A Report On C-E Translation Of 20 Prefaces,Postscripts,Introductions And Inscriptions Of The Short Essays Of The Ming Dynasty

Short essays have long been in marginalized status in feudal China and not valued by the orthodox literature.The seeds of capitalism in the Ming Dynasty promoted personality liberation.Loose traditional ideas and diversified concepts drive the litterateurs in the Ming Dynasty to pursue dedicate,elegant and leisurely and comfortable life,which was embodied by the development of “short essays” in literature.It was not until the rein of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty that short essays mounted the stage of history and then entered the prime of its development.At present,our country is striving to promote the development of cultural industries and Chinese culture going out.The translation of these short essays meets the need of national development and helps to study Chinese history and fill the gap of the translation of Chinese culture.This translation report is based on the translation of twenty short essays in the Ming Dynasty,which were chosen by the author and her supervisor,including four literary styles,namely “preface,postscript,introduction and inscription”.The author has made relative preparation for the translation materials,including reading parallel texts,making time schedule and analyzing the features of the source texts.The source texts all belong to paratext,which was put forward by French literary theorist Genette.The source texts are all classical Chinese so the translation practice involves intralingual translation and interlingual translation,which was brought forward by the French literary theorist Roman Jacobson.Translating the source texts to modern Chinese and then to English is a big challenge for the author.Multiple differences between classical Chinese and modern Chinese and Chinese and English have brought about various cultural blanks.This report uses reader-oriented principle under the guidance of Susan Bassnett's Cultural Translation Theory and Gérard Genette's Paratext Theory and translates those cultural blanks with the help of literal translation,liberal translation,transliteration,omission and annotation.Finally,the author summarizes the experience and difficulties of the translation,hoping to serve as references for other researchers.