A Report On The Translation Of The Nickel Boys (Excerpts) Under The Guidance Of Skopos Theory

The source text of the translation practice is the prologue and the first three chapters of The Nickel Boys written by Colson Whitehead in 2019,which is about the ups and downs of the hero—Elwoods.This translation practice hopes to arouse people’s thinking about racial discrimination that still exists in the United States and other parts of the world again.Under the guidance of the Skopos theory,the translator makes a summary of the translation practice mentioned above from the three rules,that is,the skopos rule,the coherence rule and the fidelity rule,of the Skopos theory.According to the skopos rule,the translator mainly adopts free translation and four-character phrases to ensure that the target text conforms to the reading habits of the Chinese readers.As far as the coherence rule is concerned,the translator uses division,inversion,omission and conversion to make the target text fluent and coherent.According to the fidelity rule,the translator employs annotation and amplification to make the target text faithful.All in all,the translator flexibly adopts a variety of translation methods based on the three rules of the Skopos theory to ensure that the target readers can cross the linguistic and cultural barriers and accurately understand the meaning the source text aims to convey.This translation practice can not only provide useful experience and lessons for the translator in his future career,but also reference for how to both fully convey the source text of the novel and make the target language understandable and acceptable for the target readers from the perspective of the Skopos theory.