Common Problems And Strategies In Chinese Translation Of Creolised English

This is a report on the Chinese translation of the creolised English novel Moses Ascending.This novel is the second part of the famous "Moses trilogy"by the Trinidadian British writer Samuel Selvon,and depicts the life of West Indian immigrants in post-colonial London.The protagonist Moses,climbing up the social ladder after years of struggling and saving in the prequel The Lonely Londoners,is forced to participate in "black power",illegal smuggling,and in the end betrayed by his friends and servants and goes back to the basement.The novel has great value in both language and social influence for its unique usage of Creolised English and emphasis on races,social ranks,and power relations between the colonizer and the colonized.Up to the present,the book has not had any Chinese translation.In contrast to standard English,Creolised English in Moses Ascending has many distinctive linguistic and stylistic features.Despite the lack of sufficient previous studies and researches on Creolised English and its translation,this translation practice is finished based on analysing the intention of the original author,drawing lessons from foreignization and multilingual texts translation,and thus deciding the translation strategy for each distinct language phenomenon.Certain language usages uncommonly seen in standard Chinese are selected on purpose,in order to recreate the reading experience of the source text readers.This report is a study of a chosen excerpt of Moses Ascending,aiming at finding common problems and strategies in translating Creolised English.This report presents the translation task,including an introduction to the novel Moses Ascending and its author,the pre-translation preparations like the source text selection and necessary material gathering,and the after-translation management like the proof-reading process of the translation.This report also introduces the methodology framework of this translation,including criticism and theories related to the author’s intention of using Creolised English,as well as some translation theories like foreignization and multilingualism translation,which might help determine specific translation strategies of Creolised English in this novel.Finally,this report provides a tentative conclusion on the common problems and corresponding strategies in translating Creolised English.In addition,it also makes some reflections on this translation practice and points out certain limitations.This translation practice does not focus on one single translation strategy.Instead,it draws lessons from foreignization and multilingualism translation and applies different translation strategies to separate cases.In all,the theories from many Chinese and foreign scholars are combined to guide this translation practice of Moses Ascending,which should be regarded as a meaningful literary translation practice and analysis.