The Translation Strategies of Metaphor in Why women kill

蔣亞玲

Abstract：Why women kill has quickly gained huge popularity among a large number of audiences with its unique drama effect as well as old and avant-garde story， even much hotter in the local America. In addition to the personal charm of the heroines， their images coincide with the independent female role models created in China. This also reflects that more and more people are not satisfied with the fact that the world only pays attention to women' s appearance and body， but more attention to other aspects of women， such as work ability and personal charm. This also means that the concept of gender is facing a new awakening. During the period of appreciating drama， It has been found a lots of metaphors were vividly used in the show. And the translation of metaphors has aroused an interesting research point. Thus， the essay will carefully observe the usage of metaphor to reach special drama effect and classify the methods adopted to translate metaphors. The research will make somewhat significance to the field of Metaphor translation.

Key words：：American drama; translation strategy; metaphor

Introduction：The three heroines in Why women kill live in the same house in different times. But whether it's Beth Ann， a housewife in the 1960s， Simone， a socialite in the 1980s， or Taylor， a successful lawyer in 2018， all face similar life problems： their partners have been derailed. But they didn't behave a forbearing and conciliatory way， but bravely use their wisdom to solve the betrayal in marriage and choose the life they want to live. In this drama， we can see that when Simone is betrayed by other people， she immediately counterattacks the person who hurts her. She also becomes a new example， that is she looks beautiful and lives beautifully， thus her creed is to live her own life. In Beth Ann's story， we also see a woman's whole process from being oppressed to awakening and resisting. There is no doubt that the experiences of the three protagonists and their actions are the reflection and resistance to the plight of women in the patriarchal society. （Xiao Jiayan， Li Hengwei， 2010） had mentioned how to realize the transformation of metaphor is one of the important issues in the field of literary translation. Lakoff and Johnson have been regarded the representatives to study metaphor under the perspective of cognition. Their co-authored book Metaphors we live by， published in 1980， has been viewed as the classical masterpiece in the field of metaphor.

1.The translation methods of metaphor

The function of translation is mainly to realize the transformation between two different languages， which is an important means of cultural exchange（Lu Wei， 2018）. In English translation， the differences between Chinese and Western cultural concepts， such as regional culture， historical background， religious belief， ideology， customs， vocabulary meaning and so on， will also have a certain impact on translation work， such as the choice of translation strategies and methods. However， the west and the east may exist quite different understanding of metaphor， even the same item， like the west thinks of dragon symbolizing the devil and dirty thing while a symbol of noble status in the east culture. In the process of metaphor translation， the translator should have multiple interactions with the author and the reader to decide choose the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization based on cultural difference. Peter Newmark once mentioned seven ways of metaphor translation in his book Approaches to Translation， which are： （1） reproduce the same image in the target language; （2） replace the original languages image with the appropriate image in the target language; （3） retain the original image and replace the metaphor with the simile; （4） use the simile and explain the meaning; （5）free translation; （6） provincial translation; （7） unity of tenor and vehicle.

2.The metaphor translation in Why Women Kill

Thus， this paper will conclude the translation strategies of metaphor adopted in Why Women Kill. This paper identifies as many as possible metaphors and displaying how to convey the meaning of metaphor during two kinds of culture to find out either strengthens and weakness of translation strategies adopted.

2.1Maintain vehicle

1.Simone： This is why you re the best husband Ive ever had. （你是我有過最棒的老公。）

Karl： I was just hoping to be in the top three. （我以為我只能進前三呢。）

Simone praised her husband while her husband Karl humorously responded with sentence， I was just hoping to be in the top three. In here context， Karl compared his marriage with Simone as a game with the reason that only game will produce the first， the second and the third place. In the both west and east culture， audiences have a clear understanding of the game， thus it is better to translate metaphor directly in an attempt to convey the humorous spirit of Karl.

2.Beth Ann： But I just dont know where I would find the courage.

（但我不知道要上哪里找這樣的勇氣。）

Shila： Its right here， at the bottom of this glass. （就在這里，在這杯底。）

When Beth Ann got upset and lacked the courage to confront with her husbands lover， Beth Anns neighbour Shila always accompanied her to make suggestions and add courage to her. Shila asked Beth Ann to drink all of the wine， actually， Shila had compared the the wine to courage. Translator here maintains the metaphor based on the shared knowledge in both the west and east， and there is always a saying in Chinese culture： Wine makes coward bold.

3.Voice-over man： The rumor was one of the rich people had killed the other. I asked my wife what she thought had happened.

