A Report On E-C Translation Of Sofia And The Utopia Machine (Excerpts)

This report is based on the E-C translation practice of Chapter 8 to Chapter 12 of the sci-fi novel Sofia and the Utopia Machine created by the Singaporean writer Judith Huang.As of the present,the novel has not yet been translated into Chinese.The original text is about 10,000 words,and it tells a story of a young girl named Sofia who accidentally enters an alternative world through a Utopia Machine and begins a fantasy journey.The report on the translation practice of this work explains the process of Chinese translation and analyzes the key points and difficulties of translation,aiming to explore how the Chinese translation of this science fiction can be accepted by the target readers to the greatest extent.During the translation process,the translation difficulties encountered by the translator primarily come from two aspects:understanding and expression.Since the genera of the translation material is sci-fi,there are a lot of abstract descriptions written by the author in the source text so that the translator needs to figure out the implication of the sentences.Besides,due to the different characteristics of English and Chinese,the translator is supposed to make adjustment to written expression when translating English into Chinese.The translation practice is guided by the adaptation theory raised by Jef.Verschueren and combined with case analysis.This report summarizes the translation difficulties from the aspects of lexicon,syntax,and context,and discusses how translators use adaptation theory to realize the naturalness and fluency in translation.Through this translation practice,the translator can gain a deeper understanding of science fiction and Bilingual translation,and accumulate experience for translation work in the future.