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隱喻與翻譯Metaphor and Translation
隱喻與翻譯Metaphor and Translation [Abstract] Translation, as a tool for the communication of cultures, transfers the cognition of the source language into the target language, and translation of metaphor has became a controversy receiving more and more attentions. This paper introduces the English and the Chinese metaphor in details. In the beginning, different definitions of English metaphor are quoted from authorities. Then the construction of English metaphor and three basic components, the tenor, the vehicle and the ground, are introduced, followed by the four basic structure patterns. Different classifications of metaphor are appreciated and studied at the different levels. From the angle of rhetoric effect, the live metaphor and the dead metaphor are classified in the first type, and from Newmark’s view, four categories are classified, and finally four categories can be sorted out according to the emergence of metaphor’s three components. At the level of cognition three categories are introduced form Lakoff’s classification. Then Chinese metaphor is analyzed in the same way, so the contrast and comparison are apparently made. Based on that, the obstacles which may exist in the translation of metaphor are probed into, that is, the study of the origin of the obstacles----culture clash, including the differences of the living environment and history, tradition and custom, classical tales and literary works, religion and so on. At last, the standard and the skills of the translation of metaphor are discussed.
[Key words]: metaphor; translation; the source language; the target language; culture clash
【摘要】:翻譯是將一種文化中的語言所表現的認知方式用目的語傳遞到目的語的文化中去,而隱喻的翻譯已經開始成為研究翻譯方向里的重點和難點之一。本文詳細介紹英語隱喻和漢語隱喻,首先在概念上引用權威的定義和詮釋,接著從結構特征上下手分析英語隱喻的基本構成成分,即:本體、喻體、喻底。由此引出英語隱喻的三大基本句型。在分類上, 首先從修辭效果的角度進行論證,①將其分成活隱喻和死隱喻兩大類;②引用Mark的觀點分成四類進行分析特點;③根據隱喻的三大成分之間的關系,隱喻又可分成四種情況。接著,從認知層面上,總結分析Lakoff的觀點中有利于理解隱喻特點的結構隱喻,實體隱喻,方位隱喻。接著本文對漢語隱喻和英語隱喻形作一比較,指出在語言上的目標和功能作用成為英語隱喻和漢語隱喻最大的共同點。在此基礎之上,分析了在隱喻翻譯過程中會遇上的‘攔路虎’,并深入到產生翻譯障礙的根本原因----文化差異,包括地理和歷史,傳統習俗因,宗教信仰,經典傳說和文學作品等其它因素。最后,探述了隱喻翻譯的標準和基本原則,綜合英、漢隱喻的特點和文化因素,討論了幾種隱喻翻譯的技巧和方法。
【關鍵詞】隱喻;翻譯;原語;目的語;文化沖突
1. Introduction
Metaphor, mentioned by Lakoff G & Johnson in Metaphors We Live By, is pervasive in our daily life, happens not only in human’s language but also in human’s thinking and behavior.[1]P1 The utilization of metaphors is very frequent, and practically it is highly valuable to study linguistic metaphor. In resent years, metaphors in translation are studied mostly in the field of poetry, literature and rhetoric. For the differences between Chinese, which is regarded as a contextual language, and English that has its advantages, it is very important to find ways to achieve the equivalent effect of source language when they are translated into the target language. There are some examples.
(1) Were I in her place, it seems to me I should wish the earth to open and swallow me up. ( Jane Eyre Chapter5 )
我若是她,會恨不得立刻在地上挖個洞,鉆進去
(2) He did not win the first prize; he is just pulling your leg.
他并沒有獲得第一名,只不過和你開個玩笑罷了.
(3) 孩子是張大媽從小一把屎一把尿待弄出來的,像親生兒子一樣,孩子也把張大媽當作親媽,冷丁一下子把娘倆拆開,孩子能受得了嗎?
She had nursed him ever since he was a small baby and loved him as her own; and the child, too, regarded her as his own mother. What would happen to him if he was taken away from her.[2]P19
(4) 每個人生活都有苦有甜.
