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le 13 He who keeps company wtih the wolf will learn to howl" 近朱者赤，近墨者黑。 (Guo, 1996: 183) (My back translation: He who touches vermillion will be reddened, and he who deals with ink will be blackened.) Example 14 Great men are not always wise. 人有失手日，马有失蹄时。(Guo, 1996: 182-3) (My back translation: Men will make mistakes, horses all stumble.) 3.2 Analysis The analysis is based on the following five common translation methods: (1)Literal translation (retaining the same image in the target language); (2)Replacing the SL image with a standard TL image; Literal translation plus sense and explanation; (3)Converting the metaphor to meaning; (4) Using Chinese couplets to replace the English metaphor. (5)me tap hors in examples 1, 2, 3 and 6 are translated literally. The aim of literal translation is to retain th e national or local co lour, the original images as well as the foreign expressions so as to enrich the target language (Zhang, 1980: 161). "To his ancestors" (Example 1) “去见祖先”, is a euphemism for "to die". This expression is vivid and easy for the ordinary Chinese reader to understand. "Armed to the teeth" (Example 2) "武装到牙齿" sounds a bit exaggerating but very impressive. The image of a person armed to the teeth is so picturesque that it is hard for the target language reader to forget. This literal translation has been widely accepted since New China was established. "A more common procedure for translating metaphors is to replace the SL image with another established TL image, if one exists that is equally frequent within the register" (Newmark, 1988: 109). Theproverbs in examples 4,5, and 7, are all adapted into Chinese versions, replacing the SL images with TL images which are familiar to the Chinese reader. These Chinese images are widely different from but similar in sense to the original ones. Perhaps it is all right to render the proverb in example 4 "among the blind the one-eyed man is king" literally into “盲人之中单眼汉为王”. Because the meaning as well as the image is clear. But the proverb "One boy is a boy, two boys half a boy, three boys no boy” is a concept rather than an image, if it is translated literally, it would be wordy and may not be able to impress the Chinese reader as strongly as the converted version. There has been some arguments about the translation of the metaphorical saying "Talking of the devil, and he will appear". Some (Zhang, 1980; Lu, 1993) believe that it is acceptable to convert it into "说到曹操，曹操就到”because this figurative expression is known to all, while others (Guo, 1996; Li, 1995) think that Caocao is a national figure in the Chinese history who represents certain features of the Chinese culture. If the original text is about western culture and western people, it would be inappropriate to bring CaoCao into the scene. Perhaps that is why Li and his colleagues decided to translate it literally into "说鬼鬼到" ( Example 6). The translation method applied to metaphors in examples 8, 11 and 12 is "free translation" (the usual Chinese term) or in New mark’s words, converting the metaphor to sense. To the Chinese reader, the image of "a skeleton in the cupboard", may mean ugly, horrible and frightening; "a wet blanket" is merely a blanket which is soaked with water, and "a silver spoon" is just a spoon different from a china spoon. They may not be able to understand the referential meanings these images carry in the metaphors. Most probably for this reason the metaph