Translation Of Metaphors In Li Qingzhao’s Ci-poems:a Comparative Study From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

As one of the important genres of classical Chinese literature, Ci-Poems represent thevictory of a dynasty in literature. Taking on the features of both literature and music, they containplenty of metaphors, through which the readers can enjoy the broad and profound Chineseculture and get knowledge of Chinese history. Li Qingzhao, a famous poetess, composed a largenumber of Ci-Poems, which has won her universal praise. Her unique style was honored as“Yi’an Style”. In her works, metaphors are pervasive and help to increase the expressive effect toa large extent. Many translators and translation theorists have made great contribution to theresearch of her works from different aspects. However, because of the great differences betweenEnglish and Chinese culture, there is still a long way to go for the research on the comprehension,translation and spreading of the metaphors used in her works.Research by cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology shows that metaphor is apowerful tool for people to understand and express abstract concepts. It is not only a languagephenomenon but is more a psychological process that has cognitive conceptual sense. Researchon metaphor has attracted many scholars’ attention. In particular, the issue of how to translatemetaphors in an exact way has become the common aspiration for translators and translationtheorists.The Relevance Theory, which opens up a new way for the study of metaphor translation,takes communicative activities as a context-dependent “ostensive-inferential” process. Inaccordance with the theory, which has a great power for explaining translation, the translatorshould fully understand the intention of the original author and decide his intention of translationby considering the target language (TL) readers’ cognition. He should increase the contextualeffects, provide optimal relevance, and accordingly achieve success in delivering the author’sintention to the TL readers.By adopting the qualitative, deductive and synchronic research methods, in light of thecognitive linguistic theories on metaphor, the study first analyzes and categorizes the metaphorsin Li Qingzhao’s works. Then, under the guidance of Relevance Theory, it makes a comparativeanalysis and evaluation of the different translations of the metaphors used in Li Qingzhao’sCi-Poems from the aspects of contextual effect, relevance and optimal relevance. Finally, itclaims that before making choice of translation strategies, the translators should consider thecorrespondence of the source domain of a metaphor between SL and TL. If there iscorrespondence, the strategy of literal translation can be adopted. Otherwise, the translators should employ the strategy of free translation or literal translation with annotation.From the above research, the following conclusion is drawn: Firstly there exist richmetaphors in Li Qingzhao’s works, which can be principally classified into the two categories ofTIME metaphors and EMOTION metaphors. Secondly, each version has its own features and isat the same time not that perfect in translating metaphors. Thirdly, the translators should manageto increase the contextual effect so as to arrive at optimal relevance. Lastly, Relevance Theory,which originates from the west, can effectively guide and evaluate the translation of metaphorsin classical Chinese poetry.This study helps to prove the practical function of Relevance Theory in directing andevaluating the Chinese-English translation of metaphors and it extends the research field of LiQingzhao’s works. Since metaphor is an important vehicle for expressing emotion and its propertranslation influences the transfer of the information, the exact translation of metaphors in poetryand beyond can promote the intercultural communication and accordingly strengthen theintroducing of Chinese culture.