A Study On E-c Translation Of Metaphors In Legal Issues In The Merchant Of Venice

As the first translated Shakespearean drama in China,The Merchant of Venice is one of the most discussed Shakespearean plays in the study of "law and literature".Due to the complexity of translators' interpretation of its legal issues especially the metaphors herein,the translations of The Merchant of Venice take a wide variety of titles of the drama in target language.And versions of Zhu Shenghao and Liang Shiqiu are most popular and well accepted by readers.Therefore,we explore the legal issues in this drama by employing Zhu and Liang's versions and method of qualitative study.The research questions are:(1)What are the categories of legal issues in The Merchant of Venice?(2)As for the metaphors in these legal issues,what E-C translation strategies do Liang Shiqiu and Zhu Shenghao take?(3)What can we learn from Liang's and Zhu's translation strategies?The conclusions are:(1)Based on Hegel's Philosophy of Right and the structure of this play,most metaphors of drama are distributed in following legal issues:"Bond of Flesh","Default and Punishment","Selection of Husband by Casket Game","Court Trial" and "Ring Trial".(2)From the perspective of Conceptual Integration Theory,Liang tends to keep the images of metaphors in ST;Zhu tends to change or expurgate the image of metaphors in ST,and the sense of metaphors is partially rendered.(3)Based on the translation strategies of two translators,Liang's version better conveys the image of metaphors in ST,but the fluency of TT language is affected;Zhu pays more attention to literary form of drama and fluency of TT language and his version is more suitable for stage performance.