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Cultural Differences and Translation in
English and Chinese Idiom
1.
Introduction
What is an
English idiom? An idiom is a group of words
established by usage as having a
meaning not deducible from those of the
individual words. (Wang 2000) Idioms exist in any
language.
The
English
language
is
noted
for
its
wealth
of
idioms.
They
are
the
essence
of
English language and the
crystallization of English culture. They reflect
typically the whole
experiences of
working people
’
s lives and
the social history.
Having experienced
the evolution of eras, English idiom has formed in
phrases and short
sentences
after
ample
social
practices.
Concerning
its
broad
sense
appellation,
it
includes
idiom, phrase,
proverb, slang, sequel, locution, allusion etc.
Especially English
and Chinese
are
defined
to
this
sort
of
existing
sentence,
which
is
also
called
idiom
(set
phrase)
that
indicates from fixed versatile popular
short sentence. These form-fixed short sentences
have
been
gradually
developed
and
can
’
t
be
torn
apart
freely
or
rebuilt.
They
generally
possess
fixed
form
and
meaning,
denotes
a
general
conception,
and
appears
in
a
sentence
as
a
component with vivid image. Thus it is
proper to modify matters for its character
conciseness
and being easily understood
and remembered. Therefore it is popular among the
masses.
The meanings of some of the
idioms are definite, and others are implicit which
can raise
luxuriant
association.
Comprehension
of
them
should
be
based
on
the
context
in
order
to
understand
it
accurately,
for
the
idioms
possess
some
extensive
meanings.
As
frequent
exchange of Chinese and west cultures,
English idioms have found their way to all fields
of
our lives just as our national
essence, at the same time. In the meantime,
English idioms and
Chinese
idioms
possess
similar
side
and
different
side
owing
to
the
distinction
between
bilateral national cultures and social
surrounding. In order to do the translation well
we must
carefully
distinguish
the differences.
In this
essay, we
will analyze the sources
and
cultural
background of the
English idioms, and way of translating them into
Chinese.
2.
Sources of
English Idioms
The
abundance
and
variety
of
idioms
in
the
English
language
may
be
to
great
extent
accounted for by the historical
development of the language. And as part of
language, idiom
’
s
emerging and growing is just the result
of the enrichment of English language. So the
sources
of
English
idioms
are
deeply
involved
in
the
process
of
people
’
s
communication
in
which
language
is
the
essential
media.
Idioms
are
often
short
and
brief,
but
to
write
down
the
thoughts and feeling they contain needs
lots of books.
As
idiom
’
s definition states,
it is created by the people who speak English
during a long
period of time. Knowledge
of the sources of these idioms may help us to
comprehend what
they really mean, so it
is worth our effort to give an account of the
factors which lead to their
formation.
2.1 Idioms from Daily Life
Generally speaking, the sources of
English idioms are basically lives of working
people,
such as agricultural life,
economy life, nautical and military life and so
on. For example,
―
A
nine to five
job
‖
: regular work as an
employee, especially in an office, shop, and
factory, etc.
It corresponds to
―
常日班
‖
in Chinese. In English speaking countries, work
normally begins
at nine in the morning
and ends at five in the afternoon. Hence comes up
the idiom.
2.2 Idioms from Literature
There are a lot of idioms
coming from literary works, such as
The
Bible
, works writen by
William
Shakespeare,
The
Fables
of
Aesop
,
and
other
myths
and
legends.
For
example
―
a
thorn in one
’
s
flesh
‖
means (fig)
―
constant source of
annoyance
‖
.
―
To flutter the
dovecotes
‖
means
―
to alarm quiet
people
‖
.
―
The
lion
’
s
share
‖
means
―
the larger or largest
parting
‖
. (
The
Lion
’
s Share
from
Arnold
Bennett)
3.
The Cultural
Differences Reflected in Idiom Translation
―
The
most
elusive
thing
to
comprehend
and
translate
the
foreign
literature
is
its
associated
meanings,
‖
as
Mr.
Zhu
Guangqian
said
in
his
On
Translation
,
―
translation
possesses special emotional
environment, which is very broad and delicate and
tremendously
important, but can not be
found in the dictionary. We will be confused if we
are not familiar
with
the
local
conditions and customs
abroad as well as its historical
cultural
backgrounds.
However
this
is
absolutely
difficult
to
handle
with
in
translation.
‖
(1996,
110)
The
British
anthropologist Edward Tailor, in his
original culture, mentioned culture as a
conception first
time, and added that
―
culture, including
knowledge, beliefs, arts, morality, law and
customs, is
a
sort
of
complex
ability
and
habits
acquired
in
social
practice
‖
.
