Conceptual Metaphors Of Human Being And Emotion In Fortress Besieged And Their Translations

The "functional equivalence" theory proposed by the famous scholar Eugene A.Nida emphasizes the equivalent translation,that is,the response of the target readers should be basically consistent with that of the original readers.Eugene A.Nida suggests that we evaluate the translation by the reader's response.Therefore,the Functional Equivalence Theory plays an important role in translation and translation studies.Ch'ien Chung-shu's Fortress Besieged has been popular with domestic and foreign readers for its profusion in vivid metaphors.Its English version translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao has been widely acclaimed after its publication.The study is a textual analysis of Ch'ien Chung-shu's Fortress Besieged and its English version based on Nida's Functional Equivalence.By collecting 138 metaphors of human as the target domain and 56 metaphors of emotion as the target domain,the study mainly analyzes the factors that affect the similarities and differences in conceptual metaphors concerning human and emotion between the Chinese text of Fortress Besieged and its English version and how Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao deal with these metaphors in translation.Research findings:firstly,in the English version,there are 108 metaphors that are concerned with Human Being and they are translated from metaphors to metaphors(among them,102 cases retain the vehicle of the source language,and the rest of them are translated from metaphors to non-metaphors).There are 30 emotional metaphors translated from metaphors to metaphors,the rest of them are translated from metaphors to non-metaphors.Secondly,many metaphors of human and emotion in Fortress Besieged are transplanted into the target language because of the translator's deep understanding of the source text and the common physical experience shared by the English-speaking and Chinese-speaking peoples.Having analyzed the specific cases,the study reveals that the common physical experience and culture can contribute to the optimal equivalence between the source and the target texts of translation.However,the differences between the two cultural models and the limitations of the translators about the Chinese language knowledge will make it difficult for the realization of the optimal equivalence in translation.