A Report On The Translation Of Western Translation Theory:from Herodotus To Nietzsche(from Page 29 To Page 40)

The sources of the translation report are excerpts from Western Translation Theory from Herodotus to Nietzsche from page 29 to page 40.The translation parts include the introductions of eight translators ranging from 4th century to the mid-tenth century approximately.Each unit contains three parts.The first part is life introduction such as family background,religious belief,and political career and so on.The second part is major achievements,which include translation thoughts and works.The third part is annotations.The translation difficulties mainly focus on words and sentences level,which mainly include proper nouns as well as long and complicated sentences.For words level,there exist plenty of proper nouns(names of people,places,and titles in ancient Greece and monasteries)and specific usage words in Bible(quantities of book names in Bible).For sentence level,complicated and long sentences in the translation material and sentences in Bible are also complex.The translation report enables the author to have a further understanding of western translation theories from 4th century to the mid-tenth century and translation shift theory to conduct translation practice in the future.In terms of western translation theory,the translation of translation theories of 8 translators and their works avails the translator of profound comprehension of the translation theories at that time.In addition,the report mainly focuses on translation shift theory.Two types of shifts(level shifts and category shifts)including structural shifts,class shifts and unit shifts are conductive to translation practice.The translation task is based on the theory of translation shift and strategies of John Catford who emphasizes the importance of paying attention to contents rather than complete correspondence in language form.The translation report consists of four parts.The first part is description of the translation task,which includes the backgrounds and features of the task.The second part is description of the translation process,which compromises pre-translation preparation,translation process,and post-translation quality control.The third part is case analysis,which contains theoretical basis,translation problems,and translation strategies and methods from the perspectives of level shifts and category shifts(structural shifts,class shifts and unit shifts).The last part is summary of the translation practice,which discusses the problems to be solved and implications.The translation report has certain research significance.For readers,they will have a better understanding of the western translation theories before 20 th century as well as Catford’s translation shift theory so as to facilitate the application of the translation shift theory into practice.Apart from these,for the East and the West,the book has not been translated completely by anyone yet,thus the translation of it will facilitate the communication of translation theories between China and western countries to further enrich and push the development of Chinese translation theories.