A Report On The Translation Of Salem Possessed(Chapter 1-2)under The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

This is a translation report.The translated text is the first and second chapters selected from the Salem Possessed,which was written by American historians,Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum.This book discusses the background information and influences of the Salem Witch trials.Even though this event happened in the Salem town of New England in the 17th century,it is influential and famous all over the world.It has been studied as a hot research subject by many scholars in the world.From this point of view,translation of the Salem Possessed has its academic and practical significances.However,it was not translated into Chinese up to now.There is no doubt that Chinese version of this book will help domestic academia to analyze this event.Therefore,selecting this book as a translation text is a meaningful attempt.The historical work has its own characteristics.In terms of this text,it has distinctive features of historical text.There are lots of professional words and long and complex sentences in this text.How to master the features of source text correctly and translate them into proper Chinese is a big challenge for the translator.Therefore,a qualified translation version should present the writing styles and language features of original text on the basis of expressing original information accurately,which corresponds with the functional equivalence theory,put forward by the American translator Eugene Nida.This report analyses the translation difficulties and strategies of the words and long and complex sentences with some typical examples based on the functional equivalence theory.The translation difficulties mainly involve in the translation of names of people and places,culture-loaded words,polysemy and long and complex sentences.In order to achieve the functional equivalence in translating the words,conversion of part of speech,transliteration and annotation are adopted in the translation.In order to obtain the functional equivalence in translating long and complex sentences,the translator adopts some strategies,such as following the original order,division,reversion and conversion.While translating the long and complex sentences and some culture-loaded words,the translator should consider the writing styles and cultural background of the source text and make it in accordance with the style and meaning of the target text.The translator expects to enrich her cultural knowledge,accumulate her experience of translation and improve her translation ability in translation.In addition,the translator clearly understands that the translation theory has highly guiding function in the translation practice.It is helpful for the translator to improve the quality of translation version.