A Contrastive Study Of The Use Of Metaphors In The Chinese And English Versions Of Fortress Besieged

Fortress Besieged is the masterpiece of Qian Zhongshu. A major characteristic of the language use of this novel is its abundant and splendid use of metaphors. In the end of 20 th century, the American translator Jeanne Kelly together with Chinese American writer Nathan K. Mao translated this novel into English. The English version has received extensive praises from the English readers and is considered as the best Chinese novel in the 20 th century. Since the birth of this novel, the metaphors in it have always been the focus of scholars. However, most of the previous studies are focused on the metaphors in the Chinese version; the metaphors in the English version are long been neglected. As an excellent work of translation, the application situation and unique features of the metaphors in the English version are still a blank to be filled in the studies of this novel.Therefore, this thesis makes a quantitative and contrastive study on the metaphor use in the two versions of Fortress Besieged from the aspects of the overall distribution and the corresponding status of two types of metaphors in the two versions. It aims to discover the similarities and differences of the metaphor use in these two versions and analyze the linguistic, cultural and translative causes for these similarities and differences. On the basis of the profound connotations gained in the analysis, this thesis also discusses the comprehension and translation of metaphors in other Chinese and English literary works.By adopting both the quantitative and qualitative methods, this thesis collects the statistics about the quantity of simile and metaphor in the two versions as well as the quantity of the Chinese metaphors that are treated in different ways in the English version. On the basis of the statistics gained, this thesis makes a further analysis to the profound causes for the similarities and differences of metaphor use in the two versions from the aspects of language, culture and translation strategy. This contrastive study discovered: as for the overall distribution of metaphors in the two versions, there are abundant use of metaphors in both the Chinese and English versions of the novel; the proportion of two types of metaphors in the two versions is very similar. The simile is the most widely used and dominant metaphor type in the two versions while the metaphor only accounts for a very small proportion in distribution. Besides, the total quantity of metaphors in the Chinese version is bigger than that in the English version, but in view of the specific metaphor types, there are more similes in the English version than in the Chinese version and more metaphors in the Chinese version than in the English version.As for the corresponding status of the metaphors in the two versions, it is discovered that all of the Chinese similes and a small number of Chinese metaphors are reproduced in the English version. But nearly 70% of Chinese metaphors are converted to English similes; replaced with different vehicles; converted to non-metaphorical expressions or just ignored in the English version. It is also discovered that several Chinese similes are added with new English vehicles in the English version, as a result, new English similes with no counterparts in the Chinese version is invented by the translators.As for the linguistic, cultural and translative causes for the similarities and differences of metaphor use in the two versions, it is found that due to the similarities of cultures, common grounds of living experiences and thinking modes as well as the foreignization strategy adopted by the translators, all of the Chinese similes and a certain amount of metaphors are reproduced in the English version. And due to the drastic differences of the cultures and the domestication strategy adopted by the translators, a large amount of Chinese metaphors are not reproduced in the English version.Based on the connotations gained in the study, This thesis suggests to reclassify the metaphors into the culture-loaded metaphors, universal metaphors and individualized metaphors in order to better comprehend and translate them in literary works. It also suggests that for the culture-loaded metaphors, the foreignization strategy can be applied when the cultural elements are from the target language or the translator wishes to preserve the cultural flavor of the source language; the domestication strategy can be applied when the cultural elements of the source language is too unique and difficult to understand for the target language readers; for the universal and individual metaphors, this thesis suggests to adopt the foreignization strategy to preserve the language and personal style of the metaphors as much as possible.