A Report On English Translation Of Stories From "The Holy Canon Of Nanhua"

Stories from "The Holy Canon of Nanhua" is one book in the "Telling China's Stories" series.The publisher of the series,Jinan Publishing House,entrusts the translation project of the series to Shandong University.As one of the project leaders,the author's supervisor allows the author to participate in the English translation of the book.The book is adapted from The Holy Canon of Nanhua,a representative work of Taoist School.It consists of 48 short stories written in modern Chinese and reflects Chuang-tzu's profound and rich philosophical thoughts,especially his outlooks on the world,the life and the politics.The target text is directed at English-speaking students at Confucius Institutes.The project aims to introduce Chinese classics to the target reader in a readable way,narrow the gap between the reader and Chinese culture,spread the excellent traditional culture of China,and promote cultural exchange.Therefore,the project has the following requirements:The language in the target text should be concise,clear and idiomatic;the translation of historical and cultural information should be accurate;the philosophical thoughts should be rendered in a logical and clear way;and the characteristics of traditional Chinese culture are supposed to be maintained to the most extent.In view of the requirements and the difficulties encountered in the process of translation,Skopos theory is chosen to guide the translation practice.The difficulties are classified into six aspects and are discussed on lexical level,syntactic level and textual level.According to Skopos theory,the process of translation is mainly determined by the purpose of the target text.And the purpose of the target text is achieved through the fulfillment of its intended functions.In terms of the purpose and requirements of the project,the intended functions of the target text mainly include two aspects.First,it should be readable to the target reader.Second,it should embody the characteristics of traditional Chinese culture,including the culture-specific information and the language style.In the analysis of cases,the author puts forward corresponding translation techniques such as literal translation,transliteration,annotation,and addition to fulfill the intended functions.In addition,the author also takes account of the reader's cultural background and adopts such translation techniques as ellipsis and diction to treat the cultural differences,so as to avoid cultural misunderstanding or conflicts.