A C-E Translation Report On The Stories Of Beijingers(Excerpts):Difficulties In Translating Idiomatic Metaphors In Literature Fiction And Coping Tactics

The material of this translation project is excerpted from the Beijing local-color novel,The Stories of Beijingers,published by Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House in 2019,with a total of 12353 words.This is a collection of short stories about portraits of ordinary Beijing residents and pictures of their daily lives and experience.The book’s language features are mainly manifested in the use of Beijing dialects,such as a large number of dialect words and idiom phrases.When adding vivid effect to the language of the text,the metaphors contained in the idiomatic phrases also bring many challenges to the translator.How to maintain the characteristics of the idiomatic metaphors while conveying the implicit connotations of the phrases is the primary concern facing the translator.The translation difficulties are further divided into three parts:(1)idiomatic metaphors translation with the same vehicle and different metaphorical meanings;(2)idiomatic metaphors translation with the same metaphorical meaning and different vehicles;(3)idiomatic metaphors translation without corresponding vehicles in the target language.According to the Relevance Translation Theory,a quality translation should make the intention of the original writer and the expectations of the target reader consistent.The translation theory stresses optimal relevance,which requests translators to enable readers to get enough contextual effects with the least processing effort.Based on that,the reporter tailors the following tactics: annotation within the text and amplification are employed to deal with the idiomatic metaphors translation with the same vehicle and different metaphorical meanings;meanwhile,in response to the second difficulty,imagery substitution and corresponding translation are adopted;to fix the third difficulty,literal translation with footnotes is put forward.This translation report aims to provide more translation methods to translate the idiomatic metaphors in literary works,hoping that it can shed new light on the related studies and be helpful for the other translators who are dedicated to translating this kind of literary work.