Translation Report On Mistress Pat

In his book The Theory and Practice of Translation, Nida (1982, p.12) makes it clear that translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and second in terms of style. To put it another way, emphasis needs to be put on both meaning and style in order to make the translation as natural as possible for the target readers. This report takes the translation of Mistress Pat as a case study to illustrate how to achieve functional equivalence with the intended purpose to reach target readers. Despite the fact that literature translation is bound to be faithful to the source text by accurate and fluent translation, the language features and style should not be neglected. In this report, examples are selected to demonstrate how to flexibly apply literal and free translation, adjustment of expressions, conversion and strategies of domestication and foreignization to achieve functional equivalence. In this way, the translation may trigger the same response from and have the same impact on the target readers as the original text did upon the source text readers.