摘 要

习语是人类语言的精华，尤其是动物习语，传达着社会文化发展的信息，是一代代人文化传承和创造的结果。在英汉语言中存在大量的动物习语，他们简洁明快，生动形象，语言诙谐，令人印象深刻。随着国际文化交流的不断深入，动物习语在日常生活中的使用也越来越多。但是由于中西方文化的差异，同一动物形象在不同的背景下有不同的意义，这就给习语的理解和翻译工作带来了一定的困难。本文从习语的定义、特点以及文化的含义、文化和语言的关系入手，然后比较典型的动物形象及其承载的文化内涵在不同背景下的差异；并对造成这种差异的原因进行分析，从中西方民族的宗教信仰、风俗习惯以及历史、地理等方面追根溯源，探求动物习语形成的环境和过程，进行归纳总结，最后落脚点在动物习语的翻译策略上。Nida的动态对等理论研究，把读者的反应纳入考虑范围，给我们提供了可行的翻译原则和策略。在该理论的指导下，本文总结出直译、套译、加注及意译的翻译方法，力求在具体的翻译工作中既能保持译语的畅达，又能很好的传达源语的韵味，为国际文化交流服务。

关键词：英汉动物习语； 文化内涵；动态对等理论；翻译策略
 
Abstract

Idioms, especially the animal idioms, are the essence of language. They convey the message of the social and cultural development, and take shape from cultural heritage and human’s creativeness. There are great numbers of animal idioms in both Chinese and English, which are characterized by their brevity, vividness and humor. With the deepening of the international cultural exchange, animal idioms are more and more popular with common people in daily life. However, the same animal image may convey different meanings because of the differences between Chinese and western cultures, which poses as a huge difficulty as to people’s comprehension and the translation work. This essay, first, describes the definition of idiom, culture and their relationship, followed by the comparison of the typical animal images and their cultural connotation under different backgrounds. Analyzing the causes with respect to the difference in religion, custom, history and geography helps to find the solution of animal idioms’ translation. Nida’s translation theory, dynamic equivalence, provides a way of achieving the goal of good translation by attaching considerable importance to readers’ response. On the basis of the theory, this essay provides the following methods of animal idioms’ translation: Literal translation, Substitution, amplification and Liberal translation. The author aims to remain the original flavor of idioms and convey their core meanings at the same time. The study on the features of Chinese and English idioms, their cultural connotations and translation strategies is expected not only to help improve native people’s cultural awareness but also promote the cultural communications between different nations.

Keywords: Chinese and English animal idioms, cultural connotation, dynamic equivalence theory, translation strategies