从中英文化差异谈英语隐喻的汉译 [9]
论文作者:佚名论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-09编辑:黄丽樱点击率:14928
论文字数:8278论文编号:org200904092227078607语种:中文 Chinese地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:metaphortranslationcultural differencescultural connotationscorresponding relation隐喻翻译文化差异文化内涵对应关系
” (惨遭失败), “ That’s all Greek to me” (一窍不通). The story of “meet one’s Waterloo” can be tracked back to June8, 1815, when the allied forces of Britain and Germany crushed Napolean’s troops in Waterloo, south of Belgium. Later, this expression can be used to describe any situation when one encounters a total defeat.
English historical allusions mostly originated from Greek myth. For example (6), as long as we say “银河”, “天河”, we will associate the folk story about that the Altair and the Vega meet on over this gutter. While English will call “the milky way”, which comes from the Greek myth. It refers to both the road formed by the dripping milk when Queen Hera fed Hercules, a warrior with great strength, and a milky road from the human world into the palace in the universe.[27]
Fourthly, metaphors give expression to people’s way of living. Researches on the connotative meanings of animals in Chinese and English cultures also reveal the impact of metaphor on people’s living. For example (7), in Chinese, we often encounter such expressions like “像老黄牛一样干活”, “气壮如牛”, “鞭打快牛” etc. While if expressing the same meaning, English will say “work like a horse”, “as strong as a horse”, “flog a willing horse”. Why Chinese and English use two different images? It is because that usually Chinese use cattle to plow, while English horses. Cattle and horses respectively become the good helper of Chinese and English in farming, so there are usages about them above.[28] And since horses in ancient China are mainly used for riding and war, the associative meaning of horse in Chinese is that it can be ridden and it runs fast, which gives rise to the expression like “马上”, “马到成功” and “一马当先”.
Fifthly, metaphors reflect people’s religious beliefs. Religion is an important source of metaphorical expression. As Christianity is the main spiritual support of westerners and is critical for the formation of English culture, it has penetrated every aspect of English social life, including the English language. And it is manifested most obviously in English metaphors. In fact, “most English metaphors come from religious beliefs and fairy stories. Many characters and events of the Bible make up a large part of English words with unique connotations, and many images of this kind are widely used in metaphors.”[29]
e.g. (8) The two-party system is the apple of the capitalists’ eye, so far as maintaining their political control of the workers is concerned.
就资产阶级维护对于工人的政治控制而言,两党制是资本家的宝贝。
In this sentence, the metaphor “the apple of the eye” (掌上明珠) comes from The Old Testament of the Bible, “He kept him as the apple of his eye.”(保护他如同保护眼中的瞳人). In ancient times, people noticed that pupil in eyes was just like an apple, so they called pupil as “apple of the eye”. As pupil is a very precious part in human body, “apple of the eye” is also used to refer to the person or thing most liked.
Besides, expressions, such as Noah’s Ark, olive branch, Paradise, Forbidden fruit, Adam’s apple and a Juda, also have rich metaphorical meanings.
Instead of Christianity, most of Chinese people believe in Confucianism and Taoism. Like those in English, expressions related to Chinese religious beliefs find their way to metaphors such as “临时抱佛脚”, “道高一尺,魔高一丈”, “放下屠刀,立地成佛”, “做一天和尚,撞一天钟”, “不看僧面看佛面” and “借花献佛”. After repeated use, the metaphorical meanings of these expressions have already overstepped their literal meaning as religious words.
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