Case Study Of Restoring Translation

A great number of writers in the world have composed their work about domestic things in foreign language in order to promote the spread of domestic culture in western world. These outstanding works, as bridges for communication of the writers' countries and foreign countries, have far-reaching influence in western world. Meanwhile, due to the need from domestic readers, these works should be translated into domestic languages."Restoring translation" refers to the translation of works which have been originally written in a foreign language and then turned back into the writer's mother language for the readership of natives. Restoring translation aims at restoring and reappearing the domestic flavor so as to make the receptors read the translation as if they were reading the original work. As a result, in the process of restoring translation, the translator should put the response of readers in center, and be an invisible man in front of readers on the basis of processing the original. And the translator is required to restore the original picture of the work so that domestic flavor could be brought back. At present, due to the small number of works involving restoring translation, the research of restoring translation is seldom. However, as a new branch of translation, restoring translation is different from common English to Chinese translation in the perspective of object and purpose of translation, and contributes to the study of translation of domestic cultural works.The discussion of this paper adopts the book of Moment in Peking and and its translated versions as a case study of restoring translation, from the aspects of appellation, folk customs, poetry as well as idioms, and style etc. The predicaments in the translation are unavoidable due to the involvement of numerous cultural elements. For translators, restoring translation is not only a process of language transformation, but also an art of language expression. In the process of restoring translation, translators should read and recognize the original work according to the writer's mentality, and translate the work from the angel of readers to make the translation conform to the reading habit of domestic readers.In this paper, after introducing the author of Moment in Peking, Mr. Lin Yutang, and the characteristics of the translated versions, the author of this paper expatiates the definition, the characteristics and purpose of restoring translation, as well as the identification of the translator. Then cultural predicaments confronted in translating Moment in Peking are analyzed and summarized, and the strategies of translation are presented. The discussion leads to the conclusion that the translator of restoring translation should not be limited by literal meaning, instead, recreate the translation through exploring the deep meaning of the original text. By domestication, the translator creates the zero translation that conforms to the reading habit of receptors.