Cultural Foreignness In Four-Character Chinese Idioms And Their Translation

Domesticating translation and foreignizing translation are two opposite translation strategies in terms of the rendering of cultural differences. Both of these two translation strategies attach great importance to the cultural flavor but with different focuses. Domesticating translation is target-language and culture oriented while foreignizing translation is source-language and culture oriented. The "foreign" in foreignizing translation is not a transparent representation of an essence which is in the foreign text and precious in itself, but a strategic construction whose value relies on the current language situation.Idioms are the essence of Chinese language. Splendid culture and vivid ways of expression are presented through idioms. Chinese idioms are usually made up of four characters. It is undeniable that there is a huge cultural gap between Chinese and the English. Since idioms carry abundant cultural elements They may accordingly contain a great amount of cultural foreignness. Taking cultural features of idioms into consideration, and in light of foreignizing translation theory, the author tentatively analyzes the foreignness in four-character Chinese idioms from three dimensions:Chinese history, religion and beliefs, and diet culture. According to the analysis of foreignness enfolded in the three aspects, this thesis conducts a comparative study of their English translations which are mainly collected from Dictionary of Chinese Idioms With English Translation published by The Commercial Press International Limited (2005). The analysis of the samples has the following findings: first, foreignness could be in the four-character Chinese idioms originating from historical events, which contain the names of the ancient kingdoms, countries and historical personage. Foreignness is in the four-character Chinese idioms depicting battlefield in ancient times which contain the two objects:banners and drums; second, foreignness is in the four-character Chinese idioms in connection with Buddhism, Confucianism as well as primitive beliefs of Chinese people; third, foreignness exists in the idioms that have a close link with food and drink, including crops and Chinese alcohol. Moreover, foreignness exists in the four-character Chinese idioms related to farming including farm land and cattle.In conclusion, the employment of foreignizing translation strategy in rendering four-character Chinese idioms may be of great significance to safeguard the cultural foreignness in the idioms, signify the cultural dissimilarities between Chinese and English, restrain the ethnocentric violence of translation, and help the foreign readers gain a deeper understanding of Chinese idioms. Furthermore, though domesticating translation weakens the foreignness in the translated text, it could nevertheless enable the foreign readers to comprehend the idioms in a way with which they are familiar. Therefore, domesticating translation could be a supplementary for the translation of Chinese idioms.