A Report On C-E Translation Of The Dao Of Yin And Yang: Dialogues With Famous Chinese Taijiquan Masters (Excerpt)

As one of the major elements of traditional Chinese culture,Taijiquan is not only a form of kung fu to build fitness,but also a carrier of profound cultural connotations.As an important part of international communication of Taijiquan,Chinese-English translation is an essential way to carry forward the traditional Chinese culture and make Taijiquan go global.In this report,the dialogue between Yu Gongbao and a famous Taijiquan master,Mei Mosheng,is selected as the translation material,which is an excerpt of The Dao of Yin and Yang: Dialogues with Famous Chinese Taijiquan Masters--one of the “Follow the Rules and Comprehend the Change” series written by a famous scholar of Wushu,Yu Gongbao.The dialogue covers a large amount of knowledge about Taijiquan and Chinese calligraphy and painting,showing the internal relation between Taijiquan and calligraphy and painting,as well as the close correlation between elements of Chinese culture.The Chinese-English translation of the dialogue aims to make Taijiquan well-known and learnt by more and more people and accelerate the dissemination of Taijiquan culture.With a strong colloquial style and flexible arrangement of information,the Taijiquan text in the form of dialogue is mainly featured with implicit cohesion and loose structures.This report resorts to two strategies as guidance based on the theoretical framework of text coherence,that is,applying proper cohesive and coherent methods.Specifically,coherence in the intra-textual structure composed of vocabulary,grammar and other sentence constituents is achieved by three cohesive methods,namely transforming lexical combinations,maintaining grammatical cohesion and adding omitted constituents.Coherence in the extra-textual semantic structure is realized by three coherent methods,namely changing information arrangement,reconstructing local structures and compensating semantic vacancy.Thus,the text coherence is reconstructed from the above two aspects.By exploring methods of achieving text coherence in the Chinese-English translation of Taijiquan,this report aims to provide references for Taijiquan researchers and useful tips for translators engaged in Taijiquan translation.