動物詞在漢英文化中的喻義及其翻譯-資料下載頁

　　

【正文】 l words are widely used to enrich the language and culture. The vivid images of animals enhance expressive ability of language by associating with their features showed from outside appearances or individual temperaments. As the above parisons represent, animal words have many same or different figurative meanings. If we do not know the cultural information and only understand the information according to our national cultural backgrounds, we would cause the deviation from information transmission and misunderstanding in intercultural munication to lead to the failure of munication. Once a foreigner said, “The Jones family live like fighting cocks ever since he got that new well paid job at the ministry.” The structure is very simple but many people make a wrong understanding. The problem lies in the phrase “fighting cocks”. To Chinese “fighting cocks (打斗的公雞)” is usually used to describe two people living an unpeaceful life. In ancient China, the palaces or the folks liked gamecock to make a pleasure, which brought out the association. But in English, “live like fighting cocks” means “to enjoy the best possible food or life”. So the correct understanding of this sentence is that “自從瓊斯在部里找到一個薪水豐厚的新職位后，他家過得很舒服。” [21] Therefore, we should pay attention to the figurative meanings of animal words to make crosscultural munication successful. 4. Translation of animal metaphors Importance of translationTranslation is a dialogic process. It is not only an interlingual activity but also a crosscultural munication event. The purpose of translation is to transfer the source language into the target language to obtain the maximal equivalence. So translators play an important role in the process of translation. They should consider how to deal with the images of the words and how to express the figurative meanings correctly and properly. Meantime, they should think over not only the language structures and national features in source language but also the cultural backgrounds and the expressions in target language.Animal words contain many cultural meanings. In the process of translating animal words, the big problem is how to get the same or nearly the same effect culturally in the target language as that of the source language. Methods of translation Keeping image of animal association vehiclesEnglish culture and Chinese culture have much in mon, so the English and the Chinese share the same or similar feelings or attitudes to some animal words. And they use the same animal images to express the similar figurative meanings. Therefore, we can adopt literal translation to keep the original association vehicles. To a certain extent, this method helps to keep the source national sense and makes the target language readers to understand the source language culture. For example:(1) 俗話說得好，叫做“殺雞嚇猴”，拿雞子宰了，那猴兒自然害怕。（李寶嘉：《官場現形記》）The saying has it well, “kill the chicken in order to frighten the monkey”. If the chicken is killed the monkey is certainly scared. [22] (2) 楚兵罷食盡，此天亡楚之時也，不如因其機而遂取之。今釋弗擊，此所謂養虎遺患也。（司馬遷：《》）The troops of Chu are short of food, which shows the gods want to wipe them out and take up the state. If we don’t launch an attack upon them and let them go, what we shall do is to nourish a tiger to be a source of the trouble in the future. [23] (3) Advice and correction roll off him like water off a duck’s back.勸導對他好像水過鴨背似的不起作用。[24] (4) You stupid ass! How could you do a thing like that?你這頭蠢驢！怎么會干出那種事兒來？ [25]Let’s have a look at some other examples: dark horse (黑馬), paper tiger (紙老虎), lamb duck (跛腳鴨子), as pure as a swan (像天鵝一樣圣潔), etc.Keeping image of association vehicles can make language vivid and vigorous and preserve the original style. Adopting this method not only reproduces the source language meaning and charm but also benefits the cultural exchange between Chinese and English. Changing image of animal association vehiclesEnglish language and Chinese language have some cultural discrepancies. If some original association vehicles are kept in the process of translation, the target language readers may not understand them. Indeed, there are occasions where certain cultural aspects of original cannot be directly transferred into the target language culture. Thus, in the process of intercultural munication, we may replace the original image with a different one that retains the meaning of the original message and well fits in with the target language. For example:To Chinese people, if someone talks too much and don’t want to stop, we will use “嘰嘰喳喳，像只麻雀” to describe him. In Chinese culture, people always associate “sparrow” with someone talkative. This coincides with the associative meaning of “magpie” in the English culture (see section ). Therefore, the replacement of “sparrow” with “magpie” is quite necessary for the sake of English reader’s acceptability.(5) 郭彩娣見徐義德裝出一副笑面虎的神情，越發使她生氣。（周而復： 《上海的早晨》）It made Kuo Tsaiti more furious than ever to see Hsu Yiteh putting on this wolfinsheep’s clothing manner. [26] (6) Mr. Smith may serve as a good secretary, for he is as close as an oyster.失密斯先生可以當個好秘書，因為他守口如瓶。[27] In addition, when using other association vehicles to replace the original association vehicles, we should pay attention to some traps. Look at the example:(7) Lock the stable door after the horse is stolen/has bolted.It is not proper to put it into “亡羊補牢”. This English proverb means “to take precaution too late to be effective”, which emphasizes “late”, equal to Chinese expression “賊去關門” or “雨后送傘”. However, in Chinese proverb it stresses “not too late” and its plete expression is “亡羊補牢，猶為未晚”, which is equal to another English proverb “It’ s never too late to mined[sic].” [28] Chinese and English people adopt different animal images to express the similar figurative meanings, so this method of changing images is the best way and this conforms to the thinking modes and expressions of the source and target language readers. Dis