澳 門 大 學
UNIVERSIDADE DE MACAU
Metaphors in Chinese Literary Translation
--A case study of Fortress Besieged
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts in Translation Studies
by
Lei Yanbo
Supervisor: Dr. Wang Xian, Vincent
University of Macau
June 2011
DECLARATION
The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original and
my own, except as acknowledged in the text, and has not been submitted, either in whole
or part, for a degree at this or any other university.
Signed: _______________
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor Dr.
Vincent Wang for all his inspirations and advice throughout the preparation and writing
of my Master’s thesis. Thanks to his helpful suggestions, valuable guidance, warm
encouragement and patient corrections, it is possible for me to accomplish the thesis in
time.
I wish to express my sincere thanks to Professor Zhang Meifang, whose instructions
and guidance have shaped my way of thinking, deepened my understanding of translation
studies and given me the useful academic competence. My thanks also go to all the
teachers in the Department of English, University of Macau. I am particularly grateful to
Dr. James Li, Dr. Victoria Lei and Dr. Hari Venkatesan for their erudite lectures and kind
help from which I have benefited a lot.
I am also very grateful to Ms. Liu Xiao, Mr. Cai Zhanpeng, and all my fellow
classmates and friends who have offered me their generous help and made my two years
a really nice experience and memory in the University of Macau.
Finally, I would like to express my heart-felt thanks to my dearest parents for their
strong support, useful advice and deep care in the past of two years and the fulfilling of
my Master’s thesis.
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ABSTRACT
The present study concentrates on metaphor translation which reflects the close
relationship between language and culture. The thesis employs quantitative and
qualitative approaches to attempt a comprehensive investigation on the metaphors in Qian
Zhongshu’s masterpiece Fortress Besieged and its English translation. Our sample is
restricted to implicit metaphors, which excludes similes. The study uses Peter Newmark’s
(1988b) translation procedures for metaphor translation and analyzes their occurrence
frequency as well as applicable situations in order to reveal how the metaphors are
translated. Moreover, Lawrence Venuti’s (1995) notions of domestication and
foreignization are employed to discuss the translation tendency of the two translators of
Fortress Besieged—Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao.
From our sample of 139 metaphors, nearly 40% of the metaphors are translated
literally, i.e. the metaphorical images are retained. In about 35% of the metaphors, the
images are omitted and the implied meanings are paraphrased. It is found that the
translation strategies of domestication and foreignization coexist in our sample. Some
main influential factors to the use of translation strategies are discussed. In addition, the
author of the present thesis gives some suggestions to improve a number of inadequate
translations.
It is hoped that the detailed and comprehensive analysis of the metaphors in Fortress
Besieged and their English translations will reveal information about the translation
procedures and strategies used, and cast some light on the possible ways to render
Chinese metaphors.
Keywords: metaphor; Fortress Besieged; literary translation.
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
With the rapid development of science and technology, the world is becoming a global
village. As living in what has been called the Information Age, people should keep the
whole world in view. Cultural exchanges around the world have been livelier than before
and the tendency seems to be on the rise. People are anxious to communicate with the
outside world and with others who speak different languages and have different cultures.
In the process, the interflow and conflict are inevitably. Translation plays a very vital role
in intercultural communication. The translator, as a cultural mediator, is responsible to
facilitate the interpersonal communication and promote cultural exchanges.
It is known that some rhetorical devices are commonly used and blended in the
communication, such as metaphor, irony and so on. Metaphor is a universal linguistic
phenomenon which is widely applied in our daily lives. It is also one of the most
frequently used figures of speech in literary works. In most of the time the metaphors are
tied up with cultural features. For this reason, the translation problems are hardly
avoidable when the translators dealing with metaphors. Compared with simile which is
always formed with “like” or “as” to express the resemblance between different things,
metaphor is not as obvious. Without such indications, metaphors are less recognizable.
The translator may not even recognize that he/she is facing a metaphor because it is often
culture-bound and invisible. Owing to the above characteristics, metaphor translation is
regarded as a difficult task for translators. For this reason, how to deal with the metaphors
raises scholars’ and translators’ concerns. “Translation on metaphors represents the
epitome of all translation of language for it provides translators with a variety of options
to convey to readers the hidden meaning of a conversation or passage.” (Wang Jing 2005:
52) The present study concentrates on this focus taking Fortress Besieged and its English
version as a sample.
1
1.2 Aims and objectives
This thesis aims to look into the translation methods and strategies for translating
metaphors from Chinese to English by a detailed analysis of the translations of the
famous Chinese novel Fortress Besieged. The author of the present thesis will analyze the
occurrence frequency of Peter Newmark’s translation procedures for Chinese-English
metaphor translation and explore the applicable situation(s) of each procedure. In
addition, the translation tendency will be discussed and the potential factors that affect
the translators’ choices of translation strategies will be further explored. In the process of
research, the answers of the following questions are expected to be found:
a. Which procedure/method for metaphor translation is the most frequently used in
the translation by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao?
b. In what kinds of situations are the translation procedures applicable?
c. Do the two translators tend to use the translation strategy of domestication or
foreignization?
d. What are the main factors which influence the translators’ decisions on the
employment of translation strategies?
The present study is expected to provide an insight into the metaphor translation from
Chinese to English. The author tries to offer a comprehensive analysis of metaphors in
Fortress Besieged to enrich the research on translations of similar kinds, such as
metaphor translation and literary translation. By investigating the translation procedures
and strategies applied in the translation of metaphor, the thesis attempts to find that there
are some factors possibly influencing the translators’ decision making. This study may
provide reference for subsequent studies and shed some light on how to render Chinese
metaphor into English in various situations. Furthermore, it may contribute to improve
the translation of Fortress Besieged.
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1.3 Organization of the thesis
The present thesis consists of six chapters, namely Introduction, An Survey of the
Relevant Literature, Methodology, Case Analysis, Discussion and Conclusion. Chapter 1
is a general introduction of the whole thesis which includes background of the study, the
aims and objectives and the organization of the thesis. Chapter 2 is the overview of the
relevant theoretical conceptions, containing the relationship between culture and
translation, basic issues of metaphor, translation strategies of foreignization and
domestication, and the review of previous studies on the translation of metaphors in
Fortress Besieged. In Chapter 3, the methodology is made up of three parts. The author
briefly introduces the novel Fortress Besieged and its translations at first and then
explains the criteria of data collection. Moreover, Peter Newmark’s translation
procedures for metaphor translation are clarified in detail, which are the main concepts
conducted in the case analysis section, and the research approaches are introduced as well.
Chapter 4 is the analysis of the metaphors in Fortress Besieged and the translation
procedures applied for translating them. Chapter 5 opens up a discussion on the tendency
of translation strategies and the possible influential factors. Additionally, some advice
and suggestions for improving the translations are made. The final chapter, Chapter 6,
gives a summary statement of the whole thesis and also discusses some of the
implications of the study.
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CHAPTER 2 A SURVEY OF THE RELEVANT
LITERATURE
2.1 Culture and Translation
It has become a consensus that language is closely tied up with culture. Language is the
carrier of culture, while culture is deeply rooted in language. For human beings, the
understanding of a language depends on the knowledge of the culture it carries. Language
is deemed as “a distinctive part of culture” (Nida 2001: 150).
However, it is not easy to give a definition of “culture” since there are too many
definitions from general to specific ones. Sometime it is defined as “everything” while
sometimes as “opera and art” (Samovar, Porter & Stefani, 2000: 36). As far as 1952,
American anthropologists Alfred Louis Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn (1952: 181) listed
164 definitions of culture that they found in anthropology literature. Bates and Plog’s
definition, because it includes most of the major territory of culture, is widely received by
scholars.
Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors and artifacts that
the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and
that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning. This
definition includes not only patterns of behavior but also patterns of thought
(shared meanings that the members of a society attach to various phenomena,
natural and intellectual, including religion and ideologies), artifacts (tools, pottery,
houses, machines, works of art), and the culturally transmitted skills and
techniques used to make the artifacts. (1990: 28)
Not only the anthropologists but also the translators show their interests in culture over
the past 30 years. “The culture turn taken by translation studies ... is no doubt related
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partly to the increasing internationalization of our world and the consequent need for
more and better translation.” (Ritva Leppihalme 1997: viii) Some celebrated translators
have expressed their perspectives of culture. Peter Newmark defines culture as “the way
of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular
language as its means of expression.” (1988b: 94) Christiane Nord uses the phrase
“intercultural communication” to replace the terminology “translation” (Guo Jianzhong
1999) while Holz-Manttari regards translation as the “intercultural cooperation” (1984).
And a new word “transculturation” was created by R. Daniel Shaw in 1988 which
signifies the close relationship between translation and culture.
Insomuch as translation is concerned, language and culture are two essential
elements which have to be mentioned. Translation is not just the transformation of the
linguistic signs, but the bridge between cultures.
2.2 Basic issues about metaphor
“Three fours [sic] of all languages fall into the category of metaphoric language.” (Wang
Jing 2005: 12). British rhetorician I.A. Richards once said, “In our everyday conversation,
there may exist one metaphor in every three sentences”. (1936: 98) The research of
metaphor in the Western world can be traced back to Aristotle, one of the greatest of the
ancient Athenian philosophers. His famous definition of metaphor was claimed in his
Poetics: “Metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else;
the transference being either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from
species to species, or on grounds of analogy.” (Baker 2004: 150)
According to Shu Dingfang (2000:2), the studies and researches on metaphor in the
West can be divided into three periods. The first period is from 300 B.C. (Aristotle) to
1930s (I.A. Richards) which lasts for over 2000 years. This is the period of rhetorical
study on metaphor. The period of semantic study on metaphor is the second period from
1930s to the early 1970s. And from 1970s till now, the last period focuses on the
interdisciplinary study on metaphor.
