A Report On The Translation Of A Higher Loyalty:Truth,Lies And Leadership(Excerpts)

This report is based on the translation of A Higher Loyalty: Truth,Lies and Leadership,nearly totalling 13000 words.The political autobiographical literature is similar to memoir,inspiring readers with positive value.In this book,the author Comey reflects on the truth,lies,loyalty,bully and life.After dealing with the Mafia case,the author is puzzled about the matter of loyalty.Eventually,he decides to be loyal to people and country,instead of the authority.Based on the analysis of the original text and under the guidance of Newmark’s translation theory,this report mainly explores the difficulties for translation of legal terminologies,long and complex sentences,cultural-loaded words and some rhetorical devices in order to provide some advice for autobiography.To put it specifically,when translating legal terminologies,complex sentences and some rhetorical devices,semantic translation is applied to fully retain the style and language features of the original text.Secondly,when it comes to the cultural-loaded words and slang,communicative translation is adopted to improve the readability and interestingness of translation.In the final of this report,translator draws a conclusion that semantic translation should be mainly adopted in terms of political autobiography.Still,it is not the case all the time.Cultural barriers need to be broken through communicative translation to make the target text understandable to readers.Therefore,translators should strike balance between them to find the best translated version.