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习语的翻译--Part I 课文学习--第八页
（ Translation of Idioms ） |
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| （3）Converting the metaphor to meaning “Yellow” appears in such Chinese expressions as “黄色书刊，黄色电影，黄色音乐” containing deterogotary meaning, if they were translated as yellow books, and yellow movies, yellow music, the westerners will by no means know their real meaning, we have to replace “黄色” with filthy, obscene or vulgar, so that the reader can catch the real sense. Another example: “rain cats and dogs” It is said that this expression is originated from a north European mythology, which tells us that the heavy rain is caused by the mischief of cats and dogs. However, the Chinese translation “大雨滂沱” will be a proper explanation as “滂沱” will just have the same connotation as “cats and dogs” in its context. “be in Burke” This idiom originates from the name of an Irish compiler John Burk who compiled “ the Noble Directory”. This directory of nobility has been universally accepted as the authoritative work studies the English noble class and the family trees since 1826, and therefore all those listed in “the Noble Directory” by Burk are people of Noble origin. To put it to Chinese, we can convert the metaphor “Burk” into its real meaning in Chinese “名门”，“贵族” , and the Chinese translation “出身名门”，“贵族门第” will mean the original sense of the English idiom. Here we can see that the same sense in the English expression perfectly converted to the original English sentence. “A skeleton in the cupboard/ closet” 衣柜里的骷髅，见不得人的事。 To Chinese reader, the image of “a skeleton in the cupboard” may mean ugly, horrible and frightening; they may not understand the referential meaning the image carry in this metaphor; most probably for this reason, the metaphors are all converted to sense more general expressions “family scandal”, “a disappointment”. “Meet someone's Waterloo” it can be translated as: “遭到惨败；受到毁灭性打击； 一败涂地”。 If it is translated as: “碰到滑铁卢”， a Chinese reader may not understand it if he or she does not know the historical event that Napoleon was heavily beaten by Anglo-Prussian Alliances and failed at Waterloo in Belgium on June 18,1815, and since the he was unable to recover from the failure, on June 22,1815, he was exiled ． The Chinese translation is a very good conversion of the image as it gives the reader the same feeling — tone as the Original ． We all heard the story of “ 守株待兔 ”， but how should we put it into English so as the westerners who are not familiar with the fable behind it can understand and catch the sense correctly? In order to achieve this ， we have to trace back to the table and covert the exact moral into English ． Now let's have a read on the story ： While he was working in a field ， a farmer saw a rabbit running quickly onto a tree and died ． He was very glad to get the rabbit and hoped he could get more rabbits this way ． So he waited for more rabbits to jump onto the tree ． Later his field lay in waste and no more rabbits came ． It warns people not to blindly trust and wait for strokes of luck ． S0 we can extract the moral and put it into English as “ Blind trust and strokes of luck ”， in this way ， the reader could understand the meaning very easily ． “五湖四海” It is an idiom in Chinese which does not only refer to the concrete ， the definite “ Five Lakes' ' and “ Four Seas" ， but generally to “ All coners(pants or places)of the country (the world) ， all corners of the land.” And that also is how the “湖 "and “海” should be converted and perceived by the readers ． “青出于蓝” It can be translated into English as “ The pupil excels his teacher(the master) ”． While the original meaning is ： Blue comes from the indigo plant ， but is bluer than the plant itself. Obviously the original meaning has been converted to indicate the activity of human being ． P1ease have a read on some more idioms and their translations · 司马昭之心，路人皆知 。 His ill intent is obvious even to man in the street ． (what he intends to do is crystal clear ． ) ·名落孙山 Fail to pass the examination ， come in nowhere · There is no rose without a thorn ． 世上无十全十美的幸福，有乐必有苦。 · One sows and another reaps . 前人栽树，后人乘凉。 |
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