A Report On The Chinese Translation Of Turmoil And Tragedy In India 1914 And After (Chapters 1-3)

The source text for this report is from chapters one to three of the Turmoil and Tragedy in India 1914 and After,written by the British academic George Fletcher Mac Munn.The book is a historical works which has not yet been translated into Chinese.It deals chiefly with the domestic troubles and foreign invasions of India,and with the great changes and tragedies of the turbulent period which surrounded the year 1914,and with the war which followed.This works is the result of many years’ study of Indian history by the author,and has a certain representativeness among all his works.Translating such historical works can help us understand more about India,promote the establishment of better diplomatic relations between the two countries,and facilitate the construction of China’s “Belt and Road” Initiative in South Asia.The original text is an informative historical description of Indian history before and after 1914,rich in historical information,and is a typical historical text.For the purpose of accurately conveying the historical information of the original text,eliminating cultural barriers in the translation,and making the translation easily understood by the target language readers,the translator adopted the translation strategy of naturalization on the basis of Newmark’s communicative translation theory.Since there are differences between English and Chinese,and according to the characteristics of the original language,it does not conform to modern grammar,is obscure and unintelligible,and contains a large number of proper nouns,abstract nouns,passive structures,and long and difficult compound sentences,the translator adopted a series of translation techniques such as amplification,conversion of parts of speech,changes of voice and division,which conveys the information of the original text faithfully and accurately,maximizes the understanding of the target language readers of the communicative information carried in the original text,and produces the same effect as the readers of the original text,while paying attention to the readers’ understanding and acceptance of the translated text in order to achieve the communicative purpose of the original text.This report combines Peter Newmark’s communicative translation theory with a large number of examples of source texts to explore and analyze translation strategies and methods for historical texts,intending to make some modest contribution to the realization of the communicative function of such texts and providing some reference for translators working with historical texts in the future.