Journal of East China Normal University (Philosoph ›› 2012, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (1): 144-149.

• 应用语言学研究 • Previous Articles    

Permanent Metaphor——A Study on Pound’s Translation of Metaphors in the Perspective of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory

ZHANG Xi   

  • Online:2012-01-15 Published:2012-03-27
  • Contact: ZHANG Xi
  • About author: ZHANG Xi

Abstract: According to the conceptual metaphor theory, the conceptual system depended by human beings to think and act has a metaphorical nature, and human beings’ thinking process is just using a concept to understand or express another concept. Ezra Pound was a leader in the Imagist Movement and prolific translator. He advanced a concept of permanent metaphor, which reflected a correlation of metaphor and thinking pattern. The conceptual metaphor theory shows that a success of metaphor translation is determined by its readers’ thinking capacity, and a translation version is a combination of the translator’s and the reader’s thinking capacity. Pound was unique in his translation method, which is known as a creative translation. However, he mostly revived the thinking process involved in metaphors. This paper is to analyze Pound's permanent metaphor based on the conceptual metaphor theory and to explore a new perspective in metaphor translation. 