AN INVESTIGATION INTO STRATEGIES APPLIED IN VIETNAMESE’S TRANSLATION OF METAPHORS EMPLOYED IN THE NOVEL “CUỘC ĐỜI CỦA PI” BY TRINH LU

Abstract

Metaphor has traditionally been viewed as the most important form of figurative language, and is generally seen as reaching its most sophisticated form in literary language. Metaphors in literary works are also rich in culture-specific connotations, which gives rise to difficulties in the translation process. The study aims to analyze the English-to-Vietnamese translation approaches to rendering metaphors in literary discourse, with specific reference to Yann Martel’s masterpiece “Life of Pi” (2001) and its Vietnamese version “ Cuộc đời của Pi” translated by Trinh Lu (2004). The analysis is expected to help students of English Translation and Interpretation Division, ULIS –VNU in understanding and translating metaphors. In order to accomplish this purpose, the researcher sought to grasp trainee translators’ understanding of metaphors by asking them to translate fifteen extracts from the original text of both live and dead metaphors, classified by Larson (1984). The results show that most students gain success in translating dead metaphors as their meanings can be looked up in dictionaries (Larson, 1984) while live metaphors consist of poetic and flowery words which require not only language proficiency but also understanding of source language culture; thus, they tend to be a far more difficult task for them in translation. Besides, students made some mistakes in translating metaphors such as word choice and expression, literal translation and source language understanding. To overcome these mistakes in translating metaphors, students should take into account many aspects, the two foremost of which are translation purpose and target readership (Trinh Lu, 2015). When these two factors are identified, five strategies of metaphor translation proposed by Larson (1984) were highly recommended. These five strategies are reserving metaphors, translating as similes, reserving metaphors and giving explanations, using a target language equivalent metaphor and removing metaphorical imagery.