A Report On The Translation Of Are We Any Safer(Excerpts):Translation Strategies Of Attributive Clauses In Political Text

This report is based on the translation of Are We Any Safer,which was published in The Atlantic in September in 2016.Its author is Steven Brill who talks about American major measures to maintain homeland security and defense against terrorist attacks politically and economically in recent 15 years after 911 attacks.Most of the sentences in political text are long and complex.There are a large number of attributive clauses in source text(excerpts),including 121 restrictive attributive clauses and 14 non-restrictive attributive clauses.English and Chinese belong to two kinds of language systems.In English,the structures of attributive clauses are complex,while Chinese political text should be concise and precise.Therefore,in the translation of attributive clauses in political text,it is not appropriate to translate word for word to achieve similarity of language forms.Translators should focus more on the meaning and spirit of source text,so that target readers have the same feelings and reactions as readers of the source text.So the author chooses Functional Equivalence Theory to guide the translation of attributive clauses.In this translation report,taking Are We Any Safer as an example,the author focuses more on language features of attributive clauses and difficulties of their translation.What makes the translation of attributive clauses difficult is complex structures of attributive clauses,hidden logical relationships and linguistic and cultural differences.According to different features of restrictive attributive clauses and non-restrictive attributive clauses,the author explores several translation methods,such as pre-modifier,division,omission,blending and adverbial method.This translation report is composed of four parts,including task description,task process,case analysis and conclusion.