A Report On The C-E Translation Of The Economic And Cultural History Of The South China Sea

This is a report of Chinese to English translation of a book entitled The Economic and Cultural History of the South China Sea.Entrusted by Beijing Wordstalk company,the translator is expected to finish translating this book which will be published overseas.Fifty thousand words from eight chapters in total of this book are expected to be translated from English to Chinese within five months by a team of four people.The translation requirements proposed by the company are as follows.Firstly,the translation of the text should be accurate,faithful and fluent,meeting the publishing standard.Secondly,the style of the target text should remain the same as that of the source text.Certain amendments can be made according to the reading habit of target readers.Thirdly,as regard to some special terms including the names of people,places or titles,some annotations can be made.This book introduces the historical and cultural changes of the South China Sea,with focus on the economic and cultural philosophy with the maritime culture characteristics as well as the Pearl River economic and cultural system in Lingnan Region,which has lasted for a long history.As a historical book,the basic features of this book include using large numbers of terminologies,long and complex sentences as well as the rigorous logic and coherence of the text as a whole.Apart from historical features,this book also has certain literary features.For example,it frequently uses beautiful four-character phrases.It also quotes largely from classical Chinese writings or even poems.Besides,it conveys strong emotions or feelings.Before translating this historical book with literary features,the translator consulted parallel texts including historical documents and similar texts with literary features.The translator also referred to many authoritative books for the translation of terminologies and figured out the major translation principle—respecting the historical facts and revealing the truth with sufficient retention of the literary features.Additionally,some methods for translating literary materials are applied.The translation methods of this historical book with literary features as concluded as follows.As for terminologies,literal translation plus explanation is applied.In terms of long and complex sentences,the translation method of division is applied.In the aspect of the logical sequence of the sentences in the book,linear translation is applied here.As for the four-character phrases,the translation method of paraphrasing is applied.In translating classical Chinese writings and poems,the method of addition is applied.All of these translation methods comply with the major principle that faithfulness to the information and historical facts are the priority.Besides,for rhetorical devices and strong feelings and emotions,the retention of literary features is possible providing the historical truth is translated accurately.