A Report On The E-C Translation Of The Last Cuentista(Excerpts) From The Perspective Of Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory

The Last Cuentista,a 2021 children’s science fiction by American author Donna Barba Iguera,won the 2022 Gold Medal on the 100th anniversary of the Newbery Medal for Children’s Literature.The Last Cuentista tells a story of a strong,heroic character who strove to overcome difficulties to survive and protect others when the Earth had been destroyed by a comet.The translation project aims to provide a readable version for Chinese teenagers and to present them a refreshing reading experience and correct values of knowledge exploration.It is also expected that the project can enrich researches of the translation of children’s science fiction in China.There are thirty chapters in this novel.Guided by Verschueren’s Adaptation theory,the case analysis is based on my translation of the first five chapters of this novel.After analysing the source text,the translator encountered the following difficulties:(1)the translation of technical terminologies and neologism;(2)the translation of the complicated sentences and phrases such as the colloquialism and the ellipsis at the syntactical level;(3)the semantic deviation from the original context;(4)different thinking patterns.In the translation process,the translator uses the four angles of Verschueren’s Adaptation theory as a theoretical framework.At the lexical level,the translator uses the literal translation or free translation to ensure that the meaning of new words are translated accurately and reading burden of the young readers are lessened.At the syntactic level,different translation techniques,such as omission,amplification and conversion,are adopted to adapt overly complicated sentences.At the contextual level,the translator uses footnotes and in-text explanations to provide cultural background to the readers.The translator found that Verschueren’s Adaptation theory plays a significant role in translating children’s science fiction.The translator should adopt different translation techniques to make appropriate adjustments.All these are helpful to bridge the context and cultural differences between Chinese and English science fictions.