This paper is about the similarities and differences of cultures in Chinese and English idioms and their translation, pointing out that, due to the differences in geographical environments, historical developments, social systems, religious beliefs and customs and traditions, there are existent unique elements in Chinese and English. Then some methods are put forward to their translation.
Introduction .
Edward Burnett Tylor, a British social anthropologist, said in his Primitive Culture (1871), "Culture is a kind of complexity. It includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, custom and some habits formed by living in a certain society-thus we can find that culture covers a wide area, it is a complex system. And language, as a part of culture, reflects a colorful national culture.
Mr. Zhu Guang-qian said in his About Translation, "In the foreign culture, the most difficult thing to understand and translate is the associate meaning- "It has special atmosphere of sense, and it is profound and delicate. We cannot find them in the dictionary, but it is so important to the literature. If we are not familiar with the custom and the history background of a country, we will be blind to the meaning of the words and can't translate it well.".
With the comparison of the ideas of English and Chinese idioms, we can find the cultural diversity in two languages, and the various translation methods should be put into use. It will benefit us to understand idioms clearly from a cultural perspective and know how to translate them properly. In other words, in order to raise people's intercultural awareness to both Chinese and English idioms, the thesis deals with the cultural knowledge effects with each other and their translation. It attempts to reject people's misunderstanding of idioms in two nations.
Cultural differences reflected in idioms analysis.
Idioms carry and reflect culture. The differences in the culture can be an obstacle in understanding the foreign language.