A Translation Report On Selections From 《The Progress Of Modern Japanese Agricultural Techniques》

This paper is a report on a translation project. The translation is a selection of work from Sawada Shujirou’s The Progress of Modern Japanese Agricultural Techniques. In that work, the progress of modern Japanese agricultural techniques is introduced. China and Japan have developed closely since ancient times in the areas of economics, politics, technology and culture. The objective conditions of agricultural economics between Japan and China have many similarities, such as they are both temperate monsoonal climates, the agricultural produce is similar, the both have a large population to work a small land mass, and historically they were largely small farm economies. However, Japan was able to modernize their agriculture, as such, the modernization of the Japanese agriculture carries great importance for the modernization of the Chinese agriculture. Agricultural Japanese translation therefore is an area of great import.The contents of this report can be separated into five parts. First, the background and value of this translation project is introduced, expounding the characteristics of agricultural Japanese and the difficulties that can be encountered in translation. Second, the existing literature regarding agricultural Japanese translation was reviewed. Third, case examples were taken in order to analyze the translation methods and difficulties. This area mainly included analyses of the translations of place and people names, terms specific to Japanese, specialized terminology such as agricultural tools, and the translation of passive sentences prevalent in agricultural Japanese. Fourth, a summary of the translation experience. In the process of translation, the appropriate use of tools such as dictionaries and the internet is important, as is a strong knowledge of the field and the choice of appropriate translation techniques. Not only is a strong second language competence necessary, but also a thorough knowledge of the first language and a large amount of practice are necessary for the production of high-quality translation.