Metaphor is regarded as a way to describe something by comparing it to something else
Which shares similar qualities without using the words “like” or “as”. It’s quite common in both Chinese and English languages.
You could find a perfect definitions in the dictionary as“ A metaphor is the expression of an understanding of one concept in terms of another concept, where there is some similarity or correlation between the two. It is also the understanding itself of one concept in terms of another.” Metaphor ,as a common rhetorical method, is quite useful in advertisements.
Id’ like to give some examples to introduce this technique.
The first example is: “A diamond is forever.” which is translated into Chinese “钻石恒久远，一颗永流传”.To most of the Chinese people , they have had deep impression upon this ad slogan since long time ago.
Another classical translation of metaphor is ad for a newly released Citibank Credit Card, which is” There are no blackout dates in life.” here, the word “blackout” refers to a time period of darkness or sufferings caused by a failure of the electricity supplies. And here the ad tells people more than that, it implies that people would not encounter any in convenience when they make payments and how easy their lives would be after people starts to use the credit card.And it could be translated as“花旗信用卡，万事皆无忧。”
The second example is advertisement slogan for the tourism of Bali Island, which appeared in a famous Travel magazine several years ago. The original version is “There are two suns in Bali “. And we all know there can be no possibility that two suns in Bali Island, and some people may not know that sun is regarded as hope and happiness in European and American countries.
In fact, sun is seen as hope in Western culture, which could also stand for beauty. in fact ,here the expressions “two suns” means or refers to the spectacular and splendid views on Bali Island. The technique of exaggeration has been used here to show or emphasize the beauty of Bali Island. It could be translated into“巴厘岛,人间仙境 “. However, after the tragedy stroke this place, a disastrous explosion happened there in 2002, this translation seems not so proper and needs to be modified.. The better or more proper translation should be“期待巴厘岛”.
Then I’d like to talk about the technique of the translation called simile, which could be defined as “A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by like or as.”
And translation of simile is quite similar to that of metaphor here is an example is “ I feel like a Guinness “which could be translated into “感觉自己就像是新齐士”.
Under the guide of communicative convey theory, translation of slogans would be much easier for translator.
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