Understanding Obstacles And Translating Techniques In History Text

This is a report based on English-Chinese translation project of five chapters from The History of the Medieval World. The excerpted part ranges from chapter twenty-seven to chapter thirty-one. It covers history, geography, politics, military, historical figures, and events in Middle Ages. This report is mainly divided into four parts. The first part introduces background information and history text. According to polished text by group members and my supervisor, the translator summarizes mistakes in draft translation and analyzes understanding obstacles in the project in the second part. In the third part, specific examples are listed to expound translation techniques adopted in the project. At last, the translator summarizes findings and limitations in this report, and makes some suggestions.As the key part in this report, the second part focuses on comprehension stage in translation process. Currently, a large number of reports refer to translation strategies and methods, highlighting expression stage. However, comprehension and expression are two significant stages in translation process, and comprehension is the prerequisite. The translator analyzes understanding obstacles from micro-level of language. There are two obstacle categories:linguistic aspects and non-linguistic aspects. It is hoped that this report will offer some help to those who translate history text.