A Report On The Translation Of The Epic Of America (Chapter 9) From The Perspective Of Semantic And Communicative Translation Approaches

This report is based on the translation of The Epic of America,written by American author and historian,James Truslow Adams.Chapter nine was chosen by me to translate and analyze.This book has no Chinese version yet.The Epic of America is a historical book with literariness,which not only gives consideration to literature and art,but also accurately conveys objective facts.At present,few systematic studies have yielded on the translation of such works in our country.Therefore,how to present such works perfectly to Chinese readers has become an issue worth studying.Based on the characteristics of semantic and communicative translation approaches,I translated the ninth chapter of this book with some specific translation techniques,such as linear translation,postposition,omission,amplification,inversion and division.The Epic of America is a historical book with a literary nature.Hence,I mainly adopted semantic approach to maintain the structure of original sentences,to embody the style of historical writings,and to convey the historical information objectively,thus achieving faithfulness to the original text.On the other hand,communicative approach enhances the appeal of the text mainly through conforming to the expression habits of the target language.Taking the target readers into prominent consideration,the information behind the text is clearly presented in the target language in conformity with its cultural habits.Under the guidance of these two translation approaches,I translated chapter nine of this book.Through the reflective analysis of my own experience,I has improved my translation competence and has achieved a deeper understanding of American history and American culture.