A Report On The E-C Translation Of We Dream Of Space Under The Guidance Of Reception Aesthetics

The material for this translation practice was selected from the winner of the 2021 Newbery Silver Medal for Children’s Literature,We Dream of Space.The story was set in 1986 in America.Several conflicting but tender stories happened between the three siblings of the Thomas family,Cash,Fitch and Bird.The stories also revolved around the launch of the space shuttle Challenger and an assignment from their teacher Ms.Salonga.The author Erin Entrada Kelly’s delicate yet childlike writing portrays the inner world of young children in a vivid and full-bodied manner.In this translation practice,the translator uses reception aesthetics as a theoretical guide.Reception aesthetics places the reader at the centre of translation,believing that the reader is also the re-creator of the text,and that the reader’s re-creation plays a crucial role in the presentation of the text.In the translation of children’s literature,the translator is often required to understand and translate the text from the perspective of children readers,and therefore reception aesthetics can be used to guide the translation of children’s literature.In this translation practice,meeting children’s horizons of expectation is the biggest challenge.In order to present a lively and interesting translation and narrow the aesthetic distance between the translator and the children readers,the translator chooses corresponding translation strategies to make the translation more relevant to children readers.Inspired by the relevant literature and parallel texts,this translation practice explores translation techniques for children’s literature in the following ways.At the lexical level,the translations are made close to the tone of children’s speech through the use of colloquial words,onomatopoeia,omissions and additions.At the syntactical level,children readers’understanding of the text is facilitated through the use of splitting,changes of order and changes of voice.At the cultural level,language transformations are made more logical and aesthetically valuable through the use of explanations and replacement,in the expectation that the charm of the original text will be vividly reproduced.Based on this practice,the translator strives to integrate the vision of children readers with the translation and to stimulate their emotional experience in order to gain their approval of the translation.