Abstract: Since ancient times, animal words have been closely related to human civilization, and they carry rich cultural connotations. This paper focuses on the comparison between English and Chinese animal words, reflecting their unique connotations, and finally summarizes the problems that should be paid attention to when translating these animal words.

I. Introduction

Totem culture has existed in China since the primitive clan society. Totem belief is essentially the product of the combination of primitive nature worship and primitive ancestor worship, and it is a personalized concept of nature worship, and dragon is a good representative of totem worship. However, the image of the dragon has no symbolic significance in British culture. In the west, dragon means evil and ugliness, and its image is well interpreted in two cartoons-Shrek and Mulan.

So "dragon of women" means "fierce girl", not "dragon girl". The humanistic meaning of ci can often reflect the sharp social contradictions of this nation in a specific period, such as women's status and racial discrimination (Dai 200 1: 1). When animal words are used to refer to women in English, there are more derogatory words than commendatory words or neutral words, which is more prominent in American slang. For example, "cat" means "vicious woman", "dog" means "prostitute", "pig" means "swinging" and so on. The cultural connotation of these words reveals the undisguised contempt for women and reflects the low social status of women (Hu 2004:64). In view of the differences in humanistic psychology between the East and the West, we must be careful in translation and take into account the different cultural psychology between China and the West. For example, the translation of "Four Little Dragons in Asia" should be translated into "Four Tigers" instead of "Four Little Dragons".

2. Comparison of cultural connotations of Chinese and English animal names.

(A) the cultural connotation is basically equivalent

In both Chinese and western cultures, pigs mean "dirty and ugly", so fat pigs can be translated into the corresponding English "as fat as pigs"; Larks all have the meaning of being happy and lively, so there are "as happy as lark" and its Chinese equivalent "as happy as lark"; Monkeys are naughty playthings in both cultures, so "playing with others as monkeys" can be translated as "playing with things as monkeys".

(B) inequality or cultural default phenomenon

As we all know, dragons have different cultural connotations in China and the West, among which dogs are the representatives. Dogs represent "friendship" in the west and are faithful partners of human beings. Their praise is like an old dog can't learn new tricks. Lucky people, etc. However, dogs are often derogatory in the eyes of China people, so there are many idioms with derogatory meanings, such as "the friend of a bad friend" and "the dog fights the human potential". If you use it in China, you may feel unhappy. The Chinese word for "running dog" is translated into running dog. Westerners think dogs are very nice, cute and lively. An old dog likes "old dog" and "old dog" in the sentence "He never barks for nothing". When he calls, there are always some wise courses. In Chinese, it means "an old man with rich experience", so it means "expert veteran", which corresponds to "an old horse knows the way" in Chinese. Therefore, this English translation is "an expert veteran like him, who never expresses his opinions casually." Once published, he always has a high evaluation. "

3. What should we pay attention to in translation? When translating Chinese and English cultural connotation words about animals, there are the following situations: 1. The two languages have the same figurative meaning, but the figurative forms or vehicles are slightly different. 2. Metaphors in the two languages are the same, but they are different. 3. The vehicle in A language has a strong cultural color, while in B language there are only expressions with the same metaphorical meaning (Lu 2006:297).

literal translation

? For the equivalent animal connotations in Chinese and western cultures, we try our best to adopt a translation that is generally accepted by everyone in Chinese and English, so that there will be no ambiguity and it will be easy to narrow the distance between Chinese and westerners. As mentioned above, Chinese and English are basically equivalent animal words such as swan, pig and duck. Swan is beautiful in the eyes of China people, so translators can directly say "as elegant as a swan" and "as clumsy as a duck" when describing people's clumsy posture.

(B) free translation or take its figurative meaning

Although there are many similar expressions in Chinese and western cultures, and they often meet places with the same cultural connotations, as two different language families, their cultural connotations are mostly different or completely different. For words with different or opposite cultural connotations between China and the West, we should translate them differently or take their figurative meanings directly. For example, the tiger is the king of all animals in the eyes of China people. For example, "There is no tiger in the mountains, and monkeys call it overlord" and "Smith" all show the authority of the tiger. But in western culture, I'm afraid tigers will take a back seat and give way to lions. Therefore, we must make corresponding adjustments when translating these. For example, "the king of animals-the lion" is translated into Chinese as "the tiger in the mountain". "Going deep into the tiger's den" translates as "breaking ground on the lion's den". Some English phrases, such as "as happy as a cricket" and "as cunning as a dead pig", should be translated into "very happy" and "very cunning" respectively when it is difficult to find the corresponding animal names with the same cultural connotation in Chinese.

Four. conclusion

This paper compares and analyzes the different connotations of animal words in Chinese and English cultures, and draws the conclusion that cultural connotation words with equal or extremely similar cultural connotations can be directly translated. For animal culture words with similar connotations, translation should be adjusted accordingly; Finally, the words with completely different cultural connotations in Chinese and English cultures should be translated freely or figuratively.

However, when I talked with a famous French writer, he was puzzled and even indignant when he mentioned the translation of A Dream of Red Mansions by American writer david hawkes. He believes that Yang's translation has inherited the unique culture of the Chinese nation well, while Hawkes' expectation of turning China culture into something for westerners is self-defeating, which not only loses the original charm of China culture, but also is not the complete dream of westerners. The French writer further explained that classical things are original works with rich cultural connotations, and the expectation of reading is to absorb the real things of the original works, so translation must be faithful to the original works and do not tamper with the original works at will; Even considering the reader's acceptance psychology. Therefore, when dealing with these words with different connotations, we must consider them comprehensively and handle them carefully in translation.

References:

[1] Dai Shuijiao. On the Cultural Connotation of English and Chinese Animal Words [J] Foreign Language Teaching 16

[2] Guo Jianzhong. Culture and Translation [M] China Foreign Translation Publishing Company, 1999.

[3] Hu Wenzhong. Introduction to Intercultural Communication [M] Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004

[4] Lu Hongmei. English-Chinese Contrast and Translation1[m] Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2006

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