A Report On The E-C Translation Of Q’s Legacy (Excerpts) Under The Guidance Of Reiss’s Text Typology

This thesis is a translation practice report on the Chinese translation of an English autobiography.The translation material is an excerpt from Q’s Legacy by the American writer Helene Hanff.This book records how the writer entered the literature world and her own writing career.Guided by Katharina Reiss’ s text typology,the thesis discusses translation principles and methods involved in the translation procedure.The selected autobiography is a mixture of informative and expressive texts.Reiss put forward translation criteria for these two text types.Translation of informative texts must ensure accuracy and should be oriented to the usage of the target language.Translation of expressive texts should endeavor to maintain the original style and should be source-language-oriented.Such criteria serve as a guidance in solving the difficulties in translation.In terms of informative texts,the difficult part is to translate texts concerning Western plays,religions,literature and other background information.Accordingly,the paper adopts annotation,addition and generalization to translate informative texts in order to ensure information accuracy and readability.To retain the aesthetic effect,manifested by the writer’s unique style and the humorous element of original expressive texts,the paper adopts methods of retaining original rhetoric devices,modulation and conversion.Reiss’ s text typology is a good guide for the translation of autobiographies because it can help translators analyze texts,classify texts and eventually determine the appropriate translation methods.