A Translation Report On Psychological Descriptions In The Orphan Sisters From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

Nowadays cross-cultural exchanges between China and the West have taken on diverse forms with an unprecedented breadth and depth.Foreign novels,acting as one prominent tool for cross-cultural communication,have strengthened understanding between different culture.Therefore,translation works of the novel from foreign languages into Chinese have progressively attracted a lot of attention.And people also show great affection for them for their intense cultural factors and the surging of inner emotion.With plain stylistic features,The Orphan Sisters has occupied a crucial position in the literary world.It is written by the excellent English writer—Shirley Dickson and became a hit upon being published in January 2019.This novel has been labeled as the most heartbreaking and gripping novel set against the backdrop of World War Ⅱ.It mainly tells a story of two orphan girls who gained self-redemption and grew up after going through the war scar,parental abandonment,and tragic loss of their loved ones in which large amounts of psychological description is characteristic of the novel.Moreover,its psychological descriptions are so subtle and vivid that the source readers themselves can experience the psychological condition of the British common people during the furious raids in the period of World War Ⅱ.It also calls on people to stop the war,cherish peace,and then embrace peace.Up to now,no Chinese version is ever found,so the author of this thesis aims to do a translation report based on this novel.The author of this report studies the translation examples of psychological descriptions in the novel The Orphan Sisters from the perspective of functional equivalence theory.And this report intends to explore suitable translation methods and techniques concerning direct and indirect psychological descriptions that can best reveal the inner world of the character from the perspective of functional equivalence theory.This theory emphasizes receptor’s response,which advocates that target readers should have a similar response as that of the original readers.It has a profound and guiding effect on literary translation.With the application of this theory,several translation methods and techniques are suggested: Paraphrase,literal translation,amplification,inversion,four-character phrase and so on.The above translation methods and techniques are employed to ensure the translation version that is faithful in meaning and retains the original style.The author of this thesis found that literal translation and paraphrase are more suitable for direct psychological description translation.These two methods could better reveal the subtle psychological change;While amplification,inversion,four-character phrase and shift of perspective are more suitable for indirect psychological description translation.The applications of these translation methods could accurately show the rich inner world of the characters and be helpful to excavate the behavior cognition,values and spiritual belief hidden behind the text.Therefore,during the process of translation,the translator should give full play to the subjectivity in choosing appropriate translation methods and accordingly adjusting translation methods when meeting different types of psychological descriptions.