A Critical Commentary On The E-C Translation Of Chapter 1 Of Arguments Of The Philosophers Series:Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche(1844-1900),is one of the well-known philosophers in the history of western philosophy,and one of the most talented poets and prose writers.He is regarded as a pioneer of existentialism.Nietzsche’s thoughts have exerted a strong influence on many philosophers and writers at home and broad,such as Martin Heidegger,Jean-Paul Sartre,Stefan Zweig,George Bernard Shaw,Lu Xun,etc.Nietzsche’s major works include The Birth of Tragedy,The Joyous Science,Beyond Good and Evil,The Twilight of the Idols,etc.This translation project includes two parts,the translation practice and a critical commentary.The selected text for translation is the first chapter of Arguments of the Philosophers series: Nietzsche written by Richard Schacht,which is comprised of three parts,that is: the philosophical enterprise,Problems with philosophers,Philosophy as linguistic analysis: a case in point.This selected text will guide us in a deeper exploration of Nietzsche himself and his philosophical thoughts.This critical commentary consists of four sections: introduction,theoretical guidance,translation strategies and conclusion.The first section makes a brief introduction to the source text,difficulties in the translation and significance of the project.The second section presents the theoretical guidance---Functional Equivalence Theory proposed by Eugene A.Nida.The third section demonstrates how the translation strategies are applied during the translation with some examples from the original text.The translation strategies used at the lexical level are conversion,employment of Chinese set phrase,proper diction and addition.And at the syntactic level,there are following the original syntactic order,reinventing sentence structure,and converting passive voices into active voices.The last section is a conclusion,which summarizes the whole critical commentary and what the translator has learned from the translation process.The selected text and its translation provide a reference and perspective for scholars and students taking interest and specializing in Nietzsche’s philosophy,and the theoretical guidance and methods adopted in this translation project are referential to the future translation of philosophical literature.