| The translation material is selected from the first chapter “Language,Identity and Translation” of Cultural Politics of Translation: East Africa in a Global Context.This chapter explores the influence of the interaction between language and identity on translation in the process of translating the Bible and the Koran into Swahili,which provides the model significance for the study of the relationship between Africa and culture.Since the source text involves more religious and cultural information,which is difficult for the translator to deal with in translation.The translator needs to consider carefully how to improve the readability of the translation and the acceptability of the Chinese readers,while preserving as much information of the original text as possible.Based on the features of the source text,the translator chooses thick translation as the theoretical basis to guide the translation practice.Thick translation was first proposed by Appiah,an American translator,who holds that translators should place the text in a rich cultural and linguistic environment through annotations and accompanying glosses so that the cultural characteristics of the source text can be preserved,which is conducive to promoting the target language readers’ understanding of the source language culture.Cao Minglun divides thick translation into explicit thick translation and implicit thick translation.In this report,the translator uses this classification in an attempt to reproduce the source language and culture to the greatest extent through these two strategies.Explicit thick translation mainly provides academic explanations and cultural information supplement for the text through footnotes and bracketed in-text notes.The translator adopts explicit annotations to convey the connotation and background information of the original text for four aspects of translation difficulties,including religious culture,important figures,geographical locations and organizations.Implicit thick translation refers to the implicit supplement without affecting the readability.In this translation practice,the translator completes the context of the information in the source text by means of paraphrasing,intra-textual amplification and reconstruction,which can not only avoid excessive annotations,but also maintain the fluency of the translation.Explicit thick translation and implicit thick translation are coordinated to restore the deep meaning behind the author’s words,enrich the cultural flavor of the translation,and help readers understand and respect the source language culture. |
