A Report On E-C Translation Of Merci Suárez Changes Gears （Excerpt） Based On Reception Aesthetics Theory

This translation report takes the children’s literature Merci Suárez Changes Gears（excerpts）as the source text,and the source text weaves a picture of a sixth-grade student,Merci Suárez,whose struggles with school and family life result in growth.The textual features are evident in the overall plain vocabulary,the compound and complex sentences within the narrative parts,and the abundance of exotic cultural elements.The report takes the reception aesthetics as the theoretical guidance to analyzing the English to Chinese translation of chapters 11 to 27 of the source text.It aims at exploring and enriching the applicability of the reception aesthetics for children’s literature translation and attempts to provide a reference of translational solution.In the reception aesthetics,readers’ status is emphasized,and its reader orientation demonstrates that the reader’s interest and reading level influence the meaning and value of the text;the construction of meaning begins with comprehension of sentences;readers are open to unfamiliar experience in the text.Following the theoretical guidance of the above three points,the author highlights three characteristics of children in the reception of translation:preference for vivid vocabulary,difficulty in understanding compound and complex sentences,and curiosity over foreign cultures.Upon this basis,the report presents the case analysis from a lexical,syntactic,and cultural perspective,illustrating the translation choices made with regards to children’s reception illustrated by the reader orientation of the reception aesthetics.In the lexical aspect,the reduplicated words and modal particles are adopted to enhance the vividness of the text.In the syntactic aspect,the segmentation into short sentences and adjustment of clause order are employed to convert compound and complex sentences into short ones.In the cultural aspect,foreignization is adopted to present rich exotic cultures with retention of concepts unfamiliar but penetrable to Chinese children and annotation.Subsequently,the report displays the translational framework that can be a reference for English to Chinese children’s literature translation.Finally,the major findings are concluded as bellow.Firstly,the adoption of reduplicated words and modal particles are assistant in promoting the vividness of the target text in English to Chinese children’s literature translation,making the target text catchy and expressive and conform to children’s reading preference.Secondly,the segmentation and clause order adjustment of compound and complex sentences cause clear logic and explicit information of the target text to smoothen children’s reading.Thirdly,the exotic cultural elements’ visibility through the intact retention of exotic concepts and annotation enhances children’s reading interests for the target text and broaden their vision.This strategic trinity facilitates improvement of the quality and appeal of the target text for children.