A Translation Practice Report Under Translation Shift Theory

This is a C-E translation practice report.The source text is an excerpt from Mass Migration: A Record of Danjiangkou Migrants,a long documentary writing by Ouyang Min,a member of Hubei Writers' Union.The book,published by Xinhua Publishing House in 2013,consists of 10 chapters,and the excerpt is from Chapter Two “The Past Events of Migration”,which describes the historical facts of Danjiangkou migrants who,in response to the call of the government,overcame all difficulties and relocated elsewhere for the sake of the construction of Danjiangkou Dam.As a child of the migrants,the author of this report feels obliged to disseminate through her translation efforts the migration stories and the selfless dedication of Danjiangkou people.Following an analysis of the lexical,syntactical and rhetorical features of the excerpted source text,the author of the report did a C-E translation and modification guided by Catford's Translation Shift Theory,and expounded the application of Catford's theory to the translation practice by case studies.Through the translation practice and study,on the one hand,the translator has gained not only more in-depth and systematic knowledge on translation shift theory,especially Catford's theory,but also further acquaintance on the differences and similarities between the Chinese and the English languages,which has contributed to the improvement of the translator's translation competence both in theory and in practice.Moreover,during the whole process,the translation of long sentences and culture-loaded expressions and the adoption of translation shift theory to produce more authentic English are not only a challenge for the translator but also a drive for her to keep learning and exploring.On the other hand,the translator,though with very limited influence on other people,through her translation efforts,would pass on to more people the migration stories of Danjiangkou people whose collectivism and dedication spirit have set a good example for those who are striking a balance between personal interests and the interests of the collective and the state.The major findings of the translation practice and study are summarized as follows: firstly,there are extensive differences between Chinese and English in number of nouns,tense and aspect,sentence structures,choices of word classes and grammatical units.Therefore,translation shift is ubiquitous in C-E translation.To some extent,no shift,no translation.Secondly,similarities exist between Chinese and English and intra-system shift with equal importance could also be found in C-E translation.Last but not least,for beginners,a mastery of Catford's Translation Shift Theory is of great guiding significance in the process of translation,modification and research.