A Report On C-E Translation Of Four-Character Phrases

As one of the most complicated languages in the world,the Chinese has many culture-bound words and phrases that may be a great challenge in the C-E translation.Among them,four-character phrases,due to their rhythmic format,high frequency and profound meaning,are especially difficult since they require an in-depth understanding of the Chinese culture during translation.This report studies the translation of four-character phrases in The Taste of Shanxi.This is a book on Chinese food culture,and contains a great number of food-related four-character phrases.During the translation process,the translator tries to realize the expected function of translation in the target language culture under the guidance of the Skopos theory.There are one hundred and fifty four-character phrases in nine chapters taken from The Taste of Shanxi.And twenty-eight of them are sorted out,classified,and analyzed as typical cases in this report.Translation methods,namely omission,literal translation and free translation are adopted according to language features.Based on the analysis of the problems encountered in translation process,principles and useful tips are summarized and put forward according to the features and style of the text,so as to help future translation of similar texts.