The Translation Of The First Four Chapters Of Emily Bronte

This project is a translation of the first four chapters of Emily Bronte into Chinese, together with a critical commentary. The famous British writer Emily Bronte(1818-1848) enjoys acclaim in the literary world by her novel Wuthering Heights. Her biography Emily Bronte by Robinson, A.Mary.F was first published in1883. The selected chapters are concerned with the parents of Emily Bronte, the life of the six children at Haworth before and after their mother’s death, the hard life of Bronte girls at the Cowan’s school where Maria and Elizabeth died of consumption and the childhood of the four Brontes back at Haworth.In the second part of the project, the difficult points in translation are analyzed and solutions are provided in terms of comprehension and representation. The problems in the understanding of some words and phrases are settled with consideration to the specific context. Context, according to Hu Zhuanglin, is based on^the presumption that one can derive meaning from. It contributes to the determination of the exact meaning of the difficult words and phrases. As for representation, the principles by both Tytler and Yanfu are followed to produce the translated version which is expressive and formal while faithful to the original text. Generally, the approaches of foreignization and domestication proposed by Venuti are adopted in the translation. Specifically, to fully reflect the language characteristics and the emotions of the original text, foreignization should be the priority. But when foreignization renders the target language ungrammatical and incoherent, domestication should be considered. In order to make the translation fluent and appropriate, three translation skills are adopted. Firstly, the order of the word or the sentence elements can be rearranged. Secondly, the sentence constituents are conformed, like the conversion of a noun in English to a verb in Chinese. Lastly, logical relations in English are displayed in Chinese by adding the associative words to make the language fluent and logical.In conclusion, translation is the process of accurate comprehension and representation. Comprehension includes the understanding of the passage style in general and the understating of specific words, phrases and sentences in details. Representation involves the application of translation approach and skills. The project is of great significance to the research on Emily Bronte and on the translation practice and theories.