Translate Nature Writing From Five Dimensions Of Text Coherence: A Report On The Translation Of Underland: A Deep Time Journey(excerpts)

This is a report on the translation of British writer Robert Mc Farlane’s work Underland: A Deep Time Journey(excerpts).In Underland,the author travels on foot to several countries and regions to enter and explore the underground world.The text is full of literary rhetoric as well as rational scientific principles.Nature writing is mainly in nonfiction,with passages loose in form.They serve the theme separately but are not closely linked to each other,making it difficult to achieve a coherent translation.In addition to introducing the translation practice,this report analyses the translation of nature writing from the five dimensions of text coherence: time and space,values,style,logic,and rhetorical device.And the five dimensions are further expanded according to the characteristics of the text.Spatio-temporal coherence discusses the role of time and place markers in shifting the point of view of time and place,illustrated by translations of tenses,measures,and place names.In this part,a translation strategy of domestication is appropriate to give readers a clear understanding of spatial and temporal change.The values part discusses the translation problems caused by the differences between Chinese and English values and the use of addition to supplementing explanations.Stylistic coherence focuses on translation strategies adopted in different genres with nonfiction as the leading one.Logical coherence focuses on the cohesion function of dashes and introduces techniques such as inversion and division.Rhetorical coherence discusses the translation of rhetorical devices with the examples of allusion,hyperbole,and metaphor,especially as the different usage habits of the two languages pose difficulties in translation.The primary techniques include annotating and borrowing similar expressions from Chinese,thus preserving the rhetorical effect while achieving a coherent translation.Through this translation practice,it can be found that the five dimensions of text coherence provide a framework for the translation of nature writing,and translators can expand each of the five dimensions according to the specific characteristics of the text to ultimately realize a coherent translation.