A Report On C-E Translation Of A Brief History Of Jinan(Chapter 4)

Specific geographical environment nurtures the specific culture of a place,and this culture will create a particular society.The local Chinese culture is the very embodiment of the national characteristics and national independence,which can provide inexhaustible spiritual power for regional development.Meanwhile,with more culture transmission and exchanges among countries,local culture can also serve as a window for more people to understand Chinese culture.Therefore,it is very necessary to study English translation of local Chinese culture.The translation material of this translating practice is the Chapter four “Local Culture” of the book A brief History of Jinan.This book mainly introduces the history,local culture,famous people,famous tourist sites and modern development of Jinan and this chapter gives a detailed illustration of springs,willow customs,cuisine and specialties of Jinan.Under the guidance of eco-translatology theory,the author puts more emphasis on “adaption” and “selection” and makes adaptive transformations on the basis of linguistic,cultural and communicative dimensions.From the linguistic dimension,translation skills such as omission,combination,and transliteration plus annotation were used to deal with language differences between Chinese and English and keep the original text and the target text in harmony.From the cultural dimension,translation methods and skills such as transliteration,rewriting,and substitution were used to better convey the cultural connotation of the original text.From the communicative dimension,skills of shift and amplification were mainly used to achieve the communicative intention.The author has really gained a lot from this translation practice.On one hand,the understanding of local culture has been deepened.On the other hand,it has been recognized that it is a must to actively establish cultural self-confidence,so as to gradually expand the influence of ones’ own culture.Hereby,the author hopes to make a modest contribution to promote the local culture and raise the reputation for her hometown.