A Report On The Translation Process Of The Chinese Philosophical Thoughts Based On Functional Equivalence

Philosophy is a wisdom guiding us to a better life. Thus, there have always beentranslations on philosophy. As China is one of the four old civilizations, the Chinesephilosophical thoughts, an indispensable part of Chinese civilization, have been the focus oftranslators. Naturally, the translators have made many great achievements in this sphere.Many theories and strategies have been put forward. However, the fact cannot be denied thatthe development on the translation of Chinese philosophical thoughts is inadequate as per itsimportance. The researches on the translation of Chinese philosophical thoughts mainly centeron traditional Chinese philosophy as Confucianism and Taoism. There are much lesstranslations on life philosophy than there should have been. Life philosophy, with itssimplicity in language, holds more practical meanings in guiding people for a better life.Considering this fact, this report, with a chapter from life philosophy texts as anexample, based on Nida s functional equivalence and his theory on translation process,analyzes the translation process of life philosophy and aims to draw some instructiveconclusions on the translation process of life philosophy.This report is mainly divided into four chapters. Chapter one is introduction to thebackground and objectives of the report from the practical and theoretical perspectives.Chapter two is the presentation of the translated text and its translation, demonstrating thepositive effect of the translation theory applied in this report. Chapter three is the main part ofthe report. It is the analysis of the translation process which involves the translation theoryand its role in translating the text as well as the detailed translation process (analysis, transfer,restructuring and testing). The last chapter is chapter four, the conclusion. This chapterconsists of two parts, namely summary of the report and implications and limitations.After the analysis of the translation process, the following findings can be concluded.First, in order to guarantee that the receptor s reactions are closer to that of the nativespeakers, the translators must make careful lexical and syntactic analysis to make thetranslation natural; second, the translators shall not ignore the influence from the context andthe cultural background to the translation, because the two factors can determine whether thereceptors can accept the translation or not; third, the translation process as analysis, transfer, restructuring happen at almost the same time and it is not a pattern that translators must follow.The translators shall choose the appropriate way to translate according to the specifictranslated text.