A Report On The Translation Of Metaphysics

The present report comes from the translation of Aristotle’s Metaphysics from its English version into Chinese. To be specific, the author deals with the first volume of the book, i.e. the "the theory of explanation" which consists of ten chapters altogether.Our report is composed of four chapters. In the first chapter, some background information is offered as to the translation task and the English edition according to which our work is done, and some principles in doing the work are made clear. The second chapter shows the reference books used, both electronic and traditional, and the means by which quality translation work is achieved. Chapter three is the main body of the report. In this part, the author illustrates the lexical, grammatical and logical strategies in his translation. Lexically, negative marks in Chinese are discussed in detail with their slight differences being compared and how to select the appropriate negatives is talked about. Free and literal translation of words is another question concerned, each having its own advantages and we should choose one in accordance with the context. Grammatically the sentence order is considered. Sometimes in translation, we need to keep the original sentence order and sometimes we need to change it. Finally the author deals with logical matters in translation. Correct use of logical rules can guarantee the correctness in ideas of the translation work, so it is necessary for the translator to possess the basic logical knowledge. In the last chapter, the necessity of leaning and translating the ancient sages is stressed again, and the future research orientation for the author is talked about.