A Report On The Back-translation Of Myths And Legends(Excerpts) In The Chinese Repository

The English periodical The Chinese Repository,published in Canton from May1832 to 1851,introduces all aspects of Chinese society to protestant missionaries in the Far East including politics,economy,culture and religion.This repository,started by foreigners,is exalted as the longest-running English periodical with greatest impacts on China during the Opium War.So,it is a significant publication for Chinese to know Chinese history during the Opium War more precisely and at the same time,understand foreign missionaries’ attitude towards ancient Chinese society.The excerpts of myths and legends in The Chinese Repository are translated from the Sow Shin Ke,a compilation of Chinese myths and legends of gods,ghosts,and other supernatural phenomena.American missionaries including John Lewis Shuck,Samuel Wells Williams and Elijah Coleman Bridgman try their best to exhibit Chinese religious belief to the world through their translations of the Sow Shin Ke.However,it cannot be denied that their translations confuse both Chinese and foreign readers due to the untranslatibility of different cultures.So,in order to restore contents of the original Sow Shin Ke as much as possible in the back-translation,the translator preserves some pragmatic features of ancient Chinese myths and legends and at the same time,considering the reading habit of present Chinese readers,the translator also utilizes sentences of some modern texts in the translation.For this purpose,the translator utilizes some strategies of translation such as literal translation,free translation,transliteration,a hybrid of transliteration and free translation,foreignization,and domestication in the back-translation.The original version of the Sow Shin Ke had already been lost and revised for many times.In order to make readers access to the contents in the original Sow Shin Ke as much as possible,the translator searches numerous materials referring to Chinese myths and legends,history,geography and so on before back-translating.This report consists of five parts: task description,process description,back-translation,case study and conclusion.The task description has a brief introduction to The Chinese Repository,the excerpts of myths and legends in The Chinese Repository as well as the translator’s reasons for selecting this text and problems in the translation process.The process description introduces some preparations for this back-translation,such as tools,parallel texts and the author’s schedule.The back-translation introduces its definition,study,significance and classification.The case study narrates pragmatic features of Chinese myths and legends first and then analyzes some cases about how the translator utilizes translation strategies in the back-translation of the Sow Shin Ke in The Chinese Repository through some strategies such as literal translation,free translation and transliteration.The final part gives a brief conclusion of this paper including the significance,translation strategies,difficulties and problems of back-translating excerpts of Chinese myths and legends in The Chinese Repository.