On English Translation Strategies Of Chinese Agricultural Classics With Reference To A Preliminary Survey Of The Book: Chi Min Yao Shu

With the acceleration of globalization,China has become increasingly connected with the world.Cultural exchanges between China and other countries are becoming more and more frequent.China is known for its agricultural civilization.Therefore,agricultural technologies and agronomic thoughts are naturally the key components of traditional Chinese civilization.Agricultural classics,the important achievements in history,have strong vitalities.As the cornerstones of the inheritance and development of agricultural civilization,the translation of agricultural classics is the base and prerequisite for the internationalization of Chinese agricultural civilization.However,authoritative researches on English translation of agricultural classics are comparatively rare and studies on translation strategies are inadequate.These are obvious problems in this field.The author thinks it is necessary and important to carry out in-depth systematic research on the English translation of agricultural classics.Taking the representative work of Chinese agricultural classics Chi Min Yao Shu(techniques essential for the subsistence of common people)and its English version A Preliminary Survey of the Book: CHI MIN YAO SHU by Professor Shi Shenghan as research objects,this research is carried out from multi-point views at three different levels.With analyses of the translation of terms,sentences and discourses in Chi Min Yao Shu by employing cultural translation theory,back-transformation theory and cohesion theory respectively,the author explores the translation strategies applied in Chi Min Yao Shu and tries to apply these strategies in agricultural classics translation practice.Through discussions on translation strategies applied in Chi Min Yao Shu,the author comes to the conclusion that cultural translation theory,as one of the most influential theory,can guide the translation of terms of Chi Min Yao Shu.The principle of foreignization dominated and domestication assisted can be applied.Foreignization aims to reproduce the style and cultural features of the original text and show the characteristics of ancient Chinese agricultural culture to the target language readers.It is applicable in the translation of soil,farmland,agricultural tools and treatments which are unique to China.Transliteration,a special variety of foreignization,is available for the translation of names of geographic locations,people,occupations and agricultural official ranks.Domestication emphasizes to express the original meanings with expressions that are familiar to target language readers in order to keep the target text understandable for them.While,it is at the expense of losing cultural connotations of source language.Domestication is just applied in the translation of weights and measures and farming seasons.In the translation of sentences of agricultural classics,the backtransformation theory can be appropriate.With the guidance of back-transformation theory,translation process is structured to four steps: analysis,deep transfer,restructuring and surface test.It aims to keep the closest and natural equivalence between the source text and target text.In the aspect of the layout of target text,cohesion theory is available which emphasizes inner logic and semantic relations of target text.The original paratactic text is translated into target hypotactic text and the theme and style of the original text can be maintained to the great extent.Finally,the author concludes that the integration of translation strategies of terms,sentences and discourses can be constructed into a complete system of agricultural classic translation strategies.It can be effectively applied in promoting the development of translation of Chi Min Yao Shu and other agricultural classics so as to enhance Chinese agricultural exchanges with the world.