（傳聞說其中一個有錢人殺了另一個有錢人， 我問我未婚妻她覺得發生了什么？）

Voice-over mans finance： Death is cheaper than divorce.（ 死亡可比離婚便宜。）

In the sentence of death is cheaper than divorce， scriptwriter regard the divorce process as pecuniary exchange. Whether is the west or the east， when couples get divorced， there will be a troublesome war concerned with division of property， alimony payment and the settlement of children. Normally speaking， the wealthier couples are， the divorce is more expensive. Compared with high expense of divorce， death seems much cheaper. Therefor translator is no need to particularly explain the shared common knowledge and the direct translation can achieve more thought-provoking effect with black humor.

4.Simones friend： Well， if you dont do something. Ida Ford is threatening to sing opera.

（如果你們不表演的話，艾達. 福特揚言要唱歌劇。）

Karl：Oh darling. Havent the burn victims suffered enough？

（親愛的， 難道火災受害者受的罪還不夠多嗎？）

The style of Karls speech is humorous and sarcastic. When their friend said Ida Ford was going to sing opera， Karl immediately responded with such words with the aim of making joke on Ida Fords singing. He compared Ida Fords singing as fire disaster， once the victims of fire disaster hear her singing， it means those victims will suffer much more pain. Translator maintains the vehicle and translates directly to display the original sarcasm.

2.2 Interpreting metaphor

1. Shila s husband： You guys got kids？ Well， we have four little rug rats（你們有孩子嗎？我們有四個小家伙。）

The west views little rats as witty and smart symbol， as the the most popular cartoon， Tom and Jerrys rat character Jerry， which lingering much joy in children. However， in Chinese culture， people show disgust attitude toward rats who think rats are always dirty， devil and cunning. Many Chinese idioms， such as 鼠目寸光（shortsighted）、過街老鼠，人人喊打（an object of people hate and cry）、投鼠忌器（holding back from taking action against sb for fear of injuring others） has shaped the negative image of rats. If translator directly translates it as Chinese rats， it may fail conveying the cute and lively image of children. Translator explain the metaphor will let audiences easily understand the atmosphere which the drama want to construct.

2. Simone： How does Wanda these days？ （旺達最近怎么樣？）

Simones friend： Shes in a dark place lately.（她最近比較頹廢。）

Simones friend said she was in dark place. Chinese may get confused to get the right meaning of dark place and only know the superficial meaning， the coloured place. Translator has carefully concerned the trouble of cultural difference by explain the dark places underneath meaning， bad and upset mood， thus decrease the difficulties of audiences watching foreign drama.

3.Taylor： How is she？（她怎么樣了？）

Taylors sister： We work our fingers to the the bone for that woman.（我們為他嘔心瀝血的工作。）

During the dialogue between Taylor and her sister， they were complaining their mother who is captious to make much trouble toward the two sisters. Working ones fingers to the bone is a popular slang to express the total efforts devoted to the work. But in Chinese audiences， as its literal meaning shows， fingers and bone are just represents the body structure. Because of lacking the special cultural context， audiences have no idea of the meaning conveyed by the drama. Concerned with the lack of common knowledge， translator choosing the strategy to interpret the metaphor is quite workable and appropriate.

2.3 Transforming metaphor

1.Taylor： I was in court today for seven hours straight. It was a shit-show.（我今天在法院連續待了七小時，簡直一團亂麻。）

Taylor complained that she had spent the most horrible day in the court to tackle with all kinds of troublesome cases. She viewed the busy work in the court as a terrible show. Translator wittily replace the original metaphor with a much more familiar metaphor which has gets its prevalence among Chinese audiences no matter how old that are. In Chinese slang， people always use the tangle-some twine to represents troublesome and busy works or affairs.

2.Jade： What？（什么？）

Taylor： Man， thats just shining a light on the cracks in our relationship.

（姐們，我們婚姻的小船沉得更快了。）

From Jade and Taylors words， we know they are quarreling. Taylor said that was just shinning a light on the cracks in their relationship， which means Taylor thought of their marriage as the the cracks in the mountains， thus the light would quicken the width of cracks. Translator here used network buzzword， the boat of marriage would sink with quicker speed， to change a totally different metaphor. During the translation of metaphor， it is appropriate to transform metaphor by make good use of popular words or slang in the targeted language， thus add much humor and joy to audiences and let them quickly get the deep meaning.

4.Conclusion

After finding out as many as metaphors in the popular drama， Why Women Kill， this essay chooses the most typical metaphors to analyze its translation strategies one by one， and discovers that the three most commonly used translation strategies， maintaining vehicle， Interpreting metaphor and transforming metaphor. Since the metaphor translation is Intercultural cognitive activities， translator should master the cultural connotation between any two different culture to reappear their cultural commonness and dissolve cultural differences. The translator should choose appropriate translation strategies according to the specific context， so that the translation can accurately convey the original information and make the target audiences more receptive. The analysis of metaphor translation strategies will add much significance to the subtitle translation when translator deal with metaphors in the drama.

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