A Report On The Chinese-English Translation Of Rhinoceros In Love(Excerpt)

Drama,a special form of literature,is one of the most essential constituents of human civilization.It is an ancient performing art that was born even before written language.However,the translation of drama emerged at the latest among four literary genres—poetry,fiction,drama and prose.In China,drama translation studies,especially drama translation under the performability principle have been seldom touched upon.Thus,it is of great value to delve into the relevant researches.The source text of this translation report comes from a drama play Rhinoceros in Love.Based on the drama translation practice,this report intends to explore drama translation strategies under the performability principle.The report consists of five chapters.Chapter One describes the background of this translation practice including its significance and objective.It also introduces the source text and the translation process.Chapter Two mainly reviews the previous studies on performability.It is revealed that a theoretical framework for the performability principle is absent.Hence,it is necessary to establish a feasible theoretical framework for the performability principle.Chapter Three proposes three dimensions of the performability principle,namely speakability,actability and acceptability.The interpretations about the three dimensions and their relationships are also introduced,making the performability principle systematic and concrete to better guide drama translation.Chapter Four exemplifies the strategies to achieve speakability,actability and acceptability in drama translation,which clarifies the feasibility of the performability principle.The last chapter arrives at conclusions based on the previous discussions.From the analyses,conclusions can be drawn as follows.Under the performability principle:first of all,to achieve speakability,literal translation and liberal translation are suggested to deal with oral expressions,which enable the language of the translation become terse and colloquial.Besides,agile dispositions of rhyming patterns and flexible employment of alliteration are of great effectiveness to enhance the musicality of the translation.Second,actability can be achieved from two aspects,i.e.triggering physical movement and presenting psychological activity.Verbalization and completion of action logic can make action-loaded expressions explicit in translation.Thus,physical movements can be triggered.In addition,translators should tactically employ proper tenses to present the characters' psychological activity.Third,to achieve acceptability,acculturation is adopted to produce idiomatic expressions in English.Moreover,translators should also imitate the parodied style and sentence structure of the original to reproduce the amusing effect that can be well-received by the audience.This report,based on the principle of performability,presents the strategies to translate dramas.By offering a drama translation which achieves speakability,actability and acceptability,the author demonstrates the feasibility of the performability principle to guide drama translation.It is hoped that this report can provide reference for drama translators.