A Report On E-C Translation Of The Figures Of Speech In Historical Text:Istanbul

Historical text is characterized of both historical and literary features,which has become a new favorite of reading market.These double features of historical text lend great difficulty to translation,among which the translation of the figures of speech is the most important one.Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities is a historical text,written by the British historian,Bettany Hughes.It is a historical text with a profound and endless description of Istanbul's history,including its myths,legends and vicissitudes under the reign of different rulers.This report takes the excerpted part of the masterpiece to study the functions and translation methods of the figures of speech in historical text in order to bridge the Eastern and Western culture exchange.Under the guidance of Communicative Translation Theory of Peter Newmark,the present report analyzes the writing style and textual features of this historical text and identifies the translation difficulty – the translation of figures of speech.The translator draws a conclusion that the five translation methods – literal translation,conversion,annotation,compensation and free translation,can be applied to the translation of simile,personification,metaphor,metonymy and allusion.