A Report On Translation Of Goodbye Days(Excerpts)

This translation report is based on the English-Chinese translation of Goodbye Days of Jeff Zentner,a contemporary American novelist.As a singer,songwriter and guitarist,Jeff makes his own music and also works with young musicians.As a result,he is inspired to write novels for teenagers.Goodbye Days is his second famous novel,of which the Chinese version is not yet available.Goodbye Days begins with the story of the 17-year-old hero’s "mistake" that leads to the death of his three best friends in a car accident.Then it comes slowly, adding memories into the reality.The novel is in plain language but with fascinating lot.It not only deals with the daily life of contemporary American youth,but also expresses their love and pursuit of life.This report focuses on the translation practice from Chapter One to Eight of Goodbye Days,and takes functionalist approaches as the theory evidence.Under the guidance of the three principles of Skopos theory, corresponding translation strategies and methods are formulated.The research methods used in the report are case analysis and experience summary.Using theory to guide practice,the report selects specific cases for analysis,and finally summarizes the whole translation practice.Under the guidance of Skopos theory,the report expounds domestication strategy and the translation techniques,such as amplification,omission,active and passive voice conversion,word order conversion of the sentence,semantic extension and supplement,etc..Through this translation practice,the author draws the conclusions that the translator needs the guidance of corresponding translation theory in order to make the translation more precise and accurate.With regard to the functional translation theory adopted in this practice,the author believes that it can not only guide literary translation,but also play an important role in the translation difficulties encountered in practice.Finally,the theory needs to be combined with practice which can prove the applicability of the theory.