A Report On Short Sentence Translation In A Stream-of-Consciousness Novel—A Case Study Of E-C Translation Of The Promise(Excerpts)

This translation report discusses the translation of an excerpt from Damon Galgut’s novel,The Promise,which won the 53 rd Booker Prize on November 3,2021.It traces the history of the Swart family for approximately four decades,from the 1980 s when apartheid in South Africa was collapsing to recent years.One reason that the book has stood out is that Galgut fully integrates the writing technique of stream of consciousness.However,this technique’s ability to transcend temporal and spatial limitations results in fragmented narratives,seemingly disconnected discourses,and incoherent linguistic logic,making it difficult to understand.Additionally,Galgut employs numerous short sentences in the novel that not only bear the features of English short sentences but also resemble the textual features of stream-of-consciousness novels.Translating these features while reflecting the original’s artistic style presents a significant challenge to the author.This requires the author to make an in-depth study of the original and reproduce the characteristics of the original in every detail.Through reading a large number of relevant literature,the author has found that Eugene A.Nida’s functional equivalence theory is applicable to the translation of stream-of-consciousness novels.This theory suggests that translation should produce“the closest natural equivalence” to the source-language message,serving as the theoretical guidance for translating the novel and writing this report.This report summarizes and analyzes the problems concerning the translation of short sentences in the chosen part of the novel from four aspects: semantic incoherence,improper word order,inadequate presentation of implicit message,and lack of retaining the original style.On the basis of analysis,the author proposes corresponding translation strategies for these problems,such as combination of two adjacent sentences,splitting sentences and adjusting word order,presentation of implicit information,and keeping the order of the original text,in the hope of providing some reference for the translation of sentences in novels with features of stream of consciousness.This report consists of five chapters.The first chapter provides an introduction,outlining the background and significance of the task.The second chapter is about the task process,including preparation before translation,the translation process,and posttranslation revision.The third chapter provides a literature review,sorting through relevant research on short sentence translation.This chapter also summarizes the research on functional equivalence theory and introduces its applicability in short sentence translation in novels.In the fourth chapter,the problems encountered during the translation of short sentences are analyzed,and corresponding strategies are proposed based on existing research.The fifth chapter summarizes the whole paper and points out the limitations with the present research as well as space for improvement.