A Report On The Translation Of "Metaphysics In Chinese Philosophy"

This report is attempted to probe into the translation of philosophical terms in the translation project from the perspective of terminology in order to analyze the translation methods suitable for the rendering of the philosophical terms in this translation practice and to provide references for the future translation of philosophical terms or even philosophical texts.The paper is divided into four parts: the description of the translation task,the translation process,the case study and the conclusion.The conclusion shows that the translator,according to the characteristics of the term and the principles of the term translation,may adopt specific translation methods such as fait accompli translation,conventional translation,contextual translation,thick translation,backtracking translation and omission in rendering different types of philosophical terms.The report is based on the translation of an academic paper of “Metaphysics in Chinese Philosophy” written by the American sinologist and philosopher Franklin Perkins.The source text is an analysis of the metaphysical elements in the history of Chinese philosophy from Western metaphysics,drawing into relief the priority of the rendition of the philosophical terms concerned.Accordingly,the paper traces the preparation before the translation was carried out,the improvement of the first version of the materials of the text,and gets on to an analysis of the second version which leads to its final set work.The part of the case study in the paper also probes into a classification of the philosophical terms and the problems encountered in rendering them,and then tries to pinpoint the suitable translation methods for them.