A Report On The C-E Translation Of Languages Of Chinese Nation (Chapter One)

The source text of the Chinese-English translation practice is excerpted from Languages of Chinese Nation authored by Zheng Zining and published by Jiuzhou Press in 2021.No English version of Chapter One of the book has been found,so the translator chooses this chapter of the book as the source text which describes the spread and evolution of food crops including rice,wheat and millet.The author makes a comparative analysis of the writing and pronunciation of the crop words in different regions and ethnic languages with a large number of examples,which reflects the cultural exchanges between Chinese,Asian and other cultures.The translation report analyzes the major difficulties that he encountered at lexical,syntactic and textual levels and illustrates the corresponding translation methods.As for the difficulty at lexical level including words without corresponding equivalents,the proper nouns,the culture-loaded words and Chinese four-character words,the translator employs zero translation with explanation,literal translation,transliteration combining with literal translation,transliteration combining with paraphrase and turning phrases into clauses.As for the difficulty at syntactic level including sentences in classical Chinese,run-on sentences and no-subject sentences,the translator employs liberal translation,combination,restructuring,amplification and conversion.The translator also adopts omission and recurrence to achieve grammatical and lexical cohesion.The translator hopes that more readers will have a chance to understand the origin and development of Chinese agriculture,which contributes to intensifying our national and cultural confidence through the translation practice.Meanwhile,the practice also provides reference for the translation research of Chinese texts about languages and culture.