Deal with the Cultural Factors in the Translation of English Idioms into Chinese

Abstract：Idioms are the nation 's mirror， it reflects a nation's historical and cultural features， people's attitude to life and the differences of thinking modes. This article through to the English idiom translation principles and methods in detail， with many vivid examples， to help learners better understand western culture， to improve their abilities of English idiom translation.

Key Words：English idiom； feature； culture； translation principle

Idioms are closely related to the culture they belong to. Before we discuss the translatability of idioms， let us discuss the translatability of culture.

1.Untranslatability of Culture.

Culture is characterized by obvious regionalism. It is the product of human history and it is born and develops with the appearance and development of mankind. The appearance of mankind is regional and at the first stage of development， different groups of human beings are isolated from each other； therefore， each group creates its own culture in the way of its own， hence its cultural specialty. This specialty will be shown in the language---the major carrier of the culture--of that group of people. For example， to express “to brag or boast”， English use stalk horse， while Chinese uses 吹牛. The difference in linguistic expression is largely due to cultural differences. The Chinese culture originates from agriculture， and the Chinese ancients were closely related to the ox （牛） in their living， while the western culture develops from anomalism， and the western ancients depended on horses for their survival. All these differences reflect the difference between the two cultures in the way of thinking and conventional expressions of language characteristic of each of them formed in different regional atmosphere.

If different regional and special cultures lack extensive and frequent exchanges between them， a translator does not thoroughly grasp the specialty of the source culture and language for lack of penetrating observation and careful comparative study by him， and the target reader has not yet been prepared psychologically to accept the way taken by the translator in dealing with the cultural specialty， then successful translation between the source language and the target language will be very much difficult to be fulfilled and thus untranstatability can be the result. Therefore， we can say that the regionalism is the prerequisite for the existence of untranslatability between different cultures.

2 .Condition for Changing Untranslatabilty into Translatability.

Besides regionalism， culture is also characterized by transregionalism. People of different cultures are similar in the need to survive， pattern of living， and basic sentimentality. People of different cultures almost all express joy by laughing， grief by weeping and angry by glaring. Such homogeneity will also inevitably be reflected in language， and makes it possible for there to exist in different languages a great number of equivalent， or corresponding， or similar expressions， thus making possible the cross-cultural communication. For example， the expressions自食其果，趁熱打鐵，禍不單行in Chinese can find their almost equivalent expressions in English： eat the food of one’s own doings， strike while the iron is hot， and misfortunes never come singly. The homogeneity is also shown in the language structure. This is one of the manifestations of the transregionalisticity of culture.

Another manifestation is cultural cross-fertilization which is the process of interchange or interplay between different cultures. The contacts between different cultures will cause cultural exchanges inevitably. For example， some translated western idioms such as 替罪羊 and 武裝到牙齒 have been assimilated into the Chinese language， and thus will not constitute obstruction for Chinese readers to understand them.

3. National Color and Translatability of Idioms

As we discussed in the first chapter of this thesis， idioms are relatively fixed phrases or clauses formed through long time use. All the languages with a long history in the world are rich in idiomatic expressions and Chinese and English are no exceptions. If the translatability of idioms were negated， then it would mean that the translatability of the language as a whole would be negated， thus keeping out different cultures . The translatability of idioms should be understood first of all as the reproducibility of the intended meaning of idioms. This conception implies the relativity of translatability， for there exists inevitable untranslatability due to cultural and linguistic reasons.

The translator can flexibly adopt various procedures of translation in dealing with cultural and linguistic differences. Flexibility， which is not arbitrary and ungrounded applications of the translated methods， requires that the translator take into account the various aspects of being expressive in translation and the various factors relevant to translating idioms， and thus seek the best way to deal with the cultural and linguistic differences in the translation of English idioms into Chinese.

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