A Translation Project Report Of A Brief History Of Death (Chapter1)

A Brief History of Death was written by Douglas J. Davies, who is the professorin the Theology and Religion Department of the Durham University. The Chapter Iwas chosen as the source text. The first chapter narrated the trip beyond journey,which mainly focused on explaining the origins of death, people’s attitudes towarddeath and how to overcome the fear of death with hope. It illustrated derivations ofhistory, culture and religion in different social formations, which demonstrated thatthe history of death was in fact an outline of history, culture and religion. Thistranslation report was divided into four chapters: Chapter One was the description ofthe translation project, including the project background, objectives and projectstructure. Chapter Two was an introduction of the source text and the author. ChapterThree was about translation difficulties and methods. The difficulties lay in thetranslation of long sentences and cultural elements. Therefore, the translator tookCultural Translation Theory as guidance, adopting relevant translation methods toensure the readability and coherence of the target text. Chapter Four concluded withthe inspiration and lessons in the project.