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1 English Idioms and Translation Studies Introduction Idioms are the quintessence of the human language, it has strong local culture characteristic of nationality, it has well reflected the relation between culture and language. English and Chinese are all have long history, they are also have a lot of idioms. And the different cultural in idioms is often a difficult point in translation. This text explains the differences between Chinese and English idioms, according to the past dynasties translator’s view and method, it will do some exploration to the translation of English idiom. Ⅰ The Definition and Features of Idioms Idioms are unique language expressions that a certain in the course of language using. In a broad sense they include idioms, proverbs, two-part allegorical sayings, allusions, etc. They’re implication and humorous, or serious and refined, but not merely precise and to the point, and vivid, very witty. Also, they give people a kind of beautiful enjoyment

Idioms and cultural tradition are continuous closely; reflect the difference in such aspects as geography, history, religious belief, custom of living of the nation, bearing the weight of different and national culture characteristics and culture information. H.PGrice, is an American Philosophy professor He divides the meaning of the words into natural meaning and non-natural meaning in his book “Meaning”. Words natural meaning means that people express the intent meaning. That is to say, people expressed the intent meaning of implying something under particular occasion. When in communication, this is the conversational implicature of Grice’s foundation of the theory. Moreover, because of English and Chinese differences of culture background of two languages, with the same words, there might be different meanings in utterance. It is the meanings of a speaker or author’s expression imply the meaning. According to our observation, there are two kinds of differences between the

English and Chinese idioms return: One is a difference of meanings of the image, one implies the difference of 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 2 meanings (including passing judgment on justice), and the meaning beyond being literal, and concrete reflection of cultural difference. For example: Blacksmith said, “A good anvil does not fear the hammer.”(好砧不怕锤打) Gold searchers said “All is not gold that glitters.”（发光的未必都是金子） 农民说：种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆。 京剧：跑龙套;粉墨登场 象棋：舍车马，保将帅。 马后炮。 These examples have reflected the culture of each nation demonstrate ones own characteristic in the course of it’s forming; every idiom includes abundant cultural intensions. Ⅱ Factors for Cultural differences between English and Chinese Idioms The cultural difference refers to the language that people are used to growing up under different ecology and natural environment, in

different respects, such as knowledge, faith, outlook on life, values, mode of thinking, morals, traditions and customs, etc. The cultural difference will cause the same or different understanding and explanation of the rational concept of unity, sometimes it may will even cause the misunderstand; For the idiom is one of the extremely concise ways to reflect this kind of cultural difference exactly. "In foreign literature, the most difficult understands and the firsts translating are meanings of association ","It has a special emotional atmosphere, and deep broad and delicate, it has no way of finding out in the dictionary, it is extremely important to literature. If we are not familiar with the custom and historical backgrounds of a country, the meaning in the characters are ignorant, especially the meanings of word in the idioms are most difficult to deal with in. Mr Zhu Guangqian said in his book “talk about translating " In the book “Primitive culture”

（1871）,British cultural anthropologist Edward Teller regards culture as a concept to propose out for the first time. He describes: "Culture is a kind of complicatedness, it includes knowledge, faith, arts, morals, laws, custom and it practice ability and habit got in the society.” It is obvious that culture is widely covered; it is a system that takes. The language reflects the rich and colorful side phenomenon of a 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 3 nationality as a component of culture. The cultural difference of the idiom is mainly shown as the following several respect: 2.1 The different living environments People contact with the forming of idiom in their daily life and work. Britain is an island country from ancient times, surrounded by sea on four sides, so leave relevant classical idioms of vocabulary such as much sea, water is a essence part in daily life, sailing . For example: Hoist your sail when the wind is fair. 好风快扬帆。 Still

waters run deep. 静水流深。 In a calm sea, every man is a pilot. 海面平静，人人可当舵手。 A small leak will sink a great ship. 小洞不堵，要沉大船。 And Chinese nationality mainland life multiply in Asia, peoples life is due to the land. 槁木死灰 滚石不生苔 withered wood and cold ashes A rolling stone gathers no moss. 众人拾柴火焰高 Many hands make light work. 竹篮打水一场空 Drawing water in a bamboo basket means drawing nothing. And the most representative one is “挥金如土”and“太阳从西边出来”. Englishmen like saying: “Spend money like water. ” And “When Dover and Calais meet” Dover refers to the harbor of Dover of Britain here, and Calais refers to the harbor of Calais of France. For another example, “to rest on one’s oars”（暂时歇一歇）， “to keep one’s head above wate”r（奋力图存）， “all at sea”（不知所措）. In the culture atmosphere in Chinese, “the east wind”

