A Report On The E-C Translation Practice Of The Story Of Tea:A Cultural History And Drinking Guide(Excerpts)

This report is based on the translation of the book The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide which was coauthored by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J.Heiss.In this report,sections “Tea Culture in China”,“Tea Culture in Tibet” and “Tea and China's Great Religions” are selected as source text and translated into Chinese.After analyzing the characteristics of the source text,the author noticed that its language is formal and rigorous.In addition,the text contains many culture-loaded words and phrases as well as some ancient Chinese poems and titles of books.And the sentences in the text are tend to be long and complex.Based on these characteristics,the author employs Nida's“functional equivalence” as guiding theory.This theory holds that the translated text should be the closest natural equivalent of the source text,first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.Under the guidance of this theory,the author adopts “domestication predominating over foreignization” as translation strategy and analyzes the source text from lexical,syntactic and textual levels.In the course of translation,the author finds that it is feasible to apply Nida's “functional equivalence” theory to expository cultural works such as The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide.Furthermore,when it comes to the translation of culture-loaded words or phrases as well as ancient Chinese poems and titles of books,back translation can be the best method.Last but not the least,during translation,due attention should be paid to differences in the written words between Chinese and English,so as to provide a good rendition for target language readers.