A Report On The Chinese-English Translation Of The Future Of Energy(Excerpt)

The original text for this translation practice is selected from The Future of Energy.The author,Gu Weidong,former director of Jiangsu Macroeconomic Research Institute,has devoted himself to research in the fields of macroeconomic development strategies and new energy for more than 40 years.In the face of China’s energy crisis,this book presents an overall solution to the energy problem from both theoretical and practical aspects,and is the first energy monograph based on China’s national conditions.It is hoped that this translation will be useful to those in English-speaking countries who are interested in the new energy field and desire to understand China’s development,as well as to those translators who are studying translation shifts theory and working on economic texts.The source text is an informative text,and the most important thing in translating this type of text is to truthfully convey the information to the readers of the target language.In order to achieve this,some adjustments need to be made between Chinese and English to make the translation more authentic and readable.Therefore,the translator adopts the translation shifts theory to guide this practice.This thesis analyzes the linguistic characteristics and difficulties of the translated materials at three levels:lexis,sentences and discourse,such as the extensive use of economic and energy terms,four-character structures,more tense changes,and frequent occurrence of non-subject sentences and run-on sentences.At the lexical level,the translator uses a variety of web tools to translate terms and apply unit-shifts to translate four-word structures and level shifts to translate time adverbs.At the sentence level,structure-shifts and unit-shifts are adopted to translate unattributed sentences,and run-on sentences.At the textual level,structure-shifts and unit-shifts are applied to build a clear logic to make the translation conform to English expression habits.Through this translation practice,the translator not only has a deeper understanding of China’s economy and energy revolution,but accumulates certain experience in translating economic texts,applies the translation skills and methods learned in practice,and continuously improves translation ability.