The Application And Supplement Of Aixelá’s Translation Strategies For Culture-specific Items

Influenced and shaped by specific cultures,languages contain many cultural elements.Translation,as the bridge of cultural exchange,will unavoidably encounter problems caused by cultural differences.How to reproduce the specific cultural elements in the translated version,convey a more accurate cultural information,and eliminate barriers that hinder target readers from comprehending as much as possible,are big challenges for translators.In this translation practice project,The Night Tiger(2019)is selected.It is a historical novel of magical realism written by Yangsze Choo(1973-),a Malaysian writer of Chinese descent.The story is set in British Malaya in the 1930s,presenting to readers a world of mystery and diversified cultures.Various culture-specific items(CSIs)appearing in this novel increase the difficulty of its translation.Therefore,this translation practice report focuses on the feasible translation strategies for CSIs in The Night Tiger.On the basis of relevant resources and literature,the author firstly divides the CSIs in The Night Tiger into three categories:Western CSIs,Malay CSIs,and Chinese CSIs according to characteristics of their contents.Different types of CSIs need to be treated with different strategies.When translating,the author mainly applies the strategies summarized by Spanish translator Javier Franco Aixela such as extra-textual gloss,intra-textual gloss,naturalization,absolute universalization,and repetition.As for those relatively distinctive Malay words,the author also adds pertinent handling methods including exploring internal evidence of the text,adopting the pre-established translation,and transliterating plus labelling semantic category with Chinese characters,etc.For those CSIs related to Chinese culture,the author chooses to carefully find external evidence,and borrow or draw on idiomatic Chinese expressions.By illustrating characteristics of different strategies with specific examples,the author hopes to provide reference and help for the translation of Malaysian English literature,especially for the handling of CSIs.It should be noted that the translation strategies for CSIs must be flexibly adjusted in accordance with the features of the text,and appropriate strategies are determined by the translator according to the actual situation.