A Report On Translation Of Xiangxi History And Culture(Excerpt)

With the further implementation of the strategies of the “Belt and Road Initiative” and “Chinese Culture Going Global”,it is inevitable for Chinese traditional culture to march into the world.Hunan has been a cultural province since ancient times,and the unique local culture of western Hunan(hereinafter referred to as“Xiangxi”)has become an integral part of Chinese traditional culture.This paper is a Chinese-English translation practice report and its translation material is selected from the fourth chapter “Xiangxi religious culture” of Xiangxi History and Culture.Xiangxi religious culture is the core part of Xiangxi culture,whose Nuo culture and witchcraft culture add a mysterious color to it.Taking it as the source text aims to provide practical translation theory,translation methods and translation practice cases for Xiangxi culture to “go out”,so that more people can know Xiangxi,discover the mystery of Xiangxi and lead Xiangxi culture to the world.At the same time,it also hopes to provide some references for the translation of Chinese traditional culture of the same type.The source text involves a large number of Xiangxi religious culture-loaded words and Chinese special sentence patterns.Taking the readability and acceptability of the translation into account,the author finally adopts Hans Vermeer's “Skopos Theory” as the theoretical guidance on the basis of being faithful to the source text.It is hoped that under the guidance of Skopos Theory,proper translation methods can be used to ensure that target readers can accurately understand the source text,so as to lead Xiangxi traditional national culture to go out.The whole report includes six parts.Introduction presents the background,purpose and significance of the translation practice.Chapter One describes the translation project,including the text content and language features.Chapter Two introduces the translation process,comprising the pre-translating preparations,while-translating process and the post-translating proofreading.Chapter Three focuses on the case analysis of this translation practice,containing the difficulties encountered in translation,such as the religious culture-loaded words with Xiangxi characteristics and Chinese special sentence patterns.Therefore,under the guidance of Skopos Theory,it is necessary to adopt a variety of translation methods,like transliteration with annotation,literal translation with annotation,free translation,splitting,voice transformation,integration,etc.Chapter Four reflects the gains and shortcomings ofthe translation practice.Conclusion briefly summarizes the translation experience of the text under the guidance of Skopos Theory,pointing out the deficiencies of the report and the direction of future study.