A Report On E-C Translation Of Introduction To Poetry And Prose Translations By Burton Watson

This is a report of English-Chinese translation of the introduction parts of Burton Watson’s three translation works,namely Chinese Rhyme-Prose: Poems in the Fu Form from the Han and Six Dynasties Periods(hereinafter referred to as “Chinese Rhyme-Prose”),Po Chu-Yi: Selected Poems and Su Tung-Fo: Selections From a Sung Dynasty Poet(hereinafter referred to as “Su Tung-Fo”).At present,the domestic and overseas studies of the sinologist Burton Watson mainly focus on the translation itself,but few are made on the paratext,especially the part of translator’s introduction.The selected source text includes chronology,preface,introduction and translator’s notes.By translating such texts,the translator gets auquainted with Watson’s opinion about Chinese traditional poems and prose,and discloses the factors that make his works so popular among western readers other than his translation ability.The computer-aided translation software Transmate is applied in this translation project,and a related glossary has been established before.The source text is mainly composed by long sentences without uncommon vocabulary,and it is rich in traditional Chinese cultural elements.In light of Eco-translatology which is put forward by Hu Gengshen,the translator is guided by “Three-dimension transformations”,namely the linguistic,cultural and communicative dimensions.The translator adopts translation techniques such as conversion,division,specification,generalization,omission and amplification,in order to keep the target text “live” and“survive” in new linguistic,cultural and communicative ecologies.With quite a few case analyses,this translation report proves that Eco-translatology is feasible in guiding the translation of the introduction parts.In conclusion,the translation report seeks to promote scholars’ attention to the introduction parts of successful English versions and to provide some suggestions and references for scholars who have the aspiration to study the application of Eco-translatology and translators who will engage in translating Chinese classics.