英语翻译：谈谈外文出版社的常见做法

The foreign language publishing house USES a kind of language to publish books every year. There are many books in English. Make a copy of Chinese manuscript into foreign language, and then make a complete book, the process is complicated, demanding a lot. It is common practice to talk about the title of a book, the introduction of text and so on, in order to get some advice from the colleagues.

I. title

It is understood that in the book production, the British and American publishing houses spend a great deal of time on the cover. A title is often delayed after the book is finalized, so the title is important. Indeed, a book, a good title is a key link.

Is often put in front of our staff have identified the Chinese title (literature does not belong to here to discuss the category), our mission is to be on the premise of faithful meaning to the title as comply with English readers habit, easy to cause their interest in a book of English title. This is a re-creation process. The first person has a thorough understanding of the content of the book. That's how you can carve out a title for yourself. Secondly, pay attention to the following points:

To capture the core content of the Chinese title, highlight the theme and draw the reader's attention. Such as: published by foreign language press in Xue Muqiao monograph, author of China's socialist economic problem research content is the meaning of China's social economy as a whole topic to discuss, has a theory, there are instances, there are data, is not the only speak face. The title of the English title of China's Socialist conomy omitted the "study of the problem", which could not only stand out but also give the book its due authority. Even though some authoritative Chinese academic books, the title of the book often contains the words "first exploration" and "introduction". In China, tens of thousands of Chinese books are published every year. These words can be removed.

The basic question of contemporary China, published by deng xiaoping, is another example of this kind of book. Initially, the title was considered to be "socialism with Chinese characteristics (to be renewed)" (a booklet of the same name was published before that). The title of this type of statement cannot be seen at a glance at the core of a book, and it does not help the reader to grasp the theme. Later, the book was decided as Fundamental Issues in the Present-day China.

Album: qi baishi is our country with foreign language publishing high-grade picture album, the first book of qi baishi works collected over the last three years until his death, many of which are published for the first time, its artistic appreciation value and research value is very high. However, qi baishi, after all, was a Chinese painter who had been dead for many years, and he didn't know much about him. Hence the need for a book title to help potential readers learn about qi baishi. If only the title of the Chinese name is Selected Paintings of Qi Bashi, it is difficult to know the characteristics of the painter. Apart from his name, it was difficult for foreigners to pronounce. The title of the title of the title of the title of the title is "Likeness and Unlikeness", and the subtitle is Selected Paintings of Qi Baishi.

Add more text to make English titles more attractive to readers. In many cases, the title of a book is accurately described in several words. But straight to foreign readers, they tend to produce a profound sense of inscrutable; The sense of unintelligible makes it difficult for readers to express special interest in the book in the vast sea of books. On the contrary, a few words, sometimes even a few words, will make the subject of a book clear and easy to arouse the reader's interest. Simple examples include Xu Beihong's Life, Xu Beihong-Life of a Master painter.

Published by foreign language press in "a brief history of the People's Republic of China are the English title main title for Years of trials, Turmoil and Triumph, subtitle for China from the to, the title from" a brief history of the Chinese book title is a bit far some, but not against new China Years this topic. The main title highlights the characteristics of the various stages of O year, and the time span of this book is explained by subtitle.

Book China customs and the secret file four volumes, a word, the main content is to O years between occupy the qing dynasty general customs commissioner of the British hurd, director of the London office with gold letters and telegrams exchanges between the dry, is to understand the western powers to control China and old China as an important reference book of semi-colonial nature. In the United States, professor fei qing has received many letters and published two volumes of the main title of Inspector General in Peking. We have more than two thirds of the content of a set of fei qing, with stronger authority and academic value. If the title is straight Chinese, it is difficult to make sense of the secret files of a Chinese customs in any time. The title of the English title is the Archives of China's Imperial Maritime Customs (which means that this is historical information by the word Imperial), and the subtitle is Confidential Correspondence Between R.Hart and j.d.ampbell --. This makes the book clear.

In China, admiral pang was well known, but the west knew little about him. Therefore, the title of "peng dehuai self-report" is absolutely not simple. The title of the book is the Memoirs of A Chinese Marshal--A Cultural revolution, by Marshal Peng Dehuai (--), Covering his Career from Services in China's Warlord Armies to Command of the Chinese Peoples' Volunteers in Korea. The so-called confession is actually the "metasomatic material" written during the cultural revolution. The title was explained, with a view to attracting interest from foreign readers, and the title of his former army in the warlords, once again fighting the americans. Although these two points did not fully represent his military life, the most noticeable content of western English readers included. As a title, it appears to be a bit longer, but it is clear and still unsparingly telling the reader the subject of the book.

