A Report On The Translation Of American Short Stories "Two Ruminations On A Homeless Brother" And "El Morro"

The two short stories “Two Ruminations on a Homeless Brother” and “El morro”written by American novelist David Means were published in the famous magazine The New Yorker.Most scenes of David Means' stories were set in the uninteresting suburbs.In the areas where the muddy rivers pass,there was a group of marginalized people who were homeless,unemployed and addicted to drug.They had no fixed abode and lived distressingly.The author told their stories with a seemingly unemotional tone to show the Americans' livelihood and social status through characterization.In the process of translation,the translator tried to use appropriate language to convey the contents and thoughts to the target readers by taking Eugene Nida's“Functional Equivalence” as the theoretical guidance,combined with the study of translation methods which are omission,division,amplification and annotation.The report is divided into five chapters.Chapter One mainly introduces the background and significance of the project,and the original author of the short stories.Chapter Two is the description of translation process,including preparation of translation,description of translation and proofreading.Chapter Three describes the theoretical basis of the translation,that is Eugene Nida's theory of “functional equivalence”.Chapter Four is the case analysis.Chapter Five is the summary of translation practice,mainly from the aspects of gains and translation limitations.