Recreating The Peaceful Discourse Of Prose:A Practice Report On The English Translation Of Peaceful Life (Excerpts)

This is a reflective report based on the translation of Bai Luomei,a woman writer’s prose collection,Peaceful Life.The excerpted material is the first 11 sections of the Book,which are primarily about the writer’s life,the free and easy state at her heart.In translating Peaceful life,the author encountered four kinds of diction that made the translation arduous.They are Buddhist terms,hyponyms,abstract words(in this article not including Buddhist terms)and semantic zero respectively.Firstly,characterized by strong religion and profound culture,some texts of Buddhist terms and semantic zero were timeconsuming.Secondly,as for some hyponyms,they need to be translated in accordance with some given circumstances,while for others,literal translation is more suitable.The author spent a lot of time for both ways.Thirdly,some abstract words,just as the name implies,were too ambiguous to catch their points,which largely influenced the accuracy of translating.This report discusses how to solve translation issues in accordance with the difficulties mentioned above,the purpose of which is to convey the true feeling of original Chinese prose into English.Based on specific examples,a few translation methods are analyzed to summarize the efforts the author made for the corresponding translation standards and readerfriendly recreation for the target-language readers.To reach the corresponded criteria of translation and make the translation version work well in the target language,such techniques were taken into consideration.In the midst of those translation techniques,literal translation was used much often;at the same time,paraphrase,annotation,shift of perspective and comparative texts made the translation half the work with double results.By adopting proper translation techniques mentioned above,the English version of the excerpts fits the style of English expressions,so are the meanings,which can absolutely enable the target language readers to understand the specific details,cultures,diction and beauty of the source text that are indispensable in this translation project.Nevertheless,there is not so much research about prose translation so far,especially in the area of C-E prose translation.Briefly,this report shows the problems mentioned above that the author encountered in translating the original materials,and gives the corresponding solutions,and finally makes a summary.