Every life has its roses and thorns.
The above four examples show the metaphorical expressions in the two languages and the beauties in translation. Comparison between English metaphor and Chinese metaphor will help to strengthen our understanding of the essence of language, and the culture differences which could be traced back behind the phenomenon of language, both of which serve to probe into the art of translation; Therefore, in one sense, it is highly valuable to combine the study of comparison and contrast between English metaphor and Chinese metaphor, the culture differences and translation skills into a whole
2. English metaphor
Metaphor is a figurative phenomenon, an important tool in language communication; what’s more, it has a closed relationship with many subjects,[3]P1 such as Literature, Aesthetics, Sociology, Philosophy, Logic and so on, for metaphor can permeate into one’s 隱喻與翻譯Metaphor and Translation subjective thinking and concept of aesthetic. One’s personality, including philosophy, culture, standard of aesthetics and so on, will be reflected through the metaphor one uses. Therefore, metaphor should be studied from a more profound and higher level.
2.1 Authoritative Definition
Various definition of metaphor have been proposed and some of them are quoted below.
i ) metaphor: (example of the) use of a word or phrase to indicate something different from (thought related in some way to) the literal meaning, as in ‘I’ll make him eat his words’ or ‘she has a heart of stone’. ( Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Diction the fourth edition )
ii) metaphor: a way of describing something by comparing it to something else that has similar qualities, without using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’, ‘the sunshine of her simile’ is a metaphor. ( Longman Dictionary of Contemporary 1995 )
iii) metaphor:隱喻(一種修辭手段如 drowning in money, food for thought 之類). ( The English-Chinese Dictionary 1993 )
iv) “By metaphor .I mean any figurative expression: the transferred sense of a physical word; the personification of an abstraction; the application of a word or collocation to what does not literally denote, i.e, to describe one thing in terms of another”. Peter New Mark [4]P123
v) metaphor: a figure of speech containing an implied comparison, in which a word or phrase ordinarily and primarily used of one thing is applied to another. ( Web’s Now World Dictionary )
2.2 Structure in English metaphor
Metaphor comes from the ancient Greece words ‘meta’ and ‘pherein’ ‘meta’ means ‘across’, ‘pherein’ means ‘change’; Therefore the basic function of metaphor is to transform something from one place to another.[5]P1 From semantic view, there are three basic factors composing a metaphors: the tenor, the vehicle, the ground, not all of which need to be presented in a metaphor, that is, some of them may be hidden. Therefore, it is very important to distinguish three factors from each other when facing a metaphor.
(5) All the world is a stage, and all the men and women are merely players. (Shakespere)
(6) I have seen the mermaids riding seawards on the wave. (T.S.Eliot)
In example (1) ‘stage’ is the vehicle, its literal meaning is the raised floor on which plays are performed in a theatre which exit in our real life, while ‘world’ is the tenor, and the ground of this metaphor is that both are full of illusion and absurdity. In (6) ‘riding’ is the vehicle, which literally means an action to travel long controlling and sitting on a horse, and the ground is the situation that the mermaids floating on the waves lightly. However, not all vehicles and tenors in metaphors refer to the reality in our life just as example (5) and (6) do, they may refer to the abstract concept implied in the context, and also they may refer to some kinds of quality or condition qualities. There are some examples.
(7) The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. (Tomas Jefferson)
(8) Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
(9) His reply was smooth.
In (7) the vehicle, ‘liberty’, refers to an abstractive concept, which the tenor, ‘tree’ is a material object, and the ground implies that liberty cannot be achieved or defeated without the shading of the blood of both the defenders and oppressors of the liberty in a violent struggle. On the other hand, blood (manure) nurtures liberty. Words in example (8) as ‘tasted’, ‘swallowed’, ‘chewed’, ‘digested’ literally means different ways of eating foods, which are the vehicle, and the tenor is ‘reading books’, so obviously the ground is the condition that books could be read in various ways as foods could be eaten in different method. ‘smooth’ in example (9) means have an even surface without points, lumps, pump; not rough; which is the vehicle, and the tenor is ‘reply’. So the ground is that her reply is tactful and shrewd just as the same satisfactory character or condition of smooth.