(Worrall
1975)Obviously,
culture, which covers fields, is a
compound system. As a component of culture, idiom
reflects
colorful ethic cultural
phenomenal. As stated above, we can say cultural
difference reflected
in English idioms
can be divided into varieties and mainly embodied
in the following areas.
3.1 Cultural
Differences in Living Surroundings
It has close relations between the
formation of idioms and
people
’
s activities and
lives.
As an insular county, Britain
had once been the
master of
the sea.
Comparatively, our Han
People
lived
long
on
the
Asian
continent
people
and
could
not
live
any
more
once
they
stepped
out of the land. There are many words about
―
boat
‖
and
―
water
‖
in English idioms.
It
’
s a pity that
no completely corresponding idioms can be selected
in Chinese language. For
example,
―
to rest on
one
’
s
oars
‖
(
暂时歇一歇
),
―
to keep
one
’
s head above
water
‖
(
奋力图存
),
―
all
at
sea
‖
(
不知所措
)
etc.
Simultaneously,
in
Chinese
cultural
circumstance,
west
wind
refers
to
the wind in
siring, and
summer is
always connected with
brutal and sultry words,
“赤日炎似火烧，骄阳似火”
. All these
words are adapted to describe summer weather. In
Britain, which is
located in
the northern temperate zone in western
hemisphere, and enjoys
ocean
weather,
west
wind
is
the
symbol
of
spring
’
s
coming,
a
famous
British
poet
Shelley
expressed his praise
of spring in his
Ode to the West
Wind
. It is jolly and amiable in
England
when
summer
is
coming,
so
English
people
like
to
use
―
lovely,
warm,
nice
‖
to
describe
summer weather. Moreover, Shakespeare
compared the lovely summer in one of his sonnets.
―
Shall I compare thee to a
summer
’
s day? Thou art
lovelier and more
temperate
‖
.
3.2
Cultural Differences in Customs
There
are
many
differences
in
English-Chinese
idioms.
Nothing
if
more
typical
than
people
’
s
opinions
toward
―
dog
‖
,
which
is
a
humble
animal
in
China,
and
it
is
frequently
associated with derogatory meanings
such as dog-associated words,
―
< br>狐朋狗党，狗急跳墙，
狼心狗肺，狗腿子
‖
etc.
seemingly
dog
’
s
status
has
been
accepted
and
increased
in
recent
years due to more and
more people adopt dogs as pets in China, the dogs
are deemed as the
most loyal friends in
western English-speaking countries. Most of dog-
associated words are
not
derogatory
except
some
of
them
affected
by
other
culture.
We
can
usually
compare
a
person
’
s
behaviors with dog in English idioms, for example,
―
you are a lucky
dog
‖
(
你是一个
幸运儿
),
―
every dog has its
day
‖
(
凡人皆有得意日
), lead a
dog
’
s life
(
过穷困潦倒的日子
)
etc.
When expressing a person
’
s
terrible illness, people like to use
―
sick
‖
as a
―
dog
‖
,
when
expressing a quite exhausted
person, people use
―
dog-
tired
‖
. On the contrary
Chinese people
are found of cat, thus
they like to use
―
馋猫
‖
to indicate a person
’
s
greediness for food with
affectionate
sense.
But
in
the
western
culture
―
cat
‖
is
used
to
describe
―
a
tricky
and
malevolent woman
(
包藏祸心的女人
).
3.3
Cultural Differences in Religion and Beliefs
There is a host of religion-and
–
belief associated words in
English and Chinese idioms.
People
believe
that
there
exists
God
who
masters
all
things
in
the
world.
Buddhism
has
adopted by Chinese over
one thousand years, which has many associated
idioms, e.g.
闲时不
烧香，临时抱佛脚
.
People believe in Christian very much in western
countries, especially in
the U.S. and
the U.K. so there are many associated idioms such
as
―
god helps those who help
themselves
‖
(
上帝帮助自助的人
), a famous curse
idiom
―
go to
hell
‖
(
见鬼去吧
).
3.4
Differences in Historical Allusions
There are a number of idioms
originating from historical in English and Chinese
history.
They are usually simple in
structure and profound in meanings.
Insomuch we translate their
meanings from the Chinese history. For
example,
东施笑颦，
名落孙山，
and
叶公好龙
etc.
Most of the English allusions come from
the Bible and ancient Greek and Roman Myths, e.g.
