A Report On The E-C Translation Of Heartless:A Play

Drama literature,a special genre,belongs not only to the literary genre but also to the stage art.In other words,the drama itself is not only to be read by readers,but more importantly,to be performed on the stage.Drama language includes the dialogue and stage direction which have their features respectively.The features of dialogue include individuality,colloquialism and actability.And stage direction is required to be unambiguous,concise and comprehensive.In the process of translation,the translator is expected to convey the meaning accurately and embody the features of drama language thoroughly so that what is translated can be readable and performative,which is a big challenge.Heartless: A Play,the source text of this translation practice,is written by Sam Shepard,an American contemporary playwright.The translation of Heartless: A Play is the basis of the practice report guided by Skopos Theory.The principle of the theory that influences the whole translation process is the skopos in the translation activity.Differing from other theories,Skopos Theory believes that an excellent translation is not always to be equal to the source text but to achieve the skopos of translating.The translator can select the proper translation strategies to achieve her skopos,which embodies the basic rule of translation,that is,the skopos determines the methods.The theory provides a new thought for evaluating the translation.This report consists of five parts.The first part is introduction,which mainly discusses the writer,the source text and significance of the subject.The second is about the description of translation process including preparations before translation,problems and its solutions in translating and proofreading after translation.The third part mentions about Skopos Theory and clarifies the feasibility of Skopos Theory in drama translation.The fourth part firstly interprets features of drama language and the criteria of drama translation.Under the guidance of Skopos Theory,the author then analyses how to embody performability and readability in dialogue and stage direction with proper translation strategies.And in translating,translation strategies that the author mainly adopted are literal translation,free translation,amplification,word order adjustment and conversion.The fifth part is the summary in which the author clarifies the experience and problems to be noticed in future.