From syntactic view, the application of metaphor is always flexible and multiple, for in the sentence structure, the vehicle may be implied in the subject, the predicate, the object, the predicative, the attribute or the adverbial modifier; What’s more, the vehicle can be a single word, a phrase, a sentence, or even a paragraph. However, three basic structure patterns are commonly used in English metaphor.
Pattern I: the tenor and the vehicle are connected by the words such as: be, become, turn into, 隱喻與翻譯Metaphor and Translation ect., and the vehicle mostly acts as the predicative.
(10) Jane’s Uncle is an old fox, up to all kinds of evils.
(11) Hollywood, California, was the film capital, a magnet for the talented, the greedy, the beautiful, the hopeful and the weird.
(12) After that long talk, Jim became the sun in her heart.
In example (10)(11)(12), the tenors are respectively ‘Jane’s Uncle’, ‘Holly wood’, ‘Jim’, the vehicle, ‘an old fox’, ‘a magnet’, ‘the sun’, which are the predicative in the sentences. This pattern is the most basic type.
Pattern II: the preposition ‘of’ is used to connect the tenor and the vehicle, indicating the appositive relationship, such as,
(13) Mirage is the bloom or blight of all men’s happiness.
(14) But in a country where rice farmers have spent nearly 50 years in a comfortable cocoon of government protection.
In the example (14)(15) the metaphor is in a phrase consisting of the tenors and the vehicle and the preposition ‘of’. On the other hand, the vehicle and the tenor are the appositive, that is, ‘happiness is the bloom or blight; government protection is a comfortable cocoon’.
Patten III: verbs and adjectives are applied to transfer the metaphor, that is, words used to describe the special quality of one thing are adopted to describe the other thing to which the special quality are transferred. There are still many cases in this pattern.
(15) From the burning look in his eye, I knew he was angry with me.
(16) Toby’s fears had evaporated.
The word ‘burning’ actually is used to describe the state of the fire, while in example (15) it is transfer to describe ‘look’. Reader could immediately experience such situation. ‘evaporate’ is a Verb which expresses the particular quality of the gas, while it is used in the case (16), the abstractive concept ‘fear’ are transferred to a concrete image likes the gas. This pattern is greatly used in the press and the literature as rhetoric devices to strengthen the author’s opinion and to impress readers deeply.
2.3 The categories of English metaphor
Since the study on metaphor can be traced back to Aristotle, the first one who studied metaphors systematically. There has been a history of more than two thousand years study on metaphor, up till now numerous people make their great efforts to research on metaphor from various angles; therefore, metaphor can be classified in many ways according to the angles it was studied from.
2.3.1 Classifications at the rhetoric level
I ) The dead metaphor and the live metaphor
From its rhetoric effect, metaphor can be sorted into two categories: one is the genuine metaphor or the live metaphor, and the other is the trite metaphor or dead metaphor. As we know, the basic function of metaphor mentioned before is to transfer a special quality from one thing to the other to make much more concrete, impressive, profound images. However those which were used from time to time with its rhetoric effect declining gradually to zero would be regarded as the common expression, melting into the language, and then they would become out-of-date expressions, which is what we called the dead metaphor, such as ‘the bonnet of a car’, ‘a coat of pain’, ‘the teeth of a saw’, ‘the apple of one’s eyes’, ‘rain cats and dogs’. On the other hand, the live metaphor refers to those with freshness and originality and effect. However, the disadvantage of this kind of classification is that it is too vague and difficult to define the boundary between the live metaphor and the dead metaphor. For example it is hard to decide to sort ‘the heart of China, Beijing’ into the dead metaphor or the live metaphor.
