A Report On The Translation Of British Folk Tales And Legends: A Sampler

This is a report on the translation of the British Folk Tales and Legends whichcollects a variety of stories, nursery tales, moral comments, magical remnants,wisdom, humor and sheer inventiveness of the British people at large. The folk talesof certain nations or communities imply unique traditions and beliefs. A text withsuch huge cultural heritages could only serve to preserve treasures for the local peoplewithout translation. But through translation, it could play a role in cultural exchangeswith other people in the world. In addition, the translation of British-related folk talesis rare at present. Therefore, the translation is meaningful not only for horizonbroadening in terms of personal improvement, but also for the cultural exchanges andmutual understanding of people with different cultural backgrounds.The British Folktales and Legends is the essence of British traditional cultures,which opens an exotic world for readers with different cultural background. From ourperspective that we could take for granted, we may find the logic and plot in somestories intricate or unreadable. We may find some supernatural scene very weird because theydo not conform to our own logic background. But that is the reality in the British society and eventhe western tradition culture, which we may as well perceive from a different angle if we want toimprove our ability for cross-cultural communication. The case study of this report, whichprovides source text analysis and theoretical basis of the translation, is the mostimportant part of this report. In this part, the application of dynamic equivalence, theapplication of which involves closest equivalence, natural equivalence and culturaladaptation, will be focused in particular to guarantee the translation quality. For eachapplication, typical examples of translation will be presented to demonstrate how theprinciples of these equivalences were adopted during the translation.