TheCulturalDifferencesandTranslationofEnglishandChineseIdioms英汉习语差异的翻译

1、the cultural differences and translation of english and chinese idiomsabstract this paper can be divided into two parts. the firstpart analyses chief cultural differences between english and chinese idioms. and cultural differences between chinese and english are due to different historical backgrou

2、nds, geographical features; living conditions and conventional customs. only when people have a good survey of the above can we translate the idioms across the two cultures in a proper way. the second part mainly discusses some concrete methods dealing with cultural differences in translating idioms

3、 across the two languages.key words cultural differences, ways of translation , chinese and english idioms摘要 本文分为两部分。第一部分分析英汉习语之间的文化差异。以及由不同历史、地理、生活条件、风俗习惯所形成的文化差异。只有对以上因素有过很好的研究，才能以一种合适的方式透过两种文化对习语进行翻译。第二部分主要讨论些具体的方法来处理在翻译习语过程中的文化差异。关键词 文化差异，英汉习语, 翻译方法content1. introduction.12. cultural differences

4、.2 2.1. historical differences.2 2.2. different psychological characters3 2.3. different views of cultural values.3 2.4. religion一cultural differences3 2.5. living environment differences4 2.6. conventional difference43. concrete ways of translation.5 3.1. literal translation.5 3.2. liberal translat

5、ion.6 3.3. additional translation.6 3.4. transferred translation.74.conclusion.85.works cited.9. introduction the thesis analyses the influence of cultural differences on chinese and english idioms, then studies english-chinese chinese- english idiom translation from the angle of culture and aims to

6、 draw specific approaches to the problems of cultural transmission in idiom translation.the importance of studying idiom translation from the perspective of culture lies in the following aspects:first of all, studies of the cultural distinction in idiom translation are still relatively weak in the f

7、ield of translation in china. we know that cultural connotations engage in idioms. exclusive research on the translation of idioms is still inappropriate and incomplete. in the last twenty years, idiom translation has mostly emphasized on the level of interlingual communication, but cultural differe

8、nces were rarely involved in it. in 1998, chen ding-an wrote a book on comparison and translation of english and chinese idioms, in which he used general translation strategies: literal translation, free translation, borrowed translation and additional translation and tried to find solutions in idio

9、m translation. it can be concluded that it is time for us to study idiom translation from the perspective of culture and researchers today are paying more attention to such studies.secondly, it is inevitable that cultural transmission will affect the english-chinese/ chinese-english idioms translati

10、on. in the broad sense, culture and language are closely related to each other. language is part of culture; it is also the carrier of culture. in the narrow sense, cultural differences have great influences on idiom translation. idioms are culture-loaded linguistic symbols and we can find almost ev

11、ery aspect of national culture in idioms. idioms are just like a huge mirror whereby we can see the kinds of cultural views of a nation. it is certain that the special difficulties for the translation of idioms will rise. translation, in fact, is not only interlingual communication but also intercul

12、tural communication. a good translator is supposed to translate idioms underlying the culture.england and china have totally different cultures while their sources and development roads are distinctive. having different living environments, social customs, religious beliefs and historical allusions,

13、 chinese and english idioms loaded with cultural connotations are characterized by certain cultural terms. the idioms were endowed in the two different cultures and were brought about by cultural barriers for the receptors to comprehend and appreciate. in that case, a translator should consider the

14、cultural terms in idiom translation and make efforts to find the accurate solution underlying these terms. we can achieve “faithful” translation in that way. it means that we can manage the interpretation of both the semantic information and cultural connotations of idioms in question.cultural diffe

15、rencesidioms are special and fixed expressions in a certain language. here what i want to talk about are sayings and by their concise, rich and vivid expressions, which were passed from generation to generation. they are indirect, humorous or serious. due to geographical, historical: religious belie

16、f and living conventional differences. english and chinese idioms bear different cultural features and information. they are closely related to cultural tradition. based on my study, the differences across the two cultures are presented in the following aspects. 1. historical differencewhat's th

17、e definition of history culture? history culture is formed by a specific history, development and historical legacy. they hive different historical orbits because chinese and english are totally different culture system. history culture is composed of allusion, tradition. decrees and regulation, myt

18、h, poems, ancient books and records. among them, allusion is the most important and national characteristics. due to different historical culture,the produce of idioms usually different. in china, idioms about history culture come form history stories. these idioms are simple in structure but hard t

19、o understand (tylor 59). we cannot learn and translate them gust form the words literal meaning. we must fully .comprehend its culture connotation and make proper translation. but in english, idioms mainly come form bible stories and rome mysterious. in this way, we must be familiar with them and ma

