Thick Translation In Academic Translation

The present paper is a translation report, based on the translation practice of the "Prolegomena" in the Vol.3of Chinese Classics (excerpt). The purpose of the report is to explore feasibility of thick translation in academic translation.Thick translation seems to be an appropriate strategy to be applied to the translation of academic texts. Thick translation was put forward by Kwame Anthony Appiah, referring to the translation that seeks with its annotations and accompanying glosses to locate the text in rich cultural and linguistic context. In translating works which contain plenty cultural information, direct translation could not achieve the goal of expressing the connotation of the source text, therefore, special translating strategy of thick translation has to be adopted to compensate the loss of the meaning of the original text.The "Prolegomena" of Shoo King, translated by James Legge, is just this kind of academic text. The author attempted to apply annotation in the translation of the "Prolegomena". After carefully studying the source text, the author labeled and classified all the cultural elements, annotated historical figures, ancient classic works, specific terms, quotations and historical events. Based on predecessors’study achievements on the theory of thick translation, considering the stylistic features of the source text, the paper classifies annotations by their contents and cites a few examples. It reveals that thick translation, when applied properly in academic translation, can lessen the difficulties of the readers’ understanding. It is hoped that this report can provide useful implications for future translation on similar works.