A Practice Report Under Translation Compensation Theory

The picturesque Inner Mongolia is a beautiful scenery line.Being the heroic guardian of northern frontier,the autonomous region gallops like a steed in the border of our great motherland.Profoundly embedded in the fertile grasslands,the Mongolian folk custom boasts a long history with peculiar styles and distinctive characteristics crystalizing the minority culture on horseback and serving as a space where the locals pin their emotions.The culture has been blossoming and flourishing with vigor and vitality over times.In recent years,Inner Mongolia is making a difference in China and even on the world stage with unprecedented development momentum as well as heroic and generous posture.Therefore,the English translation of Mongolian culture assumes new significance in promoting the strategy of“Chinese Culture Going Global” and protecting the ethnic cultural diversity since it would be a bridge between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Prairie Silk Road.Mongolian culture is not only a shining chapter in the long scroll of splendid Chinese culture but also a sparkling pearl in the treasure house of minority cultures in China.As a girl blessed with Mongolian genes,the author feels obliged and honored to contribute her own modest strength to the propagation of Mongolian culture.Consequently,A Chinese Cultural Reader: the Mongolian Ethnic Group was selected as the original for the translation practice,which is an introduction to the whole region from various aspects,unfolding to the readers a comprehensive and tridimensional panorama of grassland life.Guided by the theory of translation compensation,the report is mainly based on Xia Tingde’s research on compensation and makes researches and analysis on compensation strategies in translation practice from linguistic and aesthetic levels.Moreover,as the source text being ample in ethnic cultural elements,cultural compensation also serves as a focus of the study.Through analyzing the stylistic features and cultural connotations of the original,the author verifies the feasibility and the directing function of translation compensation theory in folk culture translation.Based on the translation practice and the case study,the findings are summarized as follows: firstly,the abundant connotations of Mongolian culture in the respects of ethnicity and diversity result in cultural defaults,which should be compensated by annotations,amplifications and illustrations in pursuit of retaining ethnic characteristics to the maximum extent;secondly,aesthetic images in different contexts and thinking modes also vary accordingly.In consequence,substitution,conversion and paraphrasing turn out to be considerable compensation methods on aesthetic level to minimize the strangeness for a foreign culture and improve the appreciation and readability of the translated version;thirdly,differences in grammar and structure between Chinese and English do exist,together with the untranslatability of language conversion,losses on linguistic level are mainly filled up by methods as specification,generalization and paraphrasing,etc.It is hoped that through the practice and research,the translation compensation theory can be further perfected,and translation qualities of folk culture will realize its further leap.Besides,it is also the author’s hope that target readers can obtain a better understanding of China’s diverse cultures and the Mongolian culture may go global in a more graceful and solid posture.