A Translation Report On Halfbreed(Chapter21-23)

This thesis is a translation report taking chapter21to chapter23as the source text from Canadian Metis writer Maria Campbell’s autobiography Halfbreed. This part centers around the narration of Maria’s suffering of an alcoholic, drug-addicted, and prostituting life after being abandoned by her husband. Fallen into despair, she attempted to commit suicide twice. It was through the Alcoholics Anonymous program and recalling her ethnic spirits that Maria rediscovered her confidence and then devoted herself into the national movement. Under the guidance of functional equivalence theory proposed by American linguist and translator Eugene Nida, the thesis aims to make the original text and translated text equivalent in semantic, stylistic and cultural aspects. It is also aimed at making the reaction of the source readers be equivalent to that of the target readers. In order to achieve this propose, proper translation strategies and methods are chosen correspondingly in translating chapter21to23. In this translation project, the most important and difficult parts are the translations of culture-loaded words and expressions, and some proper nouns as well. The thesis adopts translation strategies of transplanting, borrowing and free translation to translate culture-loaded words and expressions, while chooses transliteration and free translation to render proper nouns. It also uses Chinese idioms with four characters to represent the target language to be more concise and clear. In addition, in completing this translation project, the thesis author realized that Eugene Nida’s functional equivalence theory is of great significance in guiding the English-Chinese translation practice. To strive for a perfect translation, a translator needs perseverant efforts in constant learning and practice.