On Annotation In Translation Of Documentary Literature

Many literary works reflect the real life through social customs, names of persons or places, and historical and religious contents, which may be common sense to readers under the same cultural background as the writer, but new to those under different backgrounds. Therefore, annotation, as a means for translation compensation, can compensate for some cultural defaults and reproduce the charm of source text.The author chooses to discuss Chapter1of Far From the Tree:Parents, Children and the Search for Identity, a documentary book written by an American writer, Andrew Solomon, which contains many real names of persons and places, historical and religious contents, as well as terminology of social psychology, which need to be researched and explained. This is one of the main difficulties in the translation process. This thesis will focus on how to compensate for cultural defaults through different ways of annotation when translating such a text and how to classify annotations into different categories based on translator’s aims.By summarizing previous scholars’ research on annotation including the classification of annotation, this author will analyze examples in the text, and then put forward some points about "annotation or not" and how to make annotations. Generally speaking, the aims of annotation in the text boil down to explaining proper nouns, adding translator’s explanation and background information. And then this author will discuss the reasons why such annotations have been used.