A Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of Between Two Kingdoms (Excerpts) From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

As cultural exchanges between China and the West have intensified in recent years,works of foreign culture have been pouring into China,and biographical literature,as one of the genres of literature,has also attracted the attention of Chinese readers.The material for this translation practice report was chosen from the biography Between Two Kingdoms,by Suleika Jaouad,a New York Times columnist.Biographies objectively record the life of the biographee.The report is guided by Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory.The core of the theory requires that the translated text be fluent and natural,and the content be expressive,and that the target language receptor be generally equivalent to that between the source language receptor.The translator studied the translation of biography from vocabulary,syntax,and discourse through the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory.The translator found that: 1)the vocabulary in this book is formal and literary,and some words are given cultural background.In view of this,the translator adopted translation skills such as,conversion,extension,and literal translation with notes.2)English gives prominence to hypotaxis while Chinese to parataxis.Based on the syntactic differences of two languages,the translator adopted the translation methods of amplification,negation,and inversion,so as to present a translation that conforms to Chinese expression habits.3)In view of the discourse,the meaning of the discourse is ultimately achieved by the articulation between sentences and paragraphs,so the translator analysed two aspects: grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion,so as to achieve a clear and coherent text.The translation of Between Two Kingdoms enables Chinese readers to understand the difficult situation of leukemia patients,and helps to enhance Chinese readers’ concern about the disease.Through this translation practice,the translator has deepened understanding of the of Functional Equivalence Theory and improved translation level,and at the same time,the translator hopes that this report can play a certain reference role for future translations of biographical texts.