| Philosophy endows people with wisdom and delights them.Reading philosophical works may deepen people’s perception of the world and themselves,thus improving their quality of life and spirituality.The material for this translation practice is excerpted from the philosophical work On Human Nature by Roger Scruton,a famous British writer and philosopher.The book explores the eternal topic of “human nature” from a new philosophical perspective,stating ideas in an objective and poetic way.The source text,abstract in diction,complex in syntax and logical in meaning,requires that its original ideas be conveyed smoothly and its philosophical terms be rendered accurately,which poses a great challenge to the translator.Based on the characteristics of the excerpted text and the difficulties encountered in translation,this report mainly applies George Steiner’s theory of Hermeneutic Motion,an representative of hermeneutic approach to translation,which is centered on the four steps of “trust”,“aggression”,“incorporation” and“compensation”,to the translation practice and critical reflection.Adopting relevant translation methods,such as addition,omission,reorganization,etc.,the author of the report selects typical cases at three linguistic levels,i.e.lexical level,syntactical level and textual level,to reflect,evaluate and summarize the translation process,including how to understand the source text,how to translate it,and how to modify and polish the version.This translation demonstrates that it is rewardingly effective to apply George Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion to the translation of philosophical works and its commentary.When translating philosophical texts,the translator should also be flexible in using translation methods,including addition,subtraction,and reorganization,in providing the readers with the best possible translation.Hopefully,the findings of this report would provide reference for translators working on the same type of text. |
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