A Report On The Translation Of Ceramic Descriptive Texts Under The Guidance Of The Criteria Of "Xin,Da And Ya"

This E-C translation practice selects a catalogue named For the Imperial Court by Rosemary E.Scott from chapter I to chapter IV,so as to promote the popularity of imperial porcelain of Jingdezhen in the Qing Dynasty and motivate the ceramic cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.This report is guided by Yan Fu’s translation criteria of “Xin,Da and Ya”.The author analyzes the characteristics of the source text and mainly elaborates “Xin” from the aspects of the vocabulary and the poetic marks.In this ceramic descriptive text,“Da” is mainly reflected in the “smoothness and fluency” of the pattern descriptive sentences of the porcelain.Considering the differences between Chinese and English,the author uses the translation method of division,including division of words,phrases and compound sentences,which makes the translation more fluent and logical,and more in line with the characteristics of Chinese.Scholars have different opinions on whether the translation of scientific English text is suitable to take “Ya” as the criterion.The author believes that the scientific translation should not be presumed not to have “Ya”,and “Ya”of scientific translation is simply different from that of literary translation.Therefore,in the translation of scientific English,what the translator needs to do is to find the “Ya” of scientific English and preserve it to the greatest extent.By analyzing the source text and reading a large number of parallel texts,the author finds the “Ya” of the ceramic descriptive text,and believes that “Ya” of the translation of those texts is reflected in the fact that the language characteristics of the translation is consistent with that of parallel texts of the target language.The author mainly elaborates on “Ya” from three aspects: the translation of porcelain titles,the translation of shape description sentences and the translation of reign mark sentences.Some translation rules summarized in this translation practice report may provide reference for the translation of ceramic descriptive texts.