中式英语之鉴6

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This section of The Translator's Guide to Chinglish emphasizes concise English translation by addressing five major categories of unnecessary words: superfluous nouns/verbs, modifiers, redundant twins, repeated ideas, and redundant references. Through 20 revision examples, it illustrates how to eliminate wordiness while preserving meaning, highlighting Strunk's rule that "a sentence should contain no unnecessary words." The core principle is clear: translators must prioritize conveying the original intent over literal equivalence, as Gowers noted—using only words that "convey to the reader the meaning of the writer."

Personally, this reinforces the vital role of "subtraction" in translation. Chinese-to-English translation often succumbs to verbosity from literal phrasing (e.g., "enthusiastically explore" omitting "enthusiastically" for precision). Like the polishers in examples, revising requires iterative checks against the original text and target readers' expectations. It’s a mindset shift—translating not by word substitution but by ideological equivalence, ensuring clarity and idiomatic flow. This approach transforms clunky Chinglish into effective English, proving that less is indeed more in professional translation.