II) Peter Newmark’s classification
From Peter Newmark’s view A Textbook of Translation, ‘I have suggested elsewhere that there are four types of metaphor: fossilized, stock, recently created and original’. [6]P46
From the beginning, the fossilized, the name itself is a metaphor. It literally means to become a fossil; actually it means the trite, our-of-date, merely used. In a sense, it is just the same as the dead metaphor in the first classification. Take ‘rain casts and dogs’ as an example. Nowadays those who used this metaphor are regarded as the people who live in the generation before the grandfather. The stock refers to the metaphors that have been taken in the dictionaries for the usage of metaphorical meanings and are still frequently used in daily life. Here are some examples of the stock about the metaphorical usage of the word ‘flood’.
(17) She was in a flood of tears.
隱喻與翻譯Metaphor and Translation (18) The corridors were flooded with girls.
(19) Strawberries flooded the market and prices dropped down
(20) Beer flooded from the glass
There are the recently created metaphors which have not yet been adopted in the dictionary but can be accepted the common people with a feeling of refreshness. In Hamiton’s Rescue of A Newborn there are sentences [7]P47 as follows.
(21) I focused on a small blob in the mud amid the columns of legs and trunks.
(22) I suddenly came upon a wall of feeling elephants.
(23)…grabbed their lost baby and tugged her gently into a stockade of legs
In the above three sentences, ‘columns’ and ‘wall’, ‘stockade’, have double functions. They function as the measure words with the metaphorical meanings, which has not yet been adopted in any dictionary. However, three metaphors have a common characteristic -- they belong to the structure Pattern II (the preposition ‘of’ links between the tenor and the vehicle which has been recorded in the dictionary, such as ‘a hand of bananas’).
The last one, the original are regarded as the product from the inspired thought of the men full of wits and knowledge, and can hardly be seen before, let along have been recorded in dictionary. A Promise of Spring by American modern writer Jeff. Rennike begins in this way:
(24) Nothing, no tracks but my own are stitched into the dusting of fresh snow, white as birch bark, that fell during the night, no flittering shadows in the trees, not a silver of bird song in the air. [8]P47
The word ‘stitch’ belongs to those that are rarely used in English, and its most impressive usage is in the idiom ‘A stitch in time save night’. While floated out of the pen of Jeff Rennike, it was shining with the beauty of the original metaphor.
In some senses, Peter Newmark’s classification, the fossilized, the stock, the recently created, the original can be seen to be the small branches deriving from the categories of the dead metaphor and the live metaphor.
III) Classification according to the emergence of the tenor, the vehicle, and the ground
According to the three basic components in metaphor structure, four categories could be sorted out.
The first type is both the tenor and the vehicle emerge in the metaphor, such as,
(25) If the father lard is sound, my personal troubles are only a flea bite.
This type is the most common one, for the ground of metaphor is easy to understand. Factually Patten I mentioned above belongs to this type.
Second type is the metaphor in which the tenor is implied, such as,
(26) Investments in restructuring companies involve substantial risks, and deciphering the details of a company’s finances and plans for re-emergence is akin to penetrating a legal jungle.
The third type is the metaphors in which the vehicle is implied, and sometimes the ground is also implied, leaving the tenor alone. This category together with the second type construct the PattenⅢ in metaphor structure. There are lots of typical examples such as,
(27) She wished she could stop time and freeze this day so that it would never end.
Moreover, example (8)and (9) belong to this categories.
The last type is that the tenor, the vehicle and the ground all emerge in the metaphor, which are common to see. There is a typical example.
(28) My life is one long curve, full of turning points.
Obviously ‘my life’ is the tenor, ‘curve’ is the vehicle, and the shared common is ‘full of turning points’, which is the ground.
