A Report On C-E Translation Of Suzhou Classical Gardens(Excerpt)

Chinese classical gardens are unique in the world garden systems,and classical gardens in Suzhou are an outstanding representative in this system.The source text for this translation is excerpted from Suzhou Classical Garden written by Liu Dunzhen,a celebrated Chinese architect.The author hopes that the translation and research of Suzhou gardening texts can help the dissemination of Chinese classical garden culture around the world.The report is written based on the author’s translation practice as the analytical text and the relevance theory as the theoretical perspective.The selected source text involves systematic analysis of gardening theories and practices concerning mountains stacking,water arrangement,architecture,planting of flowers and trees,which is very rich in professional content and related terms.In the process of translation,the translator needs to take psychological,philosophical,cultural and linguistic factors into account due to its professional and cultural connotations.According to relevance theory,translation is a two-round ostensive-inferential activity.On the one hand,the translator,as a reader,needs to infer the ostensive information of the source text to deepen her understanding;on the other hand,the translator needs to express her own inferential information in the translation,enhance the contextual effect of the translation and reduce the cognitive effort of the readers of target text.This can provide a good perspective on the translation of gardening texts.The translation report firstly introduces the translation task and the process of translation;secondly,it briefly explains the relevance theory,and analyzes the translation process of gardening text in accordance with the four principle the relevance theory,and explores the effective ways to eliminate cultural barriers to the greatest extent,and achieve the optimal relevance between the source text and the target text,and finally achieve the best communicative effect.The study found that relevance theory has some explanatory power in interpreting the translator’s ostensive-inferential processes in gardening text translation.The translation of gardening texts can help classical garden culture in Suzhou go to the world.Reasonable relevance and inferential means can help the readers of the target text to deeply understand the mystery of the classical gardening text.