发布时间 : 星期一 文章英汉习语对比及其翻译(英文) 英语专业毕业论文更新完毕开始阅读6f95de766ad97f192279168884868762cbaebb5b
lion into ‘虎’ in English translation, such as ‘a lion in the way’(拦路虎), ‘place oneself in the lion’s mouth’(深入虎穴)”,etc.[12]
3.2.2 Different cognitions of colors
There are three kinds of basic colors: red, yellow and blue. Colors are cognized mainly through the seven kinds of colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple in the spectrum. Due to the different countries’ historical backgrounds, geographical locations, customs and traditions, people have diverse cognitions of colors, so the idioms rising under the conditions reflect such regional differences.
Taking “red” and “white” for example, in western countries, red is regarded as brutality and unluckiness. Red means bleeding. So there appears some having derogatory and taboo color words, such as “red skin（对印第安人的鄙夷称呼），red tape（繁文缛节，官僚习气）,in the red（亏损）,out of red（扭亏为盈）, red alert（空袭、紧急警报）, red cock（纵火引起的火灾）, red cent（毫无价值的事物）etc.” [13] While in China, red means luck and joy. There are many Chinese idioms obviously having complimentary sense, such as开门红 (get off to have a good start), 红颜薄命 (a beautiful girl has an unfortunate life), 红运当头(have a good luck), 红光满面 (in the pink), 红男绿女(gaily dressed young men and women), 红得发紫(extremely popular), 红极一时（enjoy popularity for a time）, 红装素裹（clad in white, adorned in red）,etc.
People in western countries look upon white as the symbol of purity, as well as some implications of racial discrimination. The westerners are white people who entrust extremely noble symbol to white. In English there are：white hat（好人），white lies （善意的谎言）， white--headed boy（宠儿），the white hope（带来荣誉的人），white slavery（逼良为娼——西方人认为白种人不能做奴隶），etc. However it is different in China. In Chinese’s eyes, white stands for funeral and revolt, which has derogatory color. For example, there are白日做梦(indulge in wishful thinking), 白费口舌(waste one’s breath),一穷二白(poor and blank),白忙乎(in vain) ,白字连篇(reams of wrong characters), 白云苍狗(white clouds change into grey dogs-the changes in human affairs often take freakish forms)etc.
3.2.3 Different cognitions of numerals
Numeral worship and taboo exist both in eastern and western courtiers, however, the people in the two countries have totally different cognitions of numerals.
In the west, “13” is regarded as an unlucky number, owing to the story in the Bible that Jesus Christ was betrayed by his 13th disciple Judas. “666” symbolizes demon in the Bible. “7” stands for good luck, great prosperity and victory. But there is no particular connotation of “9” at all in English. The examples are: in the seventh heaven（极其快乐）, the Seventh Day（星期六——犹太人安息日）, etc. In China, “13”, “666”, “7” have no special meanings, therefore, there is no taboo usage of them. However, “six”(六)、 “nine”(九) have peculiar cultural connotations to the Chinese people. “nine”(九). means a long period of peace and order or lasting political stability in Chinese traditional culture. The emperors of the past dynasties worshipped “nine”(九), hoping his country could be in great peace and order. There are Chinese idioms concerning “nine”(九), such as “九九归一” ,“九死一生”etc. “six”(六) means that something goes on smoothly in Chinese，there are“六六大顺”“六畜兴旺”etc. Meanwhile, Chinese people place the allegorical meaning on the even number, such as “双喜临门”、“四季发财”、“八面玲珑”etc. “It is calculated that there are far more Chinese idiom using numerals than the English idioms, which is a difficult problem to the translation.”[14]
3.3 Different Religions and Beliefs
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Religion plays an important role in the development of the language. Different religions produce different idioms. Buddhism has been transmitted to China for more than one thousand years, which occupies the leading position in Chinese traditional religions.
