On The Translation Of Culture-loaded Words In Historical Literature

This translation report is a reflection on the project of translating the book An East India Company Cemetery, which covers about 20 pages of the original text from the 3rd Chapter to the 5th. An East India Company Cemetery was edited into a published size based on the manuscripts of the Rides (Lindsay and May) in Hong Kong back in 1996. It consists of two sections: in the first section, there are 7 chapters, which mainly describe the historical background, i.e. the general picture of trade, politics and life in Hong Kong, Macao and the coastal regions of South China after the arrival of the East India Company; the second part basically covers the content of the Macao Old Christian Church in terms of the tomb design, the anecdotes and social connections of the celebrities buried here. Since its publication,the book has become one of the most valuable first-hand literatures in the study of modern Chinese history. The purpose for translating this book is to better assist the scholars to conduct academic research, theoretical innovation and cultural exchange on this topic. The content concerning this report is in the first section, which depicts the trade and business of the foreign merchants led by the Britons, as well as the life of foreign community in Hong Kong, Macao and Canton in that historic period.I worked closely with two of my classmates. Upon the completion of the first draft, we switched our translated texts for proofreading. Some mistakes were corrected and some missing parts added, and it is found that there are some universal deficiencies such as the inconsistency of jargons, inaccuracy and so one. Based on our reflections after the translation, the author summarized the typical difficulties in the texts from the perspective of functional equivalence, and focuses on the translation of culture-loaded words by analyzing the examples extract from this translation practice, and discussed the principles and strategies of translating culture-loaded terms in historical literature in order to combine functional equivalence theory with translation practices.This translation practice report is composed of four chapters. Chapter One is an introduction to the book translated An East India Company Cemetery, and an illustration of the practical and theoretical significance of this present study. In the Chapter Two, Nida and his functional equivalence theory was introduced. The feasibility of applying this theory to the translation of culture-loaded words and the previous studies on the concept and translation strategies of culture-loaded words were also exploited. Chapter Three is the case study of translating culture-loaded words in this book, and three principles of translation was put forward in this regard:TL-oriented principle, TL reader-centered principle and equivalent-effect principle;four translation strategies: back-translation, annotation, replacement and amplification were demonstrated with analysis of pertinent examples from this translation project. Chapter Four is a summary of this report as well as the revelations and limitations of this translation project.