The Application Of Translation Compensation Theory In The C-E Translation Of Regional Cultural Text:A Report On Excerpt Translation Of Hakkas And Hakka Culture

Hakkas, the living fossils of ancient Han Nationality, in the long run of history, have been carrying the time-honored civilization of ancient China, the culture behind whom constitutes a notably unparalleled component of the profound and extensive Chinese culture. Hakkas and Hakka Culture, a regional cultural text, written by Qiu Huanxing, introduces Hakka people and their culture in an all-round and objective way, including the history, residential culture, diet, traditional festivals, marriages and funerals, dialects, folk songs, and celebrities. Chapter Two of this book has been selected for English translation. It is mainly concerned with Hakka traditional vernacular architecture culture, which is hoped to protect and spread the Hakka residential culture. In traditional Chinese architecture, the Hakka traditional vernacular architecture constitutes a unique cultural phenomenon. Thus the source text features many culture-loaded words. Besides, there exist tremendous disparities between source language and target language. If not properly handled, much information loss is inevitable in the translation procedure. Therefore, to make up for the probable loss, the author of the report, under the guidance of compensation theory, strives to fully represent the source text to readers and help them to better understand the information conveyed by the writer.This report, with Traditional Hakka Vernacular Architecture Culture in Hakkas and Hakka Culture as the object of translation practice, under the guidance of translation compensation theory, firstly introduces the background, object, and significance of the translation practice; secondly, space is devoted to the presentation of the previous study on translation compensation theory both at home and abroad; in the third part, Xia Tingde’s Compensation Theory, the theoretical guidance of the report, is explained concretely; then, it gives an analysis on the features of the source text and the case study is guided by translation compensation on three levels, namely linguistics, culture, and aesthetics. On each level, relevant examples are further illustrated. Finally, a conclusion has been drawn that translation compensation on different levels can occur at the same time and grammatical compensation on linguistic level and cultural compensation occur with higher frequency, while there are noteworthy cases of aesthetic compensation. Besides, some ideas on translating regional cultural texts in terms of what the translator should do before, during and after translating regional cultural texts is presented for reference and further study. The problems the author of the report encounters in the process of translation and limitations of the present research are also involved in this part.