Translating Conceptual Metaphors In Literature

Metaphor translation is a subject well discussed in the field of translation research.Traditional studies on metaphor are most oriented at rhetorical aspect.However,conceptual metaphors focus not only on the rhetorical level of metaphors,but also view metaphors as a means of cognition and a way of thinking.They are in-depth and essential metaphors.There are plenty of conceptual metaphors in literary works.Profound cultural connotations in them determine that the task of transforming images cannot be solved well by only considering the lexical and syntactic structure.It can be said that the quality of conceptual metaphor translation determines the quality of the literary translation.Based on that,analyzing literary works from the perspective of conceptual metaphors is not only conductive to the appreciation of metaphorical expressions in the works,but also can instruct us to pay attention to profound reasons of the generation of metaphors and choose appropriate methods to translate relevant expressions.This report focuses on the translation of metaphors in literature under the guidance of "conceptual metaphor theory" with the 33rd Chapter of Lu Fan Yanshi as its original materials.There are plenty of metaphorical expressions in Lu Fan Yanshi,which is not only full of aesthetic value,but also represents author's intention---pursuing freedom and dream.During the process of translation,the translator first understood author's intention of metaphor creation by conceptual metaphor theory.Then,the translator discussed,analyzed and summarized different methods dealing with different conceptual metaphors.This report has five chapters in total.The first chapter describes the task and introduces the research background,research significance and structure of the report.The second chapter describes the process of the translation,giving a brief introduction of pre-translation phase,while-translation phase and after-translation phase.The third chapter introduces Lakoff and Johnson's conceptual metaphor theory.The fourth chapter is case study in which different translation methods are analyzed and summarized.The fifth chapter summarizes the major finding and points out the limitations and suggestions of the report.During the translation,the translator adopts literal translation to deal with the image could be perceived by target readers;using literal translation plus annotation to deal with the images that exist only in Chinese in order to maintain the image and explain the metaphorical meaning;using idiomatic translation to substitute the image hard to explain concisely in order to give similar reading experience to the target readers and when there is no corresponding metaphor,the translator adopts paraphrase and deletion to avoid the sense of stiffness and lengthiness.These methods are not only of high feasibility,but also provide a new perspective for literary translation in the further.