浅析英语习语的翻译方法

纪东津

【摘要】美国人说话时，总会很自然地说出一些固定习语——我们中国人称之为“成语”。大多数英语学习者听到这些话都是一头雾水；要么就不懂装懂，傻乎乎地跟着人家笑。能够用成语与外国人交流，绝对是一大挑战！因为它具有挑战性。无疑，学会熟练使用成语总是会令人感到震惊并留下深刻的印象。先从英语习语的特点和分类入手，探讨英语习语翻译的方法主要有直译法、套译法、意译法还有加注法，还探讨了运用这些翻译方法时的几个注意点。在此基础上，我们通过搜集资料去发现现存的英语习语翻译的问题有哪些，并对其进行比较研究提出相应的对策。一方面，读者可以对英语习语的翻译有进一步的认识与方法研究；另一方面，读者在生活中与美国朋友聊天时或看电影时都能够很好的运用到这些习语。

【关键词】美式习语语境实用性翻译策略I Introduction

Idiom is the essence of a language and the crystallization of human wisdom.Skilled，skillful，freely in daily communication in the use of idiom will be for you to win a lot of envy and admiration eyes. These native idioms thoroughly come into blood. Let your English icing on the cake， transcendental and free from vulgarity.

II Body

1.The characteristics of English idioms

The translation of English idioms refers the essence of language extracted by the people in the long term social practice. The essence of English idioms is generally refined in popular language.The characteristics of the translation of English idioms are short，concise and the rich ethnic cultural characteristics. In its broad sense，English idioms include idioms、proverbs、motto、proverbs、allusion、idioms and proverbs. English idioms have the form and characteristic of fixed， integrity，non-grammar，history，culture，ideology and art.Idioms as a special form of language，compared with the general language form，there are different characteristics.

（1）Nationality of idioms.Idioms are closely linked with geographical environment、historical background、economic life、customs、religious beliefs、psychological status、values and so on.It can clearly reflect a nations cultural characteristics. With a people of the earth may live in the world， some experience and consciousness are similar.

One of the typical manifestations of the nationality of idioms is that the same or similar figurative meaning but different objects of metaphors.

Another one of the typical manifestations of the nationality of idioms is that the same metaphorical image but different metaphorical meaning or not identical.

（2）Folk character of idioms. Most of the idioms of every language in this world come from folk.England is an island surrounded by sea，so most of idioms are related to sailing and fishing.Inland mountainous area people lived by hunting all their lives，many idioms，the extension of idioms included， are associated with them.As the housewife said：“A stitch in time saves nine.（一針及时省九针。）”

（3）The metaphor of idioms are important means of rhetoric in the language.The metaphor is the main means of rhetoric. In rhetoric，metaphor can be classified as simile、metaphor、metonymy and synecdoche.endprint

2.The nowadays existing questions of the translation of English idioms

Idioms is with the characteristics of incisive、vivid、beautiful、image、popular、implied meaning profundity in the language.The application of idioms has special and importance place，the English idioms are difficult to understand and they dont know how to translate the idioms when Chinese students are learning English. the main reason lies in not enough to master the characteristics of English idioms.English idioms， with rich and colorful，has a long history.Master them flexibly and apply them to the language，it will make the language lively and image.In view of this， if we want to do good translation of idioms，the first thing is to grasp the features of English idioms，we should avoid rote or take the words too literally.The translation problems of English idioms are mainly the following three points：

（1）The misuse of literal translation

①John likes to pat himself on the back.约翰喜欢捶自己的背。（正确译法：约翰喜欢自吹）

②It happened that I had to answer the call of nature.碰巧我现在得对自然的召唤做出答复（正确译法：碰巧这时我想解手）

③He kissed the hares foot.他吻了兔子的脚。（正确译法：他迟到了。）

（2）Making misunderstanding from the literal or figurative meaning to associate

①It is a good horse that never stumbles.好马也有失蹄时。（不宜译成“良马不失蹄”）

②It is a good man that never stumbles， and a good wife that never grumbles.好丈夫也有过失，好妻子也会唠叨。（不宜译成“从不失足的丈夫是好丈夫，从不唠叨的妻子是好妻子”）

③It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest.再坏的鸟也不至于弄脏自己的窝。（不宜译成“弄脏自己的窝的是坏鸟”）

④Time and tide wait for no man.时光如潮水，不等任何人（不宜译成“时光和潮水不等人”）。

（3）To avoid the use of Chinese idioms of national characteristics when borrowing an equivalence

①Beauty lies in lovers eyes.情人眼里出美人。（不宜译成“情人眼里出西施”）

②Many heads are better than one.一人不及众人计。（不宜译成“三个臭皮匠，顶个诸葛亮”）

③Never offer to teach fish to swim.不要教鱼儿游泳。（不宜译成“不要班门弄斧”）

（4）Choose one kind of translation according to the context

①ake care of the pence， and the pounds will take care of themselves.积少自然成多。/小事谨慎，大事自成。

②One swallow does not make a summer.一燕不成夏。/轻率推论必成大错。/一关渡过并非万事大吉。

③Still water runs deep.静水流深。/外表淡漠而内心深情。/沉默着深谋。

3.The strategy of the translation of English idioms

The four translation methods of English idioms： literal translation、borrowing an equivalence、paraphrase、annotation.

（1）直譯法（literal translation）

The literal translation， as the name suggests， is not in violation of the language specification and under the condition of not causing the wrong associations. The methods of retaining the metaphor、image、national and local color. saying simply is to retain the original cultural image， or according to the literal. Although the Chinese readers might not be familiar with some English idiom metaphor and image.but it has a strong political sense in a certain article，Or it has the obvious western nations，places，history and other colors，this kind of idiom can be translated with the literal translation. for example：the idioms“crocodile tears”can be literally translated into“鳄鱼的眼泪”，Chinese retained the imagery of the crocodile tears，Chinese had no such expression method.，“crocodile tears”is not an image in Chinese culture. Reading this idioms， chinese also wont consider it has something to do with hypocrisy，but in fact，Chinese accept the translation.This method not only retains the colloquial local， image and dialect， also can keep the original source language expression，often also can enrich the target language and culture. for example：endprint