Abstract: The study of language is the most effective means of learning different culture of various regions, and idioms are quintessence of the language as it has been chastened hundreds of years. This paper mainly focuses on “English and Chinese animal idioms”, which is the funniest part of the quintessence, to make clear the differences of history and culture between China and other western countries through comparison and study, and to illustrate some translation skills of animal idioms. The whole paper gets to the point from three aspects: The first part explains the concept of the animal idioms of both English and Chinese; the second part grasps the inner significance of cultural differences between China and other western countries, by comparing the different associated meanings of “dog”, “horse” and “sheep” in Chinese and English; the last part of the paper brings up three effective skills in translating animal idioms, literal translation, change of image, and free translation.
Key Words: animal idioms; cultural difference; translation skills; change of images
CONTENTS
1. Introduction: The concept of English and Chinese idioms 1
2. The comparision of imaginative meanings between English and Chinese idioms 2
2.1 Dog, the typical animal in understanding of animal idioms between chinese and western culture. 2
2.2 Horse, favorited by both chinese and westerner......................................................3
2.3 Sheep, regarded as the weak and small animals in the eyes of both chinese and western cultures. 4
3. Translation skills of English and Chinese animal idioms 5
3.1 The literal translation method 5
3.2 The change of image method 7
3.3. The free translation method 9
4. Conclusion ....13
Bibliography 14
