The Study Of Repetition In Chinese And English And Its English Translation

As a rhetorical device, repetition is widely used both in Chinese and English. While translating a Chinese text containing repetition, we should take specific measures according to specific situation when considering which translating principle and strategy should be adopted. Fist of all, when the source text contains repetition which is used to emphasize the contents, express the author’s emotion, strengthen the rhythm, create unique artistic conception and form a unique style, which always appears in literature works, the translator should, under the circumstance of having a deep understanding of its creative background, the author’s attitude and the contents, do the best to avoid decreasing the original feelings, rhetorical features and linguistic enchantment. To achieve this, the repetition in the source text should be maintained in the target text so that English readers will sense as much importance of contents, author’s emotion, strong rhythm and unique style as the source text readers. Second of all, when repetition is used as a cohesive device in Chinese, we should notice that there are great differences in structure between English and Chinese. Chinese tends to put more emphasis on the meaning of the whole text, while English sentences are quite highly-structured, with one circle around another from the center, and every element as a cohesive device will be fulfilled by a specific part of speech. To render a Chinese text containing this kind of repetition into English, we have to put more attention to the principles and habbits in English and the thinking mold of English readers. Consequently, some "unnecessary" repetition should be omitted so that the translated text will be more genuine and fluent. In the end, repetition can be used in contents as well as in structure, thus, we will set antithesis and parallelism as examples and analize their forms and differences in English and Chinese in order to find how to make our translation accord with the target language and easy to be understood and accepted by English readers in the premise of maintain the beauty of meaning as well as the form.