20、ke proper translation. such as achilles' heel'(唯一的致命弱点)，meet one's waterloo'(一败涂地). penelope's web'(永远完不成的工作).2. different psychological charactersthe special psychological characters among the chinese people who choose the stable life are on the basis ofbenevolence', pra

21、cticalism', as well as patience'. therefore, they have the following awareness characterized by unity. they matter power but not fact, collectism but not individualism, benefit but not deep thought, morality but not effect, cooperation but not competition. on the countray, the westerners ten

22、d to be engrossed in complicated and loose psychological structure, which is characterized by human一centered thinking cognition' and behavior'.3. different views of cultural valuesthe view of chinese value has profound spirit of humanism. in which one's value of life is demonstrated by i

23、ntrospection and self一restraint. the confucianism proposals emphasize that the lever of consciousness originates from morals that characterized the introversive side of chinese people. prof.yangzhaoyang, a chinese american, once believed that in an advertisement, the chinese lay stress on the produc

24、ts' quality and the concrete evidence, which can be traced to the influence of taoism: buddhism and confucianism ideas. moreover, the influence of religious behavior that bears the fatalism color and entirety orientation which formed on the base of the concrete evidence. conversely, the western

25、people tend to一 be extroversive which pay attention to the external form of products and the sense effect.4. religion一cultural differences religion culture formed by religions belief and consciousness of different nation is the main component of human culture. it reflects different attitudes toward

26、admiration and taboo of each nation. chinese culture is deeply affected by taoism, buddhism and confucianism among which the effect of buddhism, which 'was brought in china one thousand years ago, is the most inveterate. so chinese idioms obviously reflect the influence of buddhism. and people b

27、orn in china mainly believe that their life, death and everything are in the control of the buddhist.idioms about religion are also mainly related to buddhism. but in western countries, especially in england and american: people mainly believe christian. they believe that god controlled people's

28、 everything. so many english idioms are closely related to christianity. such as goal help those who help themselves, god to the hell(boone 254).5. living environment differencesthe presentation of idioms has always been related to humans' work and their living experiences. british is an island

29、country. its seafaring has been going far ahead than any other countries in the history. so english idioms is much more related to water. for example, english people use spend money like water to express those who are waste of money. instead. chinese idioms are much more related to soil. because the

30、 chinese ancestors lived in asian land and their life cannot be separated from the earth. for example, chinese do not usespend money like water but use spend money like dirt to describe one's waste of money. in chinese culture east wind' refers to wind in spring', the word hot' alway

31、s makes people think of summer. so it's hot as fire burns' often be used to describe summer. on the country, the sign of spring's turning up in british, which located in the west half of the world with oceanic climate, is west wind. in english people's eyes, summer is a very good sea

32、son. so such words lovely' gentle' and pretty' often be used to describe summer. take shall i compare thee to a summer's day? thou art more lovely and more temperate.as example. in this sonnet, shakespeare, the author of the sonnet, compare summer to his beloved.6 conventional differ

33、encesdifferences between english and chinese are various. but the most distinguish difference between them lies in the attitudes of the two country's people toward dogs. in china, dog is considered as a kind of low一down animal. so most of idioms, which related to dogs are considered as negative

34、aspects. such as“狐朋狗友”(compare to those who are a group of dishonest friends)“狗急跳墙”(compare to those who do anything without thinking when in dangerous situation.“狼心狗肺” (compare to those who are malevolence).however, dogs are considered as the most loyalist friends of human beings in western countri

35、es. therefore, most idioms related to dogs are positive aspects except some expressions influenced by other languages. what's more, people usually compare dog's behavior as theirs. such as 'you are a lucky dog' in chinese“你是一个辛运儿”，'every dog has his day' in chinese“凡人皆有得意日”.c

36、oncrete methods of translationto translate one language into another cannot only make people who live . in different countries easy incommunication but also helpful in development of language itself (nida 157). however, translation is not an easy yob especially for idioms translation: we can say tha

37、t idioms translation is the most difficult for translators. because most of idioms are usually carved with strong local and ethnic cultural characteristics. some of which can be easily understand, but some are totally different from its words meaning. some even have several meanings. so when we tran

38、slate them we must deal with them in different ways in different situation and make sure that our translation is faithfully, smoothly and elegantly to the original meaning. prof.wangzhouliang said: "translator must be one who is very familiar with the target language's characteristics"

