in order to further modify. The quality of the first version was poor because the translator just translated the general meaning of the works without adjusting the sentence structure. The translator preferred to allocate the translation process into two steps: the first step is just to express the source text in Chinese and the second step is to further modify the version in authentic Chinese. When finished the first step, the translator asked one of her  classmates  to  read  the  translation  version  in  order  to  find  unidiomatic  expressions. Then the translator spent two weeks to modify the long and difficult sentences and the unidiomatic  expressions.  When  finished  these  two  steps,  the  translator  read  the translation over and over for further polishing. There  are  many  difficulties  occurred  during  the  translation  process.  Firstly,  the translator found out the weakness with translating long and difficult clauses. Secondly, the  translator  had  problems  with  a  large  amount  of  proper  names  like  those  of  local scenic  attraction,  famous  people,  different  rare  plants  as  well  as  Gods  and  Goddess  in Greek mythology. Thirdly, the translator couldn’t catch the mood of the dialogue in the source text.

Chapter Three   Theoretical Framework•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 10
3.1 Functional Equivalence Theory •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 10
3.2 Four Principles of Translation •••••••••••••••••••••••••• 10
Chapter Four   Case Analysis•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 13
4.1 Lexical Level••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 13
4.2 Syntactic Level•••••••••••••••17
4.2.1 Passive Voice••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 17
4.2.2 Long and Difficult Sentences •••••••••••••••••••••• 19
4.3 Textual Level••••••••••••••••••••••• 21

Chapter Five   Conclusion••••••••••••• 25

Chapter Four   Case Analysis 

4.1 Lexical Level
In Version One ,the translator chose the meaning “改变” to express “move” when see the word “move” and “change”. After read the whole source text twice and consulted the context, the translator realized that the contents of this paragraph don’t mention the significance of “change”, but describe a kind of psychological shock which brought by the  beautiful  scenery.  So  finally  the  translator  chose  the  meaning  “感动”  to  express  “move” in the source text. Version Two expresses the source text as “有谁不为之动情” to give occasion to the sympathetic response.  On  the  lexical  level,  the  theory  in  which  priority  of  contextual  consistency  over verbal consistency is suitable for the translator to select the appropriate meaning for word. From the above examples, it is hard and unavoidable for the translator to choose the right meaning in the receptor language. In conclusion, translated words depended more on the context that upon a fixed system of verbal consistency. Artistry  and  antithesis  are  the  two  basic  requirements  to  Chinese  literary  works, which  need  the  translator  to  select  rhetoric  and  aesthetic  words.  During  this  task  the translator should always comply with the rule of meeting Chinese readers’ reading habits. Chinese  like  to  use  reduplicated  words  and  idioms,  especially  Four-Chinese-Character Structure  to  arouse  an  emotional  reaction.  Four-Chinese-Character  Structure  is  a  good choice  for  the  translator  to  achieve  the  effect,  and  a  very  common  word  formation  in Chinese  culture.  In  order  to  strengthen  the  author’s  mood,  Chinese  intend  to  use Four-Chinese-Character  Structure  which  has  real  meaning  or  just  makes  linguistic symmetry and rhythm expression. The  phrase  “burning  up”  often  means  “烧起来”,  “发怒”  in  Chinese  and  in  this example it is used to describe the blooming flowers with bright color. The main emphasis in  these  sentences  is  the  word  “colour”. In  Version  One,  the  Chinese  character  “炽热” could not express the beautiful scenery of the color. So finally the translator changed “炽热” to “浓烈似火” to convert the simple expression way into powerful expression. 

4.2 Syntactic Level
There are a lot of different expression methods between languages, and there are no exactly  same  expressions  in  English  and  Chinese  because  of  the  different  linguistic systems,  cultural  differences  and  other  reasons.  During  the  long  process  of  learning English, the translator has found more than ten kinds of differences between Chinese and English. In this part, the translator mainly talks about two different aspects, the passive voice in English and active voice in Chinese along with long and difficult sentences in English and simple sentences in Chinese. Translators should notice these differences in translation  process,  especially  in  the  literary  translation.  Organized  by  FLTRP,  the translation version will be published in the form of electronic book for Chinese readers. As Nida said, the translator must attach greater importance to the forms understood and accepted by the audience for which a translation is designed than to the forms which may possess a longer linguistic tradition or have greater literary prestige. So he should take into account what the readers need when they read the translation. In a word, the translator should translate the source text in English into idiomatic Chinese according to the needs of the audience. There  are  many  differences  between  Chinese  and  English  in  the  use  of  voices. Passive voice is widely used in English while it is less used in Chinese. Although there are Chinese characters like “被” and “由” means the action is received passively, but the use  of  passive  voice  is  not  common,  therefore,  the  passive  voice  in  English  often translated into active voice in Chinese.  In the process of analyzing passive voice translation, the translator read through the statistic works of passive voice. Then the translator found four ways to translate passive voice. Firstly, translate passive sentences in English into active sentences in Chinese by keeping the original subject, adding new subject, exchanging the positions of the subjectand predicate. Secondly, translate the passive sentence into sentence with no subject in Chinese. Thirdly, translate it into determinative-sentence. The final way is to translate the sentence into passive voice with Chinese characters like “被” and “由”, etc. 
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Chapter Five   Conclusion

After translation, proofreading, and the process of writing the report, the translator has found that there are many shortcomings that should be overcome in the future, which mainly  includes:  First,  the  translator  should  increase  the  accumulation  of  basic knowledge of English and Chinese for further improvement, and also need to increase the reading quantity in order to develop a better sense of language and literary works. Along with  the  actual  situation  of  the  task,  it  is  very  important  for  translators  to  express  the emotion  of  the  source  text  by  getting  better  understanding  of  the  original  language. Second, the translator should cultivate an accurate understanding of the source text. The comprehension process of the source text is not only a reflection of the text, but also a process of realizing the readers’ feeling. What is important for the translator is to get a full comprehension of the source text that may reflect the author's thoughts in translation. Third, the translator needs to know well of the correct use of Chinese characters “地”, so as to use it correctly in both translation and writing in the future. During  translating  and  writing,  the  translator  not  only  learned  how  to  apply translation theories to the translation practice, but also deepened her understanding the ways  in  which  translation  theories  and  techniques  are  applied  in  the  process  of translating.  
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