Translation Report On The Green Turtle Mystery

This is a report on the translation of the detective novel The Green Turtle Mystery written by Ellery Queen. The story is about the hero Djuna whose friend Ben lost his green turtle. While looking for the green turtle they are embroiled in the haunted house mystery. With the help of Socker Furlong, they reveal the mystery of the haunted house. This report is based on the translation of chapters 8-10 of the book which narrates Djuna’s breaking into the house and trying to find out the truth hidden behind the haunted house.This report is divided into four parts, including the background of the project, the author and content of the book, main difficulties and theories adopted in translating the story. The Green Turtle Mystery can be categorized as children’s literature. Dialogues between different characters are throughout the story. In order to convey the style and features of original text, Skopos Theory has been chosen as the guideline. Different strategies such as literal translation and free translation have been adopted to achieve the purpose of translating this novel. The particularity of children’s literature and differences between Chinese and western culture constitute the major difficulties in translating. It can be concluded that rigorous scholarship, full preparation and careful proofreading and editing are essential to achieving the purpose in translating.