A Critical Commentary On The E-C Translation Of Create Beauty: Scarlet Macaws

Guided by Peter Newmark’s theory of communicative and semantic translation,this translation report selects as its translation text Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families,Create Beauty,and Achieve Peace,written by ecologist Carl Safina in 2020.The book explores the different animal cultures among three animals of the animal kingdom: the sperm whale,the macaw,and the chimpanzee,from three perspectives: raising families,creating beauty,and achieving peace.In the second part,the author follows a group of parrot researchers deep into the tropical jungles of Peru,where he explores how macaws create beauty in their daily acts of foraging,nurturing,and competing for nests,and uses the text to awaken people to the importance of the natural world and restore their reverence for its beauty.In order to solve the essential translation problem of whether to translate literally or freely and to narrow the gap between theory and translation method,Newmark puts forward the theory of communicative translation and semantic translation,and Newmark believes that different text types require different translation methods.Communicative translation is reader-oriented,and the translator has more freedom in translation;semantic translation is text-oriented,and the translator needs to follow the original text closely.In this project,the reporter discusses how to carry out translation activities based on the two theoretical characteristics and the type of selected texts.The whole translation project includes the preliminary preparation,such as the choice of translation software and the accumulation of relevant information on the background of the text.In the mid-term of this project,the text is treated by means of translation strategies such as the translation of non-domestic plant and animal names appearing in the text through graphical comparison,as well as translation methods like sentence restructuring,conversion,semantic variation,addition,annotation,and retaining sentence structure.After the completion of the first translation draft,a mutual review among the project team members was also conducted to guarantee the basic fidelity of the translation.Communicative and semantic translations blend the freedom and rigor of translation.Translators need the freedom to reproduce the literary and aesthetic value of the source text and also to better serve as a bridge for cross-cultural communication.Translators also need to be rigorous in their translations,adhere to the moral bottom line they should have as translators,and restore the text to its truest appearance.Chosen by the reporter,communicative translation and semantic translation not only provide the reporter with more diverse method choices but also provide theoretic support,which well guides the reporter’s translation project.