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In the process of translation, it is important to successfully translate the figure of speech. To some extent, the value of English version is decided by whether the figure of speech in source text is translated successfully which also decides whether the version and culture of source language are accepted by target readers. Translation is defined by Catford as “the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)” (Catford, 1965: 20). However, we cannot find equivalent for every simile or metaphor because of linguistic and cultural differences. Even so, translators should burden the responsibility to retain and convey the beauty of the figure of speech and show the charm of culture of source language as much as possible instead of ignoring it. When he translates Six Chapters of A Floating Life (《浮生六记》), Lin Yutang adopted domestication and foreignization. There are also other specific translation methods involved. In this thesis, the author mainly discuses the translating strategies and methods employed by Lin Yutang when he translated the figurative expressions in Six Chapters of A Floating Life.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Brief summary of Six Chapters of A Floating Life
As one of the shining pearls in ancient Chinese prose, Six Chapters of A Floating Life, which was created in Qing Dynasty, was an autobiography written by Shen Fu. The book mainly depicts early happy marriage between Shen Fu and his wife Chen Yun as well as their later misery life. Despite its short length, it is rich in content including romance, misfortunes of family, travel, and inpidual interest and so on. What’s more, their attitudes towards difficulties leave a deep impression on readers. Optimistic and open-minded, they live with permanent childlike innocence making them fail to get accustomed to a federal society but enabling the couple to appreciate the beauty of life regardless of the following tough experiences. The image of Yun makes a great contribution to the fame of the book. She loves her husband and family, bears profound interests for landscape and literature and keeps a positive attitude towards life. Lin Yutang points out that “Yun, I think, is one of the loveliest women in Chinese literature” (Lin Yutang, 1999: 20).
The title of Six Chapters of A Floating Life originates from Li Bai’s poem, “Our floating life is like a spring dream; how often one can enjoy oneself?” The book could have totaled six chapters but now only four of them left. Nominally, it includes Chapter One, Wedded Bliss、 Chapter Two, The Little Pleasure of Life、Chapter Three, Sorrow、Chapter Four, The Joys of Travel、Chapter Five, Experience and Chapter Six, The Way of Life. Chapter Five and Chapter Six are missing at present.
Chinese version of Six Chapters of A Floating Life makes a feature of co-existence of vernacular and classical Chinese, making itself easily understood and shadowing a poetic air. Furthermore, merits of novel and prose are contained at the same time. As a result, readers may taste the attraction of plots as well as the classical elegance of words.
2.2 Definition and importance of figurative expressions
2.2.1 Definition and importance of simile
The term simile originates from ‘Simile’, a Latin word which means similarity and likeness. Now simile means comparing two things or phenomenon with some common aspects. “Simile is fundamentally a figure of speech requiring overt reference to source and target entities, and an explicit construction connecting them.” (Gibbs, 1994: 40) In English, some markers of similarity for the comparison are “as”, “like” and so on.
As for the importance of simile, there are three aspects involved. Firstly, it offers us a way of deploring the world. An object in the world shares some common features with another while it bears some specific points. We should know not only the differences but also the similarities. Secondly, simile provides an effective way of argument. Last but not the least, simile implies some aesthetic values and is an indispensable figure of speech in literature.