Enhancing readability in translating a book on Christian living

Abstract

There are many factors that can affect the readability of a Christian text. This capstone project attempts to explore translation challenges encountered and strategies adopted in translating an English book on Christian living written by a Singaporean author, with a special emphasis on the readability of the translated text. According to the author of The Virtuous Life- Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit, in an age when character is increasingly in short supply, it is important to think of the virtuous life which we are called to live... This book is therefore written to meet a real need in the church. It helps the reader to explore Paul’s listing of the fruit of the Spirit by first dealing with some central truths and principles. Addressing the lack of research in the genre of Chinese translation of Christian literature, this project explores factors that can affect the readability of a Christian text and systematically carries out the translation with a method and style best suited for this source text. The commentary aimed to provide a good understanding of the expectations and necessary requirements of professional translation in the field of Christian living, focusing on the lexical and syntactical issues encountered. The commentary also covered a section on the translation strategies used for punctuation marks. Theological terminology was identified and a short analysis of the rendering of a key term “God” was undertaken. A suitable style for translating this specific genre was also elaborated in the discussion.