2.3.2 Classification at the cognitive level
From Lakoff’s view in Metaphors We Live By, metaphors are classified according to different concepts about metaphors. Only three of them will be mentioned for they helps the cognition of metaphor: structural metaphor, ontological metaphor and orientational metaphor.[9]P96
The structural metaphor refers to metaphors in which one concept was adopted to illustrate or compose the other concept. What’s more, there are two components and two conditions that are essential to compose a structure metaphor. The tenor and the vehicle are the two components that must be two different concepts, which satisfies the first condition. The second condition requires that the two unlike concepts should have something in common which the structural metaphor adopts from the vehicle to illustrate and comprehend the concept of the tenor. For example,
(29) Anger is heat→a) Try to simm 隱喻與翻譯Metaphor and Translationer down
b) She is stewing
c) Tom was reading the boiling point
(30) Anger is free→a) She was burning with wrath
b) That caused me to breathe fire
Actually, in example (29) a) b) c) are basing on ‘Anger is heat’ and in example (30) a) b) on ‘Anger is free’. Words like ‘simmer’ ’stew’ do not have anything in common with ‘Anger’ from semantic view. However, the metaphorical thinking and the language ability link them together. Experience teaches us that when one was in anger, the body temperature and the blood pressure turn up, the mode of fidget and anxious and other physiological reactions will be shown, which were associated with the phenomenon and the state when the fluid was heated to boiling. As a result, many metaphorical expressions come into the present, such as ‘He blew up’, ‘That really set me off’.
The ontological metaphor is another evidence to show that metaphor is not only a phenomenon of language but also a means of thinking and behavior, which is pervasive in our daily life. The vehicle in ontological metaphor always refers to those familiar things or objects in our world, which can be seen and touched easily, so we can know its function and qualities at the first sight, then it contributes to the comprehension and cognition of the tenor which are regarded as non-material or supernatural experience. Take the following sentence as an example.
(31) Arguments are buildings
Obviously, buildings are the most familiar thing that we see and have direct contact with everyday, so that their special qualities are known to every one, such as the appearance, the foundation, the thickness the possibility of construction, repairment, destroy, collapse and so on. Therefore, Arguments is compared to buildings, implying that the necessity of the firm foundation of thesis and the perfect way for argument. And it will, otherwise, be defeated. Based on this ontological metaphor, there are many expressions as follows.
(32) a) We need some facts or the argument will fail apart
b) We need to construct a strong argument for that.
c) This is an argument, and it needs more foundation.
d) If you don’t support your argument with solid facts the whole thing will collapse.
The orientational metaphors, also called the spatialization metaphor, means metaphors related to the spatialization or orientation (such as up-down, in-out, front-back, left-right ect.) which are used to illustrate or describe the object of the tenor, such as,
(33) Happy is up, sad is down
(34) I’m feeling up/down
(35) My spirits rose
(36) You are in high spirits
(37) He is really low these days
The specialty of the ontological metaphors is that they are not used in arbitrary way but in a fixed way according to people’s experience.
Different ways of classification help to analyzing a metaphor from various angles, so that our comprehension would be deep and impressive when we facie with it, which serves a lot during the translation
3. Comparison and contrast between English metaphor and Chinese metaphor
Metaphor , in Chinese is always named ‘隱喻’ or ‘暗喻’. It’s better to distinguish metaphor and ‘隱喻’ from each other.
3.1 Authoritative Definition About Chinese Metaphor
i ) 隱喻:比喻的一種不用“如”、“像”、“似”、“好像”等比喻詞,而用“是”、“成”、“就成為”、“變?yōu)椤钡仍~,把某事物比擬成和它有相似關系的另一種事物,如:“少年兒童是祖國的花朵”,“荷葉成了一把把撐開的小傘”也叫“暗喻”。(《現代漢語詞典》1997修訂本)
ii )隱喻:比喻的一種,本體和喻體的關系,比之隱喻更為密切,明喻在形式上只是相類的關系,隱喻在形式上卻是相和的關系,本體和喻體兩個成分之間一般要用“是”、“也”等比喻詞,如“兒童是祖國的花朵”。(《辭海》(1980))
From the illustration from Chinese dictionary, obviously is only a kind of figures of speech in Chinese rhetoric.
