The Translation Of Chinese Four-Character Idioms With Parallel Structures In Feng Ru Fei Tun

Four-character idioms are a uniquely Chinese phenomenon,which makes them difficult to be rendered into English.Therefore,studying how they were translated will provide insight into the methods and mechanisms of their translation,and may help us better translate them in the future.This study collected the Chinese four-character idioms with parallel structures from Feng Ru Fei Tun by Mo Yan and studied how Howard Goldblatt translated those idioms in Big Breasts&Wide Hips and how the structures of idioms and the constituents they serve in sentences influence their translation.The findings are as follows.From the perspective of the constituents idioms and their translations function in sentences,we found that when idioms function as attributes or adverbials,their translations mainly function as attributes and adverbials as well.However,when idioms function as objects or predicates,the constituents of their translations tend to be more diversified,with no constituent dominating the translation.From the perspective of the structures of idioms and their translations,we found that when idioms function as attributes or adverbials,they are usually translated as adjectives or adverbs with similar meaning,with structures of idioms exerting virtually no influence upon their translation.However,when idioms function as objects or predicates,structures of the idioms exert a significant influence upon their translation.Furthermore,we found that the unique structures of Chinese four-character idioms are usually lost in translation.Very few translations preserve idioms’ structures.