A Practice Report On The Translation Of The Shock Of The Fall

In July, 2014, I received the translation task of a British novel The Shock of the Fall,which tells the life course of a boy called Matthew Homes in Bristol from the age of 5 to 20,when he gradually falls into mental dissociation after his brother’s death. This translation practice report is based on the first six sections of my translation of that novel, which contains four parts: description of the translation task, process of the translation, case analysis and reflection on translation practice.In the first chapter, I talk about the source of this translation task, and give a brief introduction of the novel’s content and writing features. In the second chapter, I review the process of preparing and translating. The third chapter is the core of this practice report,which consists of four parts. In the first part, I generalize the three translation principles put forward by Lin Yutang, namely, faithfulness, smoothness and beauty, which are regarded as my analyzing guide. In the second part, I make an analysis of my own translation with some translation skills(“choosing proper words”, “negation” and “using four-character structure”),which are respectively in accordance with the three translation principles. In the third part, I list some problems(form of address, difficult headlines and borrowed words) and corresponding solutions(referring to published translation, analyzing the source text in the context and making notes). In the fourth part, I summarize some mistakes noticed in proofreading. The last chapter is the summary, in which I talk about my reflection, including the importance of preparation, the usage of Trados2011 CAT, and that “where there is translation, there is no limit, but practical ways”.