A Report On The C-E Translation Of China Mirrored In Characters (Chapters 2-3)

This is a report on a Chinese-English translation practice.The source text is selected from chapters two and three of China Mirrored in Characters co-authored by Zhang Sufeng,Song Chunshu and Na Hong.There are 10,469 characters in these two chapters.These two chapters respectively introduce the administrative divisions in ancient China and the belief world of the ancients mirrored in Chinese characters.This translation report briefly introduces the background,significance and the structure of the translation report at first.Then the present report focuses on the lexical and syntactic difficulties encountered and the translation methods adopted in the process of the present translation practice.The translator adopts the methods of transliteration plus annotation,free translation,omission and other methods to deal with the lexical difficulties in translating culture-loaded words,book titles,and four-character idioms.At the syntactic level,to deal with the difficulties about large number of writings of classical Chinese quoted in the original text,and the difficulties caused by different expression habits between English and Chinese,the translator uses the methods of free translation,variation of positive and negative sentence,and change of voices.This translation practice is to devoted to promoting the spread of Chinese characters and culture,on the basis of retaining the characteristics of the original text and conforming to the language habits of target readers to the greatest extent.This translation practice has not only enriched the translator's practical experience,but also enhanced her understanding of Chinese culture.