The Translation Strategy Of Novels Under The Guidance Of Functional Equivalence

In a broad sense, translation can be divided into two categories, fiction translation and non-fiction translation. Translation of literary works, especially of novels, poses lots of challenges to translators as regards the conveyance of aesthetic value and cultural features. Every writer has his/her own styles. Even the same writer could produce works of diametrically different styles. How to present the style of the original? How to make sure that the target language readers understand and appreciate the translated text as the source language readers do the original text? These are thorny problems that a translator who is dealing with literary works could not shun. This paper, with examples extracted from the author’s translation of a short story entitled "A Rose in the Heart of New York" by Edna O’Brien, mainly explores how to preserve the style of the original text under the guidance of functional equivalence, with the readers’ responses taken into account, so that a readable and natural translation can be achieved without deviating from the meaning of the original text.