The Translation Report Of The Wonder Of Birds(Chapter Ten—Chapter Twelve)

The content of this translation practice from English into Chinese is excerpted from The Wonder of Birds: What They Tell Us about Ourselves,the World,and a Better Future written by Jim Robbins.In the book,Jim Robbins regarded birds which are intimate with us as research objects,and he not only introduced us with plenty of observations,but also stimulated us thinking about ourselves and environment in a distinct way.The content from Chapter Ten to Chapter Twelve of The Wonder of Birds is quoted here.In this part,Jim Robbins introduced the birds' brain,language and corvids' habits,the representative creature in the birds' world,to explore the secrets of ourselves.It plays a facilitating role for the development of human society and scientific research.Meanwhile it strengthens people's awareness to protect birds and other animals,and it promotes to construct a harmonious relationship between man and nature.The selected text of this translation report is a popular science text.Most of the readers are amateurs and non-professionals.Therefore,in order to achieve the goal of popularizing scientific knowledge,the language of such text should be scientific,accurate,interesting,precise and plain.At the same time,as science texts involve the knowledge about some professional fields,there will be a large number of professional terms.Passive sentences and long sentences are often used in the science text to explain specific knowledge as well.In this translation report,the translator explains the detail translation process of titles,terms,the passive sentences and long sentences based on the stylistic features of popular science articles.In the translation process,under the guidance of Skopostheorie,the translator employs a variety of translation methods,including linear translation,conversion of clause and change of part of speech and parallel texts,used in the translation of long sentences.Meanwhile the translator makes full use of the books,Internet and other tools to collect relevant information to ensure the translation of popular science to be accurate and rigorous,and to disseminate and popularize scientific knowledge to the general public through popular and vivid language.This translation practice of popular science article has directive significance for the future work and study.Through this translation practice,the translator found that a good translator should have a certain degree of theoretical basis.In order to improve the quality of translation,the translator should combine the translation theory and together with the practice.At the same time,to pass the information of original text more accurately,the translator needs to broaden her knowledge and have certain background information to enhance the understanding of the original text.Finally,the translator needs to focus on improving English and Chinese language capacity,so that the translation can reach the modern translation criteria of “faithfulness,expressiveness and elegance”.