A Report On The Translation Of Understanding Poetry(Excerpts)

This report is based on the E-C translation of Understanding Poetry(excerpt),co-authored by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren,two most important figures of American New Criticism in the 1930 s and 1940 s.Having been widely used in American universities as an extremely influential literature textbook since its 1st edition,Understanding Poetry has not yet had a Chinese version so far.Under the direction and requirement from her supervisor,the translator chose its preface as the source text,and aimed to carry out a tentative E-C translation for this classic textbook,with the hope of providing the Chinese readers with some easy references.In view of the target reader and the feature of the book,the preface specifically,Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory(FET)was applied as the theoretical guidance to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the translation task.There are five parts in the report.The first part is Task Description,which gives an introduction to the source textbook,the authors of the book,the necessity of doing the task and the relevant task requirements.The second part describes the translation process,including the preparation,the specific translation process and the post-translation quality control.The third part introduces Nida's Functional Equivalence Theory and its basic principles.The fourth part is the main body of the report,in which the employed translation methods and skills are carefully analyzed from levels of lexis,syntax,text and stylistics,with “equivalence” as the most necessary and important concern in light of the feature of this specific translating task and its supposed target.The fifth part is Conclusion.The translation process and the applied strategies are generalized and summarized;the applicability and guidance of the FET for such a textbook translation are restated and reaffirmed.Some inevitable inefficiencies of the practice are also pointed out in the hope of improving and shaping the like future translations.