Approaches To Achieve Textual Fquivalence In E-C Translation In The Light Of Catford’s Theory Of Translation Shifts

As an important cultural activity, translation bears the responsibility of cross-cultural communications. The history of translation theory has been enriched by numerous definitions and principles of "literal translation" and "free translation", among which "be faithful to the original text" could be a traditional standard. Despite the objective of all translators—to pursue "the equivalence between different languages", the "equivalence" is never absolute. When it is impossible to achieve the equivalence of both "form" and "text", shifts in literary form or structure will be inevitable to make the target text faithful to the original one at the maximum level.Given the diversities among different languages and culture, such cases are common when translators have to choose the departure of original form in their actual practice, in order to realize the communicative purpose of translation. This essay is intended to analysis examples of author’s translation project in which the source language is transformed at different levels and categories when translated to the target language, with the assistance of Catford’s theory of translation shifts, so as to discuss the approaches to realize "textual equivalence" in inter-cultural translation.