| China in the new era is rapidly approaching the center of the world stage,and its close exchanges with the international community have allowed the world to appreciate China’s governance,economy,and culture.The Governance of China(Volume Ⅱ),as an authoritative political document in China,not only covers political,economic,cultural,military,and diplomatic content,but also includes many expressions of Chinese characteristics,such as ancient poetry,proverbs,idioms,and allusions.These vocabulary items,which are rich in traditional Chinese cultural elements,serve as a bridge for the world to understand Chinese traditional culture.The foreign translations of these expressions with Chinese characteristics in The Governance of China(Volume Ⅱ)help the international community to understand Chinese culture and promote the construction of China’s unique discourse system.In recent years,the study of the English translation of The Governance of China(Volume Ⅱ)has become a hot topic in academia,and many scholars have used translation ethics theory to analyze its English translation.Chesterman’s translation ethics is one of the most significant theories in the study of translation ethics to date.Studying the expressions of Chinese characteristics in the English translation of The Governance of China(Volume Ⅱ)from the perspective of Chesterman’s translation ethics theory can help summarize the translator’s ethical awareness reflected in various expressions of Chinese characteristics and inspire the translation of political documents.This study establishes a Chinese-English parallel corpus of expressions with Chinese characteristics from The Governance of China(Volume Ⅱ),categorizing them into four types:policy terms,proverbs,idioms and classical poetry.Using the typical translations of these four types of texts as the research object,this study explores the operating rules of translation ethics models within the framework of Chesterman’s translation ethics theory.Based on the analysis of the ethics of representation,the ethics of service,the ethics of communication and the normbased ethics,this study attempts to answer the following questions:(1)What are the specific manifestations of the applicability of Chesterman’s ethical models in the translation of the four types of Chinese expressions in the English translation of The Governance of China(Volume Ⅱ)?(2)What are the characteristics of the translator’s translation ethical orientations for the four different types of texts?(3)what are the criteria for the translator to choose when multiple ethical models need to be satisfied at the same time in translation of the four different types of texts?Through the analysis of examples of four types of Chinese characteristic expressions,this study draws the following conclusions:(1)Chesterman’s four ethical theories of the ethics of representation,the ethics of service,the ethics of communication and the norm-based ethics are reflected in all four types of expressions,and the translator follows different translation ethical models based on the different types of text.(2)When translating policy terms,the translator prioritizes the ethics of representation to ensure the authenticity and rigor of the original content,while when translating obscure policy vocabulary,the translator tends to follow the norm-based ethics to ensure the readability of the translation.When facing expressions such as proverbs,idioms and classical poetry,the translator pays more attention to following the ethics of service and communication to ensure the maximum dissemination of China’s excellent traditional culture.(3)Since the four ethical models are not mutually exclusive,the ethics of representation and the norm-based ethics belong to the micro-level theory,while the ethics of service and communication belong to the macro-level theory.Therefore,when multiple translation ethical models need to be satisfied simultaneously or conflicts arise,given the authority of political literature,the translator will prioritize the micro-models – the ethics of representation and the norm-based ethics;given the dissemination of traditional Chinese culture,the translator will prioritize the macro-models – the ethics of service and communication.In summary,in translation practice,the translator comprehensively considers various factors and reasonably seek the best balance point among the four translation ethical models.The application of their translation ethics has reference significance for the future research and practice of translation theory of Chinese political literature. |
