A Report On The E-C Translation Of The Lucky Man:A Memoir (Excerpt)

The translation material of this report is excerpted from the first chapter of the book Lucky Man: A Memoir,one of the North American bestsellers,whose author is Michael J.Fox.In the book,the author recounted his life including his childhood in a small town in western Canada,the meteoric rise in film and television,and his suffering from Parkinson's disease in the last ten years.The source text is the typical biographical literature,which integrates the two features of authenticity and literariness.With considering the above mentioned information,while translating biographical literature,the translator should not only accurately describe the content of the source text,but take readers' acceptability into consideration.Before starting the translation project,the translator analyzed the source text,the original intentions of the author,and the target readers.Then the expected purpose of the translation is set to popularize some general knowledge of Parkinson's disease and arouse an intentional reading of the Chinese readers.In consequence,the readability is regarded as an important criterion for measuring translation quality as well as a basic requirement for the translator.Drawing on the existing readability theory and readability principles of translation,the translator concluded some applicable readability principles of translation for the translation project including the adaptation to Chinese way of thinking,the use of familiar and plain words of the target language,the use of shorter sentences,the avoidance of many abstract words and ambiguous expressions,and the treatment of cultural elements for better acceptance of the target language readers.Based on such readability principles of translation,the translation report discusses the characteristics and translation techniques of the source text from the linguistic and cultural levels,such as conversion,amplification,restructuring,negation and so on.With the help of this translation report,the translator hopes to give some inspiration and reference to the other translators about enhancing the readability of the biography translation.