A Report On The Translation Of Casual Expressions Of Idle Feeling:the Ciqu Section(Excerpts)

Succinct in language but rich in connotations,ancient Chinese classics are long puzzling a majority of translators.Thus,in order to explore a suitable method for translating classical Chinese texts into English,the translator excerpts a passage of 167,553 characters from the Ciqu section of Casual Expressions of Idle Feeling as the source text.The book is written by Li Yu,a litterateur,dramatist and philosopher in the late-Ming and early-Qing dynasties.The excerpts not only give a systematic introduction to traditional Chinese operas,but also involve a voluminous amount of cultural and historical materials.Such information,which is beyond the knowledge of most people with a completely different sociocultural background,can constitute what's called “cultural default” in cross-cultural communication.A translation method that seeks to compensate for the cultural default and eliminate unintelligibility of the target text through supplying necessary information or extra explanatory words in the target text seems to be an optimal solution for the translation of such a text that serves to enlighten western readers about traditional Chinese opera,and this method,first put forward by Kwane Anthony Appiah,is called “Thick Translation”.In this report,Appiah's Thick Translation is employed to guide not only the translation practice but also the in-depth study of the target text,aiming to find out some effective methods to maintain the rich cultural and contextual connotations of such a succinct yet informative text.Under the guidance of Thick Translation,the translator has resorted to various compensatory and supplementary methods,including footnotes,in-text brackets,amplification and specification;and through analysis,all of them have been proved to be effective in maintaining the rich connotations of the source text,hence eliminate reading obstacles for the target reader.