A Report On C-E Translation Of The Chinese Way To Happiness (Chapter 2) From The Perspective Of Linguistic Adaptation

The Chinese Way to Happiness introduces the concept of happiness,its correlate factors,and major means the Chinese take to achieve happiness.When the English readers are concerned,her translation project presents them a valuable reference to learn about the happy life in China.Meanwhile,this project provides experience to those who love to translate materials and documents in the broad field of social sciences.This report falls into three parts that respond to the general translation stages,namely before-translation,while-translation,and after-translation.In the first stage,the translator made repeated readings of the source text while looking for more information,references,and parallel texts.She also marked puzzling words and clauses during her readings,for they likely cause difficulties and,should be verified and double-checked to ensure a reliable quality for the project.Other difficulties such as long complex sentences,structural shifts between language levels,and special terms for professional trades,should also be marked.In this project,the translator favored “domestication” as general approaches,with “addition”,“conversion” and “omission” as concrete techniques.In the after-translation stage,she conducted revision and diction of her drafts time and again against the source text.All members of the translation group were further arranged to do cross-reading for each other so that they could suggest for improvement of their translated versions.This report is based on the Chinese-English translation of the first and second sections in Chapter Two of The Chinese Way to Happiness.The first part deals with content,background,values,and significance of the project.The second part describes reading the source text,preparing translation tools,and searching for parallel texts.Meanwhile,it discusses difficulties encountered in the translation,and the drafts revised in terms of proofreading and polishing.In the third part the translator comments on the four dimensions of Linguistic Adaptation to build a foundation for case analysis.The fourth part displays how to solve problems with “Linguistic Adaptation”,dwelling on “contextual correlates” and “salient structures” to crack on the nuts of“readjusting long complex structures” and “shifting between linguistic levels”.Lastly,it comes to a summary of gains and experience the translator acquired from the project.Through this practice,the translator begins to realize that multi-level shifts should be encouraged to deliver complete messages during the conversion from Chinese to English.However,The problem of structural salience involved in linguistic conversions,however,is too challenging to be soothed.It is indeed a cultural crevice that still calls for more attention and address from the academic circle.