On Translating Figures Of Speech—A Translation Report Of Lucky Man: A Memoir(Chapter 6-7)

Not only known as a renowned actor in America but also as a fighter against Parkinson‘s disease, Michael J. Fox in his autobiography Lucky Man: A Memoir(Lucky Man for short) managed to present to his readers what it means, as Ernest Miller Hemingway put it, by that ?a man can be destroyed but not defeated.?The report was written based on the translation practice of the Chapter Six and Seven of Lucky Man. Featured by authenticity and literariness, the book was an auto-biography, which depicted Fox‘s first half of his life. With a large number of details, dialogues and psychological description, the autobiography impressed readers in that facing Parkinson‘s disease, Fox had a brave, positive and optimistic attitude. His language was simple, sincere and humorous. Lucky Man is an inspiring book, worthy of being read.Three characteristics could be found in Lucky Man. Spoken English was mixed with written English; contents related to professional and cultural backgrounds were involved; a number of figures of speech were utilized, including simile, metaphor, personification and analogy. Since it stood out among the three, posed the greatest challenge to the translator, and embodied both authenticity and literariness of a biography, the characteristic of figures of speech was finally chosen as the subject of the thesis.As for translating figures of speech in a biography, four approaches were mainly applied, including literal translation, substitution, conversion and omission. Then each approach was elaborated on with a number of examples.Finally, it is concluded that the translation of figures of speech in a biography should reflect the nature of the genre. Literal translation should be considered as the first option, because it can both retain the images in the source text and reproduce the style of the source-text author. If this option is not plausible, substitution and conversion can be taken into consideration, because the same aesthetic effects can be reached. Although images and expressions may be altered, the target text remains faithful to the facts in the source text. In addition, omission should be the last solution. If literariness cannot be preserved due to various reasons, the authenticity of a biography should be kept. In other words, the meaning of the source text should not be sacrificed.