A Report On E-C Translation Of Sinological Academic Text

This report selects Chapters 7 and 8 of Science and the Dao published by American Sinologist and Taoist scholar Livia Kohn in 2016 as translated material.Chapters 7 and 8 of Science and the Dao combine Taoism with modern science to promote the development of Taoism in the new era.There are many examples of stylistic convergence of scientific and philosophical styles.Scientific texts have their own linguistic characteristics,such as accurate and objective expression,and careful logical thinking.There are many long sentences with many modifiers and passive sentences without agent often appear,which produce difficult problems in translating scientific texts.The translation of philosophical texts requires a thorough understanding of the relevant philosophical knowledge and accurate expression.The convergence of the two styles tends to lead to the deviation in understanding,which requires better translation work.Therefore,this paper will start from the fusion of philosophical style and scientific style,discuss the characteristics of vocabulary and sentence pattern,analyze the cases of vocabulary,sentence pattern and text translation,and study the attempt of decoding ancient Chinese culture with Taoism as the core.On the basis of previous studies,the translator adopts literal translation,free translation and other translation strategies,addition translation,smooth translation and other translation methods to achieve the integration of philosophical style and scientific style,so as to ensure the faithfulness,smoothness and readability of the translation work,and enhance the readers’ reading experience.This paper will choose representative examples to discuss respectively the characteristic and translation of vocabulary,sentence structure and discourse,make a comparative analysis on the advantages and disadvantages of various translation methods,and make comments on how to better use the translation methods such as adjusting word order,adding and subtracting translation.This paper aims to guide readers to deal with the phenomenon of stylistic integration and better understand Chinese Taoism.The author hopes that this translation practice can provide a solution worthy of reference for future translators to translate such texts.