| Content: Translating is a complex and fascinating task. I. A. Richards (1953) once claimed that translating is probably the most complex type of event in the history of the cosmos. This is because, as a cross-cultural communication event, it involves not only two languages but also two cultures. Although on the surface it seems to be interlingual transformation, it is actually conveyance across cultures. This common understanding has already been reached in the translation circle, for people's attentions have been shifted from emphasis on linguistic transfer towards more emphasis on cultural transfer. Metaphor is not just an important figure of speech, but is also a cognitive means of human mind. Due to the fact that each people has the similar or dissimilar mode of thinking in relation to other ones, the metaphorical language used by this people must be fully saturated with cultural connotations peculiar to it. So under the influence of culture, the translation of metaphors becomes the most important particular problem (Newmark, 2001:104). This thesis attempts to probe into the translation of metaphor from the cultural perspective with a view to analyzing and identifying its cultural connotations so that we could possibly seek for appropriate translation strategies.The thesis consists of three chapters in addition to an introduction and a conclusion. The Introduction briefly reviews the intimate relations among language, culture and translation,pointing out the recent theoretic trend of "cultural turn" in translation studies. As metaphor is a concentrated reflection of culture, it is of great significance to discuss its cultural connotations and translation.Chapter one mainly deal with the problems of metaphor relevant to translation, including its definition, types etc, and puts forward that it is necessary to classify metaphor from the cultural perspective, for this classification facilitates our comparison of the cultural generality and peculiarity between Chinese and English metaphors, thereby conducive to seeking appropriate translation techniques.Chapter two is devoted to analysis and comparison of the cultural generality and peculiarity between English and Chinese metaphors, elaborating that there exist the fourcorresponding relationships between image and sense of English / Chinese metaphors:(1) same image, similar sense;(2) same image, different sense;(3) different image, similar sense;(4) absence of image and sense.Among these relationships, the first one manifests the cultural generality, while the others embody the cultural peculiarity.Chapter three explores the two fundamental strategies for cultural transfer: the source language culture-oriented and the target language culture-oriented, namely, foreignizing and domestication. The two strategies can be used alternatively in translation practice. If possible, first priority is given to foreignizing with a view to promoting cultural communication. This general principle is implemented through a number of basic translation techniques in dealing with cultural connotations imbued in metaphors: (1) reproducing the original image in the TL (literal translation); (2) replacing the image in the SL with a standard TL image; (3) retaining the original image + compensation inside or outside the text; (4) conversion of metaphor to sense (free translation); (5) omission. The translator should make a flexible choice in the concrete context and never follow the cast-iron rules.In the conclusion, it is reiterated that interlingual translation is involved in making the original culture intelligible to the target reader. Despite a problem of translation techniques, metaphor is imbued with so abundant cultural connotations that the translator, in choosing his techniques, should attach greater importance to the original cultural connotations, endeavor to narrow the gap between the culturally divergent language pair, and overcome the untranslatability caused by the incomparability between the two cultures, in order that his/her versions could re...
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