A Report On C-E Translation Of Historical And Cultural Text Jiangsu Famous Cultural City Nanjing(Excerpt)

Local culture is an integral part of Chinese culture.The translation and introduction of local culture has become indispensable during the implementation of the “going global”strategy of Chinese culture.The translation of Nanjing local history and culture is vital in promoting both Chinese culture “going global” and Nanjing’s economic development.This thesis is a report on the C-E translation of a historical and cultural book Jiangsu Famous Cultural City Nanjing.The translation materials cover various aspects of Nanjing,including historical development,local buildings,scenic spots,cultural heritages,famous dishes,folk customs,etc.The texts involve the translation of allusions,proverbs,poems,dramas,dialects,etc.,which requires the translator to fully understand the source text and flexibly adopt various strategies.The thesis aims to explore translation strategies and methods of local historical and cultural texts through case analysis from the perspective of lexical,syntactic and discourse level under the guidance of Bassnett’s cultural translation theory.Based on Bassnett’s cultural translation theory,this thesis summarizes difficulties and gives solutions.For example,at lexical level,proper nouns such as name of persons and name of places can be translated by transliteration with annotation,culture-loaded words can be translated by free translation with annotation,and four-character expressions can be translated by semantic translation.At syntactic level,free translation can be adopted in the translation of ancient Chinese sentences and poems,and literal translation can be employed in the translation of sentences with rhetorical devices.At discourse level,since the five chapters are parallel and the titles of each section are similar,the author uses nominalization structure and supplements background information to promote readers’ understanding.Considering the differences between Chinese and English,the author reconstructs sentences to make translation concise and clear.Through this translation practice,the author has deepened understanding,improved translation ability and summarized a series of methods applicable to historical and cultural texts to give references for the translation study of such texts.