A Report On The C-E Translation Of Tianshui :the Origin Of Fuxi Culture (Excerpt)

With the implementation of the strategy of Chinese culture “going global”,translation of Chinese culture has become one of the important means for spreading the Chinese culture in recent years.As the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation,Fuxi culture has deeply influenced the formation and progress of Chinese history and culture.Therefore,translation of Fuxi culture is of great significance for promoting Fuxi culture “going global”.This paper is a report on the practice of Chinese-English translation.The translator takes excerpt from Tianshui: The Origin of Fuxi Culture as the source text and completes the translation practice under the guidance of the translation variation theory,and discusses the guiding role of translation variation theory in her translation practice.The source text introduces the content of Fuxi culture in detail and describes the main merits of Fuxi from nine aspects.It is not only rich in content but also characteristics.In order to effectively convey the information of the source text to the target language readers,the translator,in accordance with the analysis of the text type and linguistic features of the source text and under the guidance of translation variation theory,adopts the proper adaptation techniques from the seven adaptation techniques(addition,deletion,editing,narration,condensation,combination and adaptation)to translate the source text.At the lexical level,addition is adopted to translate cultural terms and nouns,condensation to four-character structures,and narration and deletion to subtitles.Syntactically,the translator uses adaptation and condensation to translate the long and complex sentences,deletion to sentences with meticulous expressions,narration,condensation and editing to classical Chinese respectively.In addition,addition and narration are applied for translating cultural allusions.The application of these adaptation techniques helps effectively convey the information of Fuxi culture in a way that is easy for the target language readers to accept.Through this translation practice,the author of this report realized that to produce high quality translation of cultural materials,translators need not only extensive bilingual knowledge,but also linguistic competence in correct comprehension,accurate expression and reasonable adaptation.In addition,they can make comprehensive use of various adaptation techniques,treat the translation task with a high sense of responsibility,circumspection and patience,so as to improve the quality of translation and meet the needs of target language readers.