Report On The Translation Of Bonjour Babar!by Jean De Brunhoff

Bonjour, Babar! is the children’s literature translated by the author independently during the graduate life. It has been published by Beijing United Publishing Co, Ltd. In 1931, Jean de Brunhoff, the French artist and children’s literature writer started creating Babar’s stories. This series of children’s picture books have swept the world for 80 more years. Now they are still the international bestsellers. Since then, Babar’s stories have been translated into at least 13 languages. This translation report includes the introduction, study and summary of the English to Chinese translation of Bonjour, Babar! With the analysis of some cases, the report explores the suitable translation strategies and methods for the children’s literature. The paper can be divided into four main parts as shown below:Part 1 introduces the background of the translation task, the translation requirements by the client, and the nature of the text; Part 2 describes the preparation work, the translation process, the translation plan implementation, reviewing, quality controlling, and the evaluation made by the client; Part 3 is the key part of this report. Aiming at the functions of children’s literature, it analyses some related translation cases, and points out that the translation of children’s literature should be guided by the suitable translation strategies and methods—“Translate literally, if possible, or appeal to free translation” and “Domesticate mainly with the assistance of foreignizing”; while aiming at the reproduction of style, it analyses some related translation cases and discusses two important translation methods “pursue the literary flavours when translating the narrative discourse” and “highlight the breath of life when translating the dialogues”; Part 4 summarizes the experience, perception and insights during this translation practice, as well as some enlightenment, which can teach us how to do better in the future translations.