A Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of The Land And People Of The West Indies(Excerpts)

With the progress of our society and the development of science and technology,the demand for scientific knowledge has increased.What’s more,people pay more attention to the translation of popular science readings.In recent decades,foreign language teaching has gained momentum,and foreign language proficiency among the public has improved.However,unlike most sci-tech workers,many ordinary people cannot read popular science literature directly in foreign languages.Thus,we can foresee that the demand for popular science translation will last for a long time in the future.Nevertheless,we have to admit that popular science translation nowadays is far from satisfactory and fails to meet most audience’s needs due to some problems.It is difficult for readers to understand the meaning in translation when the omission of information and improper translation occur;some translators cannot break through cultural barriers in dealing with idiomatic expressions.Also,as a special kind of text,popular science readings combine scientific characteristics with literary features.Therefore,maintaining the scientific rigor of the source text(ST)while adding its aesthetic feeling is also a big challenge.This is an English-Chinese translation report.The ST is excerpted from an English popular science book—The Land and People of the West Indies,which has no Chinese version so far.Thus,the translated version can help readers who know little of English learn about the local customs and culture of the West Indies.The subject matters of the ST are mainly related to geography and history,which make it different in style and contents from popular science text of natural science.The translation strategies mentioned in this report can also provide some references for researchers in this aspect.During the translation process,the translator endeavored to break through difficulties in popular science translation.More importantly,based on her experience from the practice,the translator-writer is in a position to,with the summary and abstraction of the translation dos and don’ts,shed some light on the rendition of other popular science readings.Under the guidance of Steiner’s Hermeneutic Translation Theory,the translator put emphasis on dealing with long and complicated sentences and English idiomatic expressions by using different strategies according to Fourfold Translation Motion.The translator also managed to express the original meaning to make it easily understood by target readers while missing no critical information,maintaining the literary features,and breaking through cultural barriers when dealing with English idiomatic expressions.Since the birth of Hermeneutic Translation Theory,most of the studies on it have been concentrated on literary texts.This translation practice indicated strong applicability of Steiner’s Hermeneutic Translation Theory in popular science texts of the humanities.Under its guidance,the translator could find different strategies to deal with translation difficulties.For example,as for the long and complicated sentences,the translator tackled them with "aggression" by changing the sentence order,or"incorporation" by transforming information.Besides,in dealing with English idiomatic expressions,the translator used textual annotation to make "compensation".With the in-depth development of revolution in science and technology throughout the world and the improvement of scientific literacy among Chinese people,domestic readers’ demand for popular science information has been increasingly strong,and popular science translation research has gradually become one of the focuses in pragmatic translation studies.This translation report explored the explanatory power of Steiner’ s Hermeneutic Translation Theory on popular science translation and tapped its value of guidance.The translation strategies and methods mentioned in this report can offer valuable references for other translators to deal with similar problems.