A Report On C-e Translation Of Teahouses In Chengdu (Excerpt) From The Perspective Of Translation Memetics

This report is a translation report based on Teahouses in Chengdu,one of the series of books with the topic of Chengdu’s memory.Under the guidance of translation memetics proposed by Andrew Chesterman,it discusses different methods adopted while translating three typical kinds of memes of this type of material.Mr.He Xiaozhu,the author of the source text,introduces the culture of teahouses in Chengdu including its development and influence in his book through relevant researches and on-site visits.No English version has been found yet after an extensive search.The report categorizes the main types of memes of the source text by analyzing its characteristics including unique objects and specific regions in China,dialects of Chengdu,culture-loaded terms,and long sentences.Translation methods for three kinds of memes are summarized from the perspective of three professional norms(accountability norm,communication norm,relation norm)proposed by Chesterman based on Toury’s theory of translation norms.Firstly,the translator can select methods like transliteration and addition to be accountable for the uniqueness of tangible objects and specific places.Secondly,the translator should serve as a communicator while translating memes carrying with Chinese culture by adopting strategies like annotation,paraphrase,and word-for-word translation to ensure that memes can be understood and accepted by hosts,the target readers,and transmitted further.Thirdly,the translator can decide the relationships between the source text and target text by imitation of forms of strong memes,division,and change of word order according to the style of the original text and other factors.In general,the translator can choose different strategies for different kinds of memes according to the three professional norms.Guided by the theory of translation memetics,the author attempts to provide a reference for study of the translation of cultural texts and further research on the theory of translation memetics through discusses and illustrations in this report.