On The English Translation Of Metaphors For Plants In The Book Of Poetry From The Perspective Of Cognitive Linguistics

The Book of Poetry is known as the first anthology of poetry in China andprecious gem of world literature. It is served as a bridge for cross-culturalcommunication between eastern and western countries. The English translation of TheBook of Poetry has significances, which can enrich Chinese civilization, arouseChinese people’s passion towards traditional culture and develop cultural soft power.At present, research towards The Book of Poetry is often from the angle ofliterature and culture, but rather less from the perspective of cognition. Traditionalresearch regards metaphor only as a figure of speech, while the nature of cognitivemetaphor advocates understanding and experiencing an object based on another one. Itroots in cultural system and reflects on the level of thought and language,This paper will analyze the metaphoric images for plants in The Book of Poetryusing the conceptual metaphor theory, and probe into the English translation strategybased on the theory of conceptual blending theory with the aim to stress on thefunction of cognitive factors. During the research, it states the basic questionsincluding:1) What is the cognitive basis for metaphor?2) How to analyze themetaphors in The Book of Poetry using cognitive linguistic theories?3) Which kind ofnew translation strategies can be stated out? Through the research, this paper finds thatit is better to adopt literal translation strategy when translating the metaphors of mirrorblending network model and single-scope blending network model; but adopt freetranslation as for translating double-scope blending network model. Every translationcan not be independent from the cross-culture understanding. Thus the author states outthe basic model for cross-culture understanding so as to make a contribution toresearch on English translation of Chinese classics.