A Report On E-C Translation Of Travel Note Across Chrysê:Being The Narrative Of A Journey Of Exploration Through The South China Border Lands From Canton To Mandalay(Excerpts)

This report is based on the translation practices of the excerpted chapters from the book Across Chrysê: Being the Narrative of a Journey of Exploration Through the South China Border Lands from Canton to Mandalay(hereinafter referred to as Across Chrysê).This book,consisting of two volumes,records the experience of a British man,Archibald Ross Colquhoun,and his party who spent the years 1881 to1882 traveling from Guangzhou to Mandalay.The chapters under focus are mainly concerned with Colquhoun’s experience in Guangdong,Guangxi,and Yunnan in which he keeps detailed records of the economy,trade,society,ethnicity,culture,natural landscape and so on he encounters along the way.As to a travel note,the descriptions are vivid and the language is lively.While the book in one sense maintains a high standard of literature and provision of information,there still exists a running account of experiences and personal emotional catharsis.How to present the conditions and lifestyles in China at the end of the 19 th century and help readers appreciate the literary and historical value of the travel note is the focus and difficulty of this translation practice.Thus,Skopos Theory is adopted as the guiding theory in the method of translation.Following the guidance of the skopos rule,coherence rule and fidelity rule of Skopos Theory,the translator analyzes the translation of scenery descriptions,culture-specific items,passive sentences,complex sentences,official titles and,etc.During translation,with the guidance of the three rules of Skopos Theory,the translator fully considers the work form the aspect of the target reader as well as culture and context,while not neglecting to pay attention to the coherence and readability of the target text,in order to choose the most suitable way of reproducing it in the target language.In addition,due to limited ability and experience,there are still some inadequacies in the translation of Across Chrysê.The author hopes that this report will provide some suggestions for future translation of travel notes,and looks forward to introducing this excellent book to more Chinese readers and scholars in their relevant fields.