However, English metaphor covers much more fields than Chinese metaphor. The following shows the comparison between them.
Metaphor 暗喻
1.a characteristic of human thinking and language 1. * * *
2.dead metaphor: 表面不是,實際是 2. * * *
3.active metaphor:一種修辭格 3. 一種修辭格
[10]P124
3.2 The structure and classification of Chinese metaphor
The structure of ‘隱喻’ is said to be a mode “X” 是 “Y”. Moreover, it has not yet been classified into categories in its narrow sense in Chinese, which support the view of unequal relationship between English metaphor and隱喻. However, it doesn’t mean that Chinese is not a metaphorical language. Eventually, Chinese people use metaphors excellently as English people do, for exampl 隱喻與翻譯Metaphor and Translationes ‘閑時不燒香,臨時抱佛腳’, ‘狗嘴里吐不出象牙’.
The difference is that various kinds of figures of speech in Chinese are absorbed to achieve the metaphorical effect, such as 借喻,縮喻 ect.. There are examples in Chinese metaphor,
(38) 敵人夾著自己的尾巴逃跑了。(擬喻)
(39) 我騎著思想的野馬奔馳到很遠很遠的地方,然后,才收住了韁繩,緩步回到眼前燦爛的現實中。(縮喻)
(40) 天下烏鴉一般黑。(借喻)
3.3 Similarities between English and Chinese metaphor
The most important similarity that English metaphor and Chinese metaphor bare with each other is to achieve the effective function of metaphor or author’s intention. From rhetoric angle, both English and Chinese metaphors have three main features: descriptive, illuminative and illustrative,[11]P168 as can be seen from the following examples.
3.3.1Descriptive
(41) The hallway was zebra—striped with darkness and moonlight. (A description of the alternated bands of light and shade in the hall, like a zebra’s stripes)
(42)荷葉成了一把把撐開的小傘。
3.3.2 Illuminative
Example (7)—English and (4)—Chinese are the typical examples and here are another two
(43)
The a solider,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. ( Shakespear: As you like it)
(Bubble here implies that the pursuit of reputation is visionary and a sing of vanity)
(44)人生必需的知識就是引人向光明方向的明燈. (李大釗)
3.3.3Illustrative
(45) Learning is climbing up a mountain.
The question ‘How to construct an effective metaphor’ leads to some properties required in both English and Chinese metaphors. Firstly, refressness and originality. metaphors like ‘he was a lion in the battle’, ‘兒童是祖國的花朵’are trite and stale. Those out-of-date expressions sometimes would spoil the speech or writing. Secondly, aptness. A metaphor is apt and appropriate if the comparison implied heightens effect or enhances the subject. In the sentence ‘her beautiful long hair was pitch-black’, the association of the blackness of the beautiful hair with pitch is inappropriate. Thirdly, consistency becomes relevant and important when we are using two or more metaphors to illustrate the same subject. The metaphors are consistent if they produce images related to and supporting each other and are not mixed and discordant. Mixed metaphors, which can produce very amusing and illogical imagery, should be strictly avoided, such as ‘I skin over the book to taste the tone of it’ (tone cannot be tasted). On the other hand, a metaphor both in English and Chinese, to be effective, should be terse in words and profound in implication, abundant in refreshness and humor, vivid in association and imaginary.
4. Translation of metaphors
4.1 On the standard of translation
In the field of translation, the standard of translation has been a fierce controversy, including Nida’s formal correspondence vs. Functional Equivalence, Newmark’s semantic translation vs. communication translation, literal translation vs. free translation, form vs. content, source-oriented vs. target-oriented, author-centered vs. reader-centered, the purpose of the author vs. the purpose of the translation and so on; [12]P5 Therefore, it is impossible to define a standard for the translation of all metaphors. Metaphor reveals the aesthetics of language; what’s more, it reflects the speaker or writer’s education, experiences, observation, conception towards the world ect., so it is very important to keep the metaphorical meaning and the images by using any skills of translation, that is, metaphors can be translated in flexible ways to convey the information and the effect of the source language.
