On The Translation Strategies Of Emotional Metaphors Related To Sadness In Li Qingzhao’s Ci-poetry

With the development of cognitive science the1970s, Lakoff andJohnson’s conceptual metaphor theory has broadened the scope ofmetaphor study from a cognitive perspective. Researches have indicatedthat translation of metaphor plays an important role in cross-culturalcommunication. Li Qingzhao is the representative of Wanyue Shool andher Ci-poetry has been explored from various perspectives. However,most researches are based on single theory and limited examples.Based on the theoretical framework of Conceptual Metaphor andSemantic Translation, the present study focuses on studying the emotionalmetaphors related to “sadness” in Li Qingzhao’s Ci-poetry. By comparingand contrasting the two different English versions by Xu Yuanchong andKenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung, it attempts to explore thecharacteristics and the translation strategies of emotional metaphors, aswell as to explore when each strategy is adopted.The study shows that emotional metaphors can be classified intoontological metaphors, structural metaphors and orientational metaphorsand each type of metaphor has its own characteristics. The translation ofmetaphors is, in fact, the translation of images. There are four translationstrategies to deal with the images related to emotion in poetry. Firstly,retain the original image of the source language when the same image intwo languages has the same metaphorical meaning; secondly, retain the original image of source language with explanation under the conditionthat the metaphorical meaning expressed by the image in the sourcelanguage is similar but not the same with that in the target language;Thirdly, replace the original image of the source language with acorresponding one in the target language when a same metaphoricalmeaning is expressed by two different images; Lastly, delete the imageand paraphrase the image when no corresponding images are found intwo languages. These four translation strategies are applicable to thetranslation of emotional metaphors in poetry.