Conceptual Metaphor Translation In Tao Yuanming’s Pastoral Poetry: A Comparative Study

Metaphor, in the history of linguistics and translation studies, is onceconsidered as a primary element in rhetoric. However, Lakeoff’s cognitive view ofmetaphor makes people begin to learn about the influence metaphor has on people’sthinking mode, and language use. Certainly, the translation of metaphor has beenchanging with the development of metaphor view. Conceptual integration theory, putforward in1985by Fauconnier, based on the mental space theory, is rapidlyemerging as a one of the major forces in cognitive science. Chinese classical poetrywhich is known as a sea of metaphors has been paid more and more attention to.Through studying the metaphor translation, this paper, which selects the conceptualmetaphors in Tao Yuanming’s pastoral poems as the data aims at finding thedifferencees in the translation strategies by different translators. This thesis selectsTan Shilin, Burton and Yang Xianyi’s English versions of Tao Yuanming’s pastoralpoems as the sources of data. Research method in this thesis is case study. After theanalyses, the conclusions indicate that in translating common metaphors, translatorsmore and often adopt the literal translation, and when translating the culture-loadedmetaphors literal translation or free translation is used by different translators fortheir different culture backgrounds and lifestyles.