A Translation Report On Children’s Literature An Ominous Book(Excerpts)

The translation of An Ominous Book is a team project that the author participated in on an Internet platform.The task of the project is to translate the novel An Ominous Book,written by the American writer Nancy Foster,from English to Chinese.Upon completion of the translation,the author looks back on the project,considering factors such as the original text style and the target audience,and reviews the project on three levels,including lexis,syntax,and discourse.And this report discusses some of the difficulties encountered in the translation process and the strategies adopted to deal with them.The author finds that the difficulties in the translation project involve the selection of appropriate word meanings,free translation of some words,and descriptive translation of phrases depicting characters’ facial expressions in the book.Considering that the style of the novel and the characteristics of the audience,how to make the translation conform to the linguistic habits of Chinese audience and also be accepted by children and teenagers is a problem that must be solved in the translation process.There are many special expressions referring to characters and magical instruments in the book,which requires the author to deal with them carefully in the translation process.In terms of syntax,it is necessary to solve the problem of translating long and difficult sentences to make them more acceptable and attractive to the audience and to present the narrative language style of the original text.In terms of the discourse level,we should grasp the language style of the novel and combine it with the content of the novel so as to provide readers with a good reading experience.Through this translation practice,the author accumulates some experience and methods in the translation of children’s literature,thus provides some guidance for the translation of children’s literature in the future.