A Report On The E-C Translation Of Drunk In China:Baijiu And The World’s Oldest Drinking Culture(Excerpt)under The Guidance Of Koller’s Equivalence Theory

The present report is based on the translation of Drunk in China:Baijiu and the World’s Oldest Drinking Culture(Excerpt),by Derek Sandhaus,an American expert on Baijiu.In this masterpiece,Sandhaus recounts his arduous journey across China to explore the drinking culture.Drunk in China is not only an inclusive travelogue,but also an easy-to-understand monograph on Baijiu,with the features of both expressive and informative texts.Under the guidance of Koller’s Equivalence Theory,this report lays stress on the realization of five types of equivalence in the practice.It is also going to examine the applicability of Koller’s theory to the travelogue translation and answer the following questions:1.How can the five types of equivalence be achieved between the source text(ST)and the target text(TT)?2.Are the five types of equivalence equally important in the travelogue translation?And how important is the formal-aesthetic equivalence compared with the other four types of equivalence?3.Is there a possibility that the aesthetic value can still be realized when the form of the ST cannot be retained?And how if yes?The practice and the analysis generate the following findings:1.The five types of equivalence can be achieved by properly employing certain translation methods.To be specific,transliteration and transplantation are found to be effective in achieving the denotative equivalence;extension,in delivering the connotative equivalence;re-writing,in reaching the text-normative equivalence;annotation,paraphrase and idiomatic translation,in attaining the pragmatic equivalence;as well as imitation,in realizing the formal-aesthetic equivalence.2.Formal-aesthetic equivalence is relatively less important than other types of equivalence in the travelogue translation.The travelogue text covers abundant information without a fixed textual format.Although the formal-aesthetic equivalence helps represent the aestheticism of the ST and improve the readability of the TT,it exerts no substantive influence on the contents.By contrast,the other four types of equivalence respectively involve the effective transmission of the semantic,the grammatical and the pragmatic information of the ST,which ensures the faithfulness and the accuracy of the TT.3.The aesthetic value can still be realized to a certain degree even when the original form cannot be retained.For example,conversing rhetorical devices,using four-character idioms and adding modal particles are proved to be effective means to achieve the aesthetic value in this practice.