俗语翻译论文

A Study on the Translation of Chinese idioms into

English

Abstract

With the rapid development of globalization, China has become more and more merged into the world. Chinese, as a language which possesses the largest number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, is also becoming an international language.

Given this background, a better translation of Chinese has eagerly been required as the exchange between Chinese and foreigners shows more and more frequency. Among them, the translation of Chinese idioms, one of outstanding language fruits coming along with the five-thousand-year Chinese culture, has therefore showed more importance.

As a matter of fact, language professors and scholars have done a lot of work on this topic ever since China opened itself to the world in 1989. In this paper, I will present my ideas about the translation of Chinese idioms, and I will mainly focus on two ways: literal translation and free translation. Generally, the two ways show a strategy of dealing with Chinese idiom translation. The first way tries to reveal the original color of Chinese idioms while the second puts cultural elements into consideration.

Key words: idioms translation; cultural barriers; translation strategy; literal translation; free translation

摘要

随着全球化的迅速发展，中国走向了世界并融入了国际舞台，而汉语，这个世界上使用人数最多的语言，也逐渐成了一种国际语言。

在这个背景下，对汉语更好的翻译就成了促进中国对外交流不可或缺的条件。而在汉语的翻译中，对作为传承中国悠久历史人文文化的汉语习语的翻译显得尤为重要，因为习语也是一个让外国人更好了解中国文化的有效途径。

事实上，随着中国的改革开放，一大批语言专家和学者就汉语习语的翻译进行了深入的研究, 并取得了喜人的成果。在这片文章中，作者提出了汉语习语翻译中的难点即习语中大量存在的文化元素，并就自己的观点谈了对汉语习语翻译的策略并用了大量的实例介绍了习语翻译中两个常用的翻译方法，即直译和意译的方法来解决具体翻译中的文化阻隔。

关键字：习语翻译；翻译策略；文化隔阂；直译和意译

Table of Contents

ChapterⅠIntroduction (1)

ChapterⅡFeatures of idioms (2)

ChapterⅢ Main problem in translation of Chinese idioms into English (3)

ChapterⅣLiteral Translation and Free Translation (4)

4.1 Literal T ranslation (4)

4.2 Free T ranslation (8)

4.2.1 Agreement in Both Essence and F orm (8)

4.2.2 Agreement in Essence but Not in Form (9)

4.2.3 Agreement neither in Essence nor Form (10)

ChapterⅤSupplement (12)

ChapterⅥConclusion (14)

References (15)

Chapter One Introduction

“Idioms, also called phrases or colloquialism, are marrow of a language. It is always vivid, brief, and lively. With idioms, we may be able to convey certain established meanings, using visualized expressing ways and also some rhetoric skills. (Wu guofeng，1996)”Chinese has a huge number of idioms which are formed and accumulated in the long-term usage of Chinese. These idioms have rich connotations and special constructions, closely related with traditional Chinese culture.

Due to information of geography, history, religious belief, tradition contained in Chinese idioms, it is difficult to find equivalents in English when translating. Therefore, translation of Chinese idioms is considered a tough job in the translation of Chinese language. Many researchers have investigated various aspects of Chinese idioms and generated constructive findings. Although there are no absolute standards of interpreting Chinese idioms till now, researches on this field have never been ignored and new theories keep coming out. In the previous researches, researchers shift the stress while expressing their ways of translating Chinese idioms. Some of them think that to translate properly is rather important that to find equivalence, which later developed to skopos theory; some think cultural elements should be considered as the fundamental points; while others stick to the linguistic elements.

To share the interest of this special topic, I would like to have a study on it on my own. In this thesis, I found many Chinese idioms in dictionaries, articles and contemporary novels, finding exact English translations in published versions, and then compared them and analyzed them. Finally I consider two general ways of translating Chinese idioms into English would be very useful: literal translation and free translation.

