A Report On The Translation Of The Lowland From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

The Lowland,published in September,2013,is a novel written by Jhumpa Lahiri,an Indian American writer.It tells a story of an ordinary family under the background of the Indian revolution,which raises questions about the relationship among family,society and self,especially showing a different perspective in how to treat the so-called “terrorists”.Ingeniously conceived and brilliantly written,it has been well received since its publication.The author of the report chose its first chapter as his research sample,translated it into Chinese under the guidance of Eugene Nida's functional equivalence theory,and composed this translation report.The core of Nida's functional equivalence is: the translator should translate the source language with the closest natural equivalent receptor language,and the translated text should be judged by the response of the readers.In other words,functional equivalence emphasizes that the translation should focus on the original meaning rather than the original form,and the quality of the translation should be judged by the response of the readers,i.e.whether the readers of a translated text can understand and appreciate it essentially in the same manner as the original readers did,which is where the functional equivalence theory is different from other theories.It was under the guidance of this theory that the author of this report did his translation and completed this report.In this report,the author tries to analyze translation strategies from two aspects– vocabulary and syntax– discussing the significance of the guidance of the functional equivalence theory in fiction translation.The report then summarizes the translation strategies and skills that should be paid attention to in the above two aspects in the translation of English novels,intending to provide some useful reference for the translation of similar texts.