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IV. Translation of Chinese Idioms about Animal Words
Many people think translating animal words is simple, but metaphors of animal words may not always be easily understood. Students learning English may come across sentences like these:
“You chicken!”he cried, looking at Tome with contempt.
The stork visited the Howard Johnstons yesterday.
The English learners may have been puzzled, unless they knew that chicken means a coward, a person without courage; that a visit by the stork means the birth of a baby. Similarly, English speakers learning Chinese would probably wonder about the meaning of “你真熊！瞧你那熊样！”
To English-speaking people, the bear does not carry the same associations as it does to Chinese. In oral English, people often use “bear” to describe one with a special talent, for example “He is a bear at math.” But not stupid, incompetent, good-for-nothing, as implied in the Chinese remark above.
4.1 Literal Translation
In Chinese and English, some animal words are the same or similar both in literal meanings and cultural connotations. In this case, we can use the method of literal translation to translate them.