A Report On The Translation Of Reinventing Fire-Chapter 3

With the gradual depletion of traditional energy, it has become a new standard of measuring national strength to develop and utilize new energy resources. It is my great honor to translate the third section of Reventing Fire initially, written by Professor Lu Anwu, American Rocky Mountain Institute. This section mainly tells the usage of oil and power in America and how to develop and utilize energy-efficient buildings to save energy. Now because China is a big country of energy consumption, it is significant to translate the book in order to utilize energy efficiently. In the process of translation, based on Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory and Newmark’s Communicative Theory of Translation, better translation effect has been achieved in practice.In the report, the whole translation process has been stated in detail. In the first chapter which the translation tasks are mainly described, I read the book thoroughly after getting its electronic version. And then I research the relevant background of the author and the book so as to understand the context of the text, and listen to the client’s request carefully. In the second chapter which is about the description of the translation process, some preparation work is stated, including analyzing of the features of the text, reading the paralleled text, studying the translation theories and preparing the translation tools. In the translation process, I complete the tasks on time according to the plans. And it is also mentioned how to complete the translation task successfully if there is an emergency case. It is a very important part to check and revise the translation before it is handed in. In the third chapter, which mainly analyses the problems in the translation practice and some relevant cases, I give an explicit description about the problems encountered when translating. For the translation of words, the mistranslation of the common vocabulary in English of science and technology is solved; once semantic is undetermined, according to the context, some translation methods with semantic flexibility can be adopted appropriately, such as amplification, omission and conversion of part of speech; While there are a lot of metaphor translations in the text, context translation method can be used. In sentence translation, I mainly solve the problems about the translation of the passive voice sentences and parenthesis, which are very large in the text. For the text, according to the principle of coherence and fluency, appropriate adjustments to the original can be made by taking the translating methods in coherence and cohesion, such as facsimile, revision, addition and deletion. In the fourth chapter, I draw a conclusion and try to inspire the translators in the whole translation practice. I also put forward the abilities and qualities that a good translator should have.Through the practice of translation, I have acquired a large number of translation skills, and also have accumulated valuable experience for future translation work. I hope that this report can provide certain reference for the translators who research of such text.