A Study Of The Translation Of Culture Specific Items And Its Compensation In The Two English Versions Of Na Han

With the assurgent and flourishing of the western cultural translation theory, theunderstanding of translation in its traditional sense underwent great changes. Alongwith the increasing tendency of“cultural turn”in translation field, translation is nolonger considered as merely an interlingual activity, but an essential element ofintercultural communication. Translating from with a cultural perspective plays asignificant role in translation study. Due to cultural differences and peculiarities, it isinevitably for the translators to face the problem of how to accurately transmit aforeign culture to the target readers. Culture Specific Item is a term used to covereddistinctive connotation deeply rooted in national culture. These Culture Specific Itemsare often the major source of difficulties and obstacles to cross-culturalcommunication.Based on the reasons above, this thesis analyzes the translation of ChineseCultural Specific Items from Na Han, a novel endowed with rich and distinctivenational features. In order to reveal the translation strategies adopted by differenttranslators, Cultural Specific Items in Na Han are categorized into four groupsdivided by Ke Ping. Through the comparative study of the two versions of Englishtranslation of Chinese Specific Items, this thesis probes into and summarizes thefeasible and reasonable compensation strategies, which can be commonly used in the translation of other literary works. Meanwhile, I would like to points out that aqualified translator should not only fully consider the original linguistic and culturalelements, but also have a mastery of the reader’acceptability. One should applyflexible and manageable compensation strategies to keep the original flavor as muchas possible in order to bring out the hard-to-reach culture element.