is “the wind in spring ", and summer is often linked to the heat sweltering heat. “赤日炎炎似火烧”,“骄阳似火”is used for , describe word for summer often. And Britain is located in the Western Hemisphere, the north temperate zone, marine climate, report news west wind, Britain famous poet snow just to sing the praises of spring “Ode to the West Wind " of fields lying fallow in rotation spring. Summer in Britain is exactly warm and pleasant season, often with “lovely”, “gentle” and linking to each other “beautiful ". Shakespeare likens the lover to summer in a sonnet of his: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?/Thou art more lovely and more 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 4 temperate. 2.2 The Different traditions and customs There are many different aspects English and Chinese customs, the most typical one is the attitude toward dog. The dog is a kind of petty and low animal in Chinese The idioms related to dog

mostly contain the purpose of demoting in Chinese:“狐朋狗党”“狗急跳 墙”“狼心狗肺”“狗腿子”etc. People raises pet dogs these years, the number of pet dog are increasing greatly, but “the position " of the dog seems to change to some extent, the derogatory sense image of the dog stays deeply in Chinese culture . In western country, the dog is considered to be mankinds most loyal friend. The idioms about dog in English spoken countries except a part contains the derogatory sense because of affecting by other languages, but the majority does not have a derogatory sense. For example: You are a lucky dog. 你是一个幸运儿。 Every dog has his day. 凡人皆有得意日。 A good dog deserves a good bone. 论功行赏。 But in Chinese eyes, the image of the dog is detestable, a lot of idioms, for instance monstrously audacious, rapacious and savage, play the bully because one has the backing of a powerful person, etc. are all derogatory terms Cur

fallen into the water, Pekingese, lackey, etc. are all images of accomplice acting as cats paw for an evil-doer Chinese people like “龙” very much, and look “龙”as a lucky sacred animal. It has inconceivable great strength, therefore “龙” becomes the symbol of the most revered and respected emperor, even regarded it as bright future, “望子成龙”. But Great Britain and America regard “龙”as the fierce and cruel bizarre entity which can smoke and spit the fire. In addition, Chinese call the wife “lover”, but it should not be translated into English. In English, lover refers to mistress, lover, etc. Chinese regard owl as the symbol not lucky, but in English, as wise as an owl, regards owl the Englishman as the intelligent symbol. Contrary to this, Chinese like cats very much, Chinese use “the gluttonous cat” to describe people who greedily. This often has the compositions kissed, in western culture; “cat” is used for likening “the woman who has the

ulterior motives”. 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 5 2.3 The influence of religious belief Idioms related to religious belief lie in Great Britains Chinese in a large amount too. Buddhism has introduced to China for more than 1,000 years, people believe, “Buddha” exists everywhere in this world, there are a lot of idioms related to this, for instance " make presents provided by else " etc. Many west countries, especially the Great Britain and America, people believe in Christianity. For example: God helps those who help themselves. 上帝帮助自助的人。 Go to hell.下地狱去。 In China, Buddhism has left a lot of idioms too, for example: (1)临时抱佛脚： Embrace Buddha’s feet in one’s hour or need --seek help at the last moment/make a frantic last minute effort. (2)放下屠刀，立地成佛： Drop one’s cleaver and become a Buddhaachieve salvation as soon as one gives up evil. 2.4 Different Social and Historical Factors After

