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6. Choose materials.

This paper directly leads to the common problem of ordinary English learners, that is, they cannot express English materials faithfully and fluently in Chinese. Then, this paper puts forward that to overcome the difficulties in English-Chinese translation, we must first master and understand three important links in English-Chinese translation-correct understanding, full expression, revision and polishing, and discusses in detail how to understand and fully express them with examples.

Keywords: English-Chinese translation; Important link; Correct understanding; Fully express; Correct modification

As an English teacher in colleges and universities, students often ask me some questions about English learning. During my years of teaching English, I found that both English majors and non-English majors; Both students with good basic skills and students with poor basic skills have the same problem, that is, they can't express the articles they read faithfully and fluently in Chinese. In fact, most English learners and enthusiasts find English-Chinese translation more difficult than Chinese-English translation. However, both Chinese-English translation and English-Chinese translation are arduous and creative language practice activities, and they cannot be separated from its theoretical guidance. That is to say, for ordinary English learners, to do a good job in English-Chinese translation, they should not only master the basic knowledge and social culture of the two languages, but also master the basic translation theory and apply it to translation practice.

Shou Fanli, a famous translation theorist, once wrote: "Translation is nothing more than two steps: understanding and expression." [1] This seems simple, but it is difficult to do, because it is not difficult to understand and express, but it is difficult to understand and express correctly. Therefore, for ordinary English learners, English-Chinese translation should include three important links, namely, correct understanding, full expression and modification.

The so-called correct understanding refers to the process of thinking and imagining while reading the original text before translation, and it is a process of correctly understanding and grasping the ideological content, feelings and style of the original text. Correct understanding is the premise of full expression. So how can we understand it correctly?

First of all, we should correctly understand the exact meaning of words. English words, like Chinese words, have many meanings. Some words have both positive and negative meanings, and the meanings of some words change with historical evolution, social development and technological progress. In English-Chinese translation, it is difficult to translate smoothly without careful consideration. If you are not careful, you may make jokes, or even if you know every word of the original, you still can't translate it. Here are a few examples to illustrate.

He became a vampire again and again.

She earned herself a reputation by working hard.

In this example, both sentences contain reputation, and the dictionary explains reputation as "reputation; Reputation; Fame. " Obviously, fame has both negative and positive meanings, but if the negative meaning of this word is ignored, the first sentence ("He is a notorious vampire") will be difficult to translate smoothly.

John can eat instead of fish and play games.

In this example, if you don't know that not eating fish and playing games are allusions and idioms respectively, it will be misunderstood as "John is reliable." He never eats fish and often plays games. " Not eating fish comes from an allusion. In the era of Queen Elizabeth in England, in order to show their loyalty to the government, Christians refused to observe the custom of anti-government Roman Catholics eating only fish on Friday. Therefore, not eating fish means "loyalty". Playing games is synonymous with playing fair, which means fair treatment, aboveboard behavior, integrity and so on.

The farmer who was killed by a car has gone crazy. "Don't worry," said the driver, trying to comfort the owner. "I'll replace your pig." "You can't," growled the farmer. "You're not fat enough!" .

In this case, it can be judged from the farmer's language that he is not well educated, so his understanding of the word replace is limited to "substitution", and he does not know that replace can also mean "repayment". When the driver said to him, "I'll pay you for that pig," he thought the driver wanted to be his pig and shouted angrily, "You can't, you're not fat enough!" What kind of joke is this?

Secondly, the expression should be determined according to the context. For example, "It's freezing in here." It should be translated into Chinese. Translation is different in different contexts. It's freezing in here. Only provide information to explain to the audience that it is cold here; It's too cold here. Request, hope to turn on the heating; This place is really cool. As a satire, complain that the place where you speak is too hot.

Finally, the speaker's intention should be made clear before translation, and then the expression mode should be decided. For example, Harry is a professor, but he can't spell. Harry is a professor, so it is strange that he can't spell. It means surprise; Harry is a professor, but he can't spell the meaning of a factual statement.

When you understand the original correctly, then you should fully express what you understand faithfully and fluently in Chinese. The so-called full expression means using the control ability of the target language to fully and appropriately express the ideological content, position, feelings and style of the original text. The quality of expression mainly depends on the depth of understanding of the original text and the degree of attainment of the target language. Commonly used expressions are literal translation and free translation. In China's 2000-year-long translation history, there are different opinions about whether the translation of articles is literal translation or free translation. In fact, literal translation or free translation is determined by the translated article itself, which is beyond the translator's control. The principles to be followed are: literal translation, free translation, or a combination of literal translation and free translation. For example, Ruth was disturbing other children, so I kicked her out. Ruth has been bothering other children, so I kicked her out. In this translated sentence, the first part is literal translation and the second part is free translation. If you translate "so I showed her the door" into "I showed her the door", you can't express your original intention accurately and smoothly.

The last step is to revise and retouch the map. Translation, like writing, needs careful revision. However, most people often just browse the translation once and then finish it without any modification, which is extremely undesirable. The translation should be revised not only, but also twice. Look at the translation for the first time to see if there are any mistakes or omissions in the name, place, date, direction, numbers and punctuation marks. Are there any inappropriate words, phrases and sentences in translation? The second time focused on polishing the text.

In a word, it is very important to master these three important links before translation. Correct understanding is the premise of full expression, which is the result of correct understanding, and correction and polishing are essential steps to make the translation more faithful and fluent.

References:

Shou-Li Fan. English study. 2002, 12: 1.

[2] Wang Zhikui. College English-Chinese Translation Course (Revised Edition), Shandong University Press, 2nd Edition, August 1999.

[3] Zhang Peiji. English-Chinese translation course. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, first edition, September 1980.

[4] Guo Practical English-Chinese Translation Course (Revised Edition), Wuhan University Press, June 2006, 5438+0.

[5] Zhao Shiping. Learn English translation and writing from left to right (1). Xi jiaotong university press 1999 March.

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