An E-C Translation Report On Epidemics And Pandemics:from Ancient Plagues To Modern-Day Threats (Excerpt)

Given the global threat of COVID-19,it is essential to raise awareness of infectious diseases.Based on the first chapter of From Ancient Plagues To Modern-day Threats,as the source text of the translation report,here are introduced two main parts to readers,pathogens and the human body,which are directly related to infectious disease.By reading this translation report,readers can understand how infectious diseases occur and how human bodies respond to them.With the translator’s opinions,this translation report aims not only to help the public a better understanding of infectious diseases but to offer realistic reference to the situation of the current rampant pandemic in the world,contributing to further research and development of biomedicine and biomedical translation.The source text is a general medical text with a large amount of medical terminology and belongs to informational texts.In order to accurately convey the content of the original text,the translator chooses Newmark’s communicative translation theory as the guiding theory.The communicative translation theory sets a high value on the feelings of the target readers,hoping that the target readers can obtain as similar reading effects as possible as the source text readers.Translators must have a thorough understanding of the information in the original text before translation,adopt appropriate translation strategies when translating,and have a professional check on the post-translation proofreading.In addition,since the readers of popular science texts are non-specialists,it is vital to ensure the accuracy of the translation as well as to consider the target audience in order for the translation to achieve the effect of communicative translation.This translation practice report firstly introduces the translation task from the aspects of its background,significance,and introduction of the source text and then describes the translation process in detail.The translation process includes three steps:preparations before translation,in-translation,and post-translation modifications.Preparations for translation include collecting information related to the source text,consulting parallel texts and formulating translation plans,etc.The translation process introduces how the translator translates this text and the problems and difficulties encountered in the process of translation.There are four steps in post-translation modification: self-proofreading,proofreading by medical professionals,proofreading by the translator’s tutor,and proofreading by students majoring in Chinese.The translator next analyses examples of translation at three levels: vocabulary,sentence,and discourse,in relation to communicative theory and the characteristics of popular science texts.The analysis starts from the translations of medical amphibious words and abbreviations at the lexical level.The study mainly involves the translation of passive sentences and complicated sentences at the sentence level.The analysis at the discourse level mainly consists of the application of cohesion and coherence in translation examples.Finally,the translator summarizes the translation practice.Under the guidance of communicative translation theory,the translation of biomedical literature should aim at accurately conveying information,and different translation criteria and strategies should be used for the translation of the three different levels mentioned above so that the target language readers can acquire the same or similar“reader response” as the source language readers.The translator finds that translators must master the corresponding medical knowledge and update the translation of terminology when translating medical texts,so as to ensure the accuracy and professionalism of the translation.