In the late 1970s, the study of metaphor was at its height in America dubbed as “the
period of metaphormania” (Shu Dingfang 2000: 5). In 1980, George Lakoff and Mark
5
Johnson’s book Metaphors We Lived By was published and became one of the most
widely circulated and influential works on metaphor. For Lakoff and Johnson, the essence
of metaphor is “understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another”.
(1980: 5) They also put forward their comprehension of metaphor:
Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and
action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act,
is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. […] Our concepts structure what we
perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. Our
conceptual system thus plays a central role in defining our everyday realities.
(1980: 3)
As for the definition of metaphor, scholars in different fields hold different views. In the
present thesis, it is defined on the perspective of language and translation.
The Collins English Dictionary defines metaphor as “a figure of speech in which a
word or phrase is applied to an object or action at it does not literally denote in order to
imply a resemblance.” While according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s EnglishChinese Dictionary, metaphor is “a word or phrase used to describe someone or
something else, in a way that is different from its normal use, in order to show that the
two things have the same qualities and to make the description more powerful.”
In both of the definitions, the form of metaphor is limited to a word or phrase, while
from Peter Newmark’s perspective, metaphors may be “ ‘single’— viz. one-word – or
‘extended’ (a collocation, an idiom, a sentence, a proverb, an allegory or a complete
imaginative text)” (1988b: 104). Newmark’s definition of metaphor is “any figurative
expression: the transferred sense of a physical word; the personification of an abstraction;
the application of a word or collocation to what it does not literally denote, i.e., to
describe one thing in terms of another.” (ibid.)
Furthermore, metaphor in a broad sense can be divided into “explicit metaphor
(simile)” and “implicit metaphor” (Shu Dingfang 2000: 51). The metaphor referred in the
present thesis is the “implicit metaphor”. In essence, metaphor is similar with simile.
These two rhetorical devices refer to transfer the meaning and sense of a word or phrase
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by using another word or phrase. The typical form of simile is “A is like/as B” while
metaphor is “A is B”. In grammar, the only difference between simile and metaphor is
whether the words “like/as” appeared. However, the metaphor is more attractive than
simile since the former usually brings the readers an unexpected impact. On the other
hand, the translators contribute more efforts to find the way to retain the charm and
beauty of a metaphor while guarantee the meaning is transferred accurately. The possible
translation procedures for metaphor translation will be introduced in Chapter 3,
Methodology.
2.3 Domesticating and foreignizing translation strategies
Since translation should go hand in hand with culture, the problem faced by the
translators is how to deal with the cultural factors embedded in the text, especially when
the cultural differences are huge in between the source language and target language.
This topic arouses a controversy in the field of translation and the translators split in two
opposing views: alienation and adaptation (Guo Jianzhong 1999). The former advocates
source language culture oriented whereas the latter suggests the translation have to be
target language culture oriented. One of the representative personages, American scholar
Lawrence Venuti (1995), coins the terms “domestication” and “foreignization” to
summarize these two standpoints and defines them as two translation strategies in his
book “The Translator’s Invisibility”. “The conflict between domestication and
foreignization as opposite translation strategies can be regarded as the poetic and political
rather than linguistic extension of the time-worn controversy over free translation and
literal translation.” (Wang Dongfeng, 2002)
Venuti’s two translation strategies are also influenced by Friedrich Schleiermacher,
a German theologian and translator. For Schleiermacher, the real question of translation
is “how to bring the ST writer and the TT reader together.” (Munday 2001: 27) He further
presents his famous notion of the translation that the only two paths open for the
translators are “either the translator leaves the writer alone as much as possible and
moves the reader toward the writer, or he [sic] leaves the reader along as much as
possible and moves the writer toward the reader.” (Schleiermacher 1838/1997: 74).
7
According to Venuti, the strategy of domestication corresponds to Schleiermacher’s
first path which means the translator has to be accustomed to the target readers by
translating the ST “in a transparent, fluent, ‘invisible’ style to minimize the foreignness of
the TT.” (Munday 2001: 146)
Foreignization is the translation strategy that imports the source cultural forms and
“deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreignness of the
original”. (Shuttleworth & Cowie, 1997: 59) It demands the translators to be faithful to
the ST writer and convey the original meanings which are corresponding to
Schleiermacher’s “second path opens for the translators”.
Besides the western translators, Chinese translators put forward their understandings
and opinions about this heated debate. Liu Yanli and Yang Zijian offer their definition of
domestication and foreignization as follows on the basis of their contrastive study of the
meanings of these two strategies in China and the West.
Domestication and foreignization are the two opposite translation strategies
adopted by the translator in the treatment of two languages and cultures in
accordance with the purpose of translation, the type of the text, the intention of the
author and the readership. Their function is to direct the performance of translation
methods and skills. Domestication pursues a result that the translation version can
obey the norms of the TL and TC, to better meet the need of the minimized
strangeness on the part of the readership. Whereas foreignization pursues a result
that the translation version can preserve the elements of the SL and SC, to better
meet the need of the maximized foreigness on the part of the readership. The
application of the strategies is sometimes constrained by the social and ideological
factors in the target text.
(Liu Yanli and Yang Zijian, 2002: 22)
The author of present thesis will look into the translation of metaphor in Fortress
Besieged by adopting the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization in
Chapter 5, the Discussion section.
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2.4 Previous studies on the translation of metaphors in Fortress Besieged
With its publication in 1979, the English version of Fortress Besieged not only attracted
some attention but also criticisms. In 1982, Dennis T. Hu (1991) made comments on the
translation of the first three chapters by citing plenty of examples to demonstrate his
points of view. On one hand, he praised that the English version is properly translated and
the metaphors in the source text are reproduced and well preserved. On the other hand, he
pointed out that some inadequate or misinterpreted expressions inevitably mispresent the
essence of the novel. This is one of the most famous criticisms from scholars abroad. In
China, a professional translator and scholar Sun Yifeng (1995) published a paper titled
《 围 城 》 英 译 本 的 一 些 问 题 (Some problems in the English version of Fortress
Besieged) in which some problematic translations are also discussed in detail, such as a
certain number of mistranslations, the “approximations” which cause the loss of original
meanings, some mistakes in grammar and collocation, etc. For example, he criticized the
translation of “ 尺 有 所 短 ， 寸 有 所 长 ”. Sun thought that the original translation
“sometimes a foot is too short and an inch is too long” is incomprehensible and suggested
to render it freely into “Everyone has his (their) strengths and weakness.”
In recent years, not only the scholars treat Fortress Besieged and its translation as a
worth researching issue, but also some master and doctoral students conduct their studies
on it from various aspects with great interest. Zhang Lina (2007) mentioned the
application of translation methods and strategies in her MA thesis. Five translation
methods were listed as follows: 1) Transliteration, 2) Literal Translation, 3) Free
Translation, 4) Substitution and 5) Amplification. Some instances were presented to
demonstrate the application of each translation method in Fortress Besieged. And Zhang
also pointed out that foreignization is the main translation strategy adopted in Fortress
Besieged. Furthermore, four reasons which determine the adoption of translation
strategies were discussed in her thesis: the purpose of translation, the text type, the social
background and the patrons. Huang Xiao (2008) concentrated on the great chain of
“being” metaphors and the emotion metaphors, and listed three translation methods used
in translating them: 1) metaphor to metaphor, 2) metaphor to non-metaphor 3) metaphor
to sense. Wang Jing (2005) focused on the characteristics of metaphors in Fortress
9
Besieged and the factors concerning metaphor translation. Regarding to translation
methods, Wang took some scholars’ translation approaches on metaphor translation into
consideration in her MA thesis, which include Toury, Nida and Kraszewski. In addition,
she proposed 6 techniques on translation of metaphors whereas the translation strategies
of domestication and foreignization were not mentioned.
However, there are still some limitations even though many researches and studies
on the same or related topics have been already carried on. Firstly, the definition of
metaphor is different from the present thesis. In some previous works, the metaphor is
defined broadly, i.e. a rhetorical device includes metaphor (formed without “like/as”) and
simile (formed with “like/as”). Different definitions certainly influence the quantitative
analysis of occurrence frequency of the translation methods and the qualitative analysis
based on it. For instance, many similes are translated literally which will greatly increase
the occurrence frequency of the procedure of converting the metaphor into a simile. In
addition, the translation methods mentioned by some of the previous works are not
comprehensive, objective and systematically classified (e.g., Zhang 2007; Huang, 2008).
Zhang (2007) didn’t use many examples to illustrate and prove her viewpoints which
reflect they are tend to be subjective. Huang (2008) only presents three methods in the
thesis which are defined too generally and could be further classified.
In summary, the deficiencies in previous works indicate that there is still room for
conducting a more thorough study into the metaphors in Fortress Besieged. The present
thesis attempts to carefully analyze the translation procedures and strategies of the
metaphors on the basis of the quantitative analysis. The present thesis will introduce
research procedures in more detail in the Methodology section.
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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Fortress Besieged and its translations
Fortress Besieged is acclaimed as one of the greatest novels in Chinese literature of the
twentieth century. This masterpiece was written from 1944 to 1946 as a serialization in
Literary Renaissance and published in 1947. It was the time of cruelty and chaos since
“although the Japanese had been defeated, China was once more enmeshed in a vicious
civil war that ultimately brought the communists to victory.” (Jonathan Spence, 2004)
And at the end of 1940s, China experienced the greatest reform—the founding of the
People’s Republic of China. The primary missions were to consolidate the political power
and develop the economy. And the main purposes of publications were to eliminate
illiteracy and propagate socialism. Since the subject, genre and content were not of the
mainstream; Qian’s novels were neglected in China until they were rediscovered in 1979.
