A Translation Report On A Pinch Of Magic(Chapters1-3) From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

This is a report on an English-Chinese translation practice of A Pinch of Magic(Chapters 1-3).A Pinch of Magic is an English novel written by Michelle Harrison,which is suitable for children from 9 to 12 years old.It tells a story of three sisters who try to break a curse on their family that says they will die the next day if they try to leave home.The theoretical guidance of this translation report is the Skopos theory.The Skopos theory focuses on the intended purpose of translation which determines what translation methods and techniques the translator should adopt.There are three rules in the Skopos theory: the skopos rule,the coherence rule and the fidelity rule.Guided by the Skopos theory,the translator analyses how to translate A Pinch of Magic(Chapters 1-3)on three levels: the lexical level,the syntactical level and the rhetorical level.Under the guidance of the Skopos theory,the translator starts from children’s reading needs,trying to produce the translation that is in line with children’s aesthetic taste and caters to their reading habits.First of all,in terms of the lexical level,according to the skopos rule and the coherence rule,the translator uses reduplication,onomatopoeia,interjection and adverbs of degree to make the translation full of rhythm and increase the reading interest of children.Secondly,in terms of the syntactical level,the translator uses different translation techniques flexibly in the process of translation.Division and inversion are used when the translator translates some long sentences of the source text so that children can understand the content of the source text within an acceptable range.What’s more,to a certain extent,children can also learn new cultural knowledge brought by the cultural difference.Finally,in terms of the rhetorical level,the translator,bearing in mind the requirements of the fidelity rule,uses literal translation and free translation to help the translation convey the rhetorical content of the source text as well as the aesthetic content of the source text.After that,children can get across both the source text more thoroughly and learn the use of some figures of speech.Briefly,under the guidance of the Skopos theory,the translator applies appropriate translation methods and techniques to produce a translation that meets children’s reading needs.At the same time,the translator hopes that this translation report can contribute to the translation of Chinese children’s literature,and attract more Chinese translators to translate excellent works that accord with Chinese children’s reading needs.