文档介绍：A Report on the translation of the Life of Samuel
Johnson

A Dissertation Submitted for the Degree of Master

Candidate：Liu Rujie
Supervisor：Prof. Yan Xuejun

South China University of Technology
Guangzhou, China
Abstract
This translation report gives an analysis and summary of the translation process of the final
part of the life of Samuel Johnson. This part mainly makes an overall description of Johnson‘s
life before his death, which enables us to better understand the noble soul of a giant. The book
is a biography of Samuel Johnson written by a British biographer – James Boswell in the late
18th century. It is a collection of the anecdotal materials and trifles of Johnson‘s life, which
vividly shows us a true-to-life and distinct master in literature. Also, Boswell would not avoid
mentioning the weaknesses and fallacy of the hero.
This report takes the translation of The Life of Samuel Johnson as a case study to illustrate
how to achieve ―Faithfulness, expressiveness and Elegance‖ with the intended purpose to
reach target readers. Despite the fact that literature translation is bound to be faithful to the
source text by accurate and fluent translation, the language features and style should not be
neglected. In this report, examples are selected to demonstrate how to flexibly apply free
translation, adjustment and conversion to achieve ―Faithfulness, expressiveness and
Elegance‖. In this way, the translation may trigger the same response from and have the same
impact on the target readers as the original text did upon the source text readers. This
translation report