On Translation Of Culture-specific Items From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Chinese culture needs to "go abroad",and translating Chinese literature is an important way for Chinese culture going abroad,while the handling of cultural-specific items is the key and difficult point for translating Chinese literature.The cultural-specific items in this paper refer to the meaningful proper nouns,the words and sentences related to customs,systems,religions,idioms,etc.In fact,as early as the 1930 s,Lin Yutang,a famous bilingual writer,had provided a good example for the Chinese culture going abroad.Previous studies on Lin's English works were mostly limited to Moment in Peking,but little attention was paid to its companion piece A Leaf in the Storm which was once praised as Gone with the Wind by the New York Times and achieved great success at home and abroad.The Adaptation Theory of Belgian linguist Jef Verschueren provides a new perspective for translation studies.This theory reinterprets the process of translation,which is actually a process of language selection and adaptation.And it no longer regards translation as a process of language code conversion,but a process of dynamic adaptation.Time,space,both sides of communication,language structure and other factors in translation activities are included in the process of this dynamic adaptation.Based on the Adaptation Theory,this paper discusses the text processing methods and purposes of cultural-specific items in the novel from three aspects,which are contextual,structural and dynamic adaptations.This paper analyzes the translation of cultural-specific items in Lin Yutang's A Leaf in the Storm from five dimensions of ecological,material,social,religious and linguistic culture,and finds that taking the audience-oriented approach,Lin adopts the translation methods of transliteration,literal translation,free translation and substitution to deal with the cultural specific items flexibly.However,Lin never makes random changes,but considers the social,cultural and economic factors at that time,aiming to achieve the ideal communicative effect in the target culture.Lin's translation strategies and methods in dealing with the cultural-specific items in this novel also play a positive role in promoting Chinese culture going abroad.There are three major findings in this paper: firstly,in the process of translating the cultural-specific items in A Leaf in the Storm,Lin uses flexible translation methods such as transliteration,literal translation,free translation,and substitution to deal with the culturalspecific items.The translation conveys the main idea and spirit of the original text,rather than word-for-word translation of the original text.It not only expresses the appropriate meaning of the original text but also makes it easy for Western readers to understand and accept.Secondly,Lin Yutang makes dynamic adaptation according to the situation of the target language readers,which suggests that translators should consider the situation of the target audience and adjust dynamically at any time.Thirdly,Adaptation Theory has expanded the scope of translation to a certain extent,which has guiding significance for translation activities.It holds that translation process should not only consider the language level,but also include the cultural level.And the author believes that translation studies should be treated with an open mind and a broad vision.