 Research results refer to the patterns or regularities exhibited through individual examples. In terms of the translation studies, they are the rules governing the treatment of various language phenomena in the process of translation. For example, in a research on the translation of English idioms to Chinese, the results can be some translation skills derived from an investigation into a certain number of English idioms and their translations. Based on such results, the suggestions can then be made on how to apply those skills.
The sample below presents the results from a research on the translation of English metaphors into Chinese. Read it and consider the following questions. Please write your answers in the space provided.
Are SL culture specific expressions replaced purely and simply or are they more often than not retained in Chinese translations? My investigation shows neither. From the above examples of metaphor translation and analysis, we can see that methods 1 and 3 (literal translation; literal translation plus sense and explanation) are practiced with the concept of foreignization. The translator "deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreigness of the original" (Shuttleworth &Cowie, 1997:59). The translator's choice, in Venuti's words, is an ethno-deviant pressure on target language values "to register the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text, sending the reader abroad" (1993: 20).
Methods 2, 4 and 5 (Replacing the SL image with a standard TL image; Converting the metaphor to meaning; using Chinese couplets to replace the English metaphor.) are domesticating strategies, in which "a transparent, fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for target language readers" (Shuttleworth &Cowie, 1997:59).
Then what makes the translator decide on the domesticating or foreignizing strategy? My research has the following findings:
(1) When the basic metaphorical concepts of SL and TL communities correspond, as in "to our ancestors" and "armed to teeth", the original image or flavour is most likely to be retained.
(2) When they come cross SL historical, geographical or folk heritage in cultural-specific metaphors such as "to carry coals to Newcastle" and "a skeleton in the cupboard/closet", the Chinese translator would try very hard to find suitable solutions for them. The best solution so far is to retain the original image or cultural -specific features with the support of interpretations so that the implications of the story generally accepted by members of the culture eventually get cross to the TL reader.
(3) The TL reader's response is still a significant criterion and the main consideration in metaphor translation. When the associations of an image in the SL is lacking in the TL, for instance, "to be born with a silver in one's mouth", or "a wet blanket", the translator tends to adapt the metaphor into idiomatic target language expressions.
(4) When translating the English metaphor, particularly those embedded in proverbs, such as "He who keeps company with the wolf will learn to howl" and "Great men are not always wise", the Chinese translator, more often than not, seeks for an equivalent expression (e.g. a Chinese couplet) to replace the original, although the equivalence is sometimes far from accurate.
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