A Study on the Strategies for Translating Four-Character Idioms into English from Cross-Cultural Perspective

Take Besieged City as an Example

Abstract

As one of the important representatives of Chinese culture, Chinese literary works are rich in four-character idioms with far-reaching meanings, which should be paid full attention to in the process of translation. Cross-cultural theory is a comparative analysis of attribution and difference of cultural phenomena, aiming at the understanding of cultural differences. Based on a cross-cultural perspective, this paper analyzes the four-character idioms in Qian Zhongshu's work, Besieged City, which translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao from three aspects: thinking pattens, communication audience and purpose, and translation aesthetics. The conclusion shows that to a certain extent, the translator's selection of specific translation strategies can effectively convey the meaning of Chinese four-character idioms, make the target language fit with the cultural context of the original text, and achieve the purpose of cross-cultural communication.