A Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of Four Selected Entries In Oxford Encyclopedia Of African Thought(Excerpt)

With the booming of globalization in the 21 st century,the African Continent is drawing worldwide attention.Whereas the research on African politics and economy has developed over the past few years,the correlated study on African culture and ideology is only shared by a few scholars.Since a deeper insight into the study of African thought provides a more comprehensive and profound outlook on Africa,the author has translated the comprehensive works of this specific realm to shed light on the understanding of African thought and culture.Basically,the Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought is a typical type of informative encyclopedia text,including myriad entries ranging from philosophy,religion,anthropology,theology,political thought,etc.In this paper,the four selected entries from this encyclopedia are: Harry Thuku,Julius Nyerere,Pan-Africanism and Human Rights.These four entries mainly focus on the cultural movement and historical events with regard to African thought as well as introducing lifetime achievements of notable political figures involved.As a typical non-literary text,the source text features professionalism,complex syntax structure,myriad terminology and so on,which requires translators to timely polish their output.The purpose of this translation report is to make an in-depth study of the challenges and difficulties encountered in translation as well as analyzing the translation strategies or methods applied in this process.During the process of translating the selected entries,the author’s primary concern is to properly use the translation theory and techniques.This translation report elaborates on the use of punctuation marks,the flexible use of Chinese Four Characters Words in vocabulary translation,and focus on the ethics and personal standpoint of translators;As for sentence translation,the author probes into the translation under different circumstances and analyzes the process of applying corresponding translation techniques(for instance,to use free translation,adverse translation,to adjust sentence structure and sequence)to settle the case.All in all,the purpose is to bridge the gap between English source text and Chinese output.The author would like to master the relevant translation techniques of the E-C translation of informative encyclopedia texts through this translation practice as well as deepening people’s understanding on African thought.