It is by no means to supply the identity of Zhao Kuangyin redundantly, the founder of the Song Dynasty. In doing so, the foreign readers will get a better understanding of the text.
3. 5 Analogy
Before introducing this method, we want to give an example to expatiate it. Once Premier Zhou invited several foreign guests to watch Beijing opera named “Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai”. The interpreter explained a lot, while the guests still felt puzzled and could not get the general idea of the opera. Then Premier Zhou reminded the interpreter that Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai were Chinese Romieo and Juliet. In this way, the foreign guests immediately understood the whole theme of the opera [9]. This example vividly shows us what analogy is and its function. Only when two similar objects are comparable can we use analogy. Analogy in translation is such a method as comparing an unfamiliar thing for foreign readers to something familiar to them. It can also be a useful strategy to deal with culture blanks. In fact it can sometimes achieve a certain special effect by comparing the related contents in the Chinese history with those in the westerner history with which they are much more familiar. It will make it easier for westerners to understand and appreciate the significance of the Chinese culture. For example, Du Fu’s “草堂” is not necessarily rendered into “straw cottage”, because in English there is “thatched cottage” which means a cottage covered with straw. “西施”, in this case, had better be translated into “Chinese Cleopatra”, “鱼米之乡” into “land of milk and honey”, and “清明节” into “Chinese Easter”, etc. The use of this method can better bridge the gap between two cultures because it will make the readers feel familiar and arouse their interests. In this way, “苏州” is compared to“ Venice of China”; “济公” to “Robin Hood” and “江南” to “a land of fish and rice”. The following examples will illustrate this approach better:
(9) The source text:
银川是宁夏回族自治区的首府，位于甘肃省中心。自明清以来， 她就是伊斯兰教在西北部的居住地和传播中心。
The target text:
Honored as a smaller Mecca, Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, is located in central Gansu Province. Since the Ming (1368-1644A.D) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911A.D), Yinchuan has been a place for Moslems to live and a center of Islamic education in northwestern China.
Mecca is a sacred place for western pilgrims. A comparison of Yinchuan with Mecca immediately familiarizes the city with foreigners. The readers thus clearly know what kind of city Yinchuan is.
（10）The source text:
舟的前方架着一柄长舵，形如关云长的青龙偃月刀
The target text:
Version1: …is a shaped like the sword in traditional Beijing opera used by Guan Yu, a general of the State of Shu of the Three Kingdoms period (220-280A.D)
Version 2: …is a shaped like the knife on the Western’s dinner table.
In the first version the translator adopts the strategy of amplification; however, foreign readers still cannot imagine the shape of the sword unless they have seen the Beijing opera about the legendary figure “Guan Yu”. The second version just compares Cuan Yu’s knife to a common thing that is quite familiar to foreign readers, which enables them to understand it easily, thus achieving a special effect.
3. 6 Deletion
If a text has the flowery description and the quoted content of literal quotations, then we should use the method of deletion. First let’s deal with the first case.
As elaborated in the last chapter, the Chinese language is characterized by flowery diction. The verbatim English translation would sound verbose and unbelievable to our foreign friends. Therefore, when translating, we should delete those redundant messages and convert them into plain and concise language.
（11）The source text:
黄河奔腾不息，勇往直前，忽而惊涛骇浪，势不可挡，使群山动容；忽而安如处子，风平浪静，波光滟潋，气象万千。
The target text:
The Yellow River now tears and boils along turbulently through the mountains and now flows on quietly, with a sedate appearance and glistening ripples.
Chinese scholars are likely to quote poetry or classics to support their points of view. Using them in Chinese versions can surely add beauty and vividness. Nevertheless, too much information will make target language readers lose interest in going on with the book. In these cases, we often resort to the method of deletion, which proves quite useful and necessary.
3. 7 Rewriting
Sometimes we have to adopt the method of rewriting to handle some special historical terms which are extremely difficult to render because of the uniqueness of each nation’s history. In this case, we have to adjust the text and use more common term to replace the old or ancient terms in order to fulfill the informative functions of the target text. Otherwise, foreigners will find no ways to comprehend the meaning of the translated version.
The strategy of rewriting refers to rearranging the content or structure of the source text. The nature of tourism materials determines that a translator has more freedom to translate his work. It is desirable in cases where the source texts are badly written or unsuitable for translation. Though sometimes the Chinese versions of tourism materials are not badly written, they don’t conform to the expectation of foreign tourisms. When that happens, rewriting works more effectively than literal translation as displayed in the following example:
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