A Report On The C-E Translation Of New Discussion On Chinese Farmers’ Land Property Rights(Chapter 11)

The source text of this translation task is selected from Chapter 11 of the Chinese monograph New Discussion on Chinese Farmers’ Land Property Rights,a typical academic legal text authored by Professor Xu Hanming.Hopefully this English translation will provide an opportunity for the international community and in particular scholars outside China to understand better about China’s rural land institution and the reforms related to Chinese farmers’ land property rights.On the strength of the text typology proposed by Peter Newmark,the translator completes this translation report with the description of the translation process and analyses of translation problems and solutions.The source text features in its professional legal terms,precise and concise choice of words,together with the complexity of many long and difficult sentences.In general,in terms of the text type,the source text is primarily informative but also expressive.Therefore,the tests of precision in information transmission and the acceptability for the target readers are the primary concerns for the translator.In the process of translating,the translator adopts primarily semantic translation and sometimes communicative translation under certain circumstances.In this translation task,the translation of legal terms,terms with Chinese characteristics,and long and complex sentences proved to be the most challenging.Therefore,the translator conducts analyses both at the lexical level and the syntactic level in order to improve the quality of the translation.As for the solutions to the problems at the lexical level,the translator compares different English translation versions of the legal terms and terms with Chinese characteristics so as to achieve the precision in translation.As for the solutions to the problems at the syntactic level,the choice of passive voice and adding of the formal subject “it” or other proper subjects will be efficient in translating non-subject sentences.In addition,by virtue of segmentation,the use of parallel predicates and independent short sentences will be helpful in the translation of long and complex sentences.In writing this report,the translator has realized that the initial and most critical step in the translation process is the precise understanding of the source text,to which a good command of professional knowledge is the key.In the process of expression,specific translation techniques discussed above are quite necessary in the manipulation of target language.Only in this way,can we achieve a good piece of translation for the desired effect.