Achieving Pragmatic Equivalence In The Translation Of Political Texts

The report is based on the English-Chinese translation of China and India's Development Cooperation in Africa–The Rise of Southern Powers published by Oxford University Press.The source text analyses various determinants behind China and India's development cooperation in Africa.Africa is an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative and China stands shoulder to shoulder with Africa to an even stronger community with a shared future,which also gives this report certain realistic significance.During the translation some difficulties arose not only due to abstract vocabularies but also to cultural differences.The problems the translator encountered boil down to how to achieve pragmatic equivalence and these problems can be divided into problems at the linguistic level and problems at the cultural level.The key to achieving pragmatic equivalence at the linguistic level lies in how to accurately translate the connotation according to the context,which includes intra-sentence context and inter-sentence context.In this respect,the strategy of domestication is employed with the specific techniques of addition and others.The cultural aspect focuses on cultural differences,about which the situational context including social norms and conversational rules of specific cultures is dealt with.The strategy of domestication is applied with the techniques such as addition and variation.Through the translation,the translator's knowledge of determinants behind China and India's development cooperation in Africa and relative cultural background have been enhanced.It is hoped that the adoption of pragmatics and translation theories can provide some reference for future translation of political texts.