A Report On The Chinese Translation Of War And Politics In China(chapters Ⅳ To Ⅴ )

The translation project comes from the book War and Politics in China,written by John Thomas Pratt,a British diplomat who served on the European Commission of the British Consulate in China.It was published in 1943 and there is no Chinese version of it.The book is a rare piece of material on Chinese history,as it systematically introduces the course of Chinese history from the Qing Dynasty(1636-1912)to the mid-20 th century from a perspective different from that of Chinese scholars,and inspires reflection on Chinese history from different perspectives.The source text of this report,about 14,000 words,is excerpted from chapters IV to V of this book,mainly describing the development of traditional Chinese Confucianism and the influence of Confucianism on the Chinese mind.As with this translation project,many books reflecting Chinese society,history or culture have been translated and published in China in recent years,and sinology translation is playing an increasingly important role in these times.War and Politics in China is one of the mirrors through which Chinese people can look at their own history and culture,and at the same time provides them with a more concrete and relevant understanding of their own country.In view of the multi-disciplinary knowledge in the source text,this translation practice requires the translator to be bilingual and culturally literate,and to make meticulous efforts in literature retrieval.The analytical framework of“Comprehension,Expression and Adaptation” proposed by Professor Li Changshuan is taken in the process of translating this historical text.At the level of comprehension,the translator mainly relied on the analysis and verification of terminologies,sentences and context of the work,in an effort to deeply understand the source text and lay a solid foundation for linguistic expression.At the level of expression,the translator mainly applied such strategies as correcting diction,adjusting sentence structure,and ensuring cohesion to guarantee the faithfulness and smoothness of the target text.At the level of adaptation,the translator adopted the translation methods of back translation,amplification and omission to adapt the historical context,and appropriately restored,added or deleted the information of the source text to achieve the great effect of information dissemination in the target languageThrough this translation practice,the translator gained further comprehension about the historical text translation and realized that a successful translation needs to proceed from the perspectives of comprehension,expression and adaptation.It also requires the translator to consider the linguistic and cultural differences between the source language and the target language,and strive to achieve faithfulness and smoothness that conform to the appreciation of Chinese reading public in the target language.