An English-Chinese Translation Report On Thirty Girls (Chapters 1-2)

This is an English-Chinese translation report.The original text comes from the novel Thirty Girls written by American writer Susan Minot.The story in the novel that thirty girls are abducted by the rebels is adapted from the real event taking place in Uganda in 1996.Through this book,the author introduces a real Uganda under the background of war and exposes the cruelty of the war.This translation practice report is written on the basis of the translation of the first and second chapters.There are three stages in the translation practice,including preparations before translation,translation process and modification of the Chinese translation.Many difficulties were encountered in the translation process.In the report the translator mainly summarizes the difficulties from lexical aspect,syntactic aspect and figures of speech.The difficulties in lexical aspect include the translation of polysemy,the words to portray facial expressions and behaviors,complicated phrases,the words to portray scenery and parts of speech.Syntactic difficulties include the translation of colloquial language with hidden meanings,short sentences,sentences with passive voice and long sentences.The difficulties in figures of speech include the translation of metaphor,personification and onomatopoeia.Based on the translation practice,the translation methods applied to solve these difficulties are introduced in detail in the report.At the lexical level,five corresponding translation strategies are adopted,including choosing words' meaning according to context,semantic explication,turning phrases into sentences,using Chinese four-character structures and conversion of parts of speech.The adoption of these translation methods makes the translation more rigorous and precise.At the syntactic level,four corresponding translation strategies are adopted,namely,amplification,combination,conversion of voices and reinventing sentence structures,through which the fluency of the sentences isimproved,and the translation is more in line with the Chinese expressing habit.At the level of figures of speech,three translation strategies are applied,including literal translation,replacement and zero-conversion.The application of the three methods of translation helps to preserve the rhetorical style of the original text and makes the language more lively.In short,the adoption of these translation methods effectively solves the difficulties encountered in the translation process.In the end,the author of the report summarizes the major gains and limitations of the translation practice.Through this translation practice,the author realizes that choosing suitable and effective methods is of vital importance for accurately conveying the original information,improving the quality of translation,as well as reproducing the original style.