A Report On The Translation Of A Brief History Of Huangmei Opera From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

With the establishment of the strategic direction of “going-out” of Chinese culture and the rapid development of cultural and trade activities,the export of traditional Chinese art represented by operas has been given more significance.Huangmei Opera,as one of the five major operas in China,has been included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.Its external dissemination bears the heavy responsibility entrusted by history and society.How to translate Huangmei opera materials has naturally become a topic worthy of attention and study for translators.Hence this topic has both practical and realistic significance.This paper is a report based on the English translation of the first chapter of A Brief History of Huangmei Opera.This translation project aims to promote and disseminate Huangmei Opera culture,to let more people in the world know about Huangmei Opera and its development,and to contribute to the dissemination of traditional Chinese opera culture.After the introduction to the project,translation process and Skopos theory,this paper analyzes the translation of opera terms,opera titles,expressions of Chinese characteristic culture,and long and complex sentences.For the opera terms expressing the origin,field and situation of the tunes,literal translation is adopted;for the opera terms of untranslatable characteristic folk arts,notes to transliteration are adopted;for the untranslatable opera terms with cultural meaning,free translation is adopted.For the translation of opera titles,those directly reflecting the plots are literally translated,those presenting the main role’s name are transliterated,and those with complex plots and not being translated literally are freely translated.Besides,literal translation is applied to translate cultural expressions with literal Chinese characteristics;notes totransliteration are applied for the translation of the emperors’ reigns;and free translation is utilized to expressions with distinctive cultural meanings and not being translated literally.As for the translation of long and complex sentences,the method of merging and splitting is mainly employed.Finally,the paper summarizes the experience and lessons of this translation practice,hoping that this translation report can provide reference for the translation of Huangmei Opera propaganda texts.