A Report On The Chinese Translation Of History Of The Roman Empire(Part 2:Chapters5-6)

The materials for this translation practice come from Thomas Keightleys’ book History of The Roman Empire.The translator is responsible for the translation of Chapters 5 and 6 in the second volume of this book.These two chapters mainly describe the history from the first barbarian emperor Maximin to Diocletian of the Roman Empire.During hundreds of years,there were countless riots in the Roman Empire.Diocletian ended the crisis of the third century and established the Tetrarchy,making it the main political system in the late Roman Empire.In the process of completing this translation,the translator analyzes the type of this text,which is an informational text with the literary meaning.The translator takes the German functionalist translation theory as the main guiding theory,especially the three principles: the principle of purpose,faithfulness and coherence,which play an essential role in the translation process.Under the guidance of the three principles of functionalist translation theory,the translator has adopted different translation methods to address these difficult points,such as literal translation,free translation and addition.Additionally,the translator has introduced the key and difficult points in the translation process through some examples,such as the translation of words;the translation of terms,including personal names and place names;the translation of culturally-loaded words and some long and complex sentences.This translation practice not only improves the capabilities of the translator,but also expands the knowledge.Through this translation practice,the translator realizes that different translation theories should be used as guidances,and the translator should use different translation methods according to the specific translation theory in the face of different translation materials in the future.In addition,the translator realizes that there still exist many shortcomings which need to overcome in the process of translation.