Abstract

As a country with ancient civilization, China has communicated for centuries with other countries in the world, contributing a lot to the development of the world civilization. Today, after reform and opening up, China and the world communicate more frequently. Meanwhile, more stress is put onto improving cross-cultural understanding, for which translation plays an important role as a bridge. Idioms are the condensation of a nation’s psychology and wisdom, thus the translation of idioms can not only convey language, but also spread culture.
    English and Chinese, as different languages and cultural systems, have their own specific historical backgrounds, religions, beliefs, geography and cultural customs, but there are still some similarities. Idioms completely reflect both their specialties and similarities, while the differences and similarities influence the translation between English and Chinese idioms in return. So discussing about the relationship among these factors, idioms and culture helps finding balance between Chinese and English, helps choosing suitable translation methods like equivalent translation, literal translation or liberal translation. Suitable translation methods can not only convey correct information, but also save cultural deposits.

KEYWORDS:Idioms; language; culture; translation methods

摘　要

作为一个文明古国，中国与世界有着悠久的交往历史，在过去的几千年里对世界文明发展做出了重大贡献。改革开放后的今天，中国与世界的交流达到空前的频繁，跨文化的理解就更为重要，而翻译作为跨文化交际的桥梁，起到至关重要的作用。其中，习语是一个民族文化的心理与智慧的浓缩，因此，习语的翻译不仅是语言的传递过程，也是文化的传播过程。
英语与中文属于不同的语言和文化体系。他们的历史背景，宗教信仰，地理特征和风俗习惯等文化有许多差异，但同时也存在着一些相似之处。而习语作为语言文化的凝聚，将这些异同表现得淋漓尽致。同时，这些因素又反过来影响着习语的翻译。因此，研究这些因素与习语以及文化之间的关系，有利于在两种语言间找到平衡点。然后，根据不同的语境与情况选择套译、直译、意译等翻译方法，使译文既传达了正确信息，又不失文化底蕴。

关键词:习语；语言；文化；翻译方法