Reproducing Humor Of The Source Text

This commentary focuses on the classification and techniques of humor translation in the author’s practice of translating A Holiday in Bed and Other Sketches.Humor is the product of human wisdom. In cross-cultural communication, humor translation is a big challenge for the translator. In this essay, the author classifies humor in the translation practice according to J. R. Schmitz’s methods, which are universal or reality-based humor, culture-based humor, linguistic or word-based humor. Based on this classification, detailed analysis of the techniques of humor translation is offered. Many scholars have done researches on humor translation, using theories like relevance theory, skopos theory, schema theory and compensation strategy. This paper uses Nida’s notion of functional equivalence as the theoretical underpinning of this essay. Functional equivalence does not mean the equivalence of linguistic form, but the function of it. Nida lays emphasis on the reaction of the reader, which means readers of a target text should be able to understand and appreciate it as readers of the source text do. This theory applies to humor translation, which means the readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate the humor therein as much as readers of the original text do. According to the standards of Nida’s functional equivalence, the author then explores different translation methods and techniques used in humor translation to reproduce the humorous effect of the source text.