On The Translation Of Metaphor In Chinese Classical Poetry

The study of metaphor has broken through the traditional rhetoric restriction since 1930s and has reached a multidisciplinary period since 1970s. The understanding of metaphor also develops from lexical level to sentence level and then to any discourse. In this dissertation, the author attempts to apply the recent researches on metaphor-the "two-domain" model from the experientialist theory and the "many-space" model from the conceptual integration theory to the translation of metaphor in Chinese classical poetry (CCP).This paper classifies metaphor into four types with LA. Richard's terms (tenor, vehicle and ground). Except the special type of symbolic metaphor, metaphor is classified into regular metaphor (a metaphor in which both the tenor and the vehicle make appearances), vehicle-only metaphor and tenor-only metaphor according to their structures.Basing on the "Three Beauty Theory" (beauty in form, sound and meaning) of Xu Yuanchong (许渊冲) in translating CCP, the author puts forward the " Four Beauty" criteria in translating metaphor in CCP to English: The ideal version should retain the original beauty of metaphor in image, form, sound and meaning.Metaphor usually goes beyond the denotative meaning and comes under the influence of contexts (linguistic context and cultural context). In view of this, accurate understanding of the specific contexts serves as the foundation to the understanding of metaphor.This paper concludes with the view that the structure and the discourse level of a metaphor as well as the specific contexts and artistic mood work as the key factors in the translation of metaphor in CCP.