A Report On The Translation Of Locking Up Our Own:Crime And Punishment In Black America(Excerpts)

When it comes to translation,the first thing people think of may be literary translation.And for a long period,China’s translation theories largely focus on the literary translation.However,with the development of the economy and the emergence of globalization,non-fiction translation has become increasingly significant in the translation field,which covers a wide range of topics and plays an important role in social activities and foreign exchanges.At the same time,the professional field of translation is becoming more and more refined and standardized,and the need of translating non-literary books keep growing,which could in turn promote the cultural exchanges between China and other countries.In order to ensure the quality of translation,translators should spare no efforts to do their best when putting their hands to non-fiction translation.For all its long history and rich practices,as a part of non-fiction translation,the translation of informative texts has not been widely conducted due to its speciality.Additionally,studies on relevant translation techniques and translation strategies are not enough.Taking the above-said factors into account and inspired by the book itself,the translator translated the Introduction and Chapter I of the Locking up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America and summarized problems and difficulties emerged during the translation process.Locking up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America,authored by James Forman Jr.,is a timely,nuanced examination of the history of the American criminal justice system.Taking Washington D.C.as foundation,Mr.Forman,Jr.tries to figure out how a series of small events conspired to make the United States become the greatest jailer around the world,and why African-Americans tend to take severe criminal punishments against their compatriots.This translation report is comprised of four parts: task description,process description,case study and conclusion.In the first part,task description,the translator makes a brief introduction to the task,including the information of the book,the author and the text type.In the second part,process description,the translator analyzes the stylistic features of the source text,and elaborates on the preparations before translation,schedule,and quality control after translation.In the third part,case study,the translator analyzes the cases from two perspectives: analysis from the perspectives of translation techniques and translation difficulties.The forth part is conclusion.In this part,major findings as well as limitations are illustrated briefly.Through this translation practice,the translator hopes to produce a highly readable,acceptable and understandable translation,improve her translation ability and language proficiency,and better grasp the characteristics of the non-fiction works,especially the informative texts,contributing her own strength to the development of non-literary translation in China.