Chapter Two Feature of Idioms

Before focusing on the translation of Chinese idioms, we may first have an idea of the definition of idiom. So what are idioms? According to Cambridge English Dictionary, “Idiom is a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word understood on its own.”This definition tells us the form of idioms. The meaning of an idiom can’t be deduced from literal definitions or the arrangement of its parts. An idiom is an element of a language that possesses a unique way of expression based on time-honoured use (Ling Funing, 2003). Professor Li expresses the definition of idioms in a different way. However, he adds how idioms come into being, that is, “expression based on time-honoured use”. As I mentioned in the introduction part, idioms came alone with long-term usage of one certain language, and they express same meanings in unique ways, humorously or rather ironically. According to my understanding, generally idioms have four remarkable features.

First, and most important, idioms can’t be isolated from culture. Language is created and improved along with the development of human civilization; therefore language is always connected to culture. Geography, tradition, religion, history, or even literature, all of them affect the form and meaning of language. So are idioms, as one of the sparkling parts filtering from languages, they are doomed to be a part of culture. “卧薪尝胆,”for instance, is a well known idiom dated back to a Chinese history book called Shih Ji. Just like this one, there are a lot more four-character idioms coming from old Chinese books or stories handed down generation by generation.

Second, idioms manage to convey more information with fewer words. This is also a virtue of using idioms. Idioms tend to express things vividly and briefly, no matter in Chinese or English. In fact, it is mostly for this feature that idioms gain incredible vitality which enables them successfully to be passed down through generations.

Third, idioms are widely known and accepted in the region or countries using

them. As we know, without wide acceptance and use of one word, the word is not a word at all. Nearly everyday, there are new sayings coming out, maybe from internet, or a book, but until they get popular among people, they can’t be officially added to a language. Therefore, unless most of people in the community admit it and use it, an idiom can’t be official. In this way, while one idiom being accepted, a lot more sayings fade way.

Last, according to my observation, idioms are always descriptive. This makes idioms more visualized and charming. In stead of stating things directly and obviously, idioms tend to express with various emotions. We may say “生龙活虎”instead of “有精神”, “奄奄一息”instead of “快死了.”“生龙活虎”shows us a bright color. When we read it, we gain a little excitement. On the other hand, “奄奄一息”is a little gray. It contains a feeling of sympathy and sorrow. Comparing to the latter saying of these two examples, which describe objectively, the two idioms are very colorful, for they are created with those emotions.

With the four features, idioms become a special and interesting part of language, but meanwhile, translation of them becomes challenging.

Chapter Three Main problems in translation of Chinese idioms

into English

How to translate the idiom“倾盆大雨”？I once thought hard at it when my English teacher asked us in high school, but the answer “rain cats and dogs”was totally out of my expectation. I did n’t pay much attention to the answer at that time, but I searched through internet this time and got what I want. In the fable of northern Europe, cat is considered as one of the animals that affects the weather most. Sailors would say, “The cat has a gale of wind in her tail.” They predicted a coming storm from the movements of a cat. For this reason, cat is a symbol of heavy rain. In another fable, a god named Odin is in charge of wisdom, agriculture and war of human beings. He always brought “dog” with him as a signal of wind. Therefore, the word “dog”brings strong wind. Then there came the saying of “rain cats and dogs.”

Just like this example, there are a lot more English translations of Chinese idioms that would surprise us. Obviously, Cultural differentiation here makes the translation hard. In fact, due to different cultural background of each country, idioms are always characterized with a heavy sense of locality and nationality, which may not be easily understood by a foreigner. Both China and England have a long history and deep cultural background, thus the two languages have formed their own colors. A simple example may explain it. China used to be a big nation in history that mainly depended on its agriculture, using cattle to plough the field. Therefore, people tend to have a good feeling towards cattle, and this caused lots of idioms related to cattle, such as “九牛二虎之力”, “对牛弹琴”, “风马牛不相及”, “老牛舐犊.”However, England was one of the earliest industrialized countries. Agriculture was not the main source of economic growth. Before the rise of train and automobile industry, horse took an important position in transportation and daily life. Relatively, horse had been referred to a lot in English idioms, such as “horse doctor,”“horse laugh,”“put the cart before the horse,” and “talk horse.” Therefore, cultural barrier is the main problem in translating Chinese idioms into English. We have to explain certain concepts and phenomena that are not shared by the two cultures in order to overcome those barriers.

