A Report On The Chinese Translation Of Proceedings Of The Second International Conference On Gross National Happiness-Rethinking Development(Excerpts)

This report is written on the basis of a translation project from one cooperation activity between College of Foreign Studies in Guangxi Normal University and Guangxi Normal University Press (Group). It analyses and examines the performance of the project. The project targets the English-Chinese translation of the book Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Gross National Happiness-Rethinking Development edited by a former King of Bhutan, JIGME SING YE WANGCHUCK. This book consists of the essays focusing on the core of the Conference-Gross National Happiness, whose length totals about eighty thousand words. A majority of this project is finished by joint efforts of the author and four other classmates as a whole team.Before embarking on translation, a lot of preparations have been done, including reading and collecting types of texts and books on background information of the source text by internet or library. By analyzing and concluding the features and style of the source texts and the desired counterparts of the target texts, translation strategies are chosen in line with the principle of Eugene Nida’s "functional equivalence". In the translating phase, many translation skills such as transliteration plus annotation, reframing discourses, reinventing sentence structures, and turning phrases into clauses are performed for maintaining the features and style of the source texts, as well as dispelling the barriers in carrying messages between two types of texts and even the cultures hidden. After the first version being formed, the teammates help to examine the result for many times to lifting the quality of that practice.The report is comprised of six chapters. The first chapter introduces the source, goals and significance of this translation practice, as well as its translating phrases including the preparation for translating, criterion and requirements for quality of the translation. The second part demonstrates the procedure of finishing the whole project such as forming the team, making schedule and arrangements for team members, how to handle the quality of the whole project. The third part analyses the features and style of the source texts and explains its plainness and formality in language and combination of facts and comments in content. The fourth part presents the principle of Nida’s "functional equivalence" and its theoretical meaning in guiding translation. In the fifth chapter, based on the introduction of translation principle applied in this practice, some typical cases from the translation are studied and analyzed in detail by combining some personal experience useful to the translation. The last chapter summarizes the gains and weak points during this translation practice.