A Report On The Translation Of World And Town (Excerpts)

With the development of Chinese American literature,the significance of Chinese translation of excellent Chinese American writings has become more obvious.This is a translation report on a fiction,World and Town,which is written by Gish Jen,a contemporary Chinese-American writer.This fiction tells the story of how Hattie Kong,a Chinese American,starts a new life together with other two immigrant families in Riverlake.It is hoped that the translated version of the novel will enable Chinese readers to have access to the life of Chinese Americans.Based on Relevance Translation Theory,the translator attempts to translate and analyze the third chapter of World and Town.According to this theory,translation contains two ostensive-inferential processes,pursuing the optimal of relevance.The translator summarizes three difficulties in translation: culture-loaded words,language hybridity,and humorous utterances.Under the guidance of this theory,the translator adopts proper methods to address these translation difficulties.For the culture-loaded words,the translator uses literal translation plus intratextual addition,literal translation plus extratextual annotation,and substitution.For the language hybridity,the translator employs transliteration plus transplantation,and transliteration plus annotation.For the humorous utterances,the translator uses literal translation and amplification.This translation practice demonstrates the applicability and rationality of Relevance Theory in the translation of Chinese American works,which is not only of great significance to the translator's later translation practice but also of reference to the translation of other Chinese American novels.