In this sense, the translation work requires not only language skills but also cultural knowledge of both Chinese and English.

Chapter Ⅳ Literal Translation and Free Translation

4.1 Literal translation

Both Chinese and English have a long history to make itself a perfectly completed language. Linguistically speaking, the two differ in a lot of ways. They have different sentence structures, grammars and different ways of forming basic words or characters. However, they also have many things in common. The biggest part is the content. This is quite easy to understand. When people find a new thing, they name it. Thus, theoretically, for most of objects, feelings, movements and other basic things in Chinese language, we are able to find words with same meanings in English. It is a very simple phenomenon, but it is the fundamental reason that translation is able to work.

Besides, even idioms, though culture specific, can sometimes have nearly same forms and connotations in two languages. “隔墙有耳,”for instance, is a Chinese idiom derived from the book Guanzi. The original sentence is “墙有耳者，为谋外泄之谓也,” meaning a secret talking was eavesdropped by others. In English, there is also a saying of “walls have ears,” which has the same meaning. Such phenomenon may not be easily interpreted as a coincidence. It proves that there are interlinks between Chinese and English.

Since the existence of these interlinks between Chinese and English, the basic way to translate Chinese idioms would be literal translation. As the name shows, literal translation is to translate idioms literally. It’s a very useful way of interpreting Chinese idioms and it is able to deal with many basic Chinese idioms. We may easily find examples. Here is a list of them:

“兴高采烈/兴致勃勃”: in high spirit;

“四海之内皆兄弟”: within the four seas all are brothers;

“少壮不努力，老大徒伤悲”: If one does not work hard when young, it will be useless for him to lament when old;

“种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆”: If you sow melon-seeds, you’ll reap melons; if you sow peas, you’ll reap peas;

“名不正则言不顺”: If the name is not correct, the words will not ring true;

“老鹰不吃窝下食”: the eagle does not prey on its own nest;

“千里姻缘一线牵”: two beings destined to marry each other, though born a thousand miles apart, can be tied together by a single string;

“竹篮打水一场空”: Drawing water from a bamboo basket --- all in vain.

In these examples, we may find out that literal translation reveals meanings directly, vividly and also gives foreigners a chance to have a real glimpse of how Chinese idioms work.

As is known to all, a large part of Chinese idioms originated from some books or literary quotations. Thus for them, we can translate literally and add a note, explaining the stories or quotations, so that readers would finally understand them. For example, we may translate the Chinese idiom “请君入瓮”to “Would you please step into the urn” and then add a note to explain the idiom like following: (a historical allusion: During the Tang Dynasty, Zhuoxing was suspend of being a rebel, the empress sent Lai Junchen to investigate the case. He asked Zhuo what he considered to be the best way of having a confession from a criminal. Zhuo suggested that the crimial should be put into a urn with charcoal around it. Lai prepared the urn and set the charcoal on fire as Zhuo suggested and then said to Zhuo “Would you please step into the urn.”) Also, for “卧薪尝胆,”the translation would be “Sleep on firewood and taste the bile from time to time” (a historical allusion: the king of Yue who defeated by the king of Wu, was determined to have a revenge. For this goal, he slept on firewood and taste bile from time to time to remind himself of the humiliation. Finally, he defeated Wu.) By the detailed introduction of the notes, it has no doubt that a foreigner can understand these idioms well.

Literal translation is a practical way to interpret Chinese idioms; however, it is not able to solve the main problem: cultural barriers. For idioms contained with rich cultural background, literal translation would always be a second choice. Besides, though adding notes to idioms gives readers a better understanding of how Chinese idioms forms and how they come to use, it costs much more words to explain and the extra note-space would also be a problem (a newspaper would never use it). What’s

more, not all Chinese idioms can be explained by a story or a quotation, because they may form in other conditions rather than from fables or quotations, or even, some of them are untraceable by now. Therefore, we have to find other ways to fix these problems and free translation would be a good choice.

