A Translator's Feed-Back About the Practice of Pun-Translation—From the Chinese Version of The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte

It has been acknowledged by Chinese translators that in translating English puns the center should be put on the thorough comprehension of the original expression that more often than not has more than one meanings and the flexible handling of conversion from the native language to the target one. Literal translation will often be impossible, annotation redundant, and the restructuring and remaking of new ways that create and maintain balance or similarity in function and value will be more preferred as a possible way-out for pun-translation. Examples attached are from the writer of this article who is also the translator of a published historical book where punning can be found.

Baring-Gould, S. (1908). The life of Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: F. A. Stokes Co.

Baring-Gould, S., & Zhang, L. (2020). The life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Beijing: Sino-culture Press.

Feng, C. H. (1995). English rhetorical options. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press.

Li, X. H. (2000). A detailed study of figures of speech in English. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Nida, E. A. (1964). Toward a science of translating. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Nida, E. A. (2001). Language and culture—Contexts in translating. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Ruan, H. B. (2007). Puns and their translation in English advertisements (Master’s thesis, South-Central University for Nationalities).

Wen, J. (1992). A dictionary of English figures of speech. Chongqing: Chongqing University Press.

Zhang, N. F. (2003). Delabastita’s theory of translating puns and its application in English-Chinese translation. Chinese Translators Journal, 24(1), 30-36.