| With the development of the globalization, translation is no longer a communication simply between two languages, but a communication across culture. And the new concept of translation sets a higher bar for translators. Metaphor, as the most pervasive figures of speech existing in all languages is always heavily loaded with its local culture, and it arouses growing concerns from theorists and translators.Hong Lou Meng, the masterpiece of literature and culture celebrated for its abundant figures of speech, provides us ample resources for metaphor translation study. And its two successful English versions: A Dream of Red Mansions by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, and The Story of the Stone by David Hawkes and John Minford are our case study objects.Through the study, we find that the vital part of a metaphor is the image and the sense, whose relations would affect the translating of its metaphor. Also, according to"image and sense mode", metaphors can be classified into four types: (1) the image exists in the target language and it can fully cover the original sense; (2) the image exists in the target language, and it can partly cover the sense; (3) the image exists in the target language, but it has no connection with the sense; (4) the image does not exists in the target culture.From Nida's theory of Functional Equivalence / Dynamic Equivalence, the thesis develops more applicable principles and examining mode for translating metaphors, i.e. Semantically Equivalent, Culturally Equivalent and Aesthetically Equivalent.The thesis also collects the practical methodology for translating metaphors. |
