An E-C Translation Report On City Spies:Forbidden City(Excerpts)

This thesis is an English-Chinese translation report.The original text of translation report is City Spies: Forbidden City,a children’s literary work by the American writer James Ponti.The translator selected chapter1 to chapter 10 for this report.Taking root love and ideals in child’s mind,this book tells exciting mission trips of five spies,named Paris,Brooklyn,Sydney,Kate and Rio.Paris is cool and imperturbable having an extraordinary ability.As a computer hacker,Brooklyn helps the team to finish their tasks and cracks codes.Sydney,a junior journalist for teenagers,is responsible for collecting intelligence.Kate is a reticent mathematic genius and Rio is a sociable magician.Firstly,this translation report introduces the background,significance,structure and translation process.Secondly,the translator discusses the difficulties encountered in the translation process of the source text and applies translation methods and techniques for corresponding cases.In the end the translation report summarizes the gains from the translation and puts forward the limitations of the study and suggestions for the future research.The report focuses on the translation difficulties from three aspects: vocabulary,syntax and rhetoric.In order to consistent with Chinese expression,preserve the original style,the translator adopts different translation methods and techniques to effectively convey the meaning of the original text and facilitate the children’s readers understand this novel.At lexical level,the translator applies literal translation with notes,transliteration with notes,paraphrase,semantic extension and conversion of parts of speech towards culture-loaded words and polysemy.At syntactic level,the translation difficulties include attributive clauses,parentheses,passive sentences and lyrics.The translator adopts fronting,division,linear translation,reinventing sentence structures,translated into Chinese active sentences,translated into Chinese four-character expression and substituting.At rhetorical level,free translation and literal translation are used.Through this translation practice,the translator has accumulated translation experience in children’s literature,learned practical translation methods and techniques,improved English-Chinese translation ability,gained a further understanding of translation activities,which has laid a foundation for later translation practice.