On The Translation Of Zodiac Animal Elaboration From The Perspective Of Metaphor

The Chinese zodiac, also called the twelve animals, or twelve gods, is a collection ofsymbols for the years. It is a kind of culture with Chinese characteristics, based on12animals to record the birth of a person. During the long history of China, the Chinesezodiac has been inherited from generation to generation. This indicates its great vitality, itswide influence, and its strong cohesion.Metaphor translation has been one of the key points in translation studies. As aphenomenon of language, metaphor has profound cultural connotations. Metaphors notonly reflect a nation’s natural environment and history, but also imply the national religiousbeliefs, the modes of thinking, and the values of people and so on. Therefore, metaphortranslation should convey the various kinds of information effectively. Besides, metaphortranslation should be faithful to the text, and should reproduce the cultural connotationsand meanings of the source language.This thesis analyzes how to translate the zodiac animal names from the perspective ofmetaphor. In the translation process, the present author has read widely concerning relatedliterature, such as theories of metaphor and translation, and the cultural connotations ofChinese zodiac and its meanings. When we translate the zodiac animals, we will meet threeconditions: coincidence, conflict, and vacancy. Then the author uses some examples toillustrate the corresponding solutions, obtained as a result of the author’s research andanalysis. Firstly, we can keep the animal image, and explain its metaphorical meaning.Secondly, we can convert the source animal image into another corresponding image of thetarget language. Thirdly, we can translate its metaphorical meaning by abandoning theanimal image.Due to the differences between different cultures, people of various cultures will havedifferent understandings of the same thing. In the translation process, we should tackleeach case with discrimination and caution. The author takes her own translation practice asan example to shed light on the metaphor translation of Chinese zodiac animals so as to avoid the misusing of metaphors in translation as a mode of cross-cultural communication.