Skills of idiom translation in the Cop and the Anthem

从警察与赞美诗中看习语翻译的一般技巧

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

O#8217;Henry was a distinguished American writer, the creator of modern American short stories. O#8217;Henry, Maupassant, and Chekhov were called as the kings of short stories over the world. He has been hailed as the Manhattan crown prose writer and the father of modern American short story. A lot of his works have been published, mainly including the Gift of the Magi, the Cop and the Anthem, the last Leaf, and so on. It was very difficult to translate his works, because of their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings. Among them, the Cop and the Anthem has become typical representative to study translation skills. Soapy, the main character in the Cop and the Anthem, was a lonely and poor tramp in New York City. In order to get through chilly winter, he planned to commit a crime so that he could get free food in the prison. However, he didn#8217;t want to commit serious cases, such as murder or robbery, so he chose to dine and dash, break window, molest a woman, breach social rules and steal things to achieve his purpose. At last, he repented his crimes and decided to turn a new leaf after listened to the anthem. Ironically, the police arrested him. The whole story revealed the unfairness and abnormality of American society under the control of bourgeoisie. Although the story is short and easy to understand, it is worth researching and studying American culture through it.

1.2 Need for the study

At present, with the development of economy and technology between China and America, culture development and exchange become unavoidable trend. It#8217;s an important and useful way to understand each others#8217; civilization by reading works of literature. However, it is very difficult for translators to keep their original meanings and styles,especially some novels, so translations skills seems very helpful. As we all know, there are many idioms in the novel, so we need to master some skills of idiom translation to help us understand the novel better. So far, translators have put forward many translation skills,such as domesticating strategy, foreignizing strategy(Lawrence Venuti,1995), technique of omission and amplification, and so on, but they paid less attention on skills of idiom translation. The author read the original work of the Cop and the Anthem, collected and classified all kinds of idioms, and studied their translation skills

2. Literature review

2.1 the source of idiom

Generally speaking, with the features of vivid images and profound ethnic characteristics, idiom comes from classics, famous works, historical stories, legend and so on, which is tightly related with a nation#8217;s geographical conditions, history, customs, mode of thinking, economic activities as well as language features(Dong mingjing, 2004). Talking about idiom, Logan Pearsall Smith(1923), an English linguist, said: ” The majority of our metaphor phrases and idioms originate from common people and their daily jobs instead of the intelligentsia.” Li li(2013) also pointed out: ” the way of expressing the particular culture is up to the particular geographic environment.” Later on, the meaning of those idioms was enlarged, and more and more people were used to using them in similar situations.

2.2 the definition of idiom

Idioms are extracted from fixed phrases or short sentences used for a long time , which are the crystal of the people#8217;s wisdom(Zhang peiji, Yu yungeng, Li zongjieamp;Peng moyu, 1980). Broadly speaking, idiom is made up of proverb, slang, colloquial, twin words, set phrase, habitual collocation, and so on.(Yin fulinamp;Ruan yuhui, 2007）

2.2.1 Proverb

Proverb is a kind of language form summarized from daily life to reveal the profound truth.(Yin fulin et al, 2007). With the features of symmetry, concision and fluency, it spreads widely among people.

2.2.2 Slang

Slang is an informal style with a strong ethnic color and a little vulgarity, which can be divided into three types: euphemism, bad word and vulgar word.(Chen yinpingamp;Liu kai, 2016)

2.2.3 Habitual collocation

Usually, most of habitual collocations imply sarcasm, which are used in oral English. Habitual collocation has a simple form, so it is popular both in dialogues

and literature works.(Chen yinping et al, 2016)

2.2.4 Twin words

Twin words is consisted of two words combined by ”and”, which are synonyms or antonyms(Tan weiguo, 2013) , such as dine and dash.

2.3 skills of idiom translation

At present, there are four major strategies to translate idiom, free translation, literal translation, corresponding translation(Zhang peiji et al, 1980), and notation. No matter what methods will be taken, we should understand the differences in religious belief, customs, history and living habit between China and America. All in all, to solve the problem better, we need to read books and accumulate materials as much as we can.

2.4 Deficiency in previous studies

Although there were a number of theses discussing skills of idiom translation, including some famous works, almost they were all much of muchness. What#8217;s more, their discussion seemed a little simple. They failed to study skills of idiom translation in a specific work, so their theories lacked enough evidence.(Tan weiguo,2013). As we all know, it is important for scholars to understand them in the context. In order to understand idiom better, the author chooses to the Cop and the Anthem as research object to further discuss strategies used in it.

Works Cited

[1]尹富林、阮玉慧. 英汉互译#8212;#8212;理论与实践[M]. 中国科学技术大学出版社，2007.7

[2]欧#183;亨利. 欧亨.利短篇小说选[M].外语教学与研究出版社, 2011年7月第二次印刷

[3]杨士焯. 英汉翻译教程[M]. 北京大学出版社，2008

[4]张培基、喻云根、李宗杰、彭谟禹. 英汉翻译教程[M]. 上海外语教育出版社，2002年6月第37次印刷

[5]谭卫国. 论英语习语的翻译策略[J]. 复旦外国语言文学论丛, 2012-03-31

[6]曾晓俊. 英语习语的翻译技巧[J]. 云南师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版), 2004-01-15

[7]李晶媛. 欧.亨利作品_警察与赞美诗_的英语翻译技巧与分析[J]. 英语广场(学术研究), 2012-12-28

[8]李妍. 谈英语习语及其翻译技巧[J]. 湖南科技学院学报, 2008-03-20

[9]董明晶. 英语习语的来源[J]. 黑龙江教育学院学报, 2004-02-25

[10]陈银平、刘凯. 侧看英语习语分类与翻译[J]. 留学生，2016