A Report On The Translation Of Mark Twain: Man In White (Prologue, Chapter One)

The translation of biography is a challenging task for translators.Translators should prepare themselves both with extensive knowledge of cultural background and skillful ability in transferring the source language to the target language.In this report,the translator chooses Michael Shelden's masterpiece Mark Twain: Man in White as the translation material.The chosen excerpts are the prologue part and the first two chapters of Section One.Based on the analysis at lexical and syntactical levels,the present translator adopts Catford's shifts theory and some other translation skills such as addition in the translation process to deal with the complicated expressions and cultural factors in the source text flexibly in order to convey the original intention of the writer to the target reader.This report falls into four chapters.Chapter One is a general description of the translation task,including an introduction to the author and the work.Chapter Two is the description of translation process,which involves preparation,while-translating and proofreading.Chapter Three,starting with the description of John Catford's shifts theory,probes into the cases in the translation practice through the comparison of two translation versions for the same words and sentences within the theoretical framework of John Catford's shift theory and other translation skills such as addition.Chapter Four draws a conclusion on the report,summarizing the major contents and findings of the report and offering suggestions and reference to future studies.