On Stylistic Transference Of Prose From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

The original text is chosen from Essays on Paul Bourget, written by Mark Twain. This commentary is aimed at analyzing how to achieve stylistic equivalence under the guidance of functional equivalence theory of Eugene A. Nida through a case study of translation of Twain’s work. Twain applies figures of speech to highlight the irony about Paul Bourget, and this is the main feature of this text. The commentary analyzes the translation of figures of speech in the original text.This commentary analyzes examples of analogy, parallelism, metaphor, personification, repetition, metonymy, and antiphrasis in the text. It also offers corresponding translation methods under the guidance of Nida’s theory of functional equivalence. This commentary draws a conclusion that translators should use different translation methods according to different figures of speech and different context so that the target text can arouse the same response from readers the way the original text does. Thus the stylistic equivalence of prose can be achieved.