A Report On C-E Translation Of Magic Flute (Excerpt) From The Perspective Of Catford’s Translation Shifts

This report applies Catford’s translation shifts theory to explore the translation of the fifth chapter of Magic Flute,a series of Bai folklore.Improving the translation quality of Bai folklore is of great significance to the dissemination of Bai folk literature and culture and thus to boost the confidence of Chinese culture.There is much folklore with distinctive ethnic and local characteristics of the Bai recorded in Magic Flute,indicating the ethnic life,ethnic customs,ethnic character and ethnic religious beliefs of the Bai people,which is of significant research value.Catford borrows Halliday’s systematic grammar and its classification of “levels”of language to illustrate translation shifts.Catford suggests that,in the process of translation,the primary goal of the translator is to seek content equivalence,rather than blindly pursuing formal correspondence.The main purpose of the theory is to demonstrate how to produce the target language which is semantically equivalent to the source language through “level” shifts and “category” shifts.At present,the translation shifts theory is rarely used in the translation studies of folklore.Through case analysis,this report discusses the guiding significance of translation shifts theory to the translation of the folklore of the ethnic minority from the perspectives of level shifts and category shifts.Through the analysis of the translation combined with the theory,it can be found that translation shifts are widely used in translation practice,and the theory has strong applicability and guidance to the translation of the folklore of ethnic minorities.On the basis of faithfully conveying the original text,it can break the constraints of the form of the Chinese original text and convert the meaning of the original text into a form conforming to the English expression habits,making the translation smoother and readable.