Cultural Differences and Idioms Translation

Language is the bearer of culture,and idioms are heavily culturally loaded phrases and sentences. Idioms are the essence of language as they carry distinctive cultural features. To translate English idioms involves obstacles,for Chinese idioms and English idioms carry distinct features. Each idiom bears an image and a figurative meaning. Figurative meaning is the real meaning the writer or the speaker wants to express,so it is much more important than image. When an idiom is being translated,it’s a basic requirement that its figurative meaning should be remained. Guided by this principle,this thesis explores the methods of how to translate idioms. This research had great significance in handling well idioms in translation and cross-cultural communication.