The Translation Of Culture-Loaded Words In Chinese Garden Texts

Chinese gardens as “the mother of global gardens” are the unique architectures in the world which were constructed artificially but seemed as if formed naturally.As a significant part of Chinese gardens,the private gardens in Fujian and Taiwan also keep the geographical and ethical features.This translation practice has selected some chapters from The Private Gardens of Fujian and Taiwan written by Cao Chunping.The selected chapters introduce the common features and the typical examples of private gardens in Fujian and Taiwan.It is hoped that this translation practice can help promote the overseas communication of the culture of private gardens in Fujian and Taiwan.This translation practice focuses on problems in the translation of the culture-loaded words and the possible solutions.There are four types of culture-loaded words in this translation practice:the words related to types of garden architecture;names of the garden buildings;words related to the layout,design,and construction techniques of the gardens;and words related to the history and cultures of the gardens.The main translation problems include vacancy for vocabulary concerning the categories of constructions in the target language,default in connotation of the names of buildings,default in connotation of historical culture background and vocabulary vacancy for vocabulary concerning the layout and design of gardens.The following solutions are put forward to tackle these problems: semantic interpretation,addition of background information,transliteration with annotation and substitution.Hopefully,this paper can provide some reference for the future translation of similar texts.