A Practice Report On The Translation Of The Life Of Daniel Defoe:A Critical Biography(Chapter One)

In recent years,the deepening of cultural exchanges between China and Western countries has made foreign biographical works more and more popular among Chinese readers,and biographical translation has therefore become more and more important.Critical biography is a form of biographies,referring to the ones that consist of comments.On one hand,it gives a detailed account of the life story of the hero or heroine,and unfolds his or her life experience;on the other hand,it inserts others' comments into the narration to evaluate the thoughts or behaviors of the hero or heroine.This thesis is a practice report on the translation of the first chapter of the biography The Life of Daniel Defoe: A Critical Biography edited by John Richetti,an American biographer.The author of the report has analyzed the four stages in Defoe's whole life,or the four identities of Defoe,namely,dissenter,merchant,speculator and writer,so as to shed light on the life experience of Defoe.In view of the fact that the original text is a kind of biographical literary work featuring authenticity and literariness,the author has therefore adopted the theory of semantic translation and communicative translation proposed by Peter Newmark,a British translation theorist,in the translation process so as to explore how to accurately describe the life story of Defoe and retain the writing style and language features of the original text as much as possible and vividly reproduce the distinctive image of Defoe in the translated text.In this report,the author elaborates on the key and difficult points of translation based on such four aspects as background information,vocabulary,syntax and discourse.By listing some examples,the author of the report attempts to analyze how to make the translated text accurate and natural through the use of the strategy of combining semantic translation and communicative translation,and the flexible use of such translation techniques as amplification,omission,conversion of the part of speech,and separation in the translation process.Through this translation practice,the author finds that the use of a single theory of semantic translation or communicative translation to guide the translation of biographical works will not make the translated text accurate and natural.By comparison,the combination of the two is a good translation strategy.Meanwhile,the author is also well aware of the fact that translation is not a simple task and that translators need to take a serious and rigorous attitude towards it.As translators,we should not only make preparations before translation,but also be flexible in the process of translation according to the specific contexts.In addition,we should also proofread and revise the translated text after the translation is completed so as to improve and perfect the translated text and put an end to our translation practice.