People believe there is a “Buddha” who can dominate the world and decide everyone’s destine. Many Chinese idioms come form Buddhism, such as “佛口蛇心”、“佛头着粪”、“借花献佛”、“五体投地”、“一尘不染”、“现身说法”、“回头是岸”、“在劫难逃”、“大慈大悲”etc. There are also proverbs coming from Buddhism. For example,“不看僧面看佛面”、 “闲时不烧香，临时抱佛脚”、“跑得了和尚跑不了庙”、“泥菩萨过河，自身难保”、“放下屠刀，立地成佛”、“一个和尚挑水吃，两个和尚抬水吃，三个和尚没水吃”etc. In western countries especially in Britain and America， people believe in Christianity. The Bible has been regarded the classical Christian scripture, which establishes a foundation of western countries’ culture, art and ideology, Idioms concerning the Bible can be found everywhere. For example, “doubting Thomas”（怀疑的托马斯）is an idiom from the Bible now stands for “不肯轻易相信别人的人(people who will not believe in others easily)”. And The idiom “cast pearls before swine”（把珍珠丢在猪的面前） is also from the Bible: New Testament, and now it stands for“not to give the precious things to people who cannot really appreciate it (不要把珍贵的东西送给不识货的人)”or“not to play the lute to a cow (不要对牛弹琴)”. “Go to hell（下地狱去）”is a curse. Others are like “ ‘a lion in the way’, ‘Nobody is born learned, even bishops are made of men.’, ‘It’s better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.’, ‘Bad priests bring the devil into the church’ ‘Judas kiss’, ‘a dead dog’, ‘ the apple of one’s eye’(掌上明珠) , ‘wash one’s hands of a thing’(洗手不干), etc.”[15]Besides, there are many proverbs in English based on the metaphors and themes of God and demon. For example: Man proposes, God disposes(谋事在人,成事在天); God helps those who help themselves. (自助者必有天助。); Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost.(人不为己，天诛地灭。)
3.4 Different Historical Allusions and myths
There are lots of idioms coming from historical allusions, myths and legends. The structure of these idioms is very simple but they have profound meaning, so we can not translate and understand these idioms from the literal meaning. It’s necessary for us to learn and understand the English allusion and myths as well as the Chinese allusions and myths. It’s useful to learn about the origin and development of English and Chinese language and culture. For example“东施效颦”it is from《庄子·天运》and now it means imitating somebody stupidly. “名落孙山”it refers to a person who fail in the exam and is not enrolled.“叶公好龙”means a person who professed love of what one really fears. Other allegorical stories like“守株待兔”、“愚公移山”、“黔驴技穷”、“刻舟求剑”are often quoted and widely loved by Chinese people. The ancient myths and legends also produce lots of idioms. In Chinese, such set phrases as“嫦娥奔月”、“夸父追月”、“画龙点睛”“精卫填海”、“女祸补天”are all pieces of beautiful and touching myths. The proverbs “天冷不冻织女手，饥荒不饿苦耕人”and“雷公先唱歌，有雨也不多”contain the legendary characters.
While English traditional culture is deeply associated with the Greek Roman Myth. For instance, the Trojan Horse（特洛伊木马）, “Pandora’s Box”（潘多拉之盒，指灾难，麻烦，祸害的根源）”, Archilles’ heel”（阿基里斯的脚后跟，指唯一致命弱点）, “meet one’s waterloo”（一败涂地）, penelope’s web（铂涅罗铂的织物，指永远完不成的工作）[16]， “crocodile’s tears” （鳄鱼的眼泪）, it is just like the Chinese idiom “猫哭老鼠假慈悲”etc.“There are also many set phrases based on the Greek Roman legends. For example: I fear the Greeks, even when bringing gifts(Greek gifts: 危险的礼物；糖衣炮弹) . When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war. Homer sometimes nods.” [17]
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4. The problems in English-Chinese and Chinese-English idiom translation When we do the idiom translation, we may come across this kind of or that kind of problems inevitably. The thesis will give some typical problems in both English-Chinese and Chinese-English idiom translation.
4. 1The problems in English-Chinese idiom translation 4.1.1 Interpreting the English idioms too literally
We know that some English idioms look very similar to some Chinese idioms in the forms. People are prone to associate the English words and expressions which they come across with the Chinese meaning or Chinese version mechanically. As a matter of fact, in many situations, though English and Chinese have the similar forms, they have different meanings, that is they are seemingly in harmony but actually at variance.
For example: 1)pull somebody’s leg.wrong translation: 拉后腿revised:愚弄某人，开某人的玩笑2) Move heaven and earth wrong translation: 翻天覆地revised: 想方设法，千方百计The problem often occurs when we do the translation. We should try our best to avoid it and get close to the original implied meaning not only by the literal meaning.
4.1.2 Copying Chinese customary sayings mechanically
After all, English and Chinese are two completely different languages. Many English idioms and Chinese idioms always reflect respective national characteristics or local colors. So when doing the translation, we have to pay attention to remain the distinguishing features and avoid applying Chinese idioms which have distinctive national or local flavor to the English idioms mechanically, in case that Chinese national features and local colors are imposed on the translated version, which would contradict to the context.For example: 1)Two heads are better than one.original translation: 三个臭皮匠胜过诸葛亮2) When the cat’s away, the mice will play.original translation; 山中无老虎，猴子称大王In the above mentioned examples, the original translations impose the strong Chinese national colors on the translated version, which are incompatible with the original text. We should do some transformation like these:1) Two heads are better than one.transformed translation: 一人不及两人智2) When the cat’s away the nice will play.transformed translation：猫儿不在，鼠儿作怪After some transformations, not only do the English idioms remain the original meanings but also avoid unnecessary conflicts and contradictions caused by different national cultures.
