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n is due to the generality of cultures in different countries, while the limit of translation is based on their cultural differences. As we know, an idiom is a form of expression peculiar to a language. Every language has its own peculiarities in expression, alien from each other. The four-character structures dominate the Chinese idioms, while an English idiom is a combination of two or more words. Both Chinese and English idioms are usually structurally fixed and semantically opaque, i.e. metaphorical rather than literal and function as a single unit of meaning. Many idioms bear strong national cultural flavors, some of which are unique. Xiehouyu is a case in point. It is a special product of the Han culture. There is no equivalent expression in English. All these constitute special difficulties in translating them. Compared with other linguistic expressions, they are both more difficult to understand and even more difficult to express. Yet, we have to keep their features in order to maintain faithfulness of the target language and culture to the source language and culture when translating. In view of their frequent appearance in literary works and even political and scientific essays, whether or not idioms are well translated will affect the quality of translation as a whole. 4. Understanding idioms from a cultural context 4.1 The original and national coloring The origins of idioms are varied, but the chief sources are from the speech of the common people. Ordinary people, such as pilots, hunters, farmers, workers, housewives and cooks, create many idioms. Over a long period of time, these people have created a great number of idioms. Sailors have invented many lively sea-faring phrases, laborers in the fields have created expressions concerning farm-work, and workers of all kinds of occupations have created their own. Moreover, the fisherman talks of life in terms of fishing, the housewife helps herself out with metaphors from her kitchen or her farmyard, the sportsman expresses himself in the idioms of sports, and the hunter of his hunting, or his dogs and horse etc. These idioms are terse, colloquial, vivid and charged with life. And before long they acquire a wide application to analogous situations in everyday life. Little by little the most vivid and most useful of these idioms make their way from popular speech into the standard language, and finally come to be universally understood. Suffice it to give a few examples below: (13) A straw shows which way the wind blows. (14) As a man sows, so shall he reap? (15) To call a spade a spade Here, the words `straw, wind, sow, reap, spade' are obviously things and activities connected closely with the everyday life of farmers. (16) To strike while the iron is hot. (17) To cry over spilt milk. The simple nature of these idioms and the simple words connected with daily life show that they are created by housewives and cooks. As Britain is an island country, a lot of English idioms have to do with sailing and fishing: (18) To clear the decks (19) To know the ropes (20) To go against the stream (21) To be all at sea. The words "decks", ropes", "stream" and "sea" make it clear that the idioms come from the pilots or seamen. Traditionally, China has been a large farming country. A high percentage of its population are farmers. Therefore, plenty of Chinese idioms are related with agriculture. They are the outcome of the Chinese farmer’ work and have been handed from