2.2 Writing Features of East African Writing in English
“In the actual E-C translation process,the translator needs to conduct a detailed analysisand studies on the writing background and relevant materials of the source language authorbefore carrying out the translation work,conduct a multi-faceted investigation,and conductthe translation on the basis of a comprehensive understanding.”(张雪纯2018)East AfricanWriting in English is a book of literary criticism.And Chapter Two“The Novel in East Africa”contains many proper nouns,African culture-loaded words and novel citations.
There are a large number of proper nouns and culture-loaded words in this book.Therefore,it is necessary to have enough relevant knowledge reserves prior to thetranslation activities to ensure the accuracy of the original information.At the same time,thecitations in the source text,mainly from the classical writings of East African authors,add notonly to the persuasiveness of the text,but also to the literariness of the text.
The discussion of African literature is almost inseparable from the language issue.Thelatter usually involves both the choice of the language to use in the literary works and how thelanguage is actually used:(i)in its pure,standard form,and,therefore,the sole medium;(ii)ina style altered by translation;or(iii)in a hybrid style in which forms of a different languageare incorporated into the main code used in the piece of writing.A whole generation ofAfrican writers in the seventies belonged to the latter tradition who used hybrid forms inwhich European languages were interspersed with African languages or pidgin forms(Gerard1984).Ngugi’s novels are full of‘idiosyncratic forms’of English,replete with Gikuyu andKiswahili syntactic and lexical borrowings,forms of African narratives and biblical language (Luanga A.Kasanga&Mambo Kalume 2007).
Chapter 3 Case Study.................................12
3.1 Translation of Proper Nouns.........................12
3.1.1 Names of Authors and Works Involved.............................12
3.1.2 Names of the Characters in the Novels........................14
Chapter 4 Conclusion............................27
4.1 Major Findings.....................................27
4.2 Limitations and Further Work.................28
Chapter 3 Case Study
3.1 Translation of Proper Nouns
There are a lot of proper nouns in the source text,including names of authors and worksinvolved,names of the characters in the novels,names of places and names of events.Specific cases are shown as follows.
3.1.1 Names of Authors and Works Involved
This translation report involves many names,most of which are names of authors andworks.It is necessary to verify a lot of materials for translation.Some works have Chineseeditions that the author can refer to,or if these works are not yet available in Chinese,sheneeds to know the content and background and then uses the transliteration or free translationto summarise the works.
Example 1:
The main focus of these chapters will be on two writers who do look into the abysswithout pandering to their readers or flattering them,and whose work is both analytic andsynthetic:Nuruddin Farah from Somalia,and the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
这几章的主要重点将放在两位作家身上：来自索马里的作家努鲁丁·法拉赫和肯尼亚的作家恩古吉·瓦·提安哥。
There are various translations of Ngugi wa Thiong'o in China.Ren Yiming and QuShijing(任一鸣,瞿世镜2003)translated it into“尼古基·瓦·西昂戈”in《英语后殖民文学研究》(Studies in English Post-colonial Literature)published by Shanghai TranslationPublishing House.Sheng Ning and Han Minzhong(盛宁,韩敏中1998)translated it into“恩古吉·瓦·提昂戈”in《殖民与后殖民文学》(Colonial and Postcolonial Literature)published by Liao Ning Education Press.There are some other translations.The authoradopted“恩古吉·瓦·提安哥”in《孩子，你别哭》(Weep Not,Child)which was translatedby Cai Linxiang(蔡临祥1984)and published by People’s Literature Publishing House.Hetranslated several works of Ngugi,such as The River Between,Weep Not,Child and A Grainof Wheat.And this translation is more widely accepted by some scholar
