A Report On English-Chinese Translation Of Running Out:In Search Of Water On The High Plains (Excerpt)

This is a report on the English-Chinese translation practice of Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plain.The book,is a popular science text,authorized by Lucas Bessire,an American writer,mainly introducing the phenomenon and causes of the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer.It is published by Princeton University Press in 2021,so far it has not Chinese version.The text is characterized by scientific expressions,which is shown through words,sentence patterns and rhetorical devices.Therefore,the goal of this translation is to maintain,or reproduce the stylistic feature of the source text,making Chinese readers understand the content of the source text and style of the writing.The translator encounters the main difficulties in the process including extended meaning of words,changing of word orders,proper nouns and adjectives.Considering the above difficulties,this report explores specific solutions based on two aspects of the Reiss’ s Text Typology,informative level and expressive level.At the informative level,the translator adopts literal translation,conversion,extension and inversion,aiming to effectively explain the professional expressions,and ensure coherence between the source text and the translation,then maintain the scientific features of the source text;At the expressive level,the translator applies free translation,amplification,combination and affirmative translation,designing to make the translation easy to understand,to popularize scientific knowledge to non-professional readers,and present the literary features in the source text.The translator accumulates experience,expands vocabulary and improves translation ability through this practice.Besides,the translator hopes to popularize the awareness of water saving and environmental protection.