A Report On E-C Translation Of Hide And Seek(Excerpt) Based On The Functional Equivalence

During last decades,novels from abroad have constantly entered into the Chinese cultural market,and many of them have been well received by Chinese readers.Particularly,English novels in the Victorian era are regarded as classical ones and received a lot of praise.This paper is a translation report based on the third novel of Wilkie Collins,Hide and Seek,which has not been translated to Chinese yet.It is a novel with vivid characters and a fascinating plot.It centered around a mystery of the leading character’s identity and revealed the story of the last generation.The story is in well-developed structure while being sarcastic on social issues at that time.Therefore,translation of this work is of great significance.Eugene A.Nida’s functional equivalence theory suggests that translators should not only seek equivalence in lexical meaning,but also,texts,and style.And in the process of translation,translators should try to maintain equivalence between form and content and put priority on content rather than form.In addition,Nida proposed the “readers’ response”,being the first to include readers into the criteria about whether a translation is good.Guided by that,the author presents specific examples encountered in the translation process,analyzes them,and investigates them in lexical,syntactical,or textual levels.The conclusion can be drawn that translation methods such as lexical conversion,additional translation,and division under the guidance of functional equivalence theory can improve the readability,accuracy,and integrity of the translation.