On C-E Translation Of The Idioms In Selected Works Of Mao Tse-Tung (Vol.1-5)

One major feature of Chairman Mao Tse-tung's writings is his skillful and frequent use of terse, poignant and wisdom-laden idioms to get his profound ideas across to the general public. These idioms represent the most beautiful gems of the Chinese language and culture and constitute the most important and challenging part of C-E translation.By tracing the relationship among idioms, language and culture, the author of this paper endeavors to explain the C-E translation of the idioms in Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung(Vol.1-5) from a cultural perspective. The author suggests that, as language is the carrier of culture and language is itself culture, translation should be regarded as building a bridge between two languages and cultures. In this sense, translation of idioms should take culture into account and should be carried out from a cultural perspective. Meanwhile, the author argues, semiotics holds solutions to many problems in translation of idioms. As culture is a system of verbal and non-verbal signs and language represents man's most sophisticated use of signs, a major task of translation is to convey the three aspects of semiotic meaning from SL into TL.Based upon this theoretical footing, the author summarizes criteria of translation in Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung(Vol.1-5) and identifies eight general strategies (Literal Translation; Free Translation; Substitution; Transliteration; Annotation; Generalization; Amplification; Shift of Perspective) with other minor supporting devices in rendering the three aspects of semiotic meaning and achieving cultural equivalence. Finally, the author calls attention to the non-linguistic and linguistic factorsthat need to be taken into account in the translation of the idioms and suggests improved versions to some of the translated idioms in Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung(vol.1-5).