The tricky part of editorial translation is how to “read between the lines”, that is, to show the true intention of the author. Chinese people prefer the art of euphemism, so it is common to see metaphors and analogies in Chinese editorials; English journalists also enjoy using irony in their writings. Therefore, the translator has to make sure he or she has delivered the information in a correct way, or unnecessary troubles may be caused. To give tyros some instructions, the author introduced the theory of Functional Equivalence to analyze Chinese editorials in Global Times and their English counterparts, thus to show students how to convey the message in an efficient way.
2.    Literature review of the theory of functional equivalence in editorial translation
2.1 The review of functional equivalence theory
Nida (1964) believes that “there can be no absolute correspondence between languages”. Nida (1964) brings up the concept of Dynamic Equivalence (D-E) in translation, which gives “the closest natural equivalent to the source- language message”in both meaning and style. Nida & Taber (1969) pides translation process into three stages: analysis, transfer and restructuring. When analyzing the original text, the translator must recognize how semantic elements are presented syntactically, and discern the distinctive features of the word or expression, semantic style shall be included too, besides, the translator must make clear the background. When it comes to transfer, the translator shall be less concerned with “verbal consistency”, e.g. matching equivalent terms in source and target languages, but focus on “contextual consistency”, e.g. the sociolinguistic and discourse contexts (Nida &Taber, 1969). Semantic adjustment and redistribution, such as expansion and synthesis, should be conducted. And for the last part, restructuring, Nida (1964) claims that there is no absolute technique, but rather general tendency in the application of Dynamic Equivalence in translation process. I think the three stages are integrally infused because both the meaning and style are processed in each stage. The artificial pision shall serve as an indicative principle, not an operation manual. 从功能对等理论看《环球时报》中文社评英译(2):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_32678.html