Translation skills of English news headlines

News headlines are the most concise words used to explain and evaluate news content. Good news headlines are like the finishing touch, which can make the news colorful. Sometimes readers can't remember the specific content of news, but the well-known headlines remain in their memory and even become the motto of life. Because there are many differences in thinking and expression between English and Chinese, the translation of news headlines is very important. It is necessary to adopt some flexible methods to overcome the differences according to the specific situation, so that the translation can reproduce the essence of the original as much as possible and be easily accepted by readers in China.

First, literal translation or basic literal translation of news headlines.

In China, there is an endless debate about the right and wrong of literal translation and free translation. So far, there is no conclusion. The author thinks that the two translation methods have their own advantages and disadvantages and should be chosen according to the actual situation. However, both literal translation and free translation should give priority to being faithful to the original content. As far as the translation of English news headlines is concerned, if the meaning of English headlines is clear and China readers will have no difficulty in understanding them after translation into Chinese, we can consider adopting literal translation or basic literal translation. For example,

putinfacesharshpressscrisproterror

Putin was severely criticized by the media for this terrorist incident.

Olympic swimming performance 1stGold

Swimming at the opening ceremony of Olympic costume will win the first gold medal.

uksoldestpersondiesat 1 15

Britain's first birthday girl died, enjoying a life of 100 years and 15 years.

The above three news headlines belong to literal translation or basic literal translation, which is natural and fluent without foreign accent.

Second, add explanatory words in translation.

News headlines in English newspapers often cater to the reading needs of domestic readers, and their expressions are different from those in Chinese because of their different thinking habits from those in China. Therefore, in the process of translation, we must give full consideration to the principle of "difference between inside and outside" and the reading psychology of China readers, and make necessary modifications to relevant information, cultural background knowledge that China people may not be familiar with and expressions that do not conform to the reading habits of domestic readers. If you delete it, it will be added.

Thirdly, try to reproduce the rhetorical features of the original text.

Many news headlines not only attract people's attention because of their conciseness, but also effectively convey some subtle implied information by using various rhetorical techniques, so that readers can enjoy beauty in meaning, sound and form. Therefore, the rhetorical features of the original text, such as pun, metaphor and rhyme, should be reflected as much as possible in translation, so that the translation is basically consistent with the original text in rhetoric, so that the target readers can get almost the same feelings as the original readers. For example:

No fans? "Norfred!"

The stadium is unpopular? "I'm not angry!"

The headline above points out a news fact: in the first few days of the Athens Olympic Games, there were very few spectators in the stadium. In a tennis match, only 500 people were seated in a stadium with more than 8,000 people. However, the athletes looked quite elegant, and when interviewed by reporters, they said they didn't mind. At the end of the two lines of the original title, the words fans and fret, which start with two F's, are used, which constitutes a common alliteration rhetoric device in English. It reads very rhythmically. There is no such rhetoric in Chinese, but the translation uses the words "popular" and "angry" through rhyme and reduplication, which reflects the flavor of the original text to some extent.

Fourthly, the application of translation trade-offs.

Sometimes, when some English titles are difficult to express their subtle meanings in Chinese because of rhetorical devices or cultural and linguistic differences, it is suggested to translate appropriate Chinese titles according to the literal meanings of English titles and news content. In doing so, we can adopt different grammatical and rhetorical means according to the characteristics of Chinese and Chinese news headlines to achieve the best results.

1. Add words to complete the meaning.

As far as revealing news content is concerned, English headlines tend to focus on one content, rather than all the content. In addition, English words are usually composed of several letters, so titles generally use few words. These two points determine that English news headlines are generally concise. Chinese news headlines pay attention to comprehensiveness, and Chinese is a word with one meaning, so Chinese headlines use more words. In view of this, more words are used in Chinese title translation.

Older, wiser and calmer.

The older a person is, the wiser he is and the calmer his heart is.

This news focuses on the wisdom and calmness of today's aging society, especially the elderly in dealing with various problems after retirement. If translated into "older, wiser and calmer" word for word according to the original text, it is still an acceptable translation. However, if the words "person", "wisdom" and "heart" are added according to the reading habits of readers in China, the meaning will be clearer and the sentence pattern will be more neat.

2. Use Chinese and foreign poems and idioms

China's long-standing culture has always been the pride of China people, and many well-known poems and phrases have been widely circulated so far. In addition, many famous sayings of foreign writers and poets are welcomed by people after translation. When translating English news headlines, it is easier to arouse readers' intimacy by appropriately borrowing and applying familiar poems and phrases. For example, the following two headings:

Jungle expedition

Bush's "Shuangjiao" initially grew into a wine alley and has been in charge of this alley since then.

Singapore

If you are in love, you can also throw away your liver-a touching love between life and death in the lion city.

The first headline says that Bush's twin daughters are often exposed by the media because of underage drinking. Now they have finally reached the legal drinking age and can drink as much as they like. Another headline said that a Singaporean star donated part of her liver to save a couple. The translation of the two titles is familiar to readers in China, which can easily arouse their interest in reading.

When translating English news headlines, we can flexibly adopt various translation methods, such as literal translation, free translation, adding words, deleting words, disrupting information reorganization and creating new words.