A Study On The English Translation Of Culture-loaded Words In "The Last Quarter Of The Moon" From The Perspective Of Eco-translatology

In recent years,more and more mainstream writers’ works have spread to the world in foreign exchanges,and have made great contributions to the external communication of Chinese literature.Therefore,they have received more attention from academic circles.However,there are also some excellent literary works that are still marginalized in China and have a greater impact in western countries after translation.For example,Chi Zijian’s work about ethnic minorities in the border areas-“the Last Quarter of the Moon” tells the historical changes of the Ewenki in the past century,its English version has been admired after and praised by many readers abroad,but it has received less attention from domestic academic circles.“Ewenki” means “people who live in the mountains”.There is no doubt that this work is closely related to the life of the Ewenki people,and it must include a large number of culture-loaded words that represent its ethnic culture.Culture-loaded words have high research value,because they point to the essence of a region or national culture,so it is very important to explore the translation of culture-loaded words in Humes’ English version.Not only can we discover the main factors that make the English version of this novel popular abroad,but it will also be instructive for the translation of culture-loaded words in other Chinese literary works in the future.As Chi Zijian expressed to readers in her writing “the Last Quarter of the Moon”that the weak and small ethnic group walked out of the forest and received the baptism of modern civilization due to the development of the external world,she raised the question of how humans and nature get along.Therefore,her work itself has a strong ecological consciousness,which coincides with the concept of Eco-translatology that emphasizes the idea of “survival of the fittest” and “harmony between man and nature”.Based on this,this research intends to use Eco-translatology to explore the translation of culture-loaded words in the English version of “the Last Quarter of the Moon”.This thesis will explore the translation of different types of culture-loaded words in this novel from the language dimension,cultural dimension and communicative dimension proposed by the three-dimensional transformation theory.This research uses Eugene A.Nida’s classification of culture-loaded words.The research found that: First of all,in the translation of language dimension,in most cases,Humes chose the free translation method of domestication strategy and shift translation technique in pursuit of language equivalence,supplemented by the literal translation method that belongs to the foreignization strategy.Secondly,in the adaptive selection of cultural dimension,in order to better present Ewenki culture to Western readers,Humes adopted literal translation and free translation at the same frequency.And he often used transliteration when it came to culture-loaded words such as Ewenki names and places.Finally,in order to achieve the same expression effect of the translated text with the original text,Humes’ adaptive selections in the communicative dimension are mainly based on domestication strategy,including the use of free translation and imitation method.And in a few cases,he adoptd literal translation and transliteration.According to the requirements of Eco-translatology for translator,this thesis believes that Humes’ translation of culture-loaded words in the English version of“the Last Quarter of the Moon” is equivalent to the original text.In the translation of culture-loaded words,Humes chose to use both foreignization and domestication strategies,flexibly used various translation methods and techniques,and made a more accurate interpretation of the connotation of culture-loaded words,which can be used for reference in future translation of Chinese works.