On How to Translate English Figures of Speech— Personification & Hyperbole into Chinese

朱久堂

【Abstract】This paper is going to use some examples to illustrate how to translate English figures of speech- personification & hyperbole into Chinese.

【Key words】English figures of speech； personification and hyperbole； translate

1.The translation of personification

1.1 The features of this figure of speech

1.1.1 Personification endues the animate or inanimate things in the nature with human characters， behaviors and feelings. Apart from that， personification is always linked with human features such as human images， actions and feelings， for example：

“The youth were singing， laughing and playing the music instruments. The trees and flowers around them danced heartily as if touched by merry mood.” （Y. Miyashita）

The trees and flowers have mans feelings and can dance heartily， from which we can see how happy the youth were at that time. So the technique of personification uses the objective things to show humans happiness， sorrows and hatred.

1.1.2 Personification often takes advantage of adverb， adjective， adv or noun. （Phrase） to express humans feelings etc. for example：

“The sun kissed the green fields” 太陽親吻著綠色的田野。

In the sentence， we can see that the man in such environment is in a good mood. If the traveler feels lonely or unhappy， we cant help asking whether he can find such beautiful situations.

“The thirsty desert drank up the water.” 干渴的大漠吸干了水分。

In the sentence， the writer uses the phrase—“drank up” and the adjective—“thirsty”， which only belongs to animate things to describe the desert， therefore， the sentence effectively expresses what the writer wants to say.

1.2 The methods of translating personification.

Usually， personification can be translated with the method of literal translation， for example：“If not always in a hot mood to smash， the sea is always stealthily ready for a drowning.” 就算大海并非總是怒氣沖沖的要粉碎一切，它卻總是暗地里伺機吞沒一切。

When translating the sentence， we use the words as follows： 怒氣沖沖，暗地里，伺機to describe the sea， in the result， we get a good image， the sea acts like an animal.

1.3 Some key points in translating personification.

In different cultures， the things that can be personified are not necessarily the same， or at least， the styles of personification are different. In the case， its far-fetched to keep the form and content of the original personification in translation.

For example： “The wind whistled through the trees.”

風呼嘯著穿過樹林。（*風吹著口哨穿過樹林）

“Dawn was beginning to prowl about the sky and put out the stars.”

黎明悄然來臨，群星暗淡無光。（*黎明開始在天空中徘徊，撲滅了群星）

From the （*） translation， we find that the original personification may be natural and familiar to the English readers. But when it is literally translated， it appears far-fetched to Chinese readers.

Personification sometimes contains some cultural elements， which should be kept when we do translating， at the same time， we need give some explanation. For example， in Greece， Athena stands for the moon， while Apollo stands for the sun.

2. The translation of hyperbole.

2.1 The characteristics of hyperbole.

Hyperbole is a figure of speech that describes through imagining the number， the shape and the scale or extent etc in an unusual way to strengthen the effect. Now lets compare some sentences：

The usual way Hyperbole

Thank you！ / Thanks. Thanks a million

They laughed heartily. They almost died laughing.

Im hungry. Im starving！

2.2 The principles and methods of translating hyperbole.

Usually， the method of literal translation can be applied to translating hyperbole and the content of it can be kept unchanged. Otherwise， the form of the hyperbole will change accordingly. But in some circumstances， weve difficulties in dealing with some words in this figure of speech， or its content is linked with some language customs， at which time， we can apply the skill of relative literal translation， for example： “The two sisters are different in a thousand and one ways”兩姐妹真是有天壤之別。

The sentence uses “in a thousand and one ways” to describe the two sisters differences； just the phrase makes the expression fresh and new and cannot be easily forgotten.

“For she was beautiful—her beauty made

The bright world dim， and everything beside

Seemed like the fleeting image of a shade.”

This line is in a poem written by Shelley. Its meaning is very similar to that of a Chinese saying“沉魚落雁之姿，閉月羞花之貌。”When we translate Shelleys line above， we can directly use the Chinese saying to replace the hyperbole.

Conclusion

We should consider the principles and methods completely and apply the methods mentioned above comprehensively. In short， if we can deeply understand and use them， and express them clearly， faithfully and idiomatically with proper words， the translation should be satisfying.

Reference：

[1]汪火焰.英語移就修辭格及其翻譯淺析[J].中國翻譯，2000.6.

[2]喻云根.辭格翻譯初探[J].中國翻譯第4期.