From 1979 till now, Qian Zhongshu and his Fortress Besieged have been enthusiastically
enshrined as a modern classic in Chinese literature. In the early 1990s, this masterpiece
was adapted for television series and caused a sensation all over the country.
Qian Zhongshu and his works also draw the attention of some scholars in America,
especially Fortress Besieged, which is considered as “a comedy of manners with much
picaresque humor, as well as a scholar’s novel, a satire, a commentary on courtship and
marriage, and a study of one contemporary man.” (Mao 2003) In 1961, a historian of
Chinese literature Hsia Chih-tsing introduced Fortress Besieged to America in his book A
History of Modern Chinese Fiction, published by the Yale University Press. Two doctoral
dissertations and one master’s thesis on the novel had been done by students from
University of Wisconsin, Stanford University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong
respectively from 1976 to 1977. In the meantime, some scholarly papers on Fortress
Besieged were published as well. “C.T. Hsia has highly praised the novel’s comic
exuberance and satire; Dennis Hu, its linguistic manipulation; Theodore Huters, its
relationship to modern Chinese letters; and Mai Ping-k’un has written favorably on both
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Ch’ien’s essays and his fiction.” (ibid.). It reveals that different viewpoints of the critics
mentioned above lead the researches and papers to focus on some specific areas and
aspects of the novel. And one of the translators of the English version, Nathan K. Mao
discussed the masterpiece as an artistic whole in the Introduction of Fortress Besieged.
The masterpiece was first translated into English with the joint efforts of two
translators: Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao. Both translators are experts of the Chinese
language and culture. Jeanne Kelly is an American translator and scholar who graduated
from the School of Chinese at the University of Wisconsin. Nathan K. Mao is a ChineseAmerican. He received his Master's degree of English literature in Yale University and
his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin (Lv Bing 2008). The English version was
published in 1979 by the Indiana University Press and received warm response. Since
then, the novel has been translated into several languages such as Russian, French,
German, Japanese, Spanish, Uyghur and Korean and published around the world (Lu
Wenhu 2007). In 2005, the English version of Fortress Besieged was published by
Penguin Book Company, a world famous publisher in the UK. Julia Lovell (2005)
appraised it as a great leap forward and a momentous moment since “Penguin Modern
Classics has for the first time allowed a work of 20th-century Chinese fiction on to its
list”. At present, Fortress Besieged and its translations have been the research subjects for
many scholars and students of translation at home and abroad.
3.2 Data collection
The Chinese metaphors are collected from the Chinese novel Fortress Besieged written
by Qian Zhongshu, the esteemed Chinese writer and translator; and the English
counterparts are taken from the only English version translated by Jeanne Kelly and
Nathan K. Mao. In this novel, various kinds of figures of speech are in abundance and
can be found everywhere. Qian Zhongshu is an expert in employing these rhetorical
devices to portray the characters and describe the plot vividly. Metaphor is a commonly
used figure of speech in the fiction. As mentioned in the Literature Review, metaphor in
its border sense can be divided into “explicit metaphor (simile)” and “implicit metaphor”.
In the present study, the author excludes the similes and narrows down the definition of
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metaphor to “implicit metaphor”. It is because that two translation procedures
(Procedures 3 and 4) for metaphor translation mentioned in this thesis are related to
simile. If the similes were collected in the data, their translation procedures definitely
would have affected the distribution of the procedure adoption and further influenced the
results and findings.
Moreover, for the sake of identifying metaphors accurately and collecting needed
data, Newmark’s (1988b) definition of metaphor is used as the criterion for data
selection—any word, collocation, idiom, sentence, proverb, allegory or complete
imaginative text used to describe one thing in terms of another. All data are collected by
the author of the present thesis under such criteria. Over 160 Chinese metaphors are
identified at the very beginning. After being carefully selected for three times, 139
Chinese metaphors are sifted out to be the final data.
3.3 Data Analysis Method
3.3.1 Newmark’s translation procedures for metaphor translation
When it comes to the translation of metaphor, some translation theorists mention it in
their studies. Among them, British scholar Peter Newark is the representative scholar who
systematically discusses metaphor and its translation procedures.
Peter Newmark first published his paper about metaphor translation on Babel in
1980. One year later, he augmented the content and presented five possible translation
procedures for metaphor translation in his book Approaches to Translation. Later, in A
Textbook of Translation (1988b) he dedicated a whole chapter to expatiate on metaphor:
its definition, its classifications and its translation procedures. In this book, Newmark
slightly modified the translation procedures and finally presented six possible ones for
reference which are summarized by the author as below.
1． To translate by using a metaphor with the same or similar image
2． To translate with a different image that has the same sense
3． To convert the metaphor into a simile
4． To qualify by retaining the metaphor (or converting it to simile), and
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adding the sense
5． To translate as much as possible of the sense behind the image
6． Omission
(Newmark 1988b: 108-111)
From a preliminary analysis of the data, it is noticed that the fourth translation procedure
of Newmark could be further divided into a) adding the sense without footnote and b)
adding the sense with footnote. For this reason, the author of the present thesis adapts the
translation procedures as below to make them more exhaustive on which the case analysis
in this thesis is based.
1． To translate by using a metaphor with the same or similar image
E.g. 雌老虎 → tigress;
声音里滴得下蜜糖
蜜糖 → her voices dripped with honey
2． To translate by using a metaphor with a different image that has the same
sense
E.g. 山中无老虎
老虎，猴子
→ when the cat’s away, the mice will play.
老虎 猴子称大王
猴子
3． To convert the metaphor into a simile without adding information
E.g. 给你点面子，你就封了王
封了王了→
I give you a little dignity and you turn
封了王
around and act like a king!
4． To retain the metaphor (or convert it to simile), and add the sense
a)
without footnote
E.g. 有着蛇蝎心
蛇蝎心肠
蛇蝎心肠 → have the heart as malicious as snakes and scorpions
b)
with footnote
E.g. 饭碗 → rice bowl
Note: A colloquial expression for job
5． To omit the image and translate the sense behind it
E.g. 水落石出 → the truth would have been out
6． To omit the entire metaphor
(Adapted from Newmark 1988b: 108-111)
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3.3.2 Research approaches
On the basis of over 100 examples, both quantitative approach and qualitative approach
are used in the present study. They are used in Chapter 4, Case Analysis and Chapter 5,
Discussion.
Firstly, in the Case Analysis section, the quantitative approach is adopted to classify
the collected data into different translation procedures, i.e. to count how many times the
translation procedures are used respectively and calculate the occurrence frequency. In
accordance with the quantitative analysis, the qualitative investigation is conducted for
analyzing the applicable situations for each procedure. In the Discussion section, the
translation procedures are categorized into different translation strategies (domestication
and foreignization) according to whether they are source language culture oriented or
target language culture oriented. After the quantitative analysis of the occurrence
frequency of domestication and foreignization, the author of the present thesis will
discuss the possible reasons and factors that may influence the choices of translation
strategies.
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CHAPTER 4 CASE ANALYSIS
The metaphors in our sample are categorized into six translation procedures for metaphor
translation, and these translation procedures are adapted from Peter Newmark (1988b:
108-111). We will examine the occurrence frequencies of the six translation procedures,
and analyze more in-depth typical examples of each translation procedure in this chapter.
Table 1 shows that Procedure 1 is the most frequently used translation procedure
that Kelly and Mao used 55 times (39.6%) to translate these metaphors in Fortress
Besieged. Procedure 5 is the second most frequently used procedure, which accounts for
34.5% (48 times). We now look at each procedure and its applicable situations.
Table 1. The translation procedures used in Fortress Besieged and their occurrence
frequency.
Translation Procedures
Occurrence
Frequency
1. To translate by using a metaphor with the same or similar
55 (39.6%)
image
2. To translate with a different image that has the same sense
12 (8.6%)
3. To convert the metaphor into a simile
4 (2.9%)
4. To retain the metaphor (or convert it to simile), and add the
18 (13%)
sense:
-without footnote
10 (7.2%)
-with footnote
8 (5.8%)
5. To omit the image and translate the sense behind it
48 (34.5%)
6. To omit the entire metaphor
2 (1.4%)
Total
139 (100%)
16
4.1 Procedure 1: Using a metaphor with the same or similar image.
The first and most frequently used procedure for translating metaphors in Fortress
Besieged is to reproduce the same or similar image in the TL. The three instances below
are selected to exemplify the procedure.
(1) 方鸿渐恨不得把苏小姐瘦身体里每根骨头都捏为石灰粉
石灰粉。
石灰粉
Fang wished he could have crushed every bone in Miss Su’s thin body to lime
powder.
(2) 那女孩子年纪虽小，打扮得脸上颜色赛过雨后虹霓
雨后虹霓、
雨后虹霓、三棱镜下日光或者姹紫嫣
红开遍的花园。
红开遍的花园
Though a young girl, her face was made up in colors to rival the rainbow after a
rain, sunlight through a prism, or a gaily arrayed flower garden in full bloom.
(3) 人家可怜你，你不要饭碗
饭碗，饭碗不会发霉。好罢，你父亲会替你‘找出路’。
饭碗
People feel sorry for you. If you don’t want the rice bowl, it won’t get moldy. All
right, your father can ‘find a job’ for you.
