A Report On The E-C Translation Of Melmoth The Wanderer(Chapter 35-39)

Literature is the art of language,more so is literary translation.Gothic novel,as the “art of darkness”,has its unique charm in the field of world literature.By revealing the evil existing in the society and the darkness in the depth of human nature,Gothic novels make a profound exploration on the moral level.The influence of it has continued to be felt by readers even today.Charles Robert Maturin’s Gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer has raised Gothic novel to a new level.The translation materials selected for this report is chapter 35-39 of the book,which is the sequel of the tale of Isidora.At the end of the novel,Melmoth admits that he fails to tempting a soul to hell and then disappears.Under the guidance of Liu Zhongde’s translation principle of “Xin,Da and Qie”,the translator has carried out this translation practice and made great efforts to make the translation conform to the principle.Through translation practice,the translator aims to reproduce the Gothic features and style in the novel,and hopes to make a preliminary study on the translation of Gothic novels.This report first introduces the translation task,including the brief introduction of the work,the author and significance of the translation.The process of translation practice is divided into three phases: pre-translation,while-translation and post-translation.Firstly,the translator selects translation principle and analyzes the translation materials.In the process of translation,the translator discusses the three major challenges he encountered during the translation practice,including how to translate environmental description;how to translate characters’ dialogues;how to translate a large number of dashes in the source text etc.Under the guidance of Liu Zhongde’s translation principle of “Xin,Da and Qie”,in terms of the translation of environmental description,the translator adopts some strategies as four-character Chinese phrases,changing the object of translation or using dynamic language;in terms of the translation of characters’ dialogues,the translator uses translation strategies such as adding modal particles,retaining punctuation marks in long sentences or domestication;in terms of the translation of dashes,the translator applies some punctuation translation techniques as retaining,replacing or deleting dashes.Then,quality control has been carried out to ensure the translation quality.Finally,on the basis of the above discussions,this report summarizes the major findings of the translator,and points out some limitations of this translation practice.