A Report On The Translation Of Captions Of Cultural Relics In Tianjin Museum

With the progress of Tianjin's opening-up to the outside world,a growing number of visitors from foreign countries come to Tianjin on a visit,on a study tour or for cultural exchanges.Tianjin Museum,the window for cultural communication,is one of the must-see places in their visiting Tianjin.For the convenience of the visitor in understanding and learning Chinese culture and history,the Museum have decided to provide their collected cultural relics with English captions and thus they have entrusted me,the author to carry out this task.The report is just composed based on English translation of Chinese captions for cultural relics in Tianjin Museum.The report consists of four parts.The first part offers an overview of the task description,including the task introduction and the feature of the original text.The second part describes in detail the task preparation,translation process and proof-reading.In this part,the author especially discusses the translation mode of Vinay and Darbelnet and the feasibility of application of the translation mode into translation practice.The third part is case analysis.The analysis is made based on examples selected from the translated text in aspects of word level and sentence level.In terms of word level,when translating four-character phrases,rare words and cultural relic terms,the author proposes to adopt the methods of “borrowing”,“literal translation”,“equivalence” and “ adaptation” respectively.In terms of sentence level,in translating paratactic sentences and sentences with figures of speech,the author suggests separately employing the translation methods of “calque”,“equivalence” and “modulation”.The last part is a summary of the translation practice,including the experience gained through the practice,the problems that need to be overcome and the recommendations for the translator.