E-C Translation Of The First Chapter Of The Valley Of Amazement And A Critical Commentary

This MTI translation report focuses on analyzing translation approaches the translator adopts in the translation of the first chapter of the novel The Valley of Amazement in an attempt to discuss how to achieve functional equivalence in translation.The Valley of Amazement, from which Chapter1is taken as the source text, is a novel written by Amy Tan, a Chinese American woman writer. The translated chapter tells a story that happens in a courtesan house in Shanghai in1912historical China, co-narrated by LuLu, an American woman who is the owner of the courtesan house, and Violet, her daughter of mixed-blood. This chapter reveals the life of the courtesan house, with buzzing business and intrigue mental activities and a strong touch of bi-lingual and bi-cultural atmosphere. It contains historic-specific and cultural-specific words, making it difficult to achieve functional equivalence in translation.By analyzing the typical examples in translation, this MTI translation report compares literal translation and free translation on lexical level and syntactic level. It suggests that free translation is more effective in achieving functional equivalence in translation of a historic-specific and cultural-specific text.