A Study On The Translation Of The Mythical Images In Ancient Chinese Mythology From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Principles

Mythology is a most honest embodiment of a certain culture and its underlying traditional values. It enjoys a particular role in understanding and disseminating a culture. In mythology, the mythical images play a paramount role. They are not only the indispensable part of mythology but also the representative manifestation of the essence of a culture’s ideology. Therefore when it comes to the translation of ancient Chinese mythology, the role of the mythical images can never be underestimated or ignored. A good translation can not only make it easier for readers to understand the tales, but also better reveal and transmit the cultural elements behind. However, few of Chinese ancient myths are translated into English or other foreign languages and there is also a lack of relatively comprehensive, scientific and in-depth research on the subject. Therefore, it is of great significance and urgency to pay attention to the translation of ancient Chinese mythology.This thesis analyzes the translation of some typical mythical images collected from the ancient classic The Classic of Mountains and Seas by contrasting the two different English translations of these images to test the applicability of the functional equivalence principles and hopefully try to find some principles to guide the translation of other similar culture-loaded concepts of Chinese mythology. The thesis takes on Nida’s four principles of functional equivalence as the theoretical framework. Based on these principles, the thesis first classified the mythical images into four main categories according to their designative and associative meanings: images with semantic meanings but no cultural implications, images with both semantic meanings and cultural implications, images with cultural implications but no semantic meanings and images with no cultural implications nor semantic meanings. Then within each category, two different versions of translations will be compared and contrasted, and new versions of translation made under the guidance of the functional equivalence principles will be presented to test the applicability these principles in achieving equivalence at semantic and cultural level and in reader’s response.Based on the overall research and the results from the comparative analysis, the thesis concludes that: 1) to better facilitate the translation practice, mythical images can be classified according to their designative and associative meanings based on Nida’s principles of functional equivalence, making it easier for translator to take different considerations and choose proper translation strategies in the process of translation; 2) for mythical images with different levels of semantic meanings and cultural implications, translator’s attention should be distributed to different aspects in achieving functional equivalence; 3) in the process of translating, to achieve functional equivalence, flexible combination of different translation strategies could be used according to the different linguistic and cultural features of mythical images.