A Study On The Translation Of Metaphor In Zhang Peiji’s Selected Modern Chinese Essays 1: From The Perspective Of Newmark’s Metaphor Translation Theory

As a common rhetorical device of language,metaphor appears frequently in various literary works and is deeply loved by readers.During the May 4th Movement in China,a large number of outstanding Chinese scholars wrote modern essays that expressed their true feelings.In these modern essays,the flexible use of metaphor is one of the main features.As a famous translator in China,Mr.Zhang Peiji’s Selected Modern Chinese Essays 1 covers the representative modern essays of many famous Chinese writers during the May 4th Movement.However,how to translate the rich metaphors contained in these essays is a tricky problem.In recent years,researches on metaphor have emerged one after another,which has attracted much attention of scholars.Selected Modern Chinese Essays 1 contains many metaphors which fully expresses the author’s true feelings and draws the reader into a deep involvement.The flexible application of metaphor is a major feature in Selected Modern Chinese Essays 1,but it has turned into a thorny problem in translation.Guided by Newmark’s metaphor translation theory,this study firstly explores five types of metaphor: dead metaphor,cliché metaphor,stock or standard metaphor,recent metaphor and original metaphor and their three characteristics:(1)conciseness,vividness and rich cultural connotation(2)novelty and inspiration(3)euphemism and elegance in Selected Modern Chinese Essays 1;secondly,metaphor translation strategies are analyzed based on Newmark’s metaphor translation theory and then it is founded that there are six metaphor translation strategies applied in Selected Modern Chinese Essays 1 including recurring the same metaphor in TL(target language),replacing the metaphor in SL(source language)with metaphor in TL,retaining the metaphor in SL with sense,altering the metaphor in SL into simile in TL,transferring metaphor in SL to non-metaphor in TL,omitting metaphor in SL.Finally,this study further summarizes the tendencies of different metaphor translation strategies by the translator in Selected Modern Chinese Essays 1 with the help of corpus method and seeks the reasons behind it.It is concluded that the general strategies are recurring the same metaphor in the TL and transferring metaphor to non-metaphor,and the factors behind it are the translator’s thoughts,the influences of patron and ideology.The author implores the translation strategies of metaphor under the guidance of Newmark’s metaphor translation theory in Selected Modern Chinese Essays 1 and seeks the reasons behind the tendencies of metaphor translation strategies with the help of corpus method in order to explain the power guidance of Newmark’s metaphor translation theory in Chinese-English translation,promote the further development of metaphor translation studies through revealing the factors behind the tendencies of translation strategies,and provide some references for translation practice of metaphor in future.