A Report On The Translation Of Mandala(Excerpts) Guided By The Analytic Of Translation

The report studies the third part of Mandala as the source text.The novel,an unignorable masterpiece written by Pearl S.Buck,is based on the real history of post-independence India.It portrays both misunderstanding and combination of eastern and western cultures by imagining the love affair of a Maharana’s family,thus reflecting Buck’s writing style in her later years.The report first summarizes the characteristics of the ST: historical background is complicated;cultural differences are significant;the language style tends to be vernacular.According to these characteristics,the author selects the analytic of translation theory put forward by French translator Antoine Berman as a guide while preparing for the translation.The report analyses the twelve textual deformation tendencies,which form the main body of the analytic of translation.It also demonstrates the reason why the theory is the best match for the ST,pointing out that the theory can constantly remind translators to avoid possible over-localization in translation practice,so as to preserve the exoticism of the SL to the greatest extent,thus preventing the SL of culturally vulnerable countries from losing their exotic traits.The report presents a case study at three levels: vocabulary,sentence,and discourse,focusing on eight deformation tendencies: rationalization,clarification,ennoblement and popularization,qualitative impoverishment,the destruction of rhythm,the destruction of expressions and idioms,the effacement of superimposition of languages,and destruction of the underlying instruction network.Then it concludes the translation techniques suitable for such texts by analyzing the novel’s plot.It is the first time that Mandala has been translated into a Chinese version,while it is also the first time for the analytic of translation theory to be applied to the translation of Buck’s novel,allowing more readers who cannot directly appreciate the charm of Buck’s work due to language barriers to gain more reading experience.The study not only broadens the coverage of the research on Pearl S.Buck but also provides new ideas for applying the analytic of translation theory.