4.2 Obstacles in the translation of metaphor
For the differences between languages, the obstacles in translation sometimes make it very difficult even impossible to convey the effect of the source metaphor. As Chinese is regarded contextual language, which always turns to be obstacles on translation into English. The following cases are among the most common.
(46) 她就是這樣風里來雨里去。成年累月地工作著.
This how she carries on her work, rain or shine, all the year round.
A ‘Scene’ comes into readers’ mind, that is an image of human being walking in the rain and wind, when reading ‘風里來,雨里去’ six characters; However, there is only the fact of ‘rain and shine’ left in the English expression.
(47) 人言鼎沸
Many people talk together and the noise t 隱喻與翻譯Metaphor and Translationhey make is like the bubbling water boiling in a cauldron.
In fact, most obstacles can be traced back to the culture clash. Therefore, metaphors are stamped with the culture of society, which have great impacts on every aspect of people’s life. There are five aspects which influence the expression of metaphor greatly in culture.
4.2.1 Living environment and history
England is an island nation, and its navigation has been the most advanced in the world history, while Chinese is a continental nation with its people living on the land. Therefore, there is metaphor ‘spending money like water’, sharing the same metaphorical meaning with Chinese metaphor ‘揮金如土’. As a result of the different climates, Chinese has a saying ‘ 萬事具備只欠東風’, in contrast with ‘ west warm wind’ in English. Moreover, there are a lot of unique metaphorical expressions that come out as the product of a nation’s developed history. Take ‘zipper gate’ as an example. It became a metaphorical word frequently used by the press (referring to the sexual scandals) since the news of the sexual relationship between President Clinton and Wensgi. In Chinese there are so many typical examples such as ‘守株待兔’.
4.2.2Tradition and custom
Tradition and custom have great influences on the way of people’ thinking; therefore, metaphor, as a proportion of language, comes out of people’s mind, which has been laid with the brand of the custom and tradition of their country. Different metaphors about animals are the most obvious evidence. Take ‘bear’ as an example. In English, bear is associated with the person with special talents, such as ‘he is a bear at maths’. In contrast, bear in Chinese refers to the fool man or the ignorant, such as “瞧他那個熊樣” “笨熊”.
4.2.3 Religion
Buddhism has a history of more than one thousand years. As a result, people’s concept and attitude towards world are influenced greatly, and there are numerous metaphors related to Buddhism, such as ‘借花獻佛’, ‘閑時不燒香,臨時抱佛腳’ ect. However, in western counties, most people take the Christianity as their religion, so there are sayings such as ‘no respect of persons (一視同仁)’, ‘God comes with leaden feet but strikes with iron hands(天網恢恢,輸而不漏)’ ect. Religion as a part of culture penetrates into every aspect of people’s life including language.
4.2.4 Classical tales and literary works
A large sum of metaphors is quoted from classical tales and works, which are the components of the national spirits. On the other hand, metaphor, in a sense, is the reflection of the literature, fairy and folk tales ect., for example ‘Faustian spirit’ comes from the classical work Faust , in which the protagonist sold out his soul to the devil in order to obtain the knowledge and the power, and now ‘Faustian spirit’ refers to a spirit to obtain knowledge at any price.
4.3 Skills in translation of metaphor
From New mark’s view, “there are five methods of translating metaphor: transferring the image, finding an equivalent image, converting the metaphor to a simile or sense plus simile, most frequently converting the image to sense, which may involve analysis into several components, including figurative and concrete elements.”[13]P42 However, in aboard sense, there would be only 3 ways in the translation of metaphor.
4.3.1 Literal translation
As sharing the living environment----the earth, all human beings would have something in common. Therefore, there would be similarities among the culture of different countries, that is, equivalent expressions would exist among the languages. On condition that the tenor and the vehicle, the construction of metaphor in source language have the same usage in the target language, literal translation is the best way to keep the vivid image and the effect of source metaphor, as can be seen in the following examples.