In Example (1), the metaphor “石灰粉” is literally translated into “lime powder” which is
in the form of white particles. If the bones are comminuted into powder, it is also white
and seems like the lime powder. Thus translators use an image with similar appearance to
replace the original image. The phrases “雨后虹霓”, “三棱镜下日光” and “姹紫嫣红开
遍的花园” in (2) are three kinds of beautiful and colorful view. Qian Zhongshu adopts
them to indicate how colorful the girl’s face is. In the translation, the images are kept and
rendered respectively into “the rainbow after a rain”, “sunlight through a prism” and “a
gaily arrayed flower garden in full bloom”. And also in (3), the metaphor “饭碗” is
translated word-for-word into “rice bowl”.
It is found that there are two general situations in which Procedure 1 tends to be
used. The first one is that there is an idiom or fixed expression in the TL which has a
17
metaphorical meaning as same/similar as in original idiom or expression, especially when
the cultural overlaps exist in the related aspects between Chinese and English.
(4) 他自以为这信措词凄婉，打得动铁石心肠
铁石心肠。谁知道父亲信来痛骂一顿。
铁石心肠
Since he felt the wording of the letter was sad and entreating enough to move a heart
of stone, he was quite unprepared for the express letter which came from his father.
As shown in (4), “铁石心肠 (a heart of stone and iron)” is translated into “a heart of
stone”. This metaphor is used to describe a hardhearted person, i.e. a person who is
unmoved by feelings. Although the English metaphor and the original one are not perfect
equivalents (the image “iron” is omitted in the target text), they are very similar and the
meanings they convey are almost the same. Therefore, the literal translation is adequate.
The second situation is that the translator aims to reproduce the linguistic form,
technique of expression, plot, or the artistic, aesthetic and cultural value of the original
literary work. For the translator, Procedure 1 is beneficial to introduce Chinese culture to
the western people and enrich the target language. And the original metaphors are to
some extent related to some common senses shared by both Chinese and English readers
and thus can be easily understood by the target readers, although they are not commonly
used in the TL.
(5) 她的话一部分是真的，加上许多调味的作料
加上许多调味的作料。
加上许多调味的作料
What she said was partly true, although with a few spices added for seasoning.
Chinese food is very famous around the world, in which the cook always adds various
spices to make the dish tasty. The seasonings exaggerate and change the original flavor of
the food raw materials. The more the spices are added, the more the original taste is
changed. The expression “加上许多调味的作料” is a metaphor to indicate that a person
embellishes the fact by adding many details. The translators faithfully translate the
metaphor for the purpose of retaining the flavor of the source text “without adding any
spices”. The target readers can therefore be closer to the source text and the author.
18
4.2 Procedure 2: Translating with a different image that has the same
sense.
The second procedure for metaphor translation is to use a proper metaphor in the target
language with a different image replacing the original metaphor. The use of Procedure 2
can be observed in sentences (6) and (7):
(6) 鸿渐道：“早晨出去还是个人，这时候怎么变成刺猬
刺猬了！”
刺猬
“You were still human when you went out this morning,” said Hung-chien. “How
did you manage to turn into a porcupine?”
(7) 鸿渐道：“我是要听听，否则我真蒙在鼓里
蒙在鼓里，不知道人家在背后怎么糟踏我
蒙在鼓里
呢？”
He said, “I wanted to hear it; otherwise, I’d really be in the dark, not knowing how
people are maligning me behind my back.”
According to the statistics, 12 Chinese metaphors are translated by using “a metaphor
with a different image that has the same sense”. In (6), the author uses the animal “刺猬
(hedgehog)” to describe a person who talks with the tongue in the cheek. In the target text,
the image is replaced by “porcupine”, another kind of animal covered with both fur and
the protective spines as well. As the same, while translating the phrase “蒙在鼓里(live in
a drum)” in (7), the translators interpret it as “be in the dark”.
Both Mona Baker (1992) and Peter Newmark (1988b) mention that the “literal
translation” is the ideal method for translating the culture-bound words such as idioms,
fixed expressions, metaphors, etc, but they also realize this kind of equivalence both in
meaning and lexical items can only be achieved occasionally. Especially between
Chinese and English, two languages in different language families with different culture
backgrounds, the perfect counterparts are less retrievable than between English and
German or English and French. But however different the languages and cultures are,
some ideas and feelings are similar in Chinese and English. In some cases, these ideas
and feelings are expressed by different lexical items. And also, comparing the Chinese
19
metaphors, the metaphorical meanings may be carried by different images in English.
Hence, even though the images may be diverse, the Chinese metaphor can be replaced by
an English metaphor if the sense they convey is the same.
(8) 那妇人道：“吃醋也轮得到你？我要你来管？给你点面子，你就封了王了！不
识抬举、忘恩负义的王八蛋
王八蛋！”阿福冷笑道：“王八
王八是谁挑我做的？害了你那
王八蛋
王八
死鬼男人做王八
王八不够还要害我--啊呀呀—”一溜烟跑出房来。
王八
“What right have you to be jealous?” asked the widow. “Did I ask you to interfere? I
give you a little dignity and you turn around and act like a king! You don’t appreciate
the honor, you ungrateful rotten egg!” Ah F’u laughed scornfully and said, “Who
made me a cuckold? It’s not enough for you to make your late husband a cuckold.
Now you have to make me into one—Ai ya ya—” and he ran out the door.
“王八蛋”, literally tortoise’s egg, is an offensive and frequently used swearword in
Northern dialects in China. Its counterpart in English is “bastard” or “son of a bitch”
according to A New Century Chinese-English Dictionary. In this example, the translators
apply an English swearword “rotten egg” to take the place of “王八蛋”, possibly because
it ends with the word “egg” which is the same as the ST. “Rotten egg” implies a person
who makes the others feel unpleasant, annoying or unreliable. The meaning of “rotten
egg” is not the same as the original metaphor, but as a swearword, it can express the
speaker’s strong emotion appropriately.
In the dialogue, the widow abuses on Ah Fu that he is “王八蛋”. And Ah Fu uses
the word “王八” to answer back. “王八” is the colloquial word for “乌龟 (tortoise)”. In
Chinese culture, it indicates a man whose wife committed adultery, but the image and the
sense are not associated with the same animal in English. The translators render the
metaphor into “cuckold” which conveys another image. It has been said that the word
“cuckold” derives from cuckoo, a kind of bird. Since the cuckoo likes laying its eggs in
the nests of birds of other species, it is regarded as the representative of unfaithfulness or
immorality. For English readers, “cuckold” is not only an understandable and very
familiar metaphor but also arouses their vivid imagination.
20
4.3 Procedure 3: Converting the metaphor into a simile.
Procedure 3 is used in four instances in the translation of the novel, in which the similes
that retain the metaphorical images are used to replace the original Chinese metaphors.
(9) “我们新吃过女人的亏，都是惊弓之鸟
惊弓之鸟，看见女人影子就怕了。”
惊弓之鸟
“Having recently been jilted by women, we are like birds afraid of the bow; we’re
frightened even by a woman’s shadow…”
The idioms “封了王” in (8) and “惊弓之鸟” in (9) are converted into similes with the
word “like”. In (8), the phrase “ 封 了 王 ” is rendered into “act like a king”. The
association of the action is lively as the source text. And in (9), the order of the idiom is
inversed because of the difference between English and Chinese, but the image is well
retained.
In some circumstances, the target readers can figure out what the metaphors mean in
the given context. However, the problem is, sometimes they may not be able to recognize
that they are facing a metaphor. When the translators want to reproduce the metaphors
and make sure they are obvious, they often choose to transfer the metaphor into a simile.
Literally, the Chinese idiom “惊弓之鸟” in Example (9) means a bird which was injured
by an arrow is startled by the mere twang of a bow-string. People are used to apply this
idiom to describe a person who is badly frightened. For target readers, they do not know
the background information about the idiom, but they can comprehend the meaning so
long as they recognize it is a figure of speech. Some useful information can be extracted
from the context to help them understand the idiom. Thus the translators employ the word
“like” to make the metaphor comes out into view.
21
4.4 Procedure 4: Retaining the metaphor/ converting it to simile, and
adding the sense.
There are two ways to add the sense revealed in our samples: add it in the text without
footnote and add it in the footnote. In total, 18 instances are identified as being translated
with Procedure 4. Respectively, the senses of 10 metaphors are added without any
footnotes, while it is added with footnotes in the other 8 examples.
4.4.1 Adding the sense without footnote
(10)
他所说的“
“ 让她三分”
让她三分” ，不是“
不是 “三分流水七分尘”
三分流水七分尘” 的 “三分”
三分” ， 而是“
而是“ 天
下只有三分月色”
下只有三分月色”的“三分”
三分”。
The “three parts” referred to in “give in to her three parts” was not the “three
parts” of “three parts water, seven parts dust,” but rather the “three parts” as in
“There are but three parts moonlight in all the world,” which simply means total
surrender.
(11)
自信这一席话委婉得体，最后那一段尤其接得天衣无缝
天衣无缝。
天衣无缝。
He was confident his little speech was tactful and proper, especially the last part,
which had been sewn together as flawlessly as “a divine suit of clothes”
(12)
苏小姐捡出万金油，伸指蘸了些，为鸿渐擦在两太阳。辛楣一肚皮的酒
辛楣一肚皮的酒，
辛楣一肚皮的酒 ，
几乎全成酸醋。
几乎全成酸醋
Miss Su picked out the Tiger Balm, dabbed a little on her finger and applied it to
Hung-chien’s temples. The wine in Hsin-mei’s stomach turned to sour vinegar in
his jealousy.
