十七大报告中“发展”、“建设”两词的英译探讨

A Discussion of the English Translations of"发展"and"建设"in Work Report to the 17th National Congress of CPC

对翻译工作者来说,译文的准确、简洁和文采是共同的追求,翻译文学作品是如此,翻译政治文献也应如此。然而,政治文献中高频率用词的翻译,如何做到既简洁达意、又不单调重复,给译者提出了挑战。十七大报告的译者在翻译"发展"、"建设"这两个高频率用词的时候,采用了同义替代法、省略法、合译法等手段,得到了良好的效果,但仍暴露出一些问题和不足。

Accuracy, brevity and literary grace in Chinese-English translations are the common objective for any translator. This is true for translating political documents as well as literary works. However, one challenge facing the translator is how to render properly those frequently used terms in the Chinese political documents into English without sounding repetitious or monotonous. Translators of Work Report to the 17th National Congress of CPC have, of course, made great efforts in exploring ways to this end. In translating ＂发展＂and＂建设＂, two notable, frequently used terms in the report, the translators have employed such methods as synonymous substitution, omission, and condensation quite successfully. Still, there are some inadequacies and problems in the English translations of the two Chinese terms in the report.