Regardless of English reading habits, straight Chinese title, must fail. On this side, there are many examples. For example: Chen Yi and gan yuebian Base areas are Chen Yi and the cago-guangdong Base Area. How can you expect the general foreign readers to know what they are doing?

For example, "Chinese great foot Grottoes" is Dazu Grottoes. "The mural of Yongle Palace" is The Yongle Palace Murals. It does not reflect the importance and characteristics of the two places in the history of cultural art. Even this is not reflected in China.

To help foreigners learn to use Chinese dictionaries, a tool book called "the written word" was published. The Stroke ncoding of Dictionary Consultation. Not to mention foreigners, even the Chinese who read the title do not necessarily guess that this is a book about what to say.

The proper processing of the preamble and content introduction process

Overview of Chinese book preface or foreword, the author, editor's note, etc., if it is not the author (or editor, similarly hereinafter) my pen, and by others as a sequence, often write of is all praise highly, praised the author's wisdom; Courage, perseverance, level, etc. But the author himself often has a sentence or two: "the level is limited, the mistakes or improper in the book are inevitable. I want the reader to give me some criticism." "The level is limited, the time is hasty, unavoidable fallacy, please point." "It is a traditional virtue of the Chinese people," he said. In Chinese book, write a few words that can express their author modest rigorous doing scholarly research attitude, at the same time, to suggest that I work need not be a the top of the academic research, a field may well behind. It should be said that, in general, these words make people more respectful of the author.

However, due to cultural differences; It would be counterproductive to write this pure Chinese language into English. Although there is a lot of fallacies in the book of the west, the author does not acknowledge it in the front of his own book. Because, according to their habits and logic, if the author or publisher acknowledges that there is a problem with their publication, the reader will say that he knows he is "limited"; Is it not to be misused to publish, knowing that your work is unavoidably "unavoidably"? Why not raise the level first and then publish the fallacies? If it's a "time rush", why not make another arrangement and bring out a mature work? If general academic papers, but the teaching material can't allows authors to retain "error or wrong place" as for medicine monographs, needs to be one hundred percent accurate, must not allow authors to bury "mistakes and wrong place", otherwise, to death.

According to the appreciation psychology of foreign readers, the foreign language publishing house has done different kinds of processing for this kind of text in the preface. Such as "fourteen meridian" this is a professor of acupuncture large textbooks, the authors also authorities, but he wrote in the "writing", because the editor level is limited, unavoidable mistakes and shortcomings "in English when the book will be a" writing ", ask others to write another sequence.

Of course, it is not possible to make a factual account of the reader, or even brag about it, to avoid misunderstanding. Book of the People's Republic of China concerning diplomatic memorabilia "editor's note" talk about "book was published so far most of the foreign relations of historical data," also pointed out that "limited to the source and the level of the editors, book unavoidably have omissions, is refers to hope readers. The last sentence is... After the book was published, two foreign embassies in China called in to point out that the book missed two major events in their engagement with China. For a publishing house, such a book involving sino-foreign relations, the emergence of omission, is a more serious accident. But in the case of the editor, at least, the attitude of the editor is factual.

How to avoid using Chinese style, foreigners may sound overly courteous, but also express the author's sincere welcome scholars to discuss. The desire to improve the level of the work to achieve the best of both worlds? The Chinese archeological vocabulary of the foreign language publishing house is well handled. In the book "editor's note", in Chinese, "our level is limited, this vocabulary is only a preliminary attempt, a defect and a fault, and the general readers are not shy about giving advice." English is very simple: Suggestions for improvement will be gratefully received. The book was completed in the year. Although the editor calls it "a preliminary attempt", it should be said to be meaningful, because it fills a void. There has been no substitute for this small dictionary. In Chinese, it is likely to reduce its authority in the eyes of foreign readers. Now this method has both the style of Chinese scholars and English reading habits.

The explanatory power of some words

In recent years, Chinese writers and editors have paid more attention to introducing some explanatory words to the introduction of China. But it is completely unique to China, and the words that foreigners find difficult to understand are still full of preface, the content introduction and the author's biography, not to mention the text.

It is important to explain some important events or political movements in our history. Since the third plenary session of the party, the NPC has passed a series of laws. Some idea how much China foreigners may know began to implement in China s reform and opening up the needle, but, for the third plenary session decided to strengthen socialist democracy and legal system construction of decision is not clear. Therefore, a few words have been added to this sentence. The whole sentence is like this: Under the guidance of the policy of promoting socialist like democracy and building a sound socialist legal system formulated at the Third Plenary Session of the leventh Central Committee of the communism Party of China, the NPC and its Standing Committee have, since, enacted many important laws. In this way, the somebody else will know Third Plenary Session of the contact between the National People's Congress makes the laws.