In (10), the sarcasm of “让她三分 (give in to her three parts)” is conveyed by the
interpretation of the word “三分” in two clauses respectively. The metaphor “让她三分”
is the euphemistic way for a husband to admit that he obeys his wife sometimes. The first
clause is a metaphor which denies the statement of “the husband is just a part of being
obedient (about three parts in ten)”; while the second clause implies that he totally yields
22
to her. When it is rendered into English, the metaphors “让她三分”, “三分流水七分尘”
and “天下只有三分月色” are all literally translated with the general sense added in the
end of the sentence. The idiom “天衣无缝” in (11) is treated as the same. The meaning of
the idiom is clarified by the phrase “as flawlessly as”. And then the literally translation “a
divine suit of clothes” is enclosed in the double quotation marks as a whole to indicate it
is a Chinese fixed expression. In (12), the transform from wine to vinegar is natural since
both of them are liquid. “Wine turns to vinegar” is a vivid and creative metaphor to
describe Hsin-mei is jealous. The original image “酸醋 (sour vinegar) is retained and the
sense is also presented in the sentence.
The translators prefer to retain the image of some interesting metaphors for
preserving the Chinese flavor or writing style of the original novel/author. However,
these words are often closely connected with Chinese culture, custom, religion, legend,
folktale and so on, e.g. the two poetic clauses in (10). In order to avoid confusion of
target readers, the sense of the metaphor is added. If the sense can be clarified in a few
words, the explanation always follows the image.
4.4.2 Adding the sense with footnote
(13)
阿刘哑声告诉，姓孙的那几个人打牌，声音太闹，给法国管事查到了，大吵
其架，自己的饭碗也砸破了，等会就得卷铺盖
卷铺盖下船。
卷铺盖
Ah Liu explained in a hoarse voice that Mr. Sun and the others playing mahjong had
been too noisy and had been caught by the French who had raised cain. He had lost
his job and in a little would have to pack his bedding and get off the boat.
Note: When a person is dismissed from his employment in a shop or store, he has to
pack his own bedding. Hence, “packing the bedding” is synonymous with dismissal
from work.
(14)
鸿渐道：“对呀，我呢，回国以后等于失业，教书也无所谓。辛楣出路很
多，进可以做官，退可以办报，也去坐冷板凳
坐冷板凳，我替他惋惜。”
坐冷板凳
Hung-chien said, “That’s right. Coming back home has meant unemployment, so I
don’t mind teaching. But Hsin-mei has several options open to him. He can either
23
work for the government or run a newspaper, but instead he’s going to go sit on a
cold bench. I feel sorry for him.”
Note: Be neglected or ignored
These two instances are translated literally and amplified by adding the footnotes. The
images “卷铺盖” in (13) and “坐冷板凳” in (14) are transferred into “pack his bedding”
and “sit on a cold bench” respectively. The translators briefly introduce the derivation of
the metaphor “卷铺盖” in the footnote and explain the meaning as well. In (14), although
the translators do not mention any background information of the metaphor, the sense is
briefly clarified.
In our sample, some metaphors are derived from long stories or legends which may
need more words to give the target readers a general idea of the background. Therefore,
the method of adding the sense with footnote is applied. In addition, the translator may
consider whether explaining the sense in the text will influence the structure, organization
or other characteristics of the original literary work. If it does, it will be better to add the
explanatory comments in footnotes.
(15)
丈夫是女人的职业，没有丈夫就等于失业，所以该牢牢捧住这饭碗
饭碗。哼！我
饭碗
偏不愿意女人读了那本书当我是饭碗
饭碗。我宁可他们瞧不起我，骂我饭桶
饭桶。“我
饭碗
饭桶
你他”小姐，咱们没有 “举碗齐眉
举碗齐眉”
举碗齐眉 的缘份，希望另有好运气的人来爱上您。
想到这里，鸿渐顿足大笑…
Husbands are women’s careers. Not having a husband is like being unemployed, so
she has to hold tightly to her “rice bowl.” 1 Well, I don’t happen to want any woman
to take me as her “rice bowl” after reading that book. I’d rather have them scorn me
and call me a “rice bucket.” 2 Miss Wo-Ni-Ta, we just weren’t meant to “raise the
bowl to the eyebrows.” 3 I hope some other lucky guy falls in love with you. At this
thought Hung-chien stamped his foot and laughed loudly.
1 A colloquial expression for job.
Note: ○
2 An expression which means a good-for-nothing, a person who does no more
○
than consume rice.
24
3 A play on the expression, “Raise the tray to the eyebrows,” which connotes
○
mutual respect between husband and wife.
In this example, there is a metaphor in each sentence and all of them are translated
literally with footnotes. The first three sentences all end with the words which contain the
Chinese character “饭”(rice), i.e.”饭碗”, “饭碗”and “饭桶”. In the TT, the three words
are translated into “rice bowl”, “rice bowl” and “rice bucket” respectively. The implied
meanings of metaphors are unexpressed, but the parallel construction is preserved well.
Firstly, the translators aim at representing the word play in the original text. And in the
meantime, they adopt the footnotes to explain to the TT readers that “饭碗” (rice bowl)
symbolizes a job and “饭桶” (rice bucket) stands for a fathead or good-for-nothing.
There is a single word/character different between the expression “举碗齐眉 (raise
the bowl to the eyebrows)” in the fourth sentence and the Chinese idiom “举案齐眉
(raise the tray to the eyebrows)”. This idiom is about a story that in Han Dynasty, a
married couple loved and respected each other. Every day, the wife lifted the tray which
places food to a level with her eyebrows to show her respect for her husband. In return,
the husband received the food with two hands politely. After that, people often use the set
phrase “举案齐眉 (raise the tray to the eyebrows)” to refer to husband and wife treating
each other with courtesy.
For Chinese readers, the change of one word from “案 (tray)” to “碗 (bowl)” does
not influence the understanding of the expression. On the contrary, it echoes the previous
word play of “ 饭 碗 ” and adds humour. In the English version, the translators
reproduce the image by rendering the expression literally and leave more information in
the footnote. The translated sentences are coherent, the wordplay is retained. However,
the metaphors are specific in Chinese culture, so that the target readers who do not have
enough knowledge of Chinese culture couldn’t recover the metaphorical meanings until
they read the footnote. The translators sacrifice the sense for keeping the structure and the
word play.
25
4.5 Procedure 5: Omitting the image and translating the sense behind it.
Procedure 5 the second most frequently used procedure, which occurs 48 times in our
sample. It tends to translate the metaphors freely, i.e. omitting the metaphorical image
and paraphrasing the sense of the metaphor. For examples:
(16)
我知道这全是捕风捉影
捕风捉影，否则我决不敢请二位到舍间来玩儿了。
捕风捉影
I know that’s all hearsay; otherwise, I would never have dared ask the two of you
over.
(17)
这人准碰
碰过不知多少同乡的钉子
钉子，所以不再开口了。
钉子
He must have met with so many rebuffs from his fellow villagers that he’s stopped
talking about it.
The action of the Chinese idiom “捕风捉影 (chase the wind and clutch at shadows)” in
(16) is deleted and replaced by “hearsay” as the explanation. And in (17), the translators
interpret the sense of the culture-specific item “碰钉子 (bump the head against a nail)”
instead of retaining its image.
We can now summarize three main situations in which Procedure 5 tends to be
applied:
a) There are no equivalent items in the target language. Qian Zhongshu used plenty of
Chinese idioms and fixed expressions in this novel. Some of them are culture-specific
and there are no corresponding idioms or expressions in English, such as “桃花
运”(love affair). Under such circumstance, the possible solution is producing the
original image in the target text or paraphrasing the meaning behind the metaphor.
However, from Newmark’s (1988b) viewpoint, the former is not a satisfactory
solution. He points out that a metaphor “can only be translated exactly if the image is
transferred within a correspondingly acceptable and established collocation” (p. 109).
26
In other words, if the Chinese metaphor does not have an existing and equivalent
word or phrase (whether with the same or different image) in English, it is better to be
paraphrased. “As soon as you produce a new image, however acceptable the TL
metaphor, there is a degree of change of meaning and usually of tone” (ibid.).
b) Literally, there is a counterpart in the target language, but it does not convey any
metaphorical meaning or associative meaning as the original metaphor does. Or, due
to the cultural diversities and social customs of Chinese and English, sometimes the
corresponding English item does have some associative meanings but not the same as
the Chinese metaphor does.
(18)
赵辛楣道：“斜川有了好太太不够，还在诗里招摇，我们这些光杆
光杆看了真眼
光杆
红。”
Chao Hsin-mei said, “It isn’t enough for Hsieh-ch’uan just to have a lovely wife. He
has to flaunt his good fortune in his poetry so we bachelors go red-eyed with envy
when we read it.”
The literal meaning of “光杆” is the limb without any attachments, such as a bare stalk
without leafs or flowers. In Chinese culture, people are used to apply the word to describe
a man who is single, lost his family, or without a following. In the context of this
example, it refers to an unmarried man or even who doesn’t have a girlfriend. In English,
the “bare stalk” certainly exists in daily life. However, it isn’t deemed to be a metaphor
nor convey any associative meanings. It seems that two or three words are not enough to
retain the metaphoric image and explain the sense as well. The word “光杆” in this
sentence is used by Chao Hsin-mei to mock himself so as to set off Tung Hsieh-ch’uan’s
admirable marriage. If the TT is rendered into a plain literal translation, not only the
target readers could not understand the meaning, the sense of self-mockery will also be
lost. Thus the translators paraphrase it into a single word “bachelor”.
