Abstract This thesis discusses Chinese Prose Translation from the perspective of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory. The author picked Zhang Peiji’s Selected Modern Chinese Essays as example to analyze the applicability of Nida’s Functional Equivalence in prose translation.48174

 Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory is a key concept in Nida’s translation theory which is once very popular among people of translation circles when it was introduced to China. But it was almost rejected in the late 1980s and 1990s, but now there are a few people who reconsider the theory and try to combine it with Chinese translation theories. Functional Equivalence Theory puts emphasis on reader’s response, that is, readers’ reaction towards the text, the original one or the translated one. The successful translation is said to be the one which can arouse the similar or the same emotion in readers of target language as well as original language. Besides, Nida focuses on the equivalence of information passed from the text to reader regardless of their language and cultural differences.

In China, prose has a long history. It can be dated back to Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century BC).Prose could be considered as one of China’s great cultural relics. Modern prose refers to proses written after May Fourth Movement, in which time many great thoughts are formed and manifested in prose. It is said that the achievements on prose go beyond works of other literary forms, like novel, and drama since the movement. But the translation of prose was not emphasized, only a few amount of them was published. Zhang Peiji’s Selected Modern Chinese Essays filled the gap. And the Chinese proses in the books are typical of proses. The book also enjoys a good reputation both at home and abroad.

The thesis is pided into 5 parts. Part 2 is a collection of the previous studies on the topic and brief introduction of Nida’s Functional Equivalence and Prose. Part 3 mainly introduces Zhang Peiji and his Selected Modern Chinese Essays. Part 4 is the core of the paper, which gives further analysis of Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory in examples from Zhang’s Selected Modern Chinese Essays. A conclusion can be drawn that Nida’s functional equivalence is applicable in prose translation, that is, functional equivalence could be achieved greatly though might not be fully by adopting the principles of the theory. Reader’s response might not be easily tested but it is possible to make logical judgments.

Keywords：Functional Equivalence Theory; Prose Translation from Chinese to English; Selected Modern Chinese Essays

奈达功能对等论下的散文英译研究—以张培基的《英译现代散文选》为例

摘要本篇论文主要探讨奈达功能对等理论在散文英译中的应用。本文选取了张培基的《英译现代散文选》作为研究对象来分析奈达功能对等理论在散文翻译中的适用性。

功能对等理论是奈达翻译理论的核心，在它刚传入中国的时候，曾广泛受到翻译者的青睐。但是后来人们开始反对这个翻译理论更有人采取全盘否定的态度。现在又有部分学者重新研究奈达的功能对等理论并试图把它和中国的翻译理论结合起来。功能对等理论强调读者反应，即读者阅读文本时有的感受，目标语的读者与母语读者的反应要接近，这样的译作才能算作成功的作品。此外，奈达强调读者接受的信息的一致性。

散文在中国有一段悠久的历史，可追溯到商朝。散文是中国的一大文化遗产。现代散文指的是五四运动之后的散文，里面出现了许多鲜明的思想。鲁迅曾说过五四运动以来散文的成功几乎在小说，戏剧和诗歌之上。然而散文英译并没有受到太多重视，只有少数散文有被翻译。张培基的《英译现代散文选》填补了散文翻译中的空白，并有一定的声望，书中选取的散文十分有代表性。