Areport On The E-C Translation Of The Children’s Novel Feathers(Excerpts)

This report discusses the E-C translation methods of main difficulties at lexical,syntactical,and textual levels in children’s literature(CL)translation based on the translation practice of the first seven chapters of Feathers written by Jacqueline Woodson,a famous American CL writer.The novel Feathers is a magnificent CL work worthy of translation.Considering the characteristics of CL and the comprehending incapacity of the readership,the translator chooses Newmark’s communicative translation as a principle and strives to translate a version that can render the communicative effect of the original text.However,being influenced by both the cultural and the cognitive differences,the translator has encountered some problems that can be divided and analyzed from lexical,syntactical,and textual levels.The key and difficult points of vocabulary translation lie in culture-loaded words,adjectives,and character names.The translator also faces problems in translating sentences containing figure of speech and sentences depicting details.How to ensure children to fully understand these contents without obstacles is the translator’s most concerned question.The difficulties at the textual level mainly lie in the translation of incoherent dialogues and paragraphs containing repeated polysemous words.There are two characteristics of the original: incoherent dialogues and repeated polysemous words in paragraphs,which are also two distinguishing characteristics that set CL apart from other literary works.Considering the principle of communicative translation and the translation standard of “child-oriented,” domestication is the primary strategy in the translation process.To be specific,the translator applies free translation and amplification to translate culture-loaded words,character names,and dialogues.Word addition is adopted in the translation of adjectives to create the effect of reduplication.When translating sentences that depict details,methods including splitting,reconstruction and amplification are adopted.In dealing with sentences containing figure of speech and paragraphs containing repeated polysemous words,the translator applies both liberal and literal translation according to the difficulty for comprehending to retain the original style and communicative effect to the maximum.After finishing the translation practice and report writing,the translator has summed up some methods suitable for the E-C translation of CL.These methods are valuable for the future E-C translation practice of CL to some extent.By applying communicative translation to the translation task of the novel Feathers,this report intends to prove whether communicative translation is practical in guiding CL translation and to make an effective supplement for the popularization of this principle in CL translation.