A Report On English-Chinese Translation Of The Moonshine War(Excerpts)

This is an English-Chinese translation report on the novel The Moonshine War written by Elmore Leonard.Chapters one to three are selected as the translation text and source of case study.The novel is under the background of Prohibition of Kentucky in the 1920 s.It tells that the story of Son Martin,who safeguarded 150 barrels of the finest homemade whiskey left by his father with his wisdom,courage and stratagem during the Prohibition period.It reveals a series of social problems such as guns,violence and illegally brewing of whiskey.This report elaborates on the background of the translation task,the translation process,translation difficulties and methods to solve the difficulties.The difficulties encountered by the translator in translation practice are mainly reflected in lexical level,syntactic level and textual level,and then the translator clarifies translation difficulties and corresponding methods through analysis of cases.Difficulties at lexical level mainly include the translation of proper nouns,polysemous words and pronouns.The translator mainly adopts annotated transliteration,choice of words' meaning and repetition to solve the difficulties.Difficulties at syntactic level are mainly the translation of inanimate-subject sentences and long sentences.For inanimate-subject sentences,the translator makes the translation smoother by conversion.The translator uses division and sentence restructuring to translate long sentences according to the syntactic structure and logical relations.Difficulties at textual level are the translation of short dialogues and description of characters.The translator uses amplification and linear translation respectively to translate dialogues and description of characters.The translator has acquired experience and inspiration through this translation practice.First of all,the translator realizes that adequate preparation and applicable translation methods are of vital importance during the translation practice.Secondly,thetranslator should have a positive learning attitude and strive to improve her own translation skills.Thirdly,the translator should have excellent bilingual competence to lay a solid language foundation for producing a good translation.