A Report On The Translation Of I Belong Here:a Journey Along The Backbone Of Britain (Excerpts) Guided By Eco-translatology Theory

The existence of racial discrimination makes it difficult for minorities to find a sense of belonging,and translation practice reports on racial discrimination have an important thematic significance.In view of this,the translator selected the first and the second chapters of the autobiography I Belong Here:A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain by British journalist Anita Sethi as the translation materials to have a deeper understanding of racial discrimination.The book describes Anita Sethi’s healing journey through the Pennines,the Backbone of England,after a hate crime on a train trip that leads to claustrophobia.The first two chapters are rich in names of people,places,historical events,quotations and poems related to the history of British colonization and immigration.How how to convey the background information that brings out the theme of the book is difficult in this translation practice.The three-dimensional translation method advocated by Professor Hu Gensheng’s Eco-translatology theory can guide the translation of the text containing a lot of cultural background information.Therefore,under the guidance of Eco-translatology,the translator can adapt to the ecological environment of such non-literary texts,and the problems encountered in the process of translation can be summarized into three aspects:as for the linguistic dimension,the differences between Chinese and English thinking are obviously reflected in the two languages.The original text has long sentences and many inanimate subjects.As for the cultural dimension,cultural differences lead to the vacancy of information.The specific historical background of Britain,such as colonialism,racial discrimination,and other related historical allusions and famous poetry,run through the entire text.As for the communication dimension,difficulties in translation are caused by thinking habits.Fully understanding the original text and adapting to the ecology of the original text,under the guidance of the theoretical framework of ecological translation,the translator adopts the following translation strategies:morphological and lexical conversions,repetition,and four-character structure are used in the linguistic dimension;annotation,amplification,and free translation are adopted for the cultural vacancy in the cultural dimension;inversion,omission and addition of modal particles are employed in the communicative dimension due to the differences between Chinese and Western thinking patterns.The strategies and three-dimensional translation methods mentioned above can effectively solve the problems encountered in translation,and the original text ecology can be translated into the targeted language ecology as much as possible to achieve harmony and unity.