Translating Conceptual Metaphors From English Into Chinese:A Case Study Of Out Of The Corner (Excerpts)

On June 24,the US Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 decision renounced Roe v.Wade,a milestone that enshrined the constitutional right to abortion in the nation in 1973.In Dirty Dancing,Frances Houseman,the heroine,borrows money for Penny’s abortion against a backdrop of anti-abortion.Jennifer Grey,who played Frances,adds of the Supreme Court’s ruling "this is just so fundamentally wrong" Grey had experienced abortion before she won critical acclaim for her performance in Dirty Dancing,which she implied in her memoir Out of the Corner.The original text contains a large number of metaphors,especially when Gray describes the process of her nose job,she uses a series of metaphors to describe this turning point in her life,and through metaphors,she constructs a conceptual system of"self-perception" and "identity" behind it.Thus,the metaphors she uses are not restricted to linguistic ornament,but rather structure a "self" that she perceives,and they are systematic and cognitive in nature,forming a conceptual metaphor.This prominent linguistic phenomenon poses a challenge for translation:how to translate these metaphors,whether to make them explicit,and how to construct the concept of identity in the translation so that readers can better understand Gray’s journey of self-recognition and identity when reading Chinese.In 1980,Lakoff and Johnson proposed conceptual metaphors from the perspective of cognition and analyzed their characteristics,dividing conceptual metaphors into three categories.This paper will focus on the similarities between the path of Newmark’s procedures for metaphor translation and the characteristics of conceptual metaphors,modify Newmark’s theory,and analyze the choice of specific translation strategies by combining specific examples of the ontological,orientational,and structural metaphors in Out of the Corner.In conclusion,the translation of ontological metaphors mainly relies on reproducing the same conceptual metaphor in the TL or if the conceptual metaphor is constructed by a subculture,retaining and explaining it in the TL.The translation of orientational metaphors mainly resorts to reproducing,because English and Chinese cultures have the same physical and cultural experience in metaphorical orientation.Finally,in accordance with the similarity of the conceptual metaphor systems in the two cultures,the translation of structural metaphors mainly uses the standard conceptual metaphor in TL,or retains the original one and explains it,or deletes the conceptual metaphor and uses ordinary.Translators will retain and explain it when the structural metaphors are constructed by the author as a subculture,and the situation should adapt to the specific change.