Metaphor Translation In Sandalwood Death From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Verschueren's Adaptation Theory is a systematic theory with a general cognitive,social and cultural perspective on linguistic phenomena in relation to their usage.This theory is applicable to translation studies for translation can be viewed as a special form of language use.As an important figure of speech,metaphor is frequently used in literary works.It plays important roles like constructing themes,portraying characters,expressing emotions,depicting scenes,so it has become a focus of concern in literary translation studies.Mo Yan uses plenty of metaphorical expressions in Tanxiangxing,which contributes to the artistic appeal of the work.Based on the Adaptation Theory,this paper attempts to design a model for metaphor translation according to which metaphor translation is a process of dynamic adaptation and translators mainly make adaptations in two aspects,linguistic context and communicative context,and aims to examine metaphor translation in Sandalwood Death from these two aspects with typical examples from Tanxiangxing and Sandalwood Death,exploring why and how the translator makes adaptation in metaphor translation and how dynamic adaptation is reflected.It is found that: 1)the Adaptation Theory has a strong explanatory power for metaphor translation;with it,a deeper understanding of the process of metaphor translation can be gained and it also demonstrates that a good translation should be the product of the translator's appropriate adaptations to the source and target context;2)Goldblatt makes appropriate adaptations to contextual factors inside and outside of the source language and target language in order to keep faithful to the source text,to reproduce the original rhetorical effect,to retain linguistic features of metaphors and meanwhile to satisfy communicative function and purpose;3)from the angle of the source text,the methods of translating metaphors that Goldblatt adopts include literal translation,free translation,substitution,omitting,literal translation plus supplement,translating metaphor into simile,simile plus supplement;4)Goldblatt's translation choices are all made based on his dynamic adaptation to various factors involved in translation activities and the dynamics of adaptability is particularly reflected in that he adapts to the changing context and flexibly deals with the same metaphors.The present study investigates metaphor translation in Sandalwood Death from the perspective of Adaptation Theory,which offers an illustration of the application of the theory to metaphor translation and broadens the studies on its English version.Moreover,the paper is hoped to provide theoretical guidance and practical reference for translation practitioners in metaphor translation through a detailed analysis of typical examples.