A Report On The Translation Of Records Of Things Around (Excerpts)

As China’s comprehensive national strength improves continuously in the twenty-first century,there has been an increasing trend toward the study and preservation of Chinese culture,and a large number of Chinese classics have been translated into foreign languages by experts and scholars at home and abroad.However,as an essential part of Chinese culture,the translation of Chinese folktales needs to be strengthened urgently.This thesis is a report on the C-E translation practice of the twenty-eight stories in “Records of Things Around ”,one of the popular biji novels in the Qing Dynasty.“Records of Things Around ” is written in a style that imitates the classic supernatural novels of the previous generation,with easy-to-understand stories narrated with arguments at the end.This book contains a great number of culture-loaded terms that Chinese people are familiar with,such as four-character idioms,place names,proper nouns,and so on.The rich folktales in the book not only provide an important basis for the study of folktales,but also a significant literary resource for showing the diversity of Chinese culture to the world.In order to present the cultural connotation in the original text,convey the funniness of the stories and enhance the target readers’ interest in the source culture,Thick Translation strategy put forward by Kwame Anthony Appiah,an American cultural theorist,is adopted in this translation project.In translation practice,annotations,comments,footnotes and explanations are added so as to provide cultural information related to the source text for the target readers and construct a “thick context”.This paper consists of five parts: introduction to the translation project,translation process,elaboration of translation strategy,case study,and conclusion.Chapter One introduces the author of this translation project,the source text,and the significance of the project.Chapter Two is a description of the translation process;Chapter Three expounds on the theoretical guidance of this translation practice--Thick Translation.Chapter Four is a case study under the guidance of Thick Translation.The main problems encountered in the translation of cultural-loaded terms and the folktale discourse are discussed and the corresponding solutions are proposed.In the case analysis,the translator adopts the classification of cultural-loaded terms according to the cultural factors proposed by Nida and combines the characteristics of folktales under the theoretical guidance.The last chapter is the conclusion,in which the translator summarizes the strengths and shortcomings in the practice,hoping to provide a little enlightenment for future English translations of folktales,as well as to deepen the readers’ interest in Chinese folklore and to explore the research value of folktale translation.