A Tentative Analysis of the Influence of the Culture Sense on English Idiom Translation

Dog Dangerous
Mean & low
 
狗

Another example, a survey showed the fact that “both cultures (English culture and Chinese culture ) think the fox stands for cunning and slyness(100% and 94%---the first percentage stands for the answers from the English speaking while the second for answers from Chinese)”. The idiom “ as cunning as a fox” (像狐狸般狡猾) is accepted both by English people and by Chinese people.

2. Relationship between English idioms and culture sense
English idioms are the concentrated expression of English culture sense. “ The idioms of a nation are closely associated with its history, cultural heritage, life experience, geographical conditions, social conventions and state of mind, etc., these being the chief determinants of the national characteristics of the idioms.”(郁福敏,郭珊琏,英汉习语对比[M]. 上海: 上海交通大学出版社1999,p189,132)Idioms are connected closely with the aspects of culture such as history, custom, religion and literature works.  They are all the main origins of English idioms as follows:
2.1 Idioms from history
1）DO in Rome as Romans do.
2）All roads lead to Rome.
3）Rome was not built in a day.
It is obvious that all the three sayings above have much to do with the word “Rome”, which refers to the historical event “Roman Conquest” in English history.
2.2 Idioms from custom
 1) Jack and Jill ( 泛指“姑娘和小伙子”)
 2）Every Jack has his Jill  有情人终成眷属
 3）Jack of all trades and master of none. 杂而不精
2.3 Idioms from the Bible and Shakespeare’s works
The Bible, and Shakespeare’s works are considered two great treasuries of the English language. Inevitably they both exert a great influence on the development of English idioms.
 1) clean hands   清白，廉洁，两袖清风
e.g. He retired from office with clean hands.
clean hands is from Job. The Old Testament : “He that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.” It means “honest and clean, incorruptible.
2)cast pearls before swine 明珠暗投， 对牛弹琴
It means “offer beautiful or valuable things to people who cannot appreciate them”. It came from Mount. The New Testament: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”[St Mattew, 7:6]
3)one’s pound of flesh “分文不能少的债务；虽合法但不合理的要求” e.g.
By offering the highest wages, the boss wanted his pound of flesh in return and force him to work very hard.
It is from the play The Merchant of Venice of Shakespeare.
 Of course, there are some idioms which originated from other famous writers. For example: “mind your eye (当心，留神)”is from Dickens’s novel “Barnaby Rudge”.

3. Influence of culture sense on English idioms translation
3.1 Influence of Image
Image means that language is used to display things, behavior, feelings, thoughts, ideas, psychological state and sensual or super-sensual e

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