A Report On The C-E Translation Of Travel Around China: Jiangxi(excerpt)

With the development of economy,tourism is becoming a pillar industry in Jiangxi province.In this context,the translation of tourist materials becomes particularly essential.The high-quality translation of tourism materials provides foreign tourists with comprehensive tourism information,spreads unique tourism culture,and further promotes the development of tourism.In the hope of introducing the rich tourism resources of Jiangxi to foreign tourists and improving the translation competence,the author conducts a Chinese-English translation project with the “Jiujiang”,“Yichun”,and “Pingxiang” sections in the book Travel around China: Jiangxi as the source text.The author thoroughly analyzes the features and functions of the source text and finds that the source text is a compound text possessing both informative and operative functions.Thus,on the basis of the text typology theory of Katharina Reiss,the author establishes the translation principles of “faithfully delivering the contents,spreading culture,and evoking the interests of target readers” for this project.The present report reviews the whole process of the translation project and mainly discusses the solutions to the difficulties met during the whole translation process,namely the translation strategies of scenic spot names,culture-loaded words,and scenery description in four-character structure.Under the guidance of Reiss' s text typology,this report finds that the choice of translation strategies should depend on the delivery of contents and the reaction of target readers.In the report,the author summarizes some specific strategies for the translation difficulties.Specifically speaking,the scenic spot names could be translated by using the strategies of transliteration plus literal translation,transliteration and literal translation plus annotation,as well as literal translation;culture-loaded words could be translated by using the strategies of addition,transliteration or literal translation plus annotation,and paraphrase;and scenery description in four-character structure could be translated by using the strategies of literal translation,recombination,and addition.Through the translation project and case analysis in this report,the author holds the view that Reiss' s text typology theory can help translators to further determine the type of the source text,establish translation principles and choose proper strategies when translating tourism texts.The author hopes that the translation project and the report can effectively promote the tourism resources and culture of Jiangxi province and provide reference for the translation and translation studies of similar texts in the future.