―
Achilles
heel
‖
(
唯一致命的弱点
),
―
meet
one
’
s
waterloo
‖
(
一败涂地
)
―
Penelope
’
s
web
‖
(
永
远完不成的工作
),
―
Pandora
’
s
box
‖
(
潘多拉之盒—灾难，
麻烦，
祸害的总根源
) etc.
Though
there
are
no
completely
the
same
expression
in
English
and
Chinese,
for
example,
to
hold
one
’
s head high
(
昂首挺胸，充满自信
), still we have
similar or related counterparts.
4.
Ways of translating English Idioms into
Chinese
To understand the background
and sources of English idioms and the difference
between
English and Chinese idioms
basically are the prerequisite to translate idioms
into the good,
correct,
corresponding
version,
which
we
are
familiar
with.
There
are
a
lot
of
methods
to
translate English idioms,
but
the main are literal
translation, free translation
and equivalent
translation.
Let
’
s analyze them with
examples respectively.
4.1 Literal
Translation
When conducting this
method to
translate,
we should
not
violate the Chinese language
rules.
Under
this
condition,
we
not
only
should
keep
the
original
comparison,
image,
characteristics and the obvious tint of
nation, locality and history reflected in the
idioms, but
also contribute to absorb
in some new words, sentence structure and
expressions etc. e.g.
1) Hitler was
armed to the teeth
when he
launched the Second World War, but in a few
years, he was completely defeated.
In this sentence, the translator
translated
armed to the
teeth
as
武装到牙齿
.
It is more
vividly and lively,
simultaneously, and the tone is stronger. If the
translator translated it as
全
副武装
, the tone
will be reduced.
2) Say one word more
and I
’
ll
bury a
white blade in you and pull it red
.
再说别的，
我让你白刀子进去红刀子出来
。<
/p>
Though
there
are
some
English
idioms
can
be
translated
into
Chinese
corresponding
version literally, the volume is not
big. In Sentence 2), the phrase
―
bury a white blade in you
and pull it red
‖
(
把白刀子捅进你身体，
拔出来的是红色的
) if basically same as the Chinese
idiom
白刀子进，红刀子出
.
It remains
the peculiarity
like simile, image and so on in
the
idioms.
The following
phrases can be translated into Chinese literally;
we can find the equivalent
idioms in
Chinese language.
Dig one’s own
tomb
—
自掘坟墓
; A thorn in the flesh
—
肉中
刺，眼中钉
When
we
do
su
ch
kind
of
translation
we
should
understand
the
words’
meaning,
sometimes we should
also be aware that we could convert the function
of vocabulary when
we
translate
English
into
Chinese.
New
wine
in
old
bottle
—
旧瓶装新酒
;
Packed
like
sardines
—
挤得像沙丁鱼
; Blood is thicker
than water
—
血浓于水
4.2
Equivalent Translation
There
are
some
English
idioms
similar
as
Chinese
idioms
in
form,
content,
figure
of
speech.
So we can use equivalent translation. Some of the
idioms in Chinese and English are
the
same.
1) I think, and I
certainly hope, those stories are terribly
exaggerated.
Our intelligence
says.
Still there is a
smoke.
我觉得，我当然也希望这些报道是夸大了。我们
的情报人员是这样，
不过无风不起
浪
。
Certainly,
when
we
translate
something,
our
minds
should
be
live
and
open,
so
the
function
of words or expression can be changeable.
Sometimes we must omit some part of the
original
sentences
or
passages
when
we
translate
them,
but
sometimes
we
should
add
something to make the version more
smoothly.
In this sentence the phrase
―
there is a
smoke
‖
is shortened from the
phrase
―
where there
is smoke there is
fire
‖
(
有烟必着火，无火不起烟
). If we are
confined to the ellipsis form of
the
original
and
translate
it
as
只要有烟
or
有烟的地方
,
readers
would
be
bound
to
be
confused. A
better method, comparatively, is to employ the
equivalent Chinese idiom
无风不
起浪
with
the
emission
of
ellipsis
from
of
the
original,
which
would
be
more
correct
and
appropriate.
2) Well,
it
’
s too late to
hide now, must try to
avoid
suspicion
by throwing them off the
scent
.
如今即使赶着躲，想躲
也躲不及了，少不得要
使个金蝉脱壳的法子
。
< br>
English
idiom
―
to
throw
somebody
off
scent
‖
is
different
from
the
image
of
Chinese
idiom
金蝉脱壳
, but the main idea of
speech is close. Both of them have the same
meaning:
try to escape, so this set of
idioms can be translated equivalently.
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