On The Translation Of Figures Of Speech In Agricultural Proverbs

Chinese agricultural proverbs are the collective wisdom of working people and valuable legacy of intangible culture.The agricultural proverbs reflect rich farming experience and agricultural knowledge;In the expression aspect,they are of vivid and concise language.Therefore,the agricultural proverbs are of high artistic and scientific value.With China promoting the protection of traditional farming culture and export of Chinese culture,the agricultural proverbs should be introduced to the whole world with English translation as a channel.This thesis is a reflection on a major problem during the translation of 800 Agricultural Proverbs.A variety of figures of speech are employed in agricultural proverbs,use of these figures of speech add much vividness and artistic appeal to the expression.A fine translation of these figures of speech can help realize the full presentation of Chinese culture in an English context,and generate a reading experience as close to reading the original work.The translation of figures of speech is a crucial yet a difficult task,therefore the author chose this as the main topic of this thesis.Agricultural proverbs are proverbs reflecting the farming activities and farmers’ life.The author proposed that for the content,agricultural proverbs can be considered scientific.The agricultural proverbs are deeply rooted in farming practice,and are mostly proven to be effective.The scientific feature of agricultural proverbs demand the translator to ensure accurate deliver of scientific information in the translation.For the expression aspect,the agricultural proverbs have characteristics of conciseness,popularity and artistry,which demand the translation to avoid long and complex sentences,and also try to maintain a reader-friendly style with certain rhetoric features.In all,there is a high requirement for accuracy of content and the representation of the original style for the translation of agricultural proverbs.Figures of speech refer to any rhetoric devices that add vividness and expressiveness to the language.Figures of speech used in agricultural proverbs are a crucial element for language expression and reflect the farmers’ colorful sentiments,therefore a good translation is vital for the deliver of the vividness and expressiveness,however there also lies a predicament for the transplant of Chinese figures of speech in English translation.The similarity in languages,cultures and patterns of thinking form the foundation for translatability,while the stark differences cause untranslatibility.Some figures of speech can be found both in English and Chinese with similar functions thus can be relatively easier to be delivered to the target language while some are closely related to language features so it would be more difficult to keep their form in target language.Therefore,the author divided figures of speech into two categories:relatively translatable figures of speech and relatively untranslatable figures of speech.Various figures of speech can be found in the 800 Agricultural Proverbs.The author chose ten figures of speech for translation case study in this thesis with five in each category.During the translation,the author noticed that for relatively translatable figures of speech in agricultural proverbs,most of them can be kept in English translation by literal translation method;For relatively untranslatable figures of speech,the translator would mostly cancel them in the target text to ensure the accuracy and integrity of meaning.In all,the translator should take the readers’ response as the priority,by ensuring the meaning in the first place and also trying to represent the rhetoric features in the target text.