ABSTRACT:The development of the history has a big effect on language. As the time passed by, language in the old time died off, and the new language was produced. In the development history of the language, the mark of historical culture mainly remained in the proverbs. In a nation’s language, proverb is playing an indispensable role, and it has high value. We may enrich our essays and articles if we can appropriately use the proverbs. The proverbs contain rich philosophy, and it is a summary of the people’s living and social historical experience. It vividly expresses people’s thoughts, and different languages from different nations have their own styles. English proverbs are the important rhetoric methods. At the same time, proverbs are the expressions of rhetoric methods. English proverbs not only appear in the works, but also in the political and scientific theses. In modern society, English is widely used; however, the standard of English translation is very vague. If we translate only on the basis of finding the equivalent words or phrases, then that is not enough. In the proverbs translation, the most important is the meaning and the cultural deposit. In the development process of thousands of years, English proverbs are formed with different origins, and they have been developed and enriched, finally becoming a dazzling treasure. Every nation’s culture has its own characteristic and historical background, so every proverb is carrying its own culture, reflecting different thoughts and different value orientation. Therefore, it is a very important problem to handle English proverbs translation, and the quality of proverbs translation is directly influencing the whole translation. In this thesis, I will probe into the reasons that affecting proverbs translations and discuss about how the historical background, customs, religions and other reasons influence English proverbs translation. Lastly, I would discuss about how to use appropriate translating skills so as to correctly translate English proverbs.
Literal translation and free translation are the widely used translation skills. Generally speaking, if the words and the structure from the original sentence are similar to the target sentence, we may choose the Literal translating skill. While, if we find it hard to understand after Literal translation, then we should adjust the structure of the original words and express it in standard Chinese, which is called free translation. The translator should try one’s best to keep the original metaphor and other rhetoric effect of the idiom or proverb except for expressing the meaning. When we find it hard to make the meaning clear to the reader only using the literal translating skill or only using the free translating skill, we should combine this two translating skills together, in order to keep the style of the source language.
Key words: Language, English proverbs，Translation
摘要:社会历史的发展对语言的影响是巨大的，随着时代的变迁，旧的语言逐渐衰亡，新的语言不断产生。在语言的发展过程中，历史文化的痕迹主要残留在习语当中。在一个民族的语言中，谚语扮演着不可或缺的角色，它具有重要的使用价值，用的好能使语言增色，文笔增辉。它常蕴含丰富而深邃的哲理,是对劳动人民生活及社会历史经验的高度概括和总结,生动而准确地表达了人们的思想感情,不同的民族语言都有自己独特的谚语风格。英语谚语既是语言中的重要修辞手段,同时其本身也是各种修辞手段的集中表现。英语谚语不仅大量出现在文艺作品里,在政治和科学论文中也同样经常遇到。
在现代社会中，英语被广泛运用，然而英语翻译的标准却很模糊。而仅仅以语言之间词汇的同义性（等价性）为前提，寻求对等的表现是不够的。在谚语的翻译当中，更重要的是其中的含义和其中的文化底蕴。在几千年的形成流变过程中,英语谚语从不同源头汇聚而来,并得到不断的丰富和充实,终成为璀璨的颗颗宝石。各个民族的文化有其各自的特点和赖以产生的历史背景,所以各自的谚语都带有其自身的文化烙印,反映了不同的思想观念和价值取向。因此,如何处理英语谚语是翻译中的一个极为重要的问题，英语谚语翻译的好坏对整个译文的质量有直接的影响。本文对影响英语谚语的翻译的诸多因素进行探讨，分析历史背景、风俗习惯、宗教信仰等多方面对英语谚语翻译的影响，探讨如何在翻译英语谚语时应用恰当的翻译技巧准确无误传达原文的含义。
直译和意译就是英语翻译的两种最普遍的翻译方法。一般来说，如果原文句型与目的语言的句法规律较接近，词序也形似，本身意思又比较明白，那么可以多用一些直译。而当直译有困难或勉强译出而读者无法理解时,在正确的基础上，运用相应的翻译方法以调整原文结构，用的规范的汉语加以表达，那就是意译了。译者除了忠实地表达原文习语的意义外,还应尽可能保持原文习语的形象比喻、丰富想象、修辞效果及其民族色彩和地方特色。当出现只用直译或者只用意译而无法达到理想的效果时，除了必要的直译，意译之外，还要用上直译和意译相结合的翻译方法，使其与原文保持相同的风格，拥有相同的文化韵味。
关键词：语言； 英语谚语； 翻译
