Translating Figures Of Speech Under The Guidance Of Skopos Theory

This is a translation report based on a practice project of translating Hold That Thought,a book on psychological counseling written by the American author Chana Mason,into Chinese.During the course of completing the translation task,the translator encountered in the source text lots of rhetorical expressions,which constituted the most prominent problems that had to be tackled with a set of stratagems in order to ensure the quality of translation.The difficulty of translating figures of speech presents itself in that the target text should not only stay in formal equivalence to the source text but more importantly be functionally equivalent to the source text so as to achieve the same communicative effect.The present report selects typical cases of similes,metaphors,hyperboles,euphemisms,and metonymies that appear frequently in the source text and demonstrates how the translator carried out the whole process of translating from the stage of comprehension to the stage of expression in these cases under the guidance of Skopos Theory.Combining Skopos Theory and other practical considerations during translation,the report finally summarizes several methods and techniques of translating the above-mentioned figures of speech,including literal translation and free translation,as well as the techniques of preservation,addition and omission.It was by employing those methods and techniques flexibly according to the specific context of each case,the translator solved the difficulties in translation caused by figures of speech.As a result,the goal of equal communicative effect was achieved:the messages and ways of expression of the source text information were kept as faithfully as possible while the target text language was natural and smoothly readable.After completing the translation task and finishing the translation report,the translator has achieved a more profound understanding of Skopos Theory and its application to translation practice,which may play a guiding role in translating figures of speech.