Methods Of Translating Terms Of Chinese Calligraphy Into English

An important part of traditional Chinese culture,Chinese calligraphy features practicality,aesthetics,and the cultural attribute of "calligraphy as a manifestation of truth".With globalization,the international dissemination of Chinese calligraphy is of great relevance to the promotion and development of Chinese culture and to the world’s understanding of China.The translation and spreading of knowledge about Chinese calligraphy and of its theories are therefore of great significance.Based on years of experience in learning calligraphy and his basic understanding of calligraphy,the author of this thesis selected New Theories of Calligraphic Techniques by Wo Xinghua as the source text.In the process of translation,the author(i.e.,the translator)uncovered several translation difficulties including the translation of terms and translation of ancient texts.The author selected the translation of terms in the text as the subject of study,choosing this aspect for reasons including the need to focus attention;the fact that terminology is a fundamental element in understanding the art of calligraphy;and the fact that many terminological translations are currently controversial.In general,according to existing literature,there are already many sources to draw on for the dissemination and translation of calligraphic art,but as far as term translation is concerned,there are still problems among them,such as the lack of uniform standards and the lack of comprehensive studies.For these issues,the authors embarked on a translation commentary.This study adopts the methodology of case study,regards the whole process of the author’s translation of the source text as a case,uses the references,notes,thinking,consultation and feedback in the process as the data source of case analysis,and analyzes the one or more translations produced during the research.Taking term translation as the research object,this study focuses on three basic questions:"How to filter terms?","how to translate these terms?" and "Why can it be translated in this way?" Firstly,the author screened the terms that appeared in the source text according to the definition of terms and then classified them from the perspective of their essence or function of them,which were divided into four categories:basic strokes,descriptive terms,technical terms,and names of people,books,and works.On the basis of the classification,the typical terms in each category are selected according to the universality or particularity of the translation method,and the translations of these typical terms in each category are analyzed.Through analysis,this study found that the translator’s term translation absorbed some methods in the searched literature,such as transliteration and annotation,but for the controversial parts,such as the use of pin yin,appropriate annotations and the retention of the Chinese original texts,etc.he has his own opinion.Separately speaking,the translation of basic strokes adopts the "transliteration with explication method",that is,Chinese concepts are expressed in italic lowercase pin yin,and a simple English free translation is added.After the first translation,only the italic pin yin is used as a phonetic symbol.At the same time,for those strokes having the same Chinese pronunciation,parentheses are used to keep the original characters,The translation of descriptive terms and technical terms adopts the "free translation with annotation method",that is,to translate the terms according to the English text,usually in the form of gerund phrases,and add footnotes to some terms to explain the principles contained in them.The translation of the names also adopts the "transliteration with explication method".