A Translation Report On Twelve Years A Slave(Excerpts)

This translation practice is based on excerpts of Twelve Years a Slave, a memoir and slave narrative written by Solomon Northup who was a black man. The novel details the twelve years slave life of Northup who was born free in New York but kidnapped in Washington,D.C. and subsequently sold into slavery. This translation practice mainly adopts domestication strategy so as to enable the target language readers to have a better understanding of the original, as well as to enhance the readability and appreciation of the translation. While on the other hand, foreignization strategy is somewhere used to maintain the original meanings of the culture-specific words so that the readers can learn the western culture. Therefore, domestication and foreignization are combined consistently in the whole translation process.This thesis, which is composed of four parts: the task description, the process, the case study and the conclusion, is a translation report based on the translating of Chapter 10 and Chapter 14 of Twelve Years a Slave. The first two parts are an introduction of the source text: the background and signification, the translation strategy and the translation preparations. And the third part is the most important in which the translator demonstrates how the domestication and foreignization are employed in the detailed cases. The conclusion is drawn in the end to point out the gains and limitations about the translation, and suggestions for future translators.