A Report On E-C Translation Of Bonnie Prince Charlie:Charles Edward Stuart （Excerpts）

Reading biographies of historical figures is not only a way to understand the history and culture of the country,but also one of the ways to promote the cultural exchange between China and foreign countries.This translation practice was chosen from Bonnie Prince Charlie:Charles Edward Stuart,written by British historian Frank Mc Lynn.This book tells the life of Charles Edward Stuart,who was heir to the Stuart throne.Although handsome and personable,he was remembered for his incompetent command of the rebellion that ended in failure in history.Thus,the last hope of restoration was extinguished.The original text focuses on narration,which restores the historical scenes in detail.Its language is vivid and delicate.And its literary characteristics are distinctive because rhetoric and direct quotation are used in writing techniques to fully describe the characters and battlefield details.Based on the characteristics of the text,how to preserve the authenticity of the original and reflect the literariness of biography in translation is a problem that needs to be solved.In view of Newmark’s semantic translation and communicative translation theory,which attach importance to both faithfulness to the original text and reading experience,the application of this theory to guide translation can ensure the authenticity and literariness of biographical texts.Therefore,under the guidance of this theory,the translation strategies such as literal translation,addition,subtraction,word order adjustment,annotation and transformation have been used.On the basis of being faithful to the original text,the basic goal of translation expression is to express smoothly,to improve readers’ reading experience and to achieve a good communication effect.It is found that under the guidance of semantic translation and communicative translation theory,the authenticity and literariness of biography can be retained in the translated text;The authenticity can be ensued by doing adequate preparation for translation that helps to accurately convey cultural information;The readability can be improved by finding the logical structure of sentences which is beneficial to weakening the differences between Chinese and English languages;The literariness can be enhanced by using idiomatic language in promoting the aesthetic perception.At the same time,shortcomings in translation are noticed and the direction of future efforts is found.