A Report On The Translation Of Catherine: A Story

The material I translated is from the book Catherine: A Story, which is also part of atranslation project initiated by Henan University and Foreign Language Teaching andResearch Press. The book is designed for four of us to translate. I am in charge of thetranslation of chapter one.Catherine: A Story is written by William Makepeace Thackeray, an English criticalrealist novelist of the19thcentury. It first appeared in serialized installments in Fraser’ sMagazine between May1839and February1840. It tells a story about Catherine Hayes: aneighteenth-century criminal, forced by the hostile social environment, was burned at thestake for murdering her husband in1726in London. Catherine Hayes is one of the womenfigures characterized by Thackeray, and she is also the product of women alienation, due torepression of the social system during the Victorian era.Being skilled in depicting characters and telling stories, Thackeray is a writer whoexcels in narrating. Therefore, it is difficult to retell the lively and interesting language andreproduce the vivid characters. Furthermore, Thackeray likes to put his characters in thespecific social and history background. Thus, it is important to learn about the background inwhich the story happened. In addition, it is essential to look up some relevant information anddo further research.Translation is a synthetic subject, which includes linguistics, literature, psychology,culturology, and information theory. It involves such fields as society, politics, economics,culture, technology, religion as well. Translation is an exceedingly complex activity ratherthan a simple conversion from one word or sentence to another. What impresses me in thistranslation is that translation is not an easy task and a qualified translator needs to have a good mastery of English and Chinese, as well as a great deal of cultural knowledge: The translatormust be skillful in using translation skills guided by different theories and have sufficientconscience as a professional translator.