A Report On The C-E Translation Of Listen To Your Body (Excerpts)

As a treasure of traditional Chinese culture,traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)is a unique medical science of the Chinese nation,which has played an essential role in fighting against Covid-19.Its brilliance and popularity have inspired increasing global attention.Accordingly,the English translation of TCM,an important means for TCM to go global,is worthy of study.The first six physical symptoms described in the book,Listen to Your Body(《听身体的话》),were selected as the source text of the present translation project with a total of 12,849 words.The book integrates the concept of TCM health preservation into people’s life with living examples so that readers can practice their health preservation by observing their physical conditions and finding the right medicine.The practice process can be divided into pre-translation preparations,whiletranslation,and post-translation.Before starting translation,Net Ease Youdao,Linguee,and the online dictionary by Merriam-Webster were selected as translation tools,and the Professional Knowledge Service System for Chinese Herbal Medicine and Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China(《中华人民共和国药典》)were selected as translation verification tools.Besides,parallel texts related to the English translation of TCM were also used as references,aiming to reproduce the source text accurately.Then the source text was analyzed according to Reiss’s text type theory and was determined as the informative text type.In addition,a Chinese-English term base was established to display the technical terms of TCM in the translation project.During the translation,translation difficulties were spotted and summarized,including the translations of technical terms of TCM,sentences,and idioms.Difficulties in technical terms of TCM included the translating of names of Chinese medicinal formulas,names of single herbs,and symptoms in TCM,difficulties in sentences covered the translating of multiple compound sentences,classical Chinese sentences,and non-subject sentences,and difficulties in idioms consisted of the translating of idiomatic phrases and four-character idioms.Correspondingly,translation methods were discussed by combining the text type theory through case analysis.After completing the translation,self-proofreading and proofreading among group members were carried out to correct errors and defects ignored in the translation and to ensure the quality of the translation.Hopefully,the future study of the English translation of TCM can be enriched through this translation practice,with the concept of TCM health preservation being popularized and spread as widely as possible.The wide spread of TCM can further promote Chinese wisdom and enhance the soft power of Chinese culture.