(19)
可是唐且临了“我们的朋友”那一句，又使他作酸泼醋
作酸泼醋的理想里，隐隐有一
作酸泼醋
27
大群大男孩子围绕着唐小姐。
But Miss T’ang’s parting remark about “our friends” made him jealous as he
conjured up visions of a huge throng of young men secretly surrounding her.
Sour is one of the four basic taste sensations. People always have this kind of taste
experience when they take vinegar, lemon/lime juice or some unripe fruits into the mouth.
In Chinese culture, the sensation “sour” is often related to the emotion of envy or
jealousy. Thus, some expressions from which people can feel the taste of sour are applied
to imply jealousy. For example, “吃醋 (drink vinegar)” is the most commonly used word
for Chinese people to describe a person who is jealous of a rival in love. There are many
phrases which contain the condiment “醋 (vinegar)” in Fortress Besieged and most of
them are translated into “jealous”. Considering the cultural diversities between China and
the Western countries, the translators omit the metaphorical image and translate the sense
behind it. In English, vinegar does not convey the same extended sense as it does in
Chinese. Additionally, sour is not only a taste sensation, it can also be used as an
adjective to express the meaning of bad-tempered, morose or peevish. In other words,
without the same cultural background, the target readers could not link vinegar nor sour
to jealous. For this reason, Procedure 5 is the ideal strategy to deal with the metaphor.
c) The metaphor is not acceptable or intelligible, i.e. to retain the original image is not
helpful for understanding but makes the target text more obscure, as in the following
example. In the target text, the word “腰斩” is paraphrased into “be chopped at
midpoint”. “腰斩” is a punishment in ancient China which is cutting a person in two
parts at the waist. In consideration of the literal translation is irrelevant to the context,
the translators omit the image and explain the sense of the metaphor.
(20)
孙小姐省悟多说了半句话，涨红脸，那句话也遭到了腰斩
腰斩。
腰斩
She realized she had said half a sentence too much and blushed. The sentence was
chopped at midpoint.
28
4.6 Procedure 6: Omitting the entire metaphor.
Omission is the last possible procedure for translating metaphor, which is used only twice.
The translators not only omit the image but the entire metaphor. It is adopted when the
metaphor is considered to be redundant, such as the metaphor “乌龟” shown in the
following instance.
(21)
他说孙先生在法国这许多年，全不知道法国人的迷信：太太不忠实，偷人，
丈夫做了乌龟
乌龟，买彩票准中头奖，赌钱准赢。
乌龟
Mr. Fang just laughed at him for having been in France all these years and not
knowing anything about French superstition; Mr. Fang said that if the wife is
unfaithful and has an affair, the husband is sure to take first price if he buys a lottery
ticket.
In Chinese culture, 乌龟 (tortoise) carries several meanings. In Han Dynasty, tortoise,
dragon, phoenix and unicorn, known as “四灵” (four fairies), were highly admired and
worshiped by people. Because of its long life, tortoise is always regarded as a symbol of
longevity and healthy in China. However, tortoise is also used for negative things in
Chinese as well. The phrases such as “死乌龟” (dead tortoise) and “龟孙子” (grandson
of tortoise) are deemed to be abusive language. In this example, tortoise implies a man
whose wife is unfaithful, i.e. a cuckold. In the translation, the metaphor is omitted since
its sense is expressed by the previous sentence “the wife is unfaithful and has an affair”.
The omission of the entire metaphor does not affect readers’ comprehension.
In this Chapter, six procedures for metaphor translation adapted from Peter
Newmark (1988b) are analyzed in sequence. At least one applicable situation for each
procedure is presented and illustrated by one or two examples. However, it does not mean
that the use of one procedure confines to its corresponding situation(s) mentioned in the
thesis since there are other factors the translators may concern. In order to give a
thorough description of metaphor translation in Fortress Besieged, the author of the
present thesis classifies the procedures into the translation strategies of domestication and
foreignization for further discussion.
29
CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION
5.1 Domestication versus Foreignization: the general tendency
From the analysis and findings in Chapter 4, it is found that Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.
Mao translate the Chinese metaphors in Fortress Besieged by employing several
procedures instead of being restricted to one or two of them. With regard to which
translation strategy the translators adopt in translating these metaphors, the table below
reveals that both concepts of domestication and foreignization are used.
Table 2. The translation strategies used in Fortress Besieged and their occurrence
frequency.
Translation Procedures
1. To translate by using a metaphor
Occurrence
Translation
Occurrence
Frequency
Strategies
Frequency
50
with the same or similar image
(Procedure 1)
2. To convert the metaphor into a
4
simile (Procedure 3)
3. To qualify by retaining the
18
Foreignization
72
(53.7%)
metaphor (or converting it to
simile), and adding the sense
-without footnote
(10)
-with footnote
(8)
(Procedure 4)
4. To translate with a different
12
image that has the same sense
(Procedure 2)
Domestication
5. To omit the image and translate
48
30
62
(46.3%)
the sense behind it (Procedure 5)
6. To omit the entire metaphor
2
(Procedure 6)
Total
134
134 (100%)
Table 2 shows that Procedures 1, 3 and 4 are used 72 times in total and all of them
can be classified into the strategy of foreignization, except 5 metaphors translated with
Procedure 1. In the process of this categorization, these five instances are carefully
identified and it is found that the images are commonly used in the TL too. They may not
show neither a tendency of domestication nor foreignization but be deemed as the overlap
of them, e.g. 老古董 (antique) and 政治家 (politician). Thus they are excluded from
Table 2 in order to give a clearer discussion about translation strategies of foreignization
and domestication. And Procedures 2, 5 and 6 are regarded as the applications of
domestication, which are used 62 times. That’s to say, both of the translation strategies
are adopted for many times in translating Fortress Besieged, but the foreignization is
more frequently used than the domestication.
5.2 Possible Factors influencing the usage of translation strategies
In this part, the main possible factors which influence the translators’ decisions on
the employment of domesticating or foreignizing strategy will be discussed.
5.2.1 The purpose of translation
The purpose of translation is the first key factor. From 1944 to 1946, Qian Zhongshu
spent two years to write Fortress Besieged, “the best of his pre-1949 works” (Mao 2003)
and published it in 1947. After its publication, the fiction was neglected by Chinese
society for over 20 years. From 1970s, the increasing and frequent communication was
undertaken between different countries and cultures. People were curious about the
outside world. Against this backdrop, Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao rendered it into
31
English and published in 1979 by the Indiana University Press. In the Translators’
Preface of Fortress Besieged, they stated the purpose of translation—“The present
translation of Wei-ch’eng reflects that renewed interest, and it is hoped that it will
generate even greater interest in Ch’ien Chung-shu [Qian Zhongshu] and his works”
(ibid.). With this purpose in mind, the translators employ the strategy of foreignization to
a greater extent to introduce the author himself, his work and his writing style to the
English readers.
In addition, Fortress Besieged is not a novel just for entertainment, but has many
thought-provoking things: “...beyond the mirth and liveliness, Ch’ien Chung-shu [Qian
Zhongshu] also wants us to see the follies, vices, and stupidities of men everywhere; and
when we do, the laughter that has been evoked is abruptly silenced.” (Mao, 2003) Since
the crucial purpose is to faithfully reproduce the source text and let the target readers
have the same feelings as the original readers, some SL-oriented translation procedures
are adopted by the translators. They try their best to retain as much as possible the writing
style, theme/s, form/s, value, characteristics and flavor of the original text. Hence, the
strategy of foreignization is the preferable option to reach the goal. This preference is
reflected in their use of translation strategy (cf. Table 2).
At the mean time, Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao also realize that for the sake of
generating American readers’ interest in Qian Zhongshu and his Fortress Besieged, the
English version could not be extremely foreignized. Otherwise, the readers will be lost
due to the content and the figures of speech are incomprehensible and intelligible. For
this reason, some instances of the use of domesticating strategy are reasonable and
needed. Moreover, whether to achieve the goal of domestication or foreignization, the
translators have to take the specific situation and context into consideration and chose
appropriate procedure to translate the metaphor, as is shown by Example (22).
(22) “换句话说，像方先生这样聪明，是喜欢目不识丁
目不识丁的笨女人。”
目不识丁
“In other words, someone as intelligent as Mr. Fang would prefer a stupid, illiterate
woman.”
32
The idiom “目不识丁”is translated into “illiterate”. The idiom refers to a person who
doesn’t know even the simplest Chinese character “丁”. Since Chinese is a hieroglyph
while English is alphabetic writing, the target readers could not comprehend the meaning
of the metaphor unless they have the knowledge of Chinese writing system. Instead of
using the strategy of foreignization, the translators turn to domestication. Firstly, since the
metaphor is meaningful in the sentence and cannot be omitted, Procedure 6 (To omit the
entire metaphor) is excluded. Secondly, if the Chinese character “丁” is transferred into
the simplest letters of an alphabet such as “ABC”, the implied meaning is preserved and
still expressed in a metaphorical way, which seems to be a good solution if we do not
consider the situational context. For English-speaking readers, the metaphor “don’t know
ABC (English)” is a domesticated translation which is easy to understand and vivid.
However, the sentence is taken from a conversation between two Chinese men. For
Chinese, knowing “ABC” is not the criterion to judge whether a person is illiterate or not.
Thus it is inappropriate to translate the metaphor with the different image “ABC”
otherwise the translation might be out of context. In accordance with the context, it is
better to delete the image but explain the sense.