World War II, there is a taste economy and trade growing of, it brings the enormous change to English at the same time. Such as throw out of gear, it means out of hand. This is because the device of the transmission is the most important part of a machine, once loses, and then the whole machine will be out of hand. For another example, bull market and bear market, it is bull market and bear market to translate into Chinese. “Bull market " comes from oxs always holding the head high, it rises up to liken stocks. And “bear market” comes from a slang, i.e “sell the bear skin before you caught the bear ", shows that sells off stocks at once. Meanwhile, China is in this period, economy, trades are slowly developed. The vocabularies that correspond to it at all, so we can only come over by literal translating these vocabularies. There are a large number of idioms formed by historical factors in English and Chinese, these idioms are simple structures, of far-reaching

significance, the idioms are often gone to understand and translated from the literal 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 6 meaning only. For example:“东施效颦”，“名落孙山”“叶公好龙”etc English allusion idiom come from Bible and Rome Greece mythology, such as meet one’s waterloo（一败涂地）,Penelope’s web（永远完不成的工作）,a Pandora’s box（潘 多拉之盒灾难、麻烦、祸害的根源）etc. Ⅲ. Some principles and methods Applied in Translation About the standard of translation, the translation theoreticians of China and foreign countries put forward different opinions. From Yan Fu’s“right,accurate,graceful”,Fu lei’s" pay attention to similarity in spirit, not pay attention to the similarity in form ",to Zhang Peiji’s" faithful and clear and coherent "；from Qu Qiubai’s" equivalent concept" to the Famous translation theoretician of U.SAEugene A·Nidar’ “functional

equivalence”or “dynamic equivalence”. We can find out , these opinions are influencing each other, complementing each other, improving constantly, though emphasis points are different to some extent, the centre of translations is that they should express the original text faithfully and accurately, keep the style of the original work, reflect the faithful appearance of the original work . So-called the expression of the meaning of original text means the expression of literal meaning, image meaning and implied meaning. However, it is not to say that every sentence of the original text, each of idioms, vocabularies that possess three kinds of meanings at the same time, some may have only literal meanings do not have image meaning; some may have literal meaning and image meaning concurrently, but has not implied meaning. Especially, any of two kinds of language culture can not be absolutely, it is often impossible to reproduce three kinds of meanings in the original text in the

translation. If literal meaning or image meaning and the implied meaning while translation because of the difference of culture are contradictory, literal meaning or image meaning should obey the implied meaning. Secondly, the image meaning of the original text can not have the same image or not in the purpose language, or though image is same, implied meaning (including commentary derogatory meaning) is in conflict, at this moment, we should consider first expressing the implied meaning of image accurately, or changing another version of image or giving up the image meaning, only translating the implied the meaning. In a word, the implied meaning, that is to say the meaning in which the original 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 7 text intents to express is the most important. On the method of translation, the dispute of literal translation and implied meaning translation still exists. We believe that through the study and practice of some translation theories and

materials to think, literal translation and implied meaning translation are relative, connect each other, and there is no absolute boundary line between them. The translation from a master piece even to a sentence will have literal translation and the implied meaning translation concurrently. A good translation always has literal and implied translation, the both combing always together. We think, if we adopt literal translation which can transmit many kinds of meanings of the original text accurately, then we translate literally, if we cant translate out meanings of the original text, especially cant translate out the implied meaning accurately, we should adopt implied translation. In terms of the above reasons, the translation method of English idiom is varied too. According to the corresponding relation of English and Chinese, it can be divided into complete corresponding relation, partial corresponding relation, culture blank and cultural conflict. And these relations have resulted

in the difference of methods too Following we will discuss different methods under different translation relations one by one. 3.1 Literal Translation The culture background is different, but the mankind has a great deal of common factors as a whole, such as like, anger, sadness, happiness, old, disease and death, etc., which decides that between English and Chinese there are the same artistic conceptions of language literature, especially idioms, most of them from life feeling, life experience. The same image in different readers of language can cause the same association in mind. So in the idiom, they are all complete corresponding relation that those images can cause the same assocration and feeling, which can adopt literal translation. For example: lose face 丢脸 Strike while iron is hot. 趁热打铁 A friend is easier lost than found. 朋友易失不易得 In these sentences, English and Chinese have surprising similarity, these are translated not only easy to understand, but

also kept the culture characteristics, peculiar to Chinese, it 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 8 is a very ideal method. Because there is similarity in the aspect of emotion impression of objective things and the experience of the society etc., there are a small amount of the same or approximate idioms , the literal meaning of these idioms in the English and Chinese idioms, the image meaning is the same or approximate , it is same to the implied meaning, that is to say, the cultural information that the literal meaning of this kind of idiom and image meaning express is the same, can translate with each other .As : “asy come,easy go”and the Chinese proverb“来得容易，去得快”, “Practice makes perfect”and“熟能生巧”, “Example is better than precept”and “身教胜于言传”etc. The approximate one is as follows:”spend money like water”and “挥金如土”Chinese idiom“破釜沉舟”and English“burn one’s boats”,are come

