A Practice Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of The Light Through The Leaves （Excerpts）

The practice report is based on the English-Chinese translation of the novel The Light Through the Leaves by the American writer Glendy Vanderah.The novel is about the tragic experience of the heroine Ellis in her life from a female perspective.The most distinctive feature of this novel is reflected in its characterization.The writer depicts vivid characters through a large number of rich and delicate descriptions.How to display the characters’ traits and bring the characters and their stories to life and to the Chinese readers through translation has become the most important task of this translation practice.As the translator and the subject of translation,the translator attempts to maximize the translator’s subjectivity and to show full subjective initiative within the framework of “faithfulness”,explores varied character descriptions in the original text,and formulates practical translation strategies and methods so that the reproduction of the characters’ characteristics can be achieved through this translation practice,the translator finds that combining literal translation and liberal translation,and keeping colloquial style can help fully show the personality and characteristics of characters’ discourse.The goal of reproducing the characters’ mentality and the delicate emotional elements in the inner worlds can be realized by means of explicitizing the implied meaning and adapting to the context.The use of conversion and amplification can make Chinese readers fully feel the authenticity and vividness of the characters in the novel.Through the above methods,the fullness and liveliness of the characters can be attained to the greatest extent in translation,and the soul of the work can be transplanted into the target text.The translation practice makes the translator realize the predicaments of literary translation and the difficulties of character description translation.The translator hopes that this practice can provide some reference for the translator and others’ literary translation practice in the future.