A Report On The E-C Translation Of The Mind Master(Excerpts)

This thesis is a report on translation practice.The source text for the translation is the first six chapters selected from The Mind Master written by Arthur Burks.This sci-fiction tells about a mad scientist,Caleb Barter.He attempts to change human race by transplanting human brain into gorilla bodies.Lee Bentley,the hero,seeks help from a detective called Thomas Taylor to stop Barter's plan.The first six chapters tell about their first bout.This sci-fiction was finished decades ago,so there are many obstacles in terms of words,sentences and the style,especially terminologies,long and difficult sentences as well as the title of each chapter.Under the guidance of"skopos theory”put forward by Vermeer,the author solves most problems by adopting such translation strategies and techniques as free translation,conversion and simplification.In the meantime,the author also takes characteristics of Chinese into consideration and frequently reviews the translated text in order to eliminate"translationese”and obtain a smooth version.After this translation practice,the author understands main strategies of fiction translation and realizes the difficulty of translating sci-fiction.Besides,the author knows a lot more about dealing with translation projects and the importance of pre-translation preparation and post-processing.During the translation period,the translator should select the exact meaning of words and reconstruct sentence structure in context so that the version will be smooth and lucid.