from the military strategists tactics. The literal meaning and image meaning of two idioms are approximate, have some the difference, it is the same to the implied meaning, the image meaning is mutually translated. This kind of idioms asopt literal translation, which can remain the literal meaning, image meaning and the implied meaning, keep the style of the original text, the translation is very apt to be understood and accepted, connect the love, it is a best way. As the implied meaning is very obviously or very easy to infer, reader can through literal meaning to comprehend its meaning. “All roads lead to Rome” translate into “条条大道通罗马”is a good example. For another example several following examples: 雪中送炭to offer fuel in snowy weather 一人得道，鸡犬升天even the dog swaggers when its master win favor “瓜田李下”comes from “瓜田不纳履，李下不整冠”,and translate into “Neither adjust your shoe in a melon patch，nor your hat

under a plum tree。” Similar to such idiom translation, readers only need to realize diligently, they can understand imply the implied meaning, not only keep the image of the original text but also increase the interest of reading. 3.2 Free Translation The partial corresponding relation means the idiom is corresponding on the whole, but there is a difference in details. 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 9 Some idioms are because of the influence of the cultural factors, unable to keep literal meaning of original language and image meaning while translating, we can change the image of the original text into another image which reader knows well to express the purpose of language use and translate the implied meaning. For example, Professor He Ziran takes an example in the book “Language using and English study” (《语用学与英语 学习》)like “when in Rome，do as the Romans do”. If according to literal meaning of literal translation, readers will not

understand why Rome is instead of where else? In fact its implied meaning is to “do as the local people do” if translated into “to some mountains, what song does it sing” is more vivid. About two kinds of translations of the above-mentioned differ in different context. We know the meaning of “dragon” which in two kinds of English-Chinese culture are totally different. So the image of the Chinese saying “望子成龙”cant be kept while translating in English, it can translate into “to expect one’s son to become an outstanding person”. And for another example, the image of “a cat on hot bricks” is a cat walking on blazing brick, painful but extremely awkward, this scene happens to coincide with Chinese saying “热锅上的蚂蚁”,they all expression " anxious and extremely awkward ". Change the image when we translate can benefit readers understanding. Some idioms cant keep the literal meaning of the original text and image meaning while

translating, and can only translate out its implied meaning. For example, “天有不测 风云”，if we translate its literal meaning and image meaning into English, it will make English readers scarcely know what one has said, because the cultural meaning of it is very difficult for general westerners to understand. But If we translate out its meaning of implying, they will be very clear: Something unexpected may happen any time. This kind of situation is relatively common in coming from the idiom of the allusion. For example, if we translate “Achilles’heel” into " A grams of foot heel of Les " can not let most people understand, but if we translate the implied meaning " only fatal weakness " is more appropriate. For another example: the dog that will fetch a bone will carry a bone.When we translate it into Chinese, the literal image “dog、bone” can not be translate directly, we can only give up its literal meaning and image meaning then translate

out the implicit meaning: “With person that you speak ill of others, can say broken work of you too ". 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 10 There are the similar examples, “fight like cat and dog”, if we translate it into Chinese according to literal meaning, although it has kept the image of the original text ,but it doesnt obey the Chinese habit. We can translate “We still love each other very much ，but we fight like cat and dog” into “Although we often fight, we still love each other very much.” The some corresponding relation partial can be divided into three kinds of situations: 3.21 The same meaning, with different expressions For example, the Chinese meaning of “King’s/Queen’s English” is “普通话”,but if we translate it into “国王或皇后的英语” most readers are certain to be unidentified so, even will misunderstand. For another example, “ 衙门自古朝南开，有理无钱莫进来”can translate into “Court

doors may open but not to the poor”, “A beggar can never be bankrupt” can translate into “死猪不怕开水 烫”. So, to this kind of situation, most basic method to catch most basic meaning to translate, if not corresponding, it will make a stupid mistake . 3.22 The same target with different connotation For example， translate“天诛地灭”into English is “judgment of God”. These two kinds of expression methods have both shown a kind of mysterious strength that can control not. But in Chinese, this word comes from the Taoist temple on day, including Chinese nations abundant intension among them; but “judgment of God” includes strong Christianity taste. So, though this kind of translation expresses more accurately, easy to understand, but has already lost meaning peculiar to Chinese. 3.23 The same target with different metaphors We have also proposed that the same thing in the different languages has different meaning. For examplw,the attitude of animals.So,

