A Report On The Translation Of Ecocritical Aesthetics:Language,Beauty,and The Environment(Excerpt)

The continuous deterioration of the global ecological situation and the frequent occurrence of ecological disasters have caused writers to reflect on the relationship between human and nature.Ecocriticism emerged as a research field which was concerned with the relationship between human and the natural environment.Ecological litterateurs have been endeavoring to enhance human awareness of ecological protection with the help of literary works.The source text for the translation report is excerpted from Ecocritical Aesthetics:Language,Beauty,and the Environment coedited by Scott Slovic and Peter Quigley.The collection of the literary essays constitutes an exemplar of interdisciplinary research on literature and environment,humanity and natural science.The book advocates that the beauty of nature and human society can capture people’s attention and stimulate their compassion.The concern for the beauty of nature and the exploration of the relationship between human and nature run through the book.As for the literary genre,this book is categorized into the literature review.At present,quite few studies have been done on the English-Chinese translation of literature review in China.This translation report works as an attempt to explore E-C translation mode of literary criticism.Newmark’s theories of text type,semantic translation and communicative translation are taken as the theoretical framework of the translation report.With the aim of maximizing the reproduction of the source text content,language form and intention of the original author,semantic translation is employed to emphasize the importance of keeping the original meaning and sentence structure in the source text.With a special emphasis on the translation effect of the target text,communicative translation is used to highlight the reading experience,understanding and resonance of target readers.The combination of semantic translation and communicative translation can not only focus on the content and meaning of the source text but also take into account the effect of the target text,which can also achieve the desired result of the translation practice.The translation practice has proved that Newmark’s translation theory is applicable to handling the translation of the texts of literary review.In the preparation phase of translation practice,many hours of meticulous reading went into analyzing the source text.With the Chinese and English works ofecocriticism and related academic literature,the translator got to acquire the basic knowledge of ecocriticism and established a bilingual glossary of the special terms with the help of Internet and paper dictionaries.In the translation process,the translator used semantic translation and communicative translation strategies to deal with the corresponding content of the source text.In the post-translation phase,to ensure the professionalism of the translation,a number of modifications were done in light of the suggestions of the scholars in ecological literature and translation studies.This translation report is composed of five parts.Chapter one is the description of translation task,which briefly introduces the background,goal and significance of the project and the structure as well.Chapter two describes the process of translation practice,including pre-translation,translation process and post translation.Chapter three introduces the theoretical framework of the translation practice.Chapter four presents the guidance of Newmark’s translation theory through the analyses of the case study.Chapter five summarizes the findings and the limitations of this translation report.