4.2 Free translation

Free translation is to translate idioms according to their real meaning, but not translate literally. For instance, if we translate “塞翁失马，焉知非福”literally, it would be “When an old man on the frontier lost his mare, who could guessed it was a blessing in disguise.” Obviously, this translation is just telling a story without showing the real meaning of this idiom. However, if we use free translation, “A loss may turn out to be gain”is just to the point. Free translation emphasizes the cultural independence of both original and target language, thus it is the very way of dealing with cultural barriers in idioms and achieve “faithfulness, expressiveness, elegance.”

4.2.1Agreement in both Essence and Form (神似形似)

“Agreement in both essence and form” is the first category of free translation. In this style, both Chinese and English share the same or almost the same essence and form. For example:

“挥金如土”: to spend money like water;

“笑脸相迎”: to give glad eyes;

“患难同舟”: to be in the same boat;

“狐假虎威”: like a donkey in a lion’s head;

“笑掉牙齿”: to laugh one’s head;

“爱屋及乌”: love me, love my dog;

“良药苦口”: bitter pills may have welcome effects;

“大海捞针”: find the needle in a haystack;

“豺狼当道”: a lion in the way.

As the examples above show, the translations have almost the same forms with these Chinese idioms, but if you’ve read carefully, you may find a small part of the

idioms are changed. “土” is not translated into “earth,” but water; “牙齿” not “teeth”but “head”; “大海”not “sea”but “haystack.”These changes, however, are rather meaningful and suitable than being created optionally. We changed these parts into English sayings that are used in daily life of English people. Thus, it give foreigners a better and easier understanding.

4.2.2Agreement in Essence but Not in Form （神似形不似）

The second category of free translation is “agreement in essence but not in form.”In this category, the English translations of Chinese idioms have definitely different forms. As a matter of fact, in order to properly show the meaning of idioms, sometimes we have to change the forms, using other ways to express the ideas. Here are some examples:

“多此一举”: carry coal to New Castle. New Castle is a coal producing center in England, so carry coal to New Castle is meaningless;

“小题大做”: break a butterfly on a wheel. Here “wheel” is actually a instrument of torture in middle ages;

“正中下怀”: to play into one’s hands. This saying comes from card playing as a term to show that one has got into opponents’ trap.

“正人先正己”: sweep before one’s own door;

“越俎代庖”: to poke one’s nose into other’s business;

“人多手杂”: too many cooks spoil the broth;

“大智若愚”: still water runs deep;

“留得青山在，不怕没柴烧”: where there is life, there is hope;

“打草惊蛇”: to wake a sleeping wolf;

“猫哭耗子”: to shed crocodile’s tears;

Though the forms of these translations are quite different from the original language, they express the meaning of these idioms very well. In this category, we try to find a better way to fit the English language culture, overcoming cultural barriers, thus this category is a very flexible way to translate Chinese idioms.

4.2.3Agreement neither in Essence nor Form (神不似形不似)

“对牛弹琴”is a Chinese idiom we use frequently. It means explaining too much to a laic is useless. Though in some academic journals, I saw it was translated literally as “to play the harp to a cow”, I think it would not be proper. This translation may cause misunderstanding. As many advanced science and technology are applied in agriculture and farming, many foreigners may simply consider “to play the harp to a cow”as a way to help cows improve their milk product, for scientists have find some relationship between music and milk product of cows. Thus we have to consider about the usual words English people would use to explain the same situation. In fact, “throw pearls before swine” explains the idiom perfectly. It is originated from Bible (Matthew 7.6):“Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.” The Bible for westerners is just what the old Classics for Chinese. Therefore, this translation is very native and understandable for westerners.

