An E-C Translation Report On The Floating Light Of The Goodwin Sands（Chapters 1-3）

This is an English-Chinese translation report on the fiction The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands,chapters one to three,written by the Scottish author Robert Michael Ballantyne.The work tells a series of stirring stories that happen on the floating lights,the North Sandhead,the Gull,and the South Sandhead,which mark the Goodwin Sands and the dangerous shoals lying off the harbors and roadsteads.The translation practice aims to pass on the spirit represented by the floating lights to more people and inspire them to be conscientious,fearless,dedicative and adventurous.In this report,the translator introduces the background,significance and process of the translation practice,and summarizes the translation difficulties at levels of word,phrase,syntax,discourse and rhetoric,after which the corresponding translation methods are selected,and the listed difficulties and solutions are elaborated from the levels above through specific translation examples.At levels of word and phrase,for proper nouns,transliteration and annotation as well as semantic extension are adopted to ensure their accuracy;polysemous words and synonyms are translated by means of word-meaning choice;descriptive words are mainly translated with the adoption of reduplication and four-character structures;negation and borrowing translation are mainly used for the translation of idiomatic expressions;the prepositions and prepositional phrases are mainly verbalized and turned into clauses.At the syntactic level,attributive structures are translated with the use of splitting and conversion of clauses;long sentences are mainly translated with the help of division and restructuring.At the discourse level,the translator mainly uses linear translation and cohesive devices to reproduce the character and environmental descriptions in the source text.At the rhetorical level,replacement and semantic explication are adopted to deal with the translation of metonymy and metaphor.The translator tries choosing certain translation methods to solve the translation difficulties mentioned above in this translation practice,which improves the translator’s competence in translation,benefits the translator’s later translation practice and provides certain reference for the students of translation major.In addition,the translator realizes that the translation produced by the use of all these translation methods should be guaranteed to well reproduce the original and conform to the conventions of the target language.The translator should not deviate from the original or apply mechanically in order to ensure the readability of the translation to the greatest extent and avoid rigidity.