A Report On The Translation Of The Confessional

Literary translation is always seen to be the most fundamental type of translation,but also the most difficult one which requires the highest level of translators' bilingual and bicultural skills.Based on the translation of the Confessional,a short story by the renowned American woman writer Edith Wharton,the author aims to conduct a preliminary study on literary translation and further improve the author's basic translation ability,thus laying a solid foundation for future translation.The story of the Confessional is about the conflict between the religious order and human love related to an Italian Catholic family in the setting of a greater political feud – the First Italian War of Independence.In order to accurately convey the cultural meaning and reproduce the images created and the writer's emotions implied in the literary work,the author has worked on the translation under the guidance of the hermeneutic motion proposed by George Steiner.According to Steiner,the hermeneutics of translation is “the act of elicitation and appropriative transfer of meaning”(Steiner,2001:312),and he explains translation in four movements,including initiative trust,aggression,incorporation and compensation.Trust is the basis for interpretation,while aggression is to obtain the meaning of the source text and incorporation to re-express the meaning obtained in the target language.However,loss may be incurred to the meaning or the artistic form of the source text during the movements of aggression and incorporation,and thus compensation is necessary,with the ultimate goal of realizing equity between the source text and the target text as well as the two languages and culture.The report is made up of five parts,namely task description,process description,translation theory,case studies and conclusion.In case studies,the report,based on Steiner's hermeneutic motion and his notion of balance between texts,languages and culture,this paper discusses the mediating steps for the translation of culture-loaded words,that is literal translation with notes,addition,addition with notes,and liberal translation,so as to prevent the loss of cultural connotations in different cases.For the translation of figurative language,it discusses how to reproduce the original artistic effects into the target text at lexical and syntactical levels,and finally solves the major problems encountered in the translation project.