On The English Translation Of Selected Works Of Mao Tse-Tung

The significance of the English Translation of Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung hardly needs any introduction in the history of Chinese translation. This paper probes into related history, theories and practice of the translated works.Special academic attention is paid to exploring the primary sources, especially the related historical documents and information embedded in some translators’ later writings. Re-discovered facts from narrations and commentaries make possible a systematic historical account of this special translating event, including organizing translators, arranging translation, the process and eventual publishing. This is followed by the study on the consistency of terms in translation. And the context must have played a crucial role in deciding the strategy of free translation or literal translation. Here the translators’ opinions are introduced in the analysis, so as to explain how the translation has overcome encountered language and cultural barriers. The paper then shifts to the third focus regarding the translation of emphasis in the sentence, and it is found that the syntactic technique of "forward positioning" is applied as a translation method, that is, shifting the emphasized meaning unit to the forward position of a sentence so as to make a point of this part in translation. It is also found that some paragraphs are re-divided into more sections without authorization in the translated volume I by London Lawrence&Wishart Ltd.In conclusion, the translation of political documents should feature fidelity to the source text, consistency of terms, sound logic and emphasized keypoints.