(48) During the 1980s, a new drug called crack began to flood the street.
80年代有一種叫強效可卡因的毒品在大街小巷大肆泛濫.
(49) iron hand ----鐵腕
(50) 丟臉 ---- lose face;
(51) 中國當前的改革的春風
The spring breeze of present reform in china
Literal translation as example (67) can convey the vivid image with the special culture of source language, and at the same time, vocabulary and new expression of the target language would be explored.
4.3.2 Free translation
The culture clash results in the clash of language. On the other hand, among the tenor and the vehicle and the construction of metaphor of source language, not all could find the same usage in target language; therefore, equivalent images or constructions in target language should be 隱喻與翻譯Metaphor and Translationfound to replace that of source language, or the metaphorical effect of source language would be decreased. By the way, if the equivalent image or construction could not be found in target language, which is very common, there would be no way but completely free translation such as ‘人言鼎沸’ in example (63) . There are other examples,
(52) 熱鍋上的螞蟻
A cat on hot bricks
(53) It was diamond cut diamond when the two men met because they more both so sure their own wears were right.
這兩個人都堅持自己的主張正確因此他們相遇是一場棋逢對手的酣戰(zhàn)。
(54) The policemen who patrolled the big city slum area that summer were sitting on a volcano.
那年夏天,在城市大貧民區(qū)巡邏的警察如同在火山口上 (construction: metaphor in source language to simile in target language)
(55) It’s regrettable that our appeal remained a dead letter
遺憾的是,我們當時的呼吁石沉大海。
4.3.3 Combination of literal and free translation
As metaphor reflects the customs, living condition, folk tales ect. of its nation, compensations are needed in the translation to help to understand the metaphorical meaning of sources language. On the other hand, although images of source language may be found in the target language, they have not the metaphorical meanings of source language. In that case, combination of literal and free translation could help to convey the metaphorical meanings. There are some examples.
(56) People consider that what he had played on that occasion was no more than a Judas Kiss.
人們認為他在哪種場合的表演不過是猶太人之吻, 居心險惡.
(57) 掛羊頭賣狗肉.
Cry wine but only vinegar for sale
5. Conclusion
Translation, as a tool for the communication between different countries, in a great sense, depends on not only the skills of translation but also the understanding of both the language and the culture. Therefore, comparison between English metaphor and Chinese metaphor together with the culture they reflect servers the translation greatly.
According to the definitions from the authorities, English metaphor covers much more fields than Chinese metaphor. In the field of language, there are three components in English metaphor, the tenor, the vehicle and the ground, based on which there are four basic patterns in English metaphor structure. From the angle of rhetoric effect, metaphors can be sorted into the live metaphor and the dead metaphor. And from the Newmark’s view, English metaphor could be classified in to four categories, the fossilized, the stock, the recently created and the original. The last classification is based on the emergence of three components of metaphor. At the level of the cognition of metaphor, structure metaphor and ontological metaphor and orientational, which are from Lakeoff’s classification, are helpful in the understanding of metaphor. In contrast, Chinese metaphor called 隱喻 differs greatly in the definition and structure and classification. However, both English and Chinese metaphor has the same functions, descriptive, illuminative, illustrative. The comparison and contrast between English and Chinese metaphor can be traced back to the culture clash, which is the origin of the obstacles in the translation of metaphor. Literal translation, Free translation, and the combination of both are the basic methods in translation of metaphor, which should be chosen properly to solve the obstacles after the metaphor is analyzed exactly.
Bibliography
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[5] 同[3] P1
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[7] 同[6] P47
[8] 同[6] P47
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[10] 同[4] P124
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[12] 葉子南. Advanced course in English-Chinese Translation[M], 清華大學出版社,2001 P5
[13] 戎劌. Metaphor的翻譯(下), 英漢翻譯系列講座. P42
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