A Practice Report On The Chinese Translation Of Ever After (Excerpts) From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

The translator chooses the first three chapters of Graham Swift's novel Ever After as her translation task,which mainly deals with the protagonist Bill's psychological journey of seeking self-identity.The translator hopes that the TT may provide Chinese readers with enough contextual effects that require less processing effort,at the same time,it also can keep closely to the real meaning of the ST,the intention of the novelist,as well as the writing style.Relevance Theory is employed as the theoretical guidance of this translation practice report.Relevance Theory focuses on cognition and communication,and pursues relevance between communicative sides by achieving optimal relevance through continuous inferring.This theory is feasible to the translation practice because it presses the translator not only to stay close to the ST all the time,but also takes the TL readers into account on the basis of understanding the intention that the ST conveys.Under the relevance-oriented framework,this translation report conducts case analysis at lexical level,syntactic level,textual level and cultural aesthetic level,probing into the application of the translation techniques in the double ostensive-inferential process.With the help of certain translation techniques,such as amplification,conversion and annotation,the translator illustrates that Relevance Theory makes the TL readers get positive reading experience effectively by its convincing compatibility with specific translation techniques.This translation practice report is expected to provide cases for other translators when dealing with similar subjects.