A Translation Project Report Of Salem Is My Dwelling Place:A Life Of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Chapter 7 To Chapter 8)

This is a project report on the translation of Salem Is My Dwelling Place:A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne,a biography written by Edwin Haviland Miller who is a well-known editor and author in the U.S.The biography offers a panorama of Hawthorne's life and literary career in a chronological order.Especially,it gives a very vivid portrayal of Hawthorne's personality and inner world by means of many historical materials such as jottings,sketches,diaries,letters and novels of Hawthorne and his contemporaries.Chapter 7 and a part of chapter 8 of this biography is chosen as the translation material of this report.In the process of translation,the translator encountered many difficulties,mainly reflected in the following three aspects:(1)in terms of vocabulary,the usage of many uncommon words in the original text are quite flexible,and their meanings highly context dependent;(2)in terms of syntax,there are many long and difficult sentences in the original text;(3)in terms of style,the original text uses a large number of letters and works of Hawthorne and his contemporaries,which leads to a variable textual style;In view of these problems,the translator takes the three principles of Skopos Theory,namely,the principle of purpose,the principle of coherence and the principle of fidelity,as the theoretical support,and adopts translation methods such as amplification,omission,separation and reorganization to solve these problems.In terms of vocabulary,the translator tries to determine the connotations or pragmatic meanings of difficult words through contextual analysis and by consulting group members.In terms of syntax,the basic information of the original text is firstly transmitted under the guidance of the principle of fidelity,and then the translation is repeatedly modified under the guidance of the principles of purpose and coherence,so as to achieve smoothness and coherence as well as the communicative purpose of the original text.In terms of style,the translator makes a comprehensive analysis of the structure and logic of the whole text,and tries to retain its original styles in target language.At the end of the report,the translator reflects on the translation process,and realizes that translation is really a never-ending process which requires every translator to learn through one's whole life.Through the project,the translator also realizes he needs to work harder to improve his ability to transfer meanings of a source text through precise,vivid and smooth sentences of the target language.