On Translating The Secret History Of The Mu Clan Chieftain From A Cultural Translation Perspective

From a cultural translation perspective, translation is not just a word transformation process or conversion of two languages, but also an embodiment of cross-cultural communication and explanation of the cultural information behind the language. Culture of ethnic groups is a crucial part of Chinese culture. Cultural works of ethnic groups, which serves as the precious fruit of their long history and wisdom, can show the features of that group to the largest degree. Therefore, translation of ethnic cultural works is significant.This report is a summary of the whole translation process, based on the translation of the 6th chapter of The Secret History of the Mu Clan Chieftain, which is All-embracing Multiculture of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. The theme of the book is the vicissitude of Mu Mansion and the Chieftain, which serves as the epitome of Lijiang culture. The 6th chapter makes detailed description of the chieftains’ contribution to the culture of Lijiang. This report is consisted by description of the translation task, description of the translation process, translation methods & case study and summary. Description of the translation task and the translation process gives an overall introduction to the whole translation task, including the background of the task, the source text, and the problems and difficulties in translation. Translation methods & case study is the core of this report. According to Liu Miqing’s discussion about cultural translation, the translator employs translation methods including “mimesis, substitution, explanation and decoloration” to deal with the cultural terms in the source text. Finally, the translator makes a conclusion of the translation, including the problems that have yet to be solved and the translator’s gains.