Report On English Translation Of Chapter One In Zhongguo Shenmei Wenhua Jianshi

A great success has been achieved since China began to implement the state policy of “Let Chinese culture go global”.To achieve the goal of transmitting the connotation and spirit of the Chinese culture to the outside world,multiple approaches have been taken,of which translating scholarly research achievements on traditional Chinese culture into English is one of the most important ways.The traditional Chinese aesthetic culture makes the most brilliant part of traditional Chinese culture.The scholarly work Zhongguo Shenmei Wenhua Jianshi(A Brief History of Chinese Aesthetic Culture),a book which introduces traditional Chinese aesthetic culture,describes and depicts chronologically the traditional Chinese aesthetic culture of all dynasties in feudal China,with vivid illustrations and detailed explanations,and strives to tap and present the most valuable ancient Chinese aesthetic culture resources.Translating it into English must be of significance to transmitting traditional Chinese aesthetic culture.There has been no English version of this book in publication.Therefore,the English translation of this book is not only of academic value and practical meaning,but also of its typical Chinese originality.The object of translation in present translation project is Chapter One of the book,“Prehistoric Age of Looming Gods”,with over ten thousand Chinese characters.This chapter mainly introduces the utensils,totems,wall paintings,and myths and legends in the prehistoric age and the cultural connotations hidden behind them,such as the reproduction imagery and idolatry.The text in this chapter is that typical of Chinese scholarly works in humanities,presenting both academic and literary inclinations,which is embodied mainly in its academic writing style and presentation of works of art and artifacts with literary features.Based on her C-E translation process,the translator writes her work report,which comprises the background and significance of conducting the project,an analysis of the ST,the process of translation and the analysis of rendering the translation difficulties.In her process of translating,the translator finds that the most difficult is how to realize the cultural facsimile,that is,how to accurately convey the cultural elements of the prehistoric culture,which she devotes a separate chapter to its discussion.In translating the text,on the whole,the translator aims at,on the one hand,properly retaining the original values and belief systems,theoretical form,frame of thought,and ways of expression of the ST,and on the other hand,making sure that the English version presents features of the English academic prose so that it can be accurately accepted by the target readership.Thus,she combines domestication and foreignization in practice,treating different parts of the text differently.When rendering the original thoughts,opinions,and argumentations,the translator adopts mainly the domestication strategy,attempting to follow the academic English style by linguistic transformation,while,when dealing with the cultural connotation elements,she uses mainly the foreignization strategy aiming at cultural facsimile via translation.Based on her understanding of the source text and purpose of translation,she applies various concrete translation methods on the lexical level,syntactical level,and textual level,such as literal translation,free translation,and amplification.To achieve the goal of cultural facsimile,the translator resorts to adaptation,amplification,and annotation inside and outside the translated text proper to render the traditional Chinese aesthetic culture elements accessible to the English readership.