A Translation Report On The First Two Chapters Of Alfred: Queen Victoria’s Second Son

As the second son of Queen Victoria, Alfred is rarely known to the world. The book Alfred: Queen Victoria’s Second Son, written by John Van der Kiste, describes the whole life of Prince Alfred in an objective way. It provides reference materials for us to get to know Alfred. Besides, there exists no Chinese version for this book so far.In regard to this, the author utilizes the book as translation materials to deal with the translation difficulties. The report is composed of four parts. The first part introduces the translation text, background and significance. The second part describes the translation process. The third part discusses the applicability of prosodic phonology, translation norms and translation shifts with the aid of various strategies which include amplification, omission, reposition and domestication. The last part summarizes the findings and unsolved problems in the rendition.By way of case studies, the author sums up three major points: first of all,prosodic phonology helps to explain how the syllable and rhythm affect the addition or omission of the words; secondly, translation norms turn out to be effective guidance to achieve the equivalence of meaning.; thirdly, translation shifts are available for solving syntactic problems.