5.2.2 The acceptability of readership
The readership is another important reason which the translators have to consider while
dealing with the metaphors. “The TL reader’s response is still a significant criterion and
the main consideration in metaphor translation” (Zhang Meifang 2001). As we have
discussed in the previous chapter, the translators need to use different translation
procedures when they are facing different situations. The choice of translation strategy
depends on the acceptability of target readers. Undeniably, the strategy of foreignization
is beneficial for maintain the original flavor of the source text and language. While
reading the translation, the target readers have the opportunity to get into touch with other
cultures, traditions and customs.
(23) 赵辛楣道：“斜川有了好太太不够，还在诗里招摇，我们这些光杆看了真眼
眼
红。”
33
Chao Hsin-mei said, “It isn’t enough for Hsieh-ch’uan just to have a lovely wife. He
has to flaunt his good fortune in his poetry so we bachelors go red-eyed with envy
when we read it.”
Commonly, “眼红(red-eyed)” conveys two meanings in Chinese. Compared with having
the angry face, being envious or jealous is the more frequently used meaning. In Fortress
Besieged, Qian Zhongshu uses “眼红 (red-eyed)” for three times. Jeanne Kelly and
Nathan K. Mao translate all of them into “go/grow red-eyed with envy” since the
metaphor refers to envy and jealousy in these situations. As a word which is commonly
used in China, it vividly describes the appearance of the jealous person. But Dennis T. Hu
(1991) suggested that the color should be changed from red to green since the phrase
“green eyes” refers to envy in English. Hu (ibid.) also expressed his dissatisfaction with
some culture-bound words, phrases and sentences cross the cultural barrier, because the
translators “leave them intact” in the English version of Fortress Besieged, i.e. translate
them literally. In Hu’s opinion, “red-eyed” relates to some conditions and emotions, but it
has nothing to do with envy in Western culture. The translators render “我们这些光杆看
了真眼红” into “we bachelors go red-eyed with envy” might make target readers puzzled.
However, the authors of the present thesis hold the viewpoint that the translation is
acceptable. The sense added is qualified to aid in comprehension. As to render literally
“眼红” into “red-eyed”, it is beneficial for introducing the Chinese expression into the
Western world. Nowadays, plenty of Chinese know that “green eyes” refers to envy in
English owing to an increasing number of people studying English and its culture, which
is blending in with their lives. On the other hand, the English readers of the translated
novel might enrich their knowledge of Chinese language and culture that the Chinese
metaphor “red-eyed” expresses the same meaning as “green eyes” does in their own
language. In short, the translation “go red-eyed with envy” not only can retain the
original flavor in the target text and avoid the obscureness, but also contribute to import
Chinese culture into the Western world.
On the other side of the coin, if the translation is too foreignized, it may become an
obstacle of understanding. Fortress Besieged is a novel which is closely bound up with
Chinese traditional culture and without doubt, there are plenty of culture-bound
34
expressions in it. For Chinese readers, these expressions are embedded in their mind, life
and daily conversation. Even though there are some original metaphors created by Qian
Zhongshu himself, the readers can comprehend the meanings easily. However, due to the
considerable cultural gap between China and the Western world (especially at the 1970s
when China was not open to the outside world), the general target readers were not
equipped with rich knowledge about the Chinese language and culture. If the translators
blindly insist on adopting the strategy of foreignization to translate all the metaphors, the
target readers may not be capable to catch the sense but be puzzled and lose interest,
since these metaphors are beyond their understanding. Under the circumstances, the
translators have to domesticate some metaphors by paraphrasing or omitting so as to
solve the cultural and language conflicts to some extent, which are demonstrated in the
following instance.
(24) 阿刘哑声告诉，姓孙的那几个人打牌，声音太闹，给法国管事查到了，大吵其
架，自己的饭碗
饭碗也砸破了，等会就得卷铺盖下船。
饭碗
Ah Liu explained in a hoarse voice that Mr. Sun and the others playing mahjong had
been too noisy and had been caught by the French who had raised cain. He had lost
his job and in a little would have to pack his bedding and get off the boat.
China is the most populous country in the world. As the saying goes, “民以食为天”
(The masses regard sufficient food as their heaven). One of the primary concerns for
many Chinese is food problem. Only if a person gets a job, he can earn his living. And for
Chinese, rice is one of the necessities of life. Thus in traditional Chinese culture, “饭
碗” (rice bowl) is the metaphor which implies a job. Once the rice bowl is broken,
there’s no container for food. Once a person is out of work, he is not able to ensure the
basic living standard. However, the staple food for Western people is bread and the
English phrase “daily bread” is regard as the symbol of livelihood and the necessities of
life. In addition, since they are not under the circumstance of worrying about food, they
would not have the same understanding and feeling of the “rice bowl” as Chinese. For
this reason, the translators delete the image and transfer the sense of the metaphor.
35
But is it adequate if the image “rice bowl” is replaced by the English metaphor
“daily bread”? The answer is negative. As mentioned before, the translator has to be
faithful to the style and content of the source text and recreate the story and the scene at
the same time while translating literary works. Although the bread is becoming a part of
people’s life in China, we need to pay attention that the social background and historical
background of the story is different from now. The whole story of Fortress Besieged is
set in the period of the War of Resistance against Japan, i.e. around 1937-1945. As a kind
of Western food, bread was not popular in China during that time. Only a few people had
the chance to taste it. Therefore, it is impossible and inappropriate for the character in the
novel to say such a western-oriented metaphor like “daily bread”. Given the above
considerations, the Chinese metaphor “rice bowl” could not be transferred into the
English metaphor “daily bread” even though they are similar to each other in meaning.
Finally, the translators apply another translation procedure to domesticate the culturespecific metaphor—that is, paraphrasing.
5.3 The Untranslatability of the Metaphor
It is proved that the effective way to translate Chinese metaphors is using domestication
and foreignization in response to the given context. Indeed, it is helpful to fill the culture
and language gaps between Chinese and English, but we have to admit that some effect
or information is untranslatable and unable to be made up, such as the following
conversation taken from Example (8) in Chapter 4.
— “…不识抬举、忘恩负义的王八蛋
王八蛋！”
王八蛋
— “王八
王八是谁挑我做的？害了你那死鬼男人做王八
王八不够还要害我。”
王八
王八
— “You don’t appreciate the honor, you ungrateful rotten egg!”
— “Who made me a cuckold? It’s not enough for you to make your late husband a
cuckold.”
36
As far as the translation of “王八”, “cuckold” is an equivalent metaphor. However, some
original flavor is inevitably lost. When Ah Fu is cursed “王八蛋” by the widow, he
chooses the first two words of the swearword --“王八” to satirize her back. There is a
difference of only a single word between the two swearwords “王八蛋” and “王八”, but
the meanings are not that close. Coincidently, these two words are coherent and logical in
the dialogue and bring an unexpected result. In the view of Chinese readers, this retort
makes the widow speechless since she suffers from her own swearword. This word play
is restricted in the Chinese language and culture. When they are respectively translated
into “rotten egg” and “cuckold”, the dialogue seems just like a quarrel that two sides
scold in turn and the delicate connection between the swearwords is disappeared.
5.4 Some possible improvements to the translation
Generally speaking, the translation of Fortress Besieged is adequate. However, it is
noticed that the translation of some metaphors needs to be improved in the process of
analysis. In addition, a few mistranslations are found in the English version. Since the
translators might be influenced and affected by many factors while translating, it is hard
to say a translation is perfect or ideal. In many cases, there is some room for
improvement. We will discuss the translation of some metaphors and give some advice
and suggestions further in this section.
(25) 他赔小心解释了半天，她脸色和下来，甜甜一笑道：“我是个死心眼儿，将来
你讨厌—”鸿渐吻她，把这句话有效地截断，然后说：“你今天真是颗酸葡
酸葡
萄。”
After he had spent a long time carefully explaining everything to her, her expression
softened, and smiling sweetly, she said, “I’m very stubborn. Later on you won’t like
it.” He kissed her, effectively cutting off her sentence, and said, “You sure are a sour
grape today.”
37
“Sour grapes” derives from Aesop’s Fables. The story tells a fox tries whatever it can do
to reach the grapes on the vine, but it doesn’t success until the end. Finally, it gives up
and says that the grapes are sour and distasteful. People often use this phrase to describe a
person who pretends to despise the things that he cannot have. This fable is so famous
that it is familiar by Chinese speakers as well. There is a proverb “吃不到葡萄说葡萄酸
(someone said that the grapes were sour since he couldn’t eat them)” in Chinese which
originate from the same story. Since there is a metaphor with the same image in both
English and Chinese, the most satisfying procedure is retain the image “酸葡萄” and
translate it literally in the target language.
However, if the translators consider the context carefully, they will find that “酸葡
萄” here conveys another meaning. In the previous dialogue, Sun Jou-chia gets into a
huff because of Fang Hung-chien’s so-called “grape theory” as follows:
天下只有两种人。譬如一串葡萄到手，一种人挑最好的先吃，另一种人把最好
的留在最后吃。……从恋爱到白头偕老，好比一串葡萄，总有最好的一颗，最
好的只有一颗，留着做希望。
“There are but two kinds of people in the world. If given a bunch of grapes, for
example, one kind will eat the best ones first, while the other kind will leave the best
for last. …From first falling in love to growing old together it’s like a bunch of
grapes: There is always just one best grape remaining at the end to provide hope.