4.1.3 Lacking in necessary explanatory notes
Some English idioms have marked national features and local flavor, and some also contain the allusions. When they are translated into Chinese, the Chinese must be followed by the explanatory notes for supporting the original meaning in order not to cause the readers’ unnecessary guessing even misunderstanding.For example, “ the English idiom ‘ A Chinese chance’ doesn’t mean ‘中国人的机会’, but it means ‘没有机会’.” [18]We should note clearly in the translation like this: the idiom came into being in the gold rush in California in 19th century. It refers to that the Chinese emigrants did their utmost to wash the gold dregs left over by the white men. It can be well imagined they could obtain very little amount of gold. Consequently, the white men who gloated over the Chinese plight call the awkward situation as “A Chinese chance”. Then the readers could understand the genuine connotation of this idiom.
4.2 The problems in Chinese-English idiom translation
4.2.1Copying the English meaning in the dictionary mechanically
There may be several translations for one idiom. The translation of an idiom may be different from that of the same idiom in a dictionary. A dictionary translation needs to reproduce both the form and the content of the idiom while a context translation needs to be fit for its particular
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situation. Therefore, we should make some changes accordingly instead of copying the translation in a dictionary mechanically.“Usually, the translation of‘谋事在人，成事在天’is ‘man proposes, God disposes’. But in the translation of A Dream of Red Mansions, it was rewritten.‘谋事在人，成事在天’，咱们谋到了，靠菩萨的保佑，有些机会，也未可知。（《红楼梦》第六回）‘Man proposes, Heaven disposes.’ Work out a plan, trust to Buddha, and something may come of it for all you know.(Translated by Yang xianyi)”[19]‘Buddha’ is a Buddhist term while “God” is a Christian term. In order to make the text coherent, “God” is changed into “Heaven”.
4.2.2Neglecting the Chinese idiom local or national colors in the translation In contexts, idioms which have much local or national colours could not be translated equivalently.“For example:‘小人有眼不识泰山，一时冒渎兄长，望乞恕罪。’（《水浒传》第二十三回）The idiom ‘小人有眼不识泰山’ is similar in meaning to ‘ to entertain an angel unawares’. But both of the two idioms have much local color. “泰山”(Mount Tai) which is a geographical term is one of the famous mountains in China. The idiom means ‘to fail to identify a person of great ability.’ The idiom ‘to entertain an angel unawares’ is from The New Testament. The original is ‘to be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’ It can be translated into ‘有眼无珠’. Therefore Jackson translated the sentence like this:‘I failed to recognize your eminence and I hope that you will forgive me for that blunder.’ ” [20]In the example, “有眼不识泰山” was translated freely, and its local colors were lost.
4.2.3Interpreting the Chinese idioms too complicatedly
Many Chinese idioms are antithetical phrases. Each of them consists of two parts which mean the same thing. It’s enough to translate one of them. Taking the Chinese idiom “ 土崩瓦解” for example, someone may translate it into “soil collapses and tile breaks up”. Actually speaking, we just need to translate it into “ to fall apart”. Another example “沉鱼落雁之容，闭月羞花之貌”,there may appear “fish” “wild goose” “moon” “flower” in the translation which are extremely complicated. We only need to choose one thing instead of all to translate it into “ Her beauty would put the flowers to shame.”
5. Methods used in idiom translation
The translation of English and Chinese idioms is an extremely important problem. It’s well known that translation is not only the communication between the two languages, but also the communication and transmission of the two kinds of cultural information. Idioms are a vast storehouse of cultural information, containing a host of cultural characteristics and cultural backgrounds as well as distinctive images and abundant association, therefore, idioms as “ the essence of the language” are difficult to understand and even more difficult to translate.To counter the vast differences between English and Chinese idioms and the particular difficulties generated by the differences, there are five relatively practical methods that could be used in idioms translation.
5.1 Literal translation with explanation
It is difficult for the Chinese readers to thoroughly understand the implied meaning when some English idioms are translated too literally. Yet if they are translated freely, their original images and styles cannot be preserved. To adopt the literal translation with explanation, not only can the readers see its original meaning, images and styles, but also their implied meaning. Though the translation will be somewhat wordy and overlaborate, it could demonstrate the original natural colors. “This method is often applied to dictionary compiling.”[21] For example,(There is) no rose without a thorn. 没有不带刺的玫瑰（世上没有十全的幸福；有乐必有苦。）An old dog will learn no new tricks(you cannot teach old dogs new tricks) 老狗学不出新把戏。（老顽固不能学新事物。）A
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