An E-C Translation Report Of Where The Watermelons Grow (Excerpt)

This report is a practice report on the English-Chinese translation of a work of children’s literature.The translator selects an American Writer Cindy Baldwin’s debut novel Where the Watermelons Grow,which is a children’s novel about children’s mental health and has won the Oregon Spirit Award.The children’s novel was published in 2018 and has not been translated into Chinese yet.The translator selects the major chapters,namely the first four chapters and the last four chapters,for translation because these chapters describe the current situation of the heroine in this book.Reception Aesthetics Theory(hereinafter referred to as “RAT”)came into being in the mid-1960 s,and was initiated by Hans Robert Jauss from Germany.Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory was the declaration that reception aesthetics became an independent school.This theory advocates focusing on the reader and the text.Therefore,it can be considered to apply this theory to translation practice.In the process of translation,the translator should take the target reader as the center,aiming at enhancing the readability of the target text and stimulating the readers’ interest in reading;the translator should also retain the culture in the source text to give full play to the initiative of target readers,expand their horizon and stimulate their re-creation ability.Under the guidance of RAT,the translator will translate Where the Watermelons Grow and write the corresponding translation practice report.The report will be divided into five parts.The first part is an introduction of the translation task,mainly introducing relevant background information,the translation process,the determination of the target readers and the significance and purpose of the translation task.By referring to Chinese Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2011),the target readers(older children)and their expectations of literary works are defined.The second part mainly analyzes the basic characteristics of children’s literature and the features of the source text.Linguistically,the source text incorporates plenty of colloquial words,abstract and static nouns,hyphenated words,short and long sentences as well as diversified rhetorical devices,and at the same time,the language is concise and vivid;culturally,the novel presents the readers with American culture in the aspects of history,film,religion,poetry,name and so on.The third part mainly involves the theory to be adopted in this translation—Reception Aesthetics Theory,and expounds the two dimensions of RAT,the horizon of expectations and the appealing structure.The fourth part is the central part of this report,namely case analysis.The translator selects some translation examples and discusses the application of different translation methods and skills,to improve the readability of the target text,meet the expectations of target readers,retain the original culture,expand the target readers’ horizon,stimulate their imagination,and establish their new understanding.The fifth part is about the conclusion,which summarizes the contributions and limitations of this translation practice.This translation practice report will provide specific translation methods for the translation of children’s novels in the field of mental health,and provide references for other scholars engaged in literary translation relating to mental health.