A Report On The Translation Of An Excerpt From Cultural Relics

Cultural Relics is one volume of the Origin of China compiled by the Cultural Heritage Bureau of Henan Province,and it aims to introduce the history and culture of Henan Province in popular and easy-to-understand language.The translation report is based on the excerpt from Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 of the book.Chapter 4 describes the prosperity of the Northern Song Dynasty through Zhang Zheduan's Qingming Shanghe Tu(Along the River During the Qingming Festival)and Meng Yuanlao's Dongjing Meng Hua Lu(A Dream of Splendor in the Eastern Capital),and depicts the desolation of the Northern Song Dynasty through the Northern Song Imperial Tombs in Gongyi.Chapter 5 introduces the contents and values of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang and Yin Xu in Anyang,the history of the Historic Monuments of Dengfeng in “The Centre of Heaven and Earth”,and the architectural characteristics of the Songyue Temple Pagoda and the complex of the Shaolin Temple.Cultural Relics,involving many fields such as history,architecture,religion,literature,archaeology,and fine arts,objectively presents the history and culture of Henan Province from multiple aspects,and thus it offers great help to readers to have a better understanding of Henan Province.The translation report consists of four parts.The first part is the description of the translation task,which introduces the author,the main contents of each chapter and the selected translation materials,and the significance of translating texts about cultural relics.The second part is the description of the translation process,which mainly includes the analysis of the original text before translation,the difficulties encountered during translation,such as the translation of professional terms,four-character phrases,long sentences,as well as ancient Chinese prose and poems,the auxiliary tools used in translation,and the modification and polishing of the draft after translation.The third part is the case analysis,which discusses the translation of ancient works names,bronze names,ancient architecture terms,Buddhist-related words,long sentences,ancient Chinese prose and poems with specific translation examples at the lexical and syntactic level,and the cohesion and coherence of the text as well as the style correspondence between the source text and the target text at the textual level.The fourth part is the conclusion,which shows that through the translation practice,the translator accumulates some experience of translating texts about cultural relics,and realizes the importance of solid bilingual foundation,relevant professional knowledge and auxiliary tools about translation.In the future study,the translator should treat every translation task with rigorous attitude,gain a better command of both Chinese and English,expand knowledge of all aspects,and constantly improve the translating skill.