A Report On The E-C Translation Of Excerpts From The Letters Of Samuel Beckett(Ⅰ)

The Letters of Samuel Beckett was listed as one of important books to be published according to the 13th Five Year Plan of China in 2016,the year of Samuel Beckett’s 110th birthday.Consisting of four volumes,this book was first published in English.Translating these letters into Chinese can provide more firsthand material and information about Beckett which will enable domestic experts to study Beckett and his works from new perspectives.Thus,the E-C translation of the book implies significant value both in literature and academic research.It is much meaningful for me to join the translation group and translate the first volume of The Letters of Samuel Beckett under my supervisor’s instruction.The author excerpted the first eleven letters from The Letters of Samuel Beckett(Volume I)as translation texts and tried to conclude translation methods and skills by analyzing the difficulties within the text.Translating proper nuns and reproducing the style of Beckett’s writing and notes by editors are two main roadblocks during the process.Various proper nuns,like names,places,organizations and book tiles,etc.,crowd in the text.They should be translated under the guide of formal standard.Moreover,the letters and their notes are written in totally different style:the former represents Becket’s own linguistic features while the later aiming to explain shows much explication by editors.To solve the former problem,the author adopted the method of transliteration and literal translation under the guide of domesticating strategy.In some cases,conventional translations were used to avoid ambiguity.Meanwhile,the author summarized the general techniques for style translating,namely,analyzing the structure of original text,then find out style markers,and resorting to the most appropriate methods.This paper is aimed to put forward translation methods and provide valuable suggestions for those who would translate the last three volumes of The Letters of Samuel Beckett,especially for those who would translate texts of the same kind.