A Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of Seneca And The Idea Of Tragedy (Excerpt)

The translation report is based on the English-Chinese translation of American Classicist,Gregory A.Staley’s Seneca and the Idea of Tragedy(Introduction & Chapter1).This book explores the inherent motivation and poetics underlying Seneca’s tragedies.It is a text on critical theories.There are a variety of literary and cultural elements in the source text,such as concepts and terms of western poetics,periscopes in relevant classical tragedies,god names,and allusions in Greek and Roman mythology.These all embody “the foreign” in language and style.The translator chooses Berman’s “negative analytic” theory to guide and test the translation task.According to the theory,the ethical aim of translation is “receiving the Foreign as Foreign”.Berman puts forward twelve “deforming tendencies” that prevent translation from being “a trial of the foreign”.In addition,Berman proposes his own “literal translation”.This translation task here is an attempt to expand the application of this theory in the English-Chinese translation of western critical theories.In light of Berman’s “negative analytic” theory,the author illustrates how some unnecessary deforming tendencies are avoided through “literal translation” in the translation process.Through the task,the translator finds that the true value of translation,especially literary translation(in the broad sense)is “receiving the Foreign as Foreign”.There are quite a number of deforming tendencies that prevent translation from “the trial of the foreign” in the translation task.“Negative analytic” theory can remind the translator of avoiding unnecessary or excessive deforming tendencies in the translation,and thus producing the target text closer to the source text in language and style.