Abstract:Idioms are the essence of language condensed for thousands of years with its richly ethnic characters and distinctly cultural connotation. However, the large differences between English and Chinese language and culture make the cultural default and compensation obstinate disease in idioms translation.
Cultural default and compensation which are important linguistic and cultural phenomena often appear in idiom translation. An increasing importance has attached to the study of cultural default and compensation in idiom translation with the development of idiom translation research. If cultural default in idiom translation has been effectively compensated and mended, the quality of translation will be high with good and fluent target language production; otherwise, the quality of translation will be low with poor and improper production. Therefore, the compensation of cultural default in idiom translation seems unbelievably important.
Mainly with the statements of Chen Yan (2006:72-47) and Zhang Wei (2008:427-430) as the theoretical foundations, the writer of this thesis specially explores the cultural default and compensation in idiom translation trying to find the causes of them through analyzing their phenomena, and then concludes a principle and three methods for compensating the cultural default in idiom translation at the attempt to remain as much as possible cultural connotation of original idioms, which makes the reader have a better enjoyment and understanding of the foreign culture in idioms.
Key words: idiom translation; cultural default; cultural compensation
中文摘要:习语是语言发展中长期沉淀的精华，它带有浓厚的民族色彩和鲜明的文化内涵。但不同民族间的语言、文化的巨大差异，使习语翻译中出现的文化缺省和补偿成为无法解决的顽疾。
文化缺省和补偿是不同文化交际之间出现的重要的语言文化现象。随着习语翻译研究的进一步深入，习语翻译中的文化缺省和补偿的研究越来越受到重视。习语翻译中，文化缺省补偿得当，译文就畅快淋漓；反之，则译文模糊，表达不清。因此，补偿习语翻译中的文化缺失显得相当重要。
本文作者主要把陈燕和张薇所提出的理论作为依据，专门探讨在习语翻译中的出现的文化缺省和补偿，通过分析习语翻译中文化缺省出现的现象，寻找出其产生原因，继而总结出一条可行的翻译原则和三种翻译方法，采用各种补偿手段力图在翻译中最大限度地译出原习语中的文化内涵，使读者获得文化探索的最大享受，更好地了解异域文化。
关键词：习语翻译；文化缺失；文化补偿
