Textual Verification And Back Translation

James Legge,a famous British sinologist in the 19th century,systematically translated classical works of the Confucian school,entitled The Chinese Classics,of which the second volume is Mencius.He wrote a 123-page-long prolegomena.It provides rich background information about the Book.Of all the four chapters,the author chose the second part of Chapter Two(about 15000 words)for the translation practice.This part is the core of the prolegomena,containing the introduction and comment on Mencius’ thought and his influence.To make his arguments more convincing,Legge made extensive quotations of many ancient books.Undoubtedly,it is difficult to translate such an academic work.The translator needs not only to be familiar with Mencius and the social,historical and cultural background in which Mencius lived,but also to have good knowledge of ancient Chinese literature.When translating proper nouns,quotations and important historical facts,the translator needs to check and verify those information before they can be back-translated accurately.This is the process of textual verification.Very often such textual verification is an inevitable accompanying ask for translators of highly academic works.This paper is a preliminary attempt.I hope that some"findings" in this paper will be of some help to those who would like to be engaged in the translation of sinological academic works in the future.This paper is a translation report,which roughly consists of four parts:introduction,task description,case analysis and conclusion.Chapter One introduces James Legge,the prolegomena and significance of the study;Chapter Two introduces before-translating preparation,while-translating process and the key issues to be solved;Chapter Three is case study and Chapter Four is conclusion.Chapter Three,the core of this report,focuses on the textual verification in translation practice.For the verification of these details,first of all,searching on the Internet can conduct basic queries and narrow the scope of the verification.However,the translator should pay attention to the credibility of website information in the process of searching,and verify the relevant information.When doing textual verification on proper nouns,it is necessary to consult parallel texts;when doing textual verification on quotations,the quotations should firstly be understood accurately.Then we can locate the source of the quotation by searching the keywords on Internet,and then consult authoritative literature for confirmation;when doing textual verification on historical facts,authoritative documents are needed to confirm historical facts.In the process of translation,textual verification is of great significance for correct understanding and accurate representation of the original text.