This translation of “对牛弹琴” is borrowed from Bible. “对牛弹琴” and “throw pearls before swine” do not share the same essence, for they are created in the two languages describing different phenomena. We apply English metaphor in another field. Thus, according to the Chinese idiom, the translation of it has different essence and form.

This type of free translation is “agreement in neither essence nor form.”The translation is always from English old stories and books. The biggest feature is to borrow certain terms in stories and books to express our meanings.

“光打雷不下雨”could also be translated through Bible. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angles, and have not charity, I am becoming as sounding brass (Corinthians13.1).” Here “sounding brass” has a similar meaning with the idiom “光打雷不下雨,”so we can use it as an interpretation.

“打开天窗说亮话”can easily be translated as “talk turkey.” As explained in VOA, once a native Indian and a white American came to hunt animals. They got a turkey and a crow. When they shared the game, the Indian who got turkey wanted to change for the crow. He said, “Turkey, turkey!”After finding out what the Indian meant, the white man said impatiently, “You talk turkey; now I talk turkey.” Thus, talk

turkey is used when one wants to talk openly ever since.

Of course, there is no absolute right translation of a Chinese idiom, but free translation does help to find more appropriate ones to make idioms much easier for readers (who use target language) to understand. As these examples have shown above, free translation of Chinese idioms is rather subtle. It depends on interpreter s’knowledge of culture of English world. Therefore, to better translate Chinese idioms into English, we have to start on learning English cultures.

ChapterⅤSupplement

The last aspect we have to pay extra attention to when translating Chinese idioms is the context. Generally speaking, meaning contained in the characters of an idiom is always far away from what it really means. What’s more, the “beyond-character meaning” and actual vision readers get from an idiom are also not always the same. Thus, when we translate Chinese idioms, we have to first figure out what the authors’purposes when using them. Let’s take a look at the following examples: 1）在科学研究中，我们要发扬班门弄斧的精神。

2）在他面前显耀你的成绩无非是班门弄斧。

The idiom “班门弄斧” is used in both two sentences. The original meaning of it is to display one’s skill before an expert. In the first sentence, it expresses a positive meaning. The author tries to convince that we should develop this spirit. And readers get the idea that they should actively respond to the call. So I translate it as “We should carry on the spirit of challenge the authorities.” In the second one, the idiom tries to convey a negative meaning. The beyond-character meaning is that “you” are parading because of lack of self-knowledge and the speaker is reminding the other one to be convergent and unobtrusive. Thus I translate it as “to show your grade before him is really to teach fish how to swim.”

1)他处处树敌，已经是四面楚歌了。

2)公司现在是四面楚歌，天天都有人上门要债。

“四面楚歌” as explained in Chinese idiom dictionary, means “孤立无援，处于危机的境地（one is trapped in danger, but is alone and without aid.）” The first indicates that this person do not have friends around. People all take him as an enemy. The beyond-character meaning is that the man is isolated and the author tries to tell people the man’s situation. Therefore, we can translate it as “He made enemies everywhere and thus was utterly isolated.”However, in the second sentence, the meaning of “being isolated” does not seem to appear. It indicates that the company is strictly besieged by loaners without any hope to solve the problem, which shows readers the crisis of the company. After this analyzing, we may translate it as “The company

found itself under fires from all quarters with loaners’ visiting everyday”.

All in all, when translating idioms in a context, we have to figure out the function of the idioms and why the author use them, then we may understand the true meaning and translate them in a better way.

ⅥConclusion

In this paper, I list two basic ways to translate Chinese idioms into English. When we come across a Chinese idiom, we first consider if the literal translation is enough. If not, we use free translation. After finishing that, we put the idioms to the context they exist, and see if the idioms have changed its original meaning because of author s’ purposes of using them, then make some revising.

As I’ve referred, there are no absolute correct translations for Chinese idioms. Mostly, we translate them according to our experience. Therefore, I think the more a interpreter understands about Chinese idiom and the system of English language culture, the more proper and successful the translation would be. This paper is my thoughts on how to translate Chinese idioms for a better understanding. I hope it would be useful when I deal with similar problems in the future time.

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