On Translation of Idioms in Chinese and English from Cultural Perspective
Introduction
Idioms are the essence of language, which have strong national colors and distinctive cultural connotation. Both in Chinese and English, there are various idioms. The differences are significant. The main reason is that the idioms are culture-loaded. Language is a great part of culture, and idioms are considered as the cream of a language. Therefore, culture is fully reflected in the images and emotions of idioms. Hence, it is necessary to have a comparative study of English and Chinese idioms from the perspective of cultural sources. When exploring English and Chinese idioms, one should pay attention to the cultural background of idioms. In this paper, the author will make an analysis of cultural resources between English idioms and Chinese idioms. Besides, this paper discussed the translation methods such as the literal translation, liberal or free translation, the method of borrowing, literal translation plus annotation and addition and omission. The aim is to enrich language learners' knowledge on cultural sources of English and Chinese idioms. So it is helpful to avoid misunderstanding in cross culture communication.
1. Literature review
Many Chinese scholars have made lots of researches on English and Chinese idioms. Their studies are mostly related to the classifications, features, structures, semantics, and so on. Only a few of them focus on their cultural sources. There are some examples. Lian Shuneng (2002) has discussed the different ways of thinking among Chinese and English users. According to Deng Yanchang and Liu Runqing's studies (1995), the proverbs might provide little clues to a people's geographical environment, history, social customs, social values, and their attitudes. However, their studies have only touched part of the influence of culture on Chinese and English idioms. But they have not made systematic studies on idioms from the perspective of cultural sources. In this paper, the author will analyze the idioms from cultural aspects.
2. Definition of Idioms
In most languages, there are idioms. However, in different languages, the ranges and forms of idioms are not the same. Even in a certain kind of language, such as English, ther
e are many different kinds of definitions for“idiom”. So it is very hard to give a precise and widely accepted definition of “idiom”. There are basic criteria to decide whether an expression is an idiom or not. Firstly, an idiom must be well-established and accepted through common practice; secondly, an idiom usually has an implied meaning. So generally speaking, an idiom is expressions, which is a term or phrase or sentence whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts. It can be known from the common use. Usually some people would naturally associate "idiom” with “cheng yu” and they think that idiom is the equivalent of “cheng yu”. In fact, English idioms and "cheng yu” are not equivalent. It is more similar to that of "shu yu" in Chinese. We may find that they share quite a lot of common features. So they are corresponding linguistic and cultural phenomena. We can use with a contrastive approach to study them. In New Oxford Dictionary of English, (1998) idioms are a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words.scholars In Ci-hai (1999), “shu yu” is defined as “熟语是语言中定型的词组或者词句，使用时一般不能改变其组织。” (A “shu yu” is usually a fixed word combination or sentence whose structure is usually unable
to be changed in use.) “shu yu”includes “cheng yu”(成语，set phrases), “su yu”(俗语，common sayings), “yan yu”(谚语，proverbs), “xie hou yu”(歇后语，two part allegorical sayings), and "cu su yu"(粗俗语，vulgar expressions). In this paper, the term English idiom is a broad sense and the term Chinese idioms refer to “su yu”.
3. Cultural Sources behind English and Chinese Idioms
Language is the major part of the culture. According to Lado, a language is both a part of culture and a medium through which the other parts of culture could be expressed. Idioms are the essence of the language, so they are influenced by culture to a great extent. This part is to discuss English and Chinese idioms from the cultural sources which include geographical environment, lifestyle, historical events, religious beliefs, customs and literature.
3.1 Geographical Environment
Different cultures and national features are mostly determined by different geographical en
vironment. For example, people living in different environments will form different principle of conduct, which can be reflected in people's speech. For example, Britain is an island country with the deeply indented coastline. It has a long history of navigation. People who live along seacoast and whose livelihood depends on sea will have a great number of idioms connected with sea, sailing and fish. A lot of English idioms have derived from the sea, marine climate, shipping and relevant experience and lessons. Such as, all at sea; time and tide wait for no man ; cry stinking fish ; all is fish that comes to his net ; never offer to teach fish to swim ; in the same boat. Besides, the Englishmen love to talk about the weather. There may have two reasons. One is the uncertainty of the weather. In Britain the weather is constantly changing. Typically there is much rain in Britain every month, so there are many idioms connected with the weather such as it never rains but it pours; a storm in a teacup ; don’t praise the day until evening ; small rain lays great dust. The weather in Britain is changing. There is no climate but weather. This is the important difference of cultural sources between English and Chinese idioms. In China, there are so many Chinese idioms about climate and weather. For example:风调雨顺(Feng tiao yu shun)-propi
tious winds and rains or favorable weather;风起云涌（feng qi yun yong）-to surge forward like rolling clouds; 晴天霹雳（qing tian pi li）-a bolt from the blue;满面春风(Man mian chun feng)-to wear a radiant smile or to beam with satisfaction, and so on. China is one of the largest countries in the world. It possesses vast plains, high mountains，various plateaus and etc. That is to say, the topography is complicated. There are so many Chinese idioms connected with it. Such as,千山万水(qian shan wan shui)-ten thousand mountains and rivers; 江河日下(jian he ri xia)-to go from bad to worse or to degeneraate day by day; 山高水低(shan gao shui di)-the mountain is high and the river long or the virtues of a great man of lasting influence; 天南地北(tian nan di bei)-place near and far, and so on. Based on the above analysis, it can be found that different geographical conditions lead to the reflection in idioms. This is the important difference of cultural sources between English and Chinese idioms.
3.2 Lifestyle
The idiom is the mirror of the daily life of the people. People could use what they could find
around them as a metaphor when they are expressing. Therefore, the lifestyle of people can be known from the ordinary words in their language. For example, sailors have created so many lively phrases about sea, farmers have invented a lot of expressions concerning farm work, and workers have produced words from all kinds of occupations. In addition, the fisherman use terms of fishing in his speech, the hunter often talks of his hunting or his dogs, the sportsman makes use of idioms of sports in the communication and etc. There are some idioms from cooking and food. In British and Americans, fish, bread, butter, egg, milk, wine and cake are the main food for. So it is easy for these people to take them as metaphors in their expression. The following are the idioms concerning with food in English. A piece of cake; From soup to nuts; A piece of cake; Hungry dogs will eat dirty puddings. In China,  has a long history of cooking. The Chinese are known as the most critical and causal eaters, Because they pay more attention to food than any other people, this is reflected in the Chinese sayings like:家常便饭(jia chang bian fan)-daily routine;粗茶淡饭 (cu cha dan fan)-plain tea and simple food;添油加醋(tian you jia cu)-to exaggerate or give embellishment to;画饼充饥(hua bing chong ji)-to draw a pancake to relieve hunger. Su
ch kinds of idioms are quite common in the Chinese language. In the daily life, there are some idioms reflecting the philosophy of the Chinese. Such as 吃人的嘴软, 欠人理短（chi ren de zui duan ,qian ren li duan）-Who receives a gift, sells his biberty. This is why some problems can be solved at the dinner table, which surprises the westerners very much.

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