C-E Translation Practice of the Chapter “Maritime Silk Road of the Indian Ocean” of the Book The Silk Road

Abstract

The Silk Road written and edited by Professor Liu Yingsheng introduces the origin, rise and decline of the Silk Road and its unique status in world history. Through describing the evolution of the Silk Road and history and geography of countries along the route, this work reproduces the prosperity of the Silk Road at a time dated back to thousands of years ago. The chapter “Maritime Silk Road of the Indian Ocean” excerpted from the book describes intense cultural exchanges between ancient China and India, presenting hard evidence of strong ties between these two civilizations. This paper starts with brief introductions to source text analysis and translation preparations including pre-translation, while-translation and post-translation proofreading are then exemplified. Translation difficulties such as translation of proper names, specifically names of places and nations and of books and translation of classical Chinese are analyzed with examples and solutions proposed for reference.