A Critique Of Metaphor Translation In Fortress Besieged By Kelly. J. & N.K.Mao

This thesis intends to explore from the perspective of translation of figures of speech (metaphor in particualr) the differences in ways of thinking and culture between China and the West reflected in translation.As is maintained, metaphor is a means of cognition of human beings, a creative mechanism. Just because one aspect of an object can not reflect the whole of it, people should try to understand it from other aspects. Based on different social experiences and practice, a metaphor, as a matter of fact, is an aggregate of ideas reflecting a more or less complete understanding of an object.One of the most striking artistic characteristics in the novel of Fortress Besieged, is the employment of various rhetoric devices– metaphors in particular. How the translators, Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao, crack this nut of translation? As is well known, the feature artistry is an essential requirement for literary translation. Given the many ways of expressing the content, a translator needs an artistic eye and ability to create vivid yet proper ways of expressing ideas. Through focusing on some of the outstanding figures of speech found in that novel, the writer of this thesis made a comparison between the metaphor in the original and their renditions in the English version and came to the realization that the translators keep almost all the features of the original novel through literal translation or foreignizaiton. And they have their express intention of introducing the essence of the Chinese culture embodied in those metaphors in order for the English-speaking readers to better appreciate the profundity and scope of the Chinese culture. It is also found that, influenced by western culture, Qian Zhongshu intersperses his novel with lots of metaphors familiar to westerners.Following from the above analyses, the writer of this thesis reports a case study conducted to find out how native speakers respond to the metaphors typical of Chinese culture. The case study took the form of a survey carried out among some native speakers to elicit their judgment of the understandability and authenticity of the translated metaphors. Next, the results of the survey are contrasted with the Chinese originals. Finally, some exploration is made into the cultural differences and differences in ways of thinking that have caused some of the mistranslations.