A Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of Transferred Epithet In "the Glamour Of The Snow"

This is a translation report with regard to the translation of a short story,“TheGlamour of the Snow”, which was written in1912by an English novelist AlgernonBlackwood. After constant reading and thinking, the translator finds that the mostimpressive feature of this novel is the application of a figure of speech, transferredepithet. Actually, it is quite common to use rhetorical devices in writing a novel, andthe functions are similar in both English and Chinese, that is, to add power to thelanguage by making it more correct, concise, vivid, and beautiful, and to gain a bettereffect of expression. Although there are a lot of differences in English and Chinesecultural background, and in their ways of expression, the application of rhetoricaldevices in novels and its functions are quite the same. It is also called hypallage inEnglish.The application of transferred epithet gives this novel a special glamour, whichis showed by the examples given in the following pages, and is just the thing thetranslator wants to share with Chinese audiences. However, the translation of thosebeautiful sentences is far more difficult than the translator first imagined, because thedelicateness and subtleness of language is beyond the scope of the translator’s control,especially with the lack of enough translation guidance. So the translator read a lot ofrelative books, especially books about methods people used in translating sentenceswith transferred epithet. With the help of the experience of other excellent scholars,the translation work went more and more smoothly, which in turn helped thetranslator to develop his own thoughts and principles in translating transferred epithet.And this is the reason why this paper is necessary.This paper is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is about the introductionof Algernon Blackwood, of the story synopsis, and of the characteristics of this story;the second chapter is about translation preparations; for the topic of this paper is thetranslation of transferred epithet, the third chapter introduces background knowledge,including the definition, types of transferred epithet, as well as translation principles the translator concluded under the guidance of other scholars, and of his owntranslation experience; the fourth chapter is the focus of this report, including someexamples from the source-text, their Chinese version, an analysis about the author’sintention and the translator’s thoughts of translation, as well as a comparison aboutthe translation effect; the fifth chapter is a conclusion about the translation of thisnovel, and about the precious knowledge, as well as valuable translation experiencethe translator gained.