A Report On E-C Translation Of Indistractable (Excerpts) Based On Newmark’s Communicate Translation Theory

As an English-Chinese translation report of informative text,this article selects its translation materials from Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life,which covers such fields as psychology,business and technology and tries to unravel the confusion encountered by readers in their attention management,while appealing readers to think,feel and act.In the process of translation,the author has encountered five difficulties: translation of terminologies,translation of abstract nouns,translation of long sentences,translation of passive-voice sentences,and translation of positive and negative sentences.In terms of vocabulary,the terminologies are numerous and complex,and the meanings of abstract nouns are void,vague,obscure and incomprehensible.In terms of sentence,there are many long sentences with ambiguous semantic logics,objective passive sentences that frequently use recipients to express the passive voice,and positive and negative sentences that are not clear enough to express the author’s points of view.All these difficulties deliver certain obstacles to the translation of the source text.According to Newmark’s opinion,communicative translation is applied to the translation of informative texts.Therefore,in the process of translation,the author has paid much attention to the communication of information and the feelings of the target readers.Given the above difficulties with translation,the author adopts different approaches under the guidance of communicative translation theory.For translation of terminology,the methods of translation plus annotation and free translation are used to ensure the accuracy of information.For translation of abstract nouns,the skill of conversion of parts of speech is adopted to acquire clear and smooth translation.For translation of long sentences,the skill of order adjustment is adopted to comply with Chinese thinking logics.For translation of passive sentences,the skill of voice conversion is adopted to cater to the readers’ subjective consciousness.For translation of positive and negative sentences,the skill of positive-negative translation is adopted to avoid tortuous and indirect translatedtexts.The utilization of these methods and skills enables the translation to fully convey the original information,while taking into account the readers’ feelings in their reading.Hopefully,this report would provide some reference for other translators engaged in translation of informative texts.