On The Translation Of Culture-loaded Words In The Classic Of Mountains And Seas From The Perspective Of Eco-translatology Theory

Myths epitomize human spirit,thought,wisdom and social development,which can also consolidate and strengthen traditional culture and give it greater value and prestige by tracing back to higher,better and more natural initial events.The Classic of Mountains and Seas is a collection of Chinese mythology praised as the encyclopedia of ancient Chinese society.Not only does it cover Chinese mythology,but also records the worldview of ancient ancestors and shows the Chinese ancient people’s understanding of the origin of the world.It includes mountains and rivers,geography,countries,animals,plants,medicines,rituals,witchcraft,etc.There are 18 volumes in this concise book,among which culture-loaded words embody Chinese primitive people’s world view,their cognition and understanding of everything in the world,and contain the cultural connotation of a nation.Therefore,the translation of culture-loaded words is of great importance for understanding Chinese culture.For foreign readers,the more accurately they understand the meanings of cultural words,the more they can realize the profound connotations of Chinese culture.Proposed by Professor Hu Gengshen,eco-translatology systematically explores the ecology of translation,text ecology,and “translation community” as well as their interactions and relationships with the concept of ecological holism,oriental ecological wisdom,and the theory of “adaptation/selection” as the foundation.The translator is in the leading position.In the process of translation,he or she should not only adapt but also select.For a text with profound cultural connotations like The Classic of Mountains and Seas,the translator’s adaptive selection and selective adaptation to the original text determine whether the final translation can be understood and accepted by English readers.Therefore,this study chooses two translators with different cultural backgrounds to discuss the translation strategies of culture-loaded words in the two versions from the perspectives of language,culture,and communication based on the theory of eco-translatology,so as to provide effective translation references for the translation of cultural classics in the future.Through the comparative study,it is found that Wang Hong pays more attention to language and communicative purpose when translating culture-loaded words,so his translation strategy is mainly supplemented by foreignization,amplification,free translation,etc,to reduce the obstacle of the language,making readers have a smooth English reading experience,but slightly inferior in terms of cultural transmission.In contrast,Anne Birrell mainly employs the literal translation strategy,supplemented by domestication,annotation,highlighting her attention to the cultural dimension and the communicative dimension,and keeping the fun of Chinese culture in the translation as well.But a simple word-for-word translation increases the burden of the reader’s reading and understanding obstacle,which is over translation to some extent and is not conducive to the reader’s reading.