A Report On The Translation Of It Can’t Happen Here

The author has participated in the “Bilingual Program” launched by Foreign Teachingand Research Press. The task is to translate the novel It Can’t Happen Here written byAmerican writer Sinclair Lewis. This novel is about the rise and fall of a political dictator,who somewhat like Hitler in German. The author translated the part from chapter8to chapter14, which describes the preparation of the dictator before being elected. This part is thefoundation for the following parts and has great significance in the whole novel.Before translating, the author made a lot of preparations such as getting familiar with thewriter, his writing style and the novel’s background, and unifying the translation of the namesof people, places and proper nouns with the help of the Internet and paper pages, which lay asolid foundation for the translation work.This translation is literature text. As we all know, literature is rich in its culturalconnotation, so the balance between the content and form is more difficult to handle thanother versions, which causes more obstacles in translation work. In this practice, the authorreally did a lot of work as to how to make a choice in some paradoxes in translation field.In the author’s opinion, translation is a transition between two languages and the exchangebetween two kinds of different culture. A translator should not only be able to send theinformation of the original, but also should have the ability to reappear the spirit and thewriting style of the writer as well as his creating mood. Therefore, a translator must have goodlanguage competence, wide range of knowledge, rich translation theories and skills, at thesame time, he should possess a correct attitude and responsibility. Only when a translator has these knowledge and qualities, can the translation work be completed excellently and thespirit and beauty of the original can be sent successfully.