39、. when translate idioms, a translator can not only faithfully express the original text's language meaning but also can tell exactly it's cultural connotation through two kinds of language cultural comparison. the translator must convince that his translation is equal to the original text. o

40、nly in this way, the readers would dell almost the same as reading the source language. if we want to translate idioms well; i think the following methods should be followed.1. literal translationliteral translation is a method in which we use idioms of language directly to translate corresponding i

41、dioms of source language.in order to remain the original text structure meaning, especially its local and ethnic cultural characteristics, this method always be used. but it must be on the condition that we don't change any aspects of the original text(ernst 105). though english and chinese are

42、belong to different ethnics.，these two kinds of people live on one earth. and they have common views of most things一sa literal translation method can:be adopted in translation between english and chinese. for example, sour grapes comes from grace and be translated into chinese“酸葡萄”more examples, to

43、go into the red' is translated into“出现赤字”'to break the record' is translated into“打破记录”,to be on the thin ice is translated into“如薄冰”，'to strike while the iron is hot'' is translated into“趁热打铁” tooth for a tooth' is translated into "以牙还牙” first-hand material' is

44、translate into“第一手材料”a castle in the air' is translated into“空中楼阁”to burn the boat' is translated into“破釜沉舟”to have something at one's finger's end' is translated into "了如指掌”conversely, some english idioms also comes from chinese translation. such as "to sit on the moun

45、tain and watch the tiger fight(坐山观虎斗)' to pour oil on the flame'(火上加油).2. liberal translationliberal translation is a kind of translation according to meaning. due to the influence of cultural differences. we have to gave up the original text's literal meaning in order to keep the target

46、 language accordance with source language. when this two kinds of languages have different expressions·and meanings. we should avoid using literal translation but adopt liberal translation. british people and chinese people are two different kinds of people. they have different views on many th

47、ings because of different geography, living environment, religion belief, customs and different expressions. if we use the literal method to translate, we cannot translate exactly to the source language's meaning and will make the readers fell confused. in this way, our translation would be a fa

48、ilure. in such a case, we should adopt litieral translation way. for example, as easy as pie“易如反掌”,be wise after the event“事后诸葛亮”each has its own merits' 各有千秋”don't count your chickens before they are hatched'“夜长梦多”.3. additional translationin this kind of translation, we add some substa

49、nce to express the meaning of the original idioms more faithfully. this method has the advantages of containing cultural color of the source language. it's suitable to be used in the translation of some idioms containing history differences and religion differences. as a great part of idioms hav

50、e their specific culture background, this method can be applied to compensate the cultural differences and decrease cultural loss. there are the following methods:3.1 adding notes to the translation of pronunciationadding notes to the translation of pronunciation not only can remain the original tex

51、t's specific，expression but also can help readers understand the author's writing purpose through the adding words. this is a kind of using both structure and meaning way. and it is mainly used to translate some names of persons or places. in chinese, there are lots of names that are familia

52、r to us but totally strange to foreigners because of cultural differences. in such a case，i think to add notes' is a good translating way. for example,“班门弄斧”is translated intoto show off one's proficiency with the exe before lu ban. the master carpenter.in this sentence, lu ban the master ca

53、rpenter is adding notes. lu ban is a master at carpenter work in china. but english readers dose not know. after adding some notesthe cultural information of the original text can be show to readers.3.2 adding interpretative words.to avoid tediousness caused by too many notes, some interpretative wo

54、rds are sometimes added in proper placed to compensate the meaning. but this method should be cautiously used in the avoidance of being regarded as explanation.4. transferred translationon the base of communicative meaning, original vocabularies can be replaced with vocabularies having different con

55、cepts but the same cultural connotation. in the development of english and chinese language, some corresponding stable idioms rich in contents and metaphorical images are formed. these idioms vividly express images that we should remain in the translation. but because there are cultural differences,

56、 we must use a metaphorical image of one language to replace another in accordance with cultural meaning. lets have a comparison between some idioms with animals as images and their translation: such as a lion in the way' is translated into“拦路虎，beard the lion' is translated into "虎虎口拔牙”

57、as majestic as a lion' is translated into "虎虎生威”goose flesh' is translated into,“鸡皮疙瘩”kill the goose thet lays golden eggs' is translated into“杀鸡取卵”， 'chicken一hearted, pigeon一hearted and as sacred as rabbit can all be translated into“胆小如鼠”.like a duck to water' is translated into“如鱼得水”， the "four tigers" of asia' is translated into“亚洲四小龙”，like a cat on hot bricks' is translated into“热锅上的蚂蚁”. like a drowned rat' is translat