A C-E Translation Report On The History Of Zhuba--the Third Data Collection Of Xiamen Overseas Chinese Historical Society(Excerpts)

The translated materials are selected from the third and fourth chapters of The History of Zhuba--the Third Data Collection of Xiamen Overseas Chinese Historical Society.Taking the oral histories of returned overseas Chinese as the main content,this book discusses the historical background and reasons of the return of returned overseas Chinese,and the process of adapting to the environment and rebuilding their homes.Therefore,translating the text into English is conducive to enhancing cultural confidence,enhancing the external publicity image of China,and enhancing the sense of identity and belonging of the Chinese people.Oral history has the characteristics of both informational and expressive texts,so the translator focuses on the transmission of original information.However,considering the narrator’s thinking leap and speech span,the colloquial features of the text are prominent and there are many unclear places.The essence of the hermeneutic lies in the deep understanding and correct interpretation of language information,and so does the essence of translation activities.Therefore,the translator adopts hermeneutic translation theory to guide this translation practice.Steiner proposed fourfold motions of hermeneutics: trust,aggression,incorporation,and compensation.The translator presents the difficulties encountered in the translation process and the solutions from three levels: vocabulary,sentences,and discourse.On lexical level,for the colloquial vocabulary,cultural-loaded words,and idioms in the original text,the translator adopts free translation,literal translation with notes.On the syntactic level,for the translation of run-on sentences and subjectless sentences in the original text,she adopts translation techniques such as inversion and sentence integration.On the discourse level,the translator mainly focuses on cohesion and coherence,to achieve a balance between the original text and the translation.Through this translation practice,the translator not only has a new understanding of the importance that theory is used to solve the difficulties in translation practice,but also gains the knowledge of the development history of Zhuba Overseas Chinese Farm,which increase her historical accumulation and translation level.Finally,she summarizes the gains of the translation process,hoping to provide some reference for translations of the same type of subject matter in the future.