淺析英語習語的翻譯方法

紀東津

【摘要】美國人說話時，總會很自然地說出一些固定習語——我們中國人稱之為“成語”。大多數英語學習者聽到這些話都是一頭霧水；要么就不懂裝懂，傻乎乎地跟著人家笑。能夠用成語與外國人交流，絕對是一大挑戰！因為它具有挑戰性。無疑，學會熟練使用成語總是會令人感到震驚并留下深刻的印象。先從英語習語的特點和分類入手，探討英語習語翻譯的方法主要有直譯法、套譯法、意譯法還有加注法，還探討了運用這些翻譯方法時的幾個注意點。在此基礎上，我們通過搜集資料去發現現存的英語習語翻譯的問題有哪些，并對其進行比較研究提出相應的對策。一方面，讀者可以對英語習語的翻譯有進一步的認識與方法研究；另一方面，讀者在生活中與美國朋友聊天時或看電影時都能夠很好的運用到這些習語。

【關鍵詞】美式習語語境實用性翻譯策略I Introduction

Idiom is the essence of a language and the crystallization of human wisdom.Skilled，skillful，freely in daily communication in the use of idiom will be for you to win a lot of envy and admiration eyes. These native idioms thoroughly come into blood. Let your English icing on the cake， transcendental and free from vulgarity.

II Body

1.The characteristics of English idioms

The translation of English idioms refers the essence of language extracted by the people in the long term social practice. The essence of English idioms is generally refined in popular language.The characteristics of the translation of English idioms are short，concise and the rich ethnic cultural characteristics. In its broad sense，English idioms include idioms、proverbs、motto、proverbs、allusion、idioms and proverbs. English idioms have the form and characteristic of fixed， integrity，non-grammar，history，culture，ideology and art.Idioms as a special form of language，compared with the general language form，there are different characteristics.

（1）Nationality of idioms.Idioms are closely linked with geographical environment、historical background、economic life、customs、religious beliefs、psychological status、values and so on.It can clearly reflect a nations cultural characteristics. With a people of the earth may live in the world， some experience and consciousness are similar.

One of the typical manifestations of the nationality of idioms is that the same or similar figurative meaning but different objects of metaphors.

Another one of the typical manifestations of the nationality of idioms is that the same metaphorical image but different metaphorical meaning or not identical.

（2）Folk character of idioms. Most of the idioms of every language in this world come from folk.England is an island surrounded by sea，so most of idioms are related to sailing and fishing.Inland mountainous area people lived by hunting all their lives，many idioms，the extension of idioms included， are associated with them.As the housewife said：“A stitch in time saves nine.（一針及時省九針。）”

（3）The metaphor of idioms are important means of rhetoric in the language.The metaphor is the main means of rhetoric. In rhetoric，metaphor can be classified as simile、metaphor、metonymy and synecdoche.endprint

2.The nowadays existing questions of the translation of English idioms

Idioms is with the characteristics of incisive、vivid、beautiful、image、popular、implied meaning profundity in the language.The application of idioms has special and importance place，the English idioms are difficult to understand and they dont know how to translate the idioms when Chinese students are learning English. the main reason lies in not enough to master the characteristics of English idioms.English idioms， with rich and colorful，has a long history.Master them flexibly and apply them to the language，it will make the language lively and image.In view of this， if we want to do good translation of idioms，the first thing is to grasp the features of English idioms，we should avoid rote or take the words too literally.The translation problems of English idioms are mainly the following three points：

（1）The misuse of literal translation

①John likes to pat himself on the back.約翰喜歡捶自己的背。（正確譯法：約翰喜歡自吹）

②It happened that I had to answer the call of nature.碰巧我現在得對自然的召喚做出答復（正確譯法：碰巧這時我想解手）

③He kissed the hares foot.他吻了兔子的腳。（正確譯法：他遲到了。）

（2）Making misunderstanding from the literal or figurative meaning to associate

①It is a good horse that never stumbles.好馬也有失蹄時。（不宜譯成“良馬不失蹄”）

②It is a good man that never stumbles， and a good wife that never grumbles.好丈夫也有過失，好妻子也會嘮叨。（不宜譯成“從不失足的丈夫是好丈夫，從不嘮叨的妻子是好妻子”）

③It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest.再壞的鳥也不至于弄臟自己的窩。（不宜譯成“弄臟自己的窩的是壞鳥”）

④Time and tide wait for no man.時光如潮水，不等任何人（不宜譯成“時光和潮水不等人”）。

（3）To avoid the use of Chinese idioms of national characteristics when borrowing an equivalence

①Beauty lies in lovers eyes.情人眼里出美人。（不宜譯成“情人眼里出西施”）

②Many heads are better than one.一人不及眾人計。（不宜譯成“三個臭皮匠，頂個諸葛亮”）

③Never offer to teach fish to swim.不要教魚兒游泳。（不宜譯成“不要班門弄斧”）

（4）Choose one kind of translation according to the context

①ake care of the pence， and the pounds will take care of themselves.積少自然成多。/小事謹慎，大事自成。

②One swallow does not make a summer.一燕不成夏。/輕率推論必成大錯。/一關渡過并非萬事大吉。

③Still water runs deep.靜水流深。/外表淡漠而內心深情。/沉默著深謀。

3.The strategy of the translation of English idioms

The four translation methods of English idioms： literal translation、borrowing an equivalence、paraphrase、annotation.

（1）直譯法（literal translation）

The literal translation， as the name suggests， is not in violation of the language specification and under the condition of not causing the wrong associations. The methods of retaining the metaphor、image、national and local color. saying simply is to retain the original cultural image， or according to the literal. Although the Chinese readers might not be familiar with some English idiom metaphor and image.but it has a strong political sense in a certain article，Or it has the obvious western nations，places，history and other colors，this kind of idiom can be translated with the literal translation. for example：the idioms“crocodile tears”can be literally translated into“鱷魚的眼淚”，Chinese retained the imagery of the crocodile tears，Chinese had no such expression method.，“crocodile tears”is not an image in Chinese culture. Reading this idioms， chinese also wont consider it has something to do with hypocrisy，but in fact，Chinese accept the translation.This method not only retains the colloquial local， image and dialect， also can keep the original source language expression，often also can enrich the target language and culture. for example：endprint