After hearing this, Sun is very unhappy, and says that “Since the good grape you’re
hoping for is at the end, I must be a bad grape, so don’t ruin your appetite.” Apparently
Sun misinterprets Fang’s meaning as he is saying that she is not his “right person” but the
“wrong person”. When they clear the air, Fang calls Sun “酸葡萄” since she is jealous
over nothing. In this kind of background, the phrase here does not indicate a person who
disparages some unattainable things anymore. Here “酸 (sour)” stands for the emotion of
envy and jealousy. From the context, it is clear that the word “葡萄 (grape)” refers to
human beings. With the combination of these two meanings, the phrase “酸 葡 萄 ”
changes into an implication of a jealous woman. For this reason, the author of the present
38
thesis suggests to translate it into “jealous grape” to avoid confusion. On one hand, the
meaning of the original metaphor is clear—jealous. On the other hand, the image “grape”
is retained for keeping the coherence of the “grape” metaphors in the previous
conversation.
(26) 鸿渐道：“我最惭愧了，这次我什么事都没有做，真是饭桶
饭桶。”
饭桶
Hung-chien said, “I’m the biggest disgrace. I didn’t do a thing this time. I was just a
‘rice-bucket’”.
(27) 我不像三妹，我知道自己是个饭桶
饭桶。
饭桶
I’m not like Third Sister. I know I’m useless.
The word “饭桶” acts as a metaphor in these two sentences and the translators deal with
it in different ways according to the context. In Chapter Two of Fortress Besieged, the
translators render the word “饭桶” into “rice bucket” for the first time and add the sense
with footnote, see Example (15). The first example here is literally translated into “ricebucket” but the footnote is omitted. The translators assume that every reader has a very
good memory to remember what “rice bucket” means. However, it is impossible since the
word is culture-specific and many target readers may never have heard of this before.
Furthermore, there isn’t any important sentence pattern has to be preserved, i.e. there’s no
need to retain the original image. For the above reasons, the author of the present thesis
suggests changing the translation into “fathead”. “Fathead” is an established English
metaphor which implies a man who is stupid and incompetent. It has the same effect in
the target text as what “rice bucket” does in the source text. In the above two examples,
the metaphor “rice bucket” loses either its sense or image. But the word “fathead” retains
both elements at the same time. In summary, “fathead” is a better translation of the
Chinese metaphor “饭桶 (rice bucket)” in these two sentences.
(28) 我想这迷汤灌错了耳朵
迷汤灌错了耳朵，便不客气把听筒挂上了。
迷汤灌错了耳朵
I thought all that rice gruel was being poured down the wrong ear, so I very
rudely hung up on her.
39
Note: “rice gruel” means sweet and flattering words. When “rice gruel is poured
down the wrong ear,” it means the flattery has not achieved its desired effect and has
possibly backfired, or it has been said to the wrong person.
In this instance, the word “迷汤” is translated into “rice gruel” and its sense is elaborated
in the footnote. However, the translators are confused with the Chinese words “迷汤” and
“米汤”. The pronunciations of these two words are close whereas their meanings are
totally different. In the English version, the previous one is taken for the later one for two
times, which reveals that it is not a simple typo, but a mistranslation. Fortunately, the
translators correctly understand the sense and give a very clear interpretation in the
footnote which includes the meaning of the metaphor itself and the meaning in this
context as well. But the problem is, it misinforms the English readers that the image “米
汤 (rice gruel)” is associated with sweet and flattering words. The suggestion of the
author of the present thesis is to modify the original translation “rice gruel” into “magic
potion” (almost literally equivalence) or “honey words” (a metaphor with another image
“honey”).
(29) 李梅亭多喝了几杯酒，人全活过来，适才不过是立春时的爬虫
立春时的爬虫，现在竟是端午
端午
立春时的爬虫
左右的爬虫了。他向孙小姐问长问短，讲了许多风话。
左右的爬虫
After a few glasses of wine, Li Mei-t’ing had fully revived. Where before he had
been but an insect of early spring, now he was an insect of Dragon Boat Festival
time. He plied Miss Sun with questions and made all sorts of silly comments.
The phrases “立春时的爬虫 (an insect of early spring)” and “端午左右的爬虫 (an insect
of Dragon Boat Festival time)” lively reflect the actions of Li Mei-t’ing. Before drinking
the wine, he moves very slowly just like the insect that comes back to life in early spring.
When he is drunk, he is more active which is similar with the insect in May, the Dragon
Boat Festival time. The Dragon Boat Festival, as a Chinese traditional festival, is in the
5th day of the 5th lunar month. Both translators of Fortress Besieged are highly proficient
in the Chinese language and culture, thus they rendered the festival directly without any
40
explanations or notes. They are so familiar with the holiday that they ignore the literal
translation will create an obstacle for the target readers’ understanding. Since the English
readers don’t have enough knowledge about the Dragon Boat Festival, it is almost
impossible for them to comprehend the entire metaphor. For this reason, it will be more
satisfactory if the specific time of the festival is indicated.
41
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION
6.1 Summary of the study
Fortress Besieged is a highly valued classic Chinese literary work with life-like
characters, the splendid plot as well as the impressive humor and sarcasm. In the novel,
Qian Zhongshu manages to enrich the content and disseminates the humor to readers via
diverse rhetorical devices such as the metaphors. Since the metaphors play a rather
important role in the novel, to a certain extent the quality of the translation is determined
by whether the metaphors are successfully translated. In the process of translation, it is
necessary for the translators to ensure that the function and effect of the original
metaphors are realized in the translation. In addition, they need to reserve the cultural
features and characteristics in the original as much as possible.
This study has examined the translation procedures and strategies of metaphors on
the basis of 139 metaphors found in Fortress Besieged and their translations in the
English version translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao. The metaphors are
classified into six groups according to the adaptation version of Peter Newmark’s six
procedures for metaphor translation to analyze the occurrence frequency and applicable
situations of each procedure. The case analysis reveals that the most frequently used
procedure for translating metaphors in this novel is Procedure 1 (using a metaphor with
the same or similar image to replace the original), which accounts for about 39.6%. In
terms of the applicable situations, Procedure 1 is practicable in the following two
situations: 1) there is equivalence in the target language and 2) the metaphor is important
which needs to be reproduced in the target text. According to our statistical results, 34.5%
of the metaphors are translated with Procedure 5 (omitting the image and translate the
sense behind it), the second most frequently used translation procedure. It is feasible
when 1) there’s no equivalence in the TL, 2) the counterpart doesn’t convey the same
metaphorical meaning, or 3) the original metaphor isn’t acceptable or intelligible in TT.
These two most frequently applied translation procedures are followed by Procedure 4
42
(retaining the metaphor/converting it to simile and adding the sense), Procedure 2
(translating with a different image that has the same sense), Procedure 3 (converting the
metaphor into a simile) and Procedure 6 (omitting the entire metaphor) which account for
13%, 8.6%, 2.9% and 1.4% respectively.
On the basis of the analysis of six translation procedures, the present study uses
Venuti’s translation strategies of domestication and foriegnization to discuss the
translation tendency of the translators, i.e. whether source language culture oriented or
target language culture oriented. What is observed in the translation of Fortress Besieged
is that the translators choose to stand in between the two extremes. The statistics shows
that 53.7% metaphors in Fortress Besieged are foreignized; while domestication is
applied in the rest of the instances in the process of translation. In other words, these two
translation strategies coexist and are mutually supplement. In Chapter 5, several instances
are illustrated to reveal two main factors that influence the translators’ decisions on their
use of translation strategies, which are the purpose of translation and the acceptability of
readership. Moreover, the author of the present thesis also realized there are some
instances of untranslatability, because of the differences between two languages and
cultures. Some suggestions have been also made to improve a few inadequate translations
of the metaphors.
6.2 Implications
The present study adapts Peter Newmark’s six procedures for metaphor translation and
attempts to make them more feasible and practicable. The analysis on the samples reveals
that these translation procedures can be utilized in different situations. Thus in the
process of translation, the translator has to be clear about what kind of situation he is
facing. For instance, he should consider whether the figurative language has equivalent in
the TL, whether it is appropriate in the TL or how important the metaphor (image) is. The
possible situations analyzed in Chapter 4 may provide a guideline for the translators to
decide whether retain the images or the sense of the metaphors in the process of
translation.
43
The discussion chapter shows that the translation strategies of both domestication
and foreignization are used in metaphor translation. This echoes Zhang Meifang’s
observation that “In translation practice, there is no foreignization without some degree of
domestication; by the same token, there is no domestication without some degree of
foreignization.”(2001). It is also found that the translators strike a balance between these
two strategies by using various translation procedures. The foreignization translation
could be helpful to keep the original flavor of the source text, facilitate intercultural
communication and introduce foreign words. However, if the translations are “overforeignized”, it would be difficult to make the masterpiece intelligible to and appreciable
for the target readers. On the other hand, domesticating the original metaphors makes the
novel easy to understand to the target readers; but to some extent, if the translations are
extremely domesticated, they might be out of context and the source culture background.
It is hoped that the present study could provide reference for future studies on translations
of similar kinds and shed some light on Chinese-English metaphor translation.
6.3 Limitations and future studies
There are some limitations in this research, which largely relate to the restrictions of
space and time. The present thesis focuses on the metaphors (specifically, implicit
metaphors) and their English translations in Fortress Besieged. A total number of 139
metaphors are selected to be the sample for case analysis and discussion. However, the
metaphors that have been looked at are only from one novel. Therefore, it is still difficult
to make generalizable conclusions about the translation of metaphors in Chinese literary
texts into English. In subsequent studies, larger samples can be attempted, in order to
cover more literary genres, for example. On the basis of a larger database, metaphors may
be further classified into several categories or sub-categories according to more
sophisticated theoretical framework for more in-depth analysis. It is hoped that there will
be more research studies in this area of metaphor translation, so as to enhance exchange
and promulgation of literary work, inform translation practice, and promote a keener
appreciation of Chinese culture in the Western world.
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