A Translation Report For Sir Edward Coke:A Force For Freedom (Excerpts)

This is a translation report on the second part of SIR EDWARD COKE: A Force for Freedom the masterpiece written by John Hostettler who is known as an English writer of legal histories and biographies.My translation practice is conducted on part 2-COKE'S WRITINGS(the Reports and the Institutes).These two works are collections of comments and interpretations of existing cases or documents in the era of the Middle Century under the guidance of Common law.Sir Edward Coke was an English barrister,judge and,later,opposition politician who is considered to be the greatest jurist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras.He played a significant role in the transition period of Britain from the Middle Ages to a modern times,and the fierce struggle between the old force of feudalism and the new force of capitalism.As a biography with profound legal and historical settings,SIR EDWARD COKE: A Force for Freedom contains lots of proper nouns,legal terms and direct quotations in ancient times,for instance,Latin,Law French and Old English,along with its rather sophisticated sentence structure and writing style,which poses a sharp challenge to fully understand and faithfully translate the source text,especially given that most quotations from professional,academic studies have no counterparts in Chinese up to now.Therefore,on the basis of German Functionalism,Christine Nord's Translation-oriented Text Analysis was taken to give the source text a comprehensive analysis,and Nord's “Function plus loyalty” principle to render target text,endeavoring to complete the translation activity in a flexible but faithful way as soon as possible.Nowadays,China,on the one hand,proactively pursues the philosophy of the rule of law,and a law-based government and society is taking shape.On the other hand,continued advance has been made in deepening reform.Consequently,it provides an insight to learn great legal concepts from the practices of Coke by reviewing and reinterpreting the ancient legal thoughts,blending them with the realities of modern era to create new values,driving the development of the rule of law.