Report On Translation From An Abridged Passage Of A Pirate Looks At Fifty Based On Functional Equivalence Theory

The book A Pirate Looks at Fifty,《一个海盗的五十载》 is selected as thetranslation part of this essay. As for the special genre of the novel which isautobiography, with features of travelogue, the novel is chose as the translation practice.The fluent and idiomatic English expression brought out by an old humorous man withpositive attitude of life and sunlight-like perspective shines the book as the first positionin New York Times Bestseller. It is like a wooden puppet with string jerked by all thisattractions. There are some bumpers during the translation, because there are lots oftechnical words about aviation, daily words expressions and author’s personal viewabout life.American translation theorist---Eugene A. Nida’s functional equivalence theory isquoted in this essay, which is renamed as dynamic equivalence theory by his own. Histheory claims to utilize appropriate, natural expressions in order to indicate the realmeanings of original language. The dynamic equivalence theory includes lexical,syntactic, textual and stylistic equivalence. In-depth connotation and superficialmeaning of the sentence are all depending on the translation. As a translator, one needsto liberate from the form level, more focus on the meaning stage. Leading the readersfrom target language into the exact and vivid environment of original language is alltranslators’ orientation. The report will give out cases study of translation from theaspects of words analysis, cultural analysis, and translation skills. Several strategies areselected to tackle the barriers of translation below. Apprehending the thorough meaningof the text is the basic. The cultural gap between English and Chinese should bedistinguished. Textual analysis and stylistic features should be focused on duringtranslation. A vast knowledge of psychology, aeronautics and other majors should beacquired during this translation. The targeted readers to whom we are trying to translateshould be orientated. Through translating this novel, it enlightens us that translation theory andtranslation practice is complementary to each other. Only by involving translationtheories and putting the translation theories into large amount of practice, couldtranslators improve their translation competence for a good professionalaccomplishment.