A Translation Report Of Autobiography Of Earth(Excerpts)

Nida’s dynamic translation theory did not enjoy much popularity until Tan Zaixi systematically translated it into Chinese and introduced it to China in 1980. Since then, Chinese scholars began to view it from a more objective and comprehensive perspective. However, when it comes to the middle of 1990 s, Nida’s translation theory was widely rejected by Chinese scholars. This thesis, by referring to the result of a systematic study of Nida’s translation theory done by Ma Huijuan, analyzes various kinds of obstacles that one may meet in the process of translating the book, Autobiography of Earth, written by John Hodgdon Bradley in 1935. In this paper, obstacles are mainly divided into three types: background knowledge, language differences and rhetorical force and pragmatic force. Before introducing the part of case study, the author shall provide sufficient information about the translation process, background information of the source text and shall analyze the features of the selected text. Through case study, it proves that Nida’s translation theory, though not perfect for all kinds of text types, is quite instructive in guiding the translation of popular science readings.