A Report on E-C Translation of This May Hurt a Little

Abstract

Humorous fiction, as a form of popular literature, focuses on real-life episodes that are laugh-out-loud funny. The protagonists of such novels are often characterized by comical or silly traits, or fools who always meet with misfortune in their acts of kindness and helpfulness. By skillfully depicting the weaknesses and flaws of these characters as well as a series of coincidences and misunderstandings, humor novels successfully reflect the real face of life and the author's creative ideas. This form of literature not only brings readers a relaxing and enjoyable reading experience, but also allows them to appreciate the fun and wisdom of life while reading. The author of the translated material is Eric Nicol, a writer who specializes in writing humorous works and has won numerous awards related to humorous books. The work, entitled This May Hurt a Little, tells a heartbreaking story about the tragic loss of the main character's decaying tooth and the ups and downs of his emotions during a visit to the dentist. The author describes with sardonic wit how he copes with his rotting and bleeding tooth. This paper chooses Eugene Nida's Functional Equivalence to analyze the humorous novel in an attempt to preserve the style and linguistic expressions of the original text, so that the target language readers can get the same feeling as the readers of the original text. The content of this paper includes 5 parts. The first part is an introduction to the work and the author as well as the linguistic feature; the second part is an introduction of the theory of functional equivalence translation; the third part is an introduction of the translation process; the fourth part is a case study under the theory of functional equivalence translation including the translation of words and sentences, and the fifth part is the conclusion, i.e., the enlightenment and the lesson.