English Idioms VS Chinese Idioms

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English Idioms VS Chinese Idioms
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He was in the seventh heaven last night.

• Longman Dictionary of English Idioms (not
  formal) in a state of great happiness or
  contentment
• ????,????????????????????????????,?????,???????
  ??
• The children are in the seventh heaven with their
  new toys.

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English Idioms EC Translation

• Literal Translation

• Six of one and half a dozen of the other

Burn the boat
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????
Castle in the air
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A bolt from the blue
????
Hang by a hair
Kill two birds with one stone
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• Literal Translation (Free Translation)

???? ???? ???? ???? ????
Talk through ones hat To be as poor as
Job Neither fish nor fowl Call a spade a
spade Have an axe to grind
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Wrong Understanding

• Pull ones leg
• Move heaven an earth
• Eat ones word
• Dog-eat-dog

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????,????
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Chinese Idioms CE Translation

• Both literal translation and free translation can
  help readers to understand the original meaning
  easily.

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• ????
• to drain a pond to catch all the fish
• kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
• ????
• To stir up the grass and alert the snake
• wake up a sleep dog
• ????
• To get burnt by the fire kindled by oneself
• fry in ones own grease

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• ????
• to spend money like dirt
• spend money like water
• ????
• to keep ones mouth closed like a bottle
• keep a still tongue in ones head
• ????
• to draw a snake and add feet to it
• paint the lily

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Mechanical Translation

• ????
• to take advantage of every weakness
• to get into every hole
• ????
• to feel proud and elated
• to raise the eyebrows and let out a breath
• ????
• dissipated and luxurious
• with red lights and green wine

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• ????
• to come straight to the point
• to open the door and see the mountain
• ????
• to be single-handed in doing sth
• with a solitary spear and a single horse
• ????
• to talk at random
• with a vast sea and a boundless sky

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Culture Background

• ????
• to volunteer ones service
• ????
• crude imitation with ludicrous effect
• ????
• a fond dream or illusory joy

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• ????
• at the beginning of ones career
• ????
• to be exceedingly beautiful
• ????
• to be extremely hard-working in ones study

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Conclusion

• Literal Translation
• By adopting this approach, we can preserve in
  the version not only the original meaning and
  form, especially the original figure(s)of speech
  and figurative meaning, but also the national and
  local colors and features in the original. It
  will benefit the culture communication.

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• Liberal Translation
• If we cannot find the corresponding
  expressions in the Chinese language, so culture
  vacancies exist in the TL. If those sentences
  were translated literally or mechanically into
  Chinese, we Chinese readers would find them
  difficult to understand. The Chinese version
  would be unreadable, puzzling, and misleading.