The Aesthetic Representation Of English Prose Into Chinese From The Perspective Of Translation Aesthetics

This report is based on the translation practice of the first four chapters of the book Subject to Vanity.The book was published by DODD,MEAD,& COMPANY in 1895.It describes the appearances and habits of different animals through stories that take place between the author and the animals.The book is a mixture of the author’s knowledge,thoughts and experiences.With simple words and vivid language,the author presents animals’ emotions or births and old age,sickness and death through careful observation,interspersed with her views.No Chinese translation of the book is available.The main difficulty in translating this text is to represent the aesthetic characteristics of the original text,that is,to represent its aesthetic flavor,so that readers of the target language can have the same aesthetic experience as the readers of the source language.The study of translation and aesthetics has a long history in both the East and the West.Translation aesthetics is an explanation of the function and mechanism of translation based on the theory of modern aesthetics,which is the requirement of interdisciplinary development of translation studies.Its application value is mainly reflected in the field of literary translation.Aesthetic representation is the final part of implementing aesthetic activities.Therefore,this thesis analyzes the realization of the aesthetic representation in the translation of Subject to Vanity mainly from three aspects: rhythm,rhetoric and logic.This report is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1 briefly introduces the task and its significance;Chapter 2 describes the process of the task,including the pre-translation preparation,while-process translation and post-translation proofreading;Chapter 3provides the theoretical framework,which mainly introduces translation aesthetics and demonstrates the feasibility and necessity of applying it to the translation of prose;Chapter 4 analyzes and summarizes the aesthetic features of the original text,focusing on the three aspects: rhythm,rhetoric and logic.The strategies for reproducing rhythmic aesthetic features include phonetic compensation,rhythmic representation and lexical addition for balance;the strategies for reproducing rhetorical aesthetic features include literal translation,amplification and paraphrasis;and the strategies for reproducing logical aesthetic features include conversion,semantic extension and syntactic restructuring;the last chapter summarizes the gains and weaknesses of this translation practice and what still needs to be improved.Translation aesthetics can guide translators to better reproduce the aesthetic composition of the original text in translation practice,bring more good translations to readers,and promote cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.The translator hopes that this report can provide translation studies with some ideas and references,and has a small part to play in the aesthetic representation of translation aesthetics.