A Practice Report On Translation Of Traditional Chinese Medicine:The Human Dimension(Excerpts)

As one of the four great quintessences of Chinese culture,Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM)is unique in theory systems and practices and methods.Some researches have indicated that TCM formulas can produce significant effects on treating and preventing the Novel coronavirus pneumonia(NCP)that broke out at the beginning of 2020.In recent years,a large amount of literature about TCM was translated into different languages for their spread to the international community.However,there are few researches about TCM literature that conducted by foreign scholars or experts in China,which requires to be increased.Therefore,it is necessary to introduce more foreign researches about TCM translation to China,aiming at pushing TCM doctors,translators and researchers to deeply and comprehensively learn about current development of TCM around the world.The dissertation is a practice report on English-Chinese translation of Traditional Chinese Medicine: The Human Dimension(Excerpts)and the source text includes the third chapter Belief and the fourth chapter Balance and Harmony.Based on the optimal principle,the purpose of the translation practice is to make the target reader consume least processing efforts to gain the proper contextual effects under the guide of the relevance translation theory that proposed by Gutt.The author has analyzed problems and difficulties which occurred in this translation through the case study from the aspect of glossary,sentence and paragraph.The author has found that difficulty of TCM translation mainly includes three aspects: complicated and intricate source texts,no-corresponding expressions due to the difference between TCM and western medicine and lack of standard for terminologies.The author has drawn the conclusion as follow.First,in regard to the glossary translation,methods like liberal translation and amplification could be freely adopted for translation of the title and certain proper nouns according to contexts.As for TCM terminologies,the translation must be accurate through cross check.Second,about sentence translation,translators are supposed to choose domestication when translating old sayings.Translation methods or strategies such as voice conversion,division,amplification and condensation were adopted to translate passive sentence and attributive clause based on the logic and contexts.Third,with respect to paragraph translation,translators are supposed to find out the original texts without translation when meeting TCM classics.Paragraphs containing interview points require more focus on whole linguistic style and inner logic and connections and liberal translation is frequent used.The practice is the first translation of the source text and the author expects the translation and the report could provide valued references and thoughts to related TCM translators and researchers and deepen the research of TCM translation with the aim of improving the great development of TCM in the world.