A Report On The English-chinese Translation Of The Forgotten 500 (Chapter 4)

This is a report of an English-Chinese translation practice.The translator selects Chapter 4 of The Forgotten 500,a literary and journalistic work by American writer Gregory A.Freeman,as the source text.The translated version contains nearly 14,000 Chinese characters.The source text chosen mainly narrates different situations the crew members experience after accidents of their bombers,as well as the attitude they receive from the local people.In this report,the translator presents the difficulties encountered during the translation process from the perspectives of both the lexical level and syntactic level,and illustrates the methods adopted.As for names of key figures and places,the translator applies the method of annotation,and the method of omission is applied in translating some of person pronouns.Besides,the translator adopts the amplification as well as conversion to complement the omitted parts,when necessary;as to complex sentences,the translator applies the method of division and combination,and the inversion as well.From perspective of the target readers,the translator tries to reveal the tense war atmosphere of the source text,as well as the dramatic change in psychological activities of characters,which is expected to make the target readers gain the similar reading experience as is obtained from the source text.The present translation is expected to bring readers some thinking on wars,and the translator also hopes that the methods adopted in the translation might provide further reference for other translators who translate this kind of nonfiction.