A Report On The Translation Of Defending Irene(Excerpts)

This is a report on the translation of the first ten chapters of Defending Irene by Kristin Wolden Nitz.This novel belongs to the category of children’s literature.It presents an interesting story about an American girl Irene who joined the local boy’s football team during her one-year stay in Italy.It shows the heroine’s good qualities of being independent,resilient and optimistic,which sets a good example for children of her age--the readership.Translators of children’s literature need to consider the peculiarities of the target audience,who are young children and teenagers with distinctive cognitive,aesthetic and linguistic characteristics.The key to successful translation of children’s literature lies in a thorough grasp of the characteristics of the original text and the right tone to communicate with the young readers.This report focuses on the translation of dialogues,culture-specific expressions and Italian-derived English features in the novel Defending Irene and provides salutary lessons that any other translator can learn when dealing with these three translation issues.This translation report consists of four chapters.The first chapter is a task description,including the background and objective of the translation project,the content of ST and its author,the characteristics of the ST,and recipients of the translation product.The second chapter is a process description,containing pre-translation preparations,difficulties in the translation process and post-translation management.The third chapter is a case analysis on three salient aspects of the translation: dialogues,culture-specific expressions and Italian-derived English expressions.The last chapter is the conclusion.