Study On Metaphor And Its Translation In Classical Chinese Poetry

As we all know that metaphor bounds almost everywhere in our daily life, Aristotle once said that"the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor"and"from metaphor we can get hold of something fresh". Because of the physical and cultural experience, some metaphors are universal while others are different in different cultures, from the study of conceptual metaphor we can see that culture plays an important role in understanding metaphors. Therefore the author of this paper will discuss the use of metaphor in poetry and its translation in Classical Chinese poetry.The paper consists of five chapters: Chapter One gives a brief introduction to metaphor, which mainly consists two parts: traditional views on metaphor and conceptual metaphor, here the author of this paper focus on conceptual metaphor, its working mechanism and semantic features etc. Chapter Two is about poetry and metaphor, which includes the definition of poetry; features of Classical Chinese poetry and metaphor in classical Chinese poetry. Chapter Three is theories on poetry translation, the first issue is about whether poetry is translatable or not, then on the basis of poetry is translatable, the author of this paper lists three representatives and their principles on poetry translation while the words by Peter Newmark on the translation of metaphor is highlighted in this chapter, and also it is a guide to Chapter Four which analyses the features of metaphor translation in Classical Chinese Poetry. Through the analysis of the translated versions the author of this thesis divided the features of metaphor translation in Classical Chinese Poetry into three parts: retaining the original image; converting the original image and paraphrasing the original image. At last the author draws to the conclusion that poetry is translatable and the original meaning of the poetry could be regained by different methods, also it should be admitted that it is hard for the translated version to express the exact idea or feeling of the original, but we will never stop our way to success.