when we translate these kinds of idioms, we should pay attention to that we can not give the reciprocal translation but find the same understanding in the semantic. There’re still some idioms, the image translation will not cause cultural conflict, but will cause fault, of language use reader can not understand the real meaning. It is vivid to 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 11 name the translation, embody the style of the original text and sophisticated taste. For example, “黄鼠狼给鸡拜年”，the measel goes to pay his respects to the hen not mith the best of in entions. “盲人瞎马”,Ablind man on a blind horse rushing headlong to disaster, “又要马儿跑，又要马儿不吃草”, “you can’take your horse work without feeding her”. 3.3 Untranslatability Due to Cultural Graps The culture blank means a certain thing is owned by a certain culture only, does not have substitute at all in other culture. On the basis of the difference in

politics, religion, and history, China and Great Britain and America must have some blank place in culture. There is some that belongs to “seemingly in harmony but actually at variance” in the English-Chinese idiom, the literal meaning is the same, but the implied meaning (including commentary and derogatory meaning) differs greating from each other, so that, they cant be translated each other. For example, “laugh off one’s head” and “笑掉大牙”，the former one means “to laugh in an extreme may，or beyond reasonable limits.”But in Chinese “笑掉 大牙”means “看笑话”. Some idioms which contain commentary and derogatory meaning, cant correspond to each other while translating. For example, “speak of the devil and he will appear”and Chinese idiom “说曹操”has no derogatory sense, and to compare “雨后春笋”with “like mushrooms” is also unsuitable. The former means the good things appear in a large amount, and there is very strong

vitality. The former means the good things appear in a large amount, and there is very strong vitality, but in English “mushroom” often has the meaning of “Grow rapidly , become extinct and disappear fast too”. “To make one’s hair stand on end” and“令人发指”, The former is to see or hear some terrible thing but very much afraid in meaning, and the latters meaning is " makes people very angry ". There is a very famous Chinese idiom: “一个和尚挑水吃，两个和尚抬水吃，三个和 尚没水吃”. Because there is difference in the religion between China and Britain, it is impossible to find this slang in English. To this sentence, there are several kinds of translation versions, among them the most famous one is: “One monk, two buckets; two monks, one bucket; three monks, no bucket, no watermore hand, less work. (DengYanchang,1989). This is a translation method of an explanatory note, which has already reflected the intension of original

culture, and provided the clear explanation we 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 12 can say it is,very classic in translation. For another example, we translate “初出茅庐”into “at the beginning of one’s career”. “初出茅庐”originates from “三国演义”, if literally translated, it is unable for forergners to understand the meaning of sentence who are not familiar with Chinese literatured. This kind of translation method has well explained the meaning of this sentence, but has already lost cultural intension of the original text, it is more pitiful. Certainly, except the above mentioned, there are still a lot of other circumstances, here we will not deep into. Conclusion This text analyzed mainly the distinction in literature berween English and China in the course of translation of idioms and discussed the translation of English idioms. Through comparision and analysis of above statements, we come to conclusion that in the idiom translation,

we should start out from literature background and comsider all kinds of factors in order to achieve the intension of translation. The translation should be loyal to the orrginal twxt and have the flexiblity. It should conform to the original work and keep the original taste of English, as well as correspind with the requirements of the native language to make the translation smooth, clear and coherent. 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸 13 参考文献： 1.何自然，《语用学与英语学习》，上海外语教育出版社1997。 2.朱光潜，《谈翻译》，《翻译研究论文集》，中国翻译工作者协会、《翻译通讯》 编辑部编，北京，外语教学与研究出版社，1984。 3.张培基，《论习语的汉译英》，载《论汉英翻译技巧》，中国译协《中国翻译》编 辑部选编，中国对外翻译出版公司，1986，北京。 4.童之侠，《英汉谚语格言》，外文出版社，2000。

5.高兰英，《实用英语谚语词典》，山东友谊出版社，20017。 6.杨曾茂，英语谚语荟萃，金盾出版社，20034。 吉林华桥外国语学院毕业论文用纸