A Report On The E-C Translation Of The Water Recycling Revolution:Tapping Into The Future (Excerpts)

Due to the rapid economic development and increasing urbanization in the world,the available fresh water resource is on the decline.How to make full use of the existing water resource has become a hot topic.The source text of this translation practice is the first three chapters of The Water Recycling Revolution: Tapping into the Future written by William M.Alley,a widely recognized authority on groundwater and water quality,and his wife Rosemarie Alley.The book focuses on the development of wastewater recycling for potable reuse in America and introduces different methods of wastewater treatment in American states like California,Arizona,and Texas.Meanwhile,it shows readers the difficulties encountered during the exploration of potable water reuse in those areas.However,compared to Western countries,China started relatively late in the development of wastewater treatment technology.Though non-potable water reuse technology gains wide use in China,there is no application case of potable water reuse.The translator hopes that this translation project can help Chinese professionals in the related field to learn from the successful cases of potable reuse of reclaimed water from abroad,and meanwhile help common readers to raise their awareness of reclaimed water and water conservation.According to Newmark’s classification of text types,the source text of this translation project embodies the features of both informative text and vocative text,emphasizing the transmission of the text information and the emotional response achieved by the reader.Guided by semantic translation and communicative translation theory proposed by Newmark,the translator analyzed the difficulties at levels of lexis,syntax,and discourse in the process of translation and discussed the corresponding translation methods.Transliteration,annotation,extension,and word-class conversion were used at lexical level to handle such problems as the translation of proper nouns and terminologies to improve readers’ understanding.Linear translation,amplification,division,inversion,and voice conversion were adopted at syntactic level to address the translation of passive voice sentences and long and complex sentences to realize the communicative function of the translation.Repetition and amplification were employed to deal with the cohesion and coherence of the discourse to enhance the readability of the translation and deliver the information of the source text efficiently.Thus,target language readers can acquire the same reading experience as source language readers do.After the completion of this translation project,the translator not only gains a great amount of knowledge concerning reclaimed water,but also improves her translation ability of water conservancy texts.Besides,the translator hopes that this translation project can offer reference to the E-C translation of popular science texts on water conservancy.