A English-Chinese Translation Practical Report Of Letters From Burma

Letters from Burma is a piece of autobiographical work in English.The author narrates the experiences and notes of Aung San Suu Kyi after her release from house arrest in 1995.In the1990 s,Aung San Suu Kyi gradually developed her political philosophy of non-violent resistance,which was profoundly influenced by Buddhist thoughts.Selecting Chapters 1 to 12 of this book including Road to Thamanya,At Thamanya,The Peacock and the Dragon,etc.,this report aims to understand Buddhist thoughts’ influences on Aung San Suu Kyi through translation.Through reading the original text,it is found that its historical background is Myanmar’s social and economic transition period.The visible degree of uniformity between Myanmar people’s life and Buddhism results in their apparent distinction from Chinese in terms of behaviors and habits.So to speak,the cultural difference between the two countries is amazingly obvious.The author completed reading several Buddhist classics and referred to relevant materials of Myanmar to obtain some understanding of the similarities and differences between Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism as well as the life experiences of Aung San Suu Kyi.Based on an analysis of the language and discourse characteristics of the original text,three difficulties of translation are summarized as follows: culture-loaded words,difficulty in translating the text due to cultural gaps,and complex sentence compositions.Guided by Newmark’s translation theory and following the idea of regarding communicative translation as the principal tool while semantic translation as the secondary tool,this report analyzes the target text from vocabulary,sentence,and discourse on the basis of the original text.Meanwhile,for specific parts that are hard to deal with,the original text is translated under the guidance of Newmark’s translation theory.The translation of this report will contribute to Chinese scholars’ study on Aung San Suu Kyi.