《魅影舞动》（节选）英语汉译实践报告

Chapter One An Introduction to the Translation Project

1.1 Fantasy Literature
The academia has not yet reached agreement on a definition for fantasy literature.As a genre, it has a long history in both Eastern and Western literary traditions (WangNingchuan, Liao Jianle, 2016). Fantasy literature is the author’s persuasive construction ofthe impossible world created arbitrarily and subjectively under the premise of logic andrhetoric (Irwin 1976:9). Fiction is one of the forms of fantasy literature. Fantasy fictionsinclude novels and short stories, which can be pided into Oriental Fantasy Fictions andWestern Fantasy Fictions according to the cultural background. Most of fantasy fictionswith extraordinary powers are about human beings or strange creatures, which fight againstdarkness, ghosts or demons. The stories may take place in a “Secondary World” that is atodds with the laws of the real world, or they may incorporate supernatural elements intotheir real-life narratives (Li Jingyuan, Sun Min, 2016).
According to Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings, fantasy literature shouldcontain four indispensable elements: fantasy, recovery, escape and consolation. Richard D.Purtill, a scholar of literature and religion, argues that there are some aspects to the makingof fantasy: it must be set in the past, before, or long before you can remember; it has toinvolve magic and contain mythical characters or creatures; it has to involve events whosepossibilities cannot be explained by science (Zhang Fang, 2015).
The most essential characteristic of fantasy literature is that it is beyond theimagination of the real world (Xu Haiyan, 2007).Tolkien describes the real world as the“Primary World”, which exists objectively, and the fantasy and spiritual world created byhuman beings as the “Secondary World” (Ren Jing,2015). The “Secondary World” iscrucial in the creation of fantasy works, and the degree of believability in fantasy literatureis an important measurement of the quality of such works.
..............................

1.2 The Author of the Novel
Vered Ehsani, who was born in South Africa, was raised in Canada. She had been awriter since she could hold a pen, and she finished her first story about a naughty unicornat the age of seven. Since the mid-2000s, she has lived in Kenya with her husband, twochildren and an assortment of animals with varying degrees of wildness. Vered Ehsaniworks as an environmental consultant in non-writing or dreaming time. She fixates onghosts and other bodiless beings and often wishes she could float through walls and doother fantastical things. Currently, 24 of her books in English are available on Amazon andthe majority of them are fantasy fictions. According to comments on Amazon, the booksare loved by readers.
Where Shadows Dance mainly describes a story of a 15-year-old boy, Ash, who islooking forward to a summer of camping and time travelling, but his mother arranges forhim and his sister, Shanti, to clean the attic together. Ash has the ability to travel to the pastwith the help of his history book given by his great great aunt named Bibi. When Bibidisappears, Ash’s near-death nightmare gets weirder. He meets a girl named Juna who cantravel to the past without a book, and the two of them don’t get along well initially. Ashand Juna are trapped in the past. Although they try to return home and save relatives andfriends, events and dreams keep pointing them to the place where it all starts and ends,where shadows dance and time bends. They try to get there to save their friends andrelatives, and to stop an implacable enemy named Kali from destroying their future bystealing The Book of the History and the map for dominating the world.
................................

Chapter Two Translation Process

2.1 Preparation
Initially, the translator converted Where Shadows Dance from paper to digital formatand proofread it carefully, in order to ensure accurate understanding. At this stage, it isimportant to try to get as much information about the author and the genre of fiction aspossible. After a thorough research, the writer chose Functional Equivalence Theory as aguiding translation theory, then collected and studied theory and research on thistranslation type.
2.1.1 An Analysis of the Source Text
Where Shadows Dance is a work of fantasy fiction and contains all the characteristicsof fantasy literature. There are supernatural powers and fantastic creatures, such as a magicbook, spider shadows, dog shadows, which are created by the author’s imagination andmay be strange and unfamiliar to the readers, and these culture-loaded items bring vividfantasy color.
The “Primary World” and the “Secondary World” are shown alternately withdescriptive sentences of their environment and scenes. Sometimes, the two worlds appearat the same time, which allows the writer to describe the conflict between the light and thedarkness. The descriptions of these scenes are key factors in providing a backdrop to thequalities of the hero and they make the story fascinating and suspenseful.
There are large sections of dialogue in the selected chapters which are simple yetprofound and humorous. To retain the characters’ personalities, the writer must understandtheir experiences and grasp their characteristics accurately. For example, Ash is kind, braveand humorous, and Juna is cold, suspicious and pessimistic. This understanding allows thecharacters’ personalities and language characteristics to be demonstrated through dialogueas much as possible. In addition, the version of characters’ way of expression should alsoconform to the children’s expectations.
...........................

2.2 While-Translation
There are a total of 69,000 words in the fiction, of which the writer choosesChapter Five and Chapter Six for a translation research. Firstly, the writer analyzes thecharacteristics of the novel, and determines the style and guiding theory, which points theway for the translation.
In the process of initial translation, the writer highlighted parts containing difficultsentences and areas of unsatisfactory translation which would require modification. For thesecond translation, the writer researched relevant materials, making use of them toretranslate those parts. There are a large number of fantasy creatures in the text, whichwould make readers confused if translated stiffly. In order to make the version moresuitable, the writer studied the relevant literature and referred to the fantasy movies whichtranslating fantasy creatures successfully. In terms of character and environmentdescriptions, it was necessary to read the original text repeatedly and grasp its meaning forunderstanding all the information behind the words. Verifying words repeatedly to makethe version depicts characteristics accurately. In the third stage of translation, the writerreads through the version to check for omissions, errors, accuracy of words and coherence.During the fourth and fifth stages, a check was made to ensure the sentence structure andmode of expression conformed to the speech norms of readers, and efforts were made toenhance the literariness of the translation.
Translation is not to translate word by word simply. The words and structures ofsentences should be considered and deliberated repeatedly and carefully.
..........................
Chapter Three Translation Theory.......................................7
3.1 A Brief Introduction to Nida...........................................7
3.2 Functional Equivalence Theory.................................7
Chapter Four Case Study in the Translation..........................10
4.1 Translation of Words..................................... 10
4.1.1 Culture-loaded Terms.................................10
4.1.2 Four-Character Phrases............................. 12
Chapter Five A Summary.......................................... 18
5.1 Gains...................................18
5.2 Limitations and Implication............................. 18

Chapter Four Case Study in the Translation

4.1 Translation of Words
4.1.1 Culture-loaded Terms
Culture-loaded terms contain rich cultural connotations beyond their original meaningor conceptual meaning. Translators should estimate readers’ cultural receptivity objectivelyand keep the cultural information and color of the original text when ensuring thereadability of the version, which puts forward high requirements for translator’s fantasycultural literacy (Gao Sifei, 2011). Western fantasy literature has unique cultural imagesand vocabulary which are different from eastern fantasy literature, domestication andforeignization must be reasonably chosen in translation process.
Analysis: The protagonist Ash has no supernatural power, but he is able to back intime to explore and discover new stories by using the magic book called The Book of theHistory. If the book is translated into“书” literally, it cannot show the magical properties ofthe book, making the article lose its fantastic color. There are many ordinary books with nomagical properties. In order to distinguish this book from other ordinary books, it is moreappropriate to translate it as“魔法书”.
................................

Chapter Five A Summary

5.1 Gains

reference(omitted)