Idioms and Proverbs in Translation and Interpretation: A Cultural Challenge
Idioms and Proverbs in Translation and Interpretation: A Cultural Challenge
Idioms and Proverbs in Translation and Interpretation: A Cultural Challenge
A CULTURAL CHALLENGE
Azucena Puerta-Díaz, MA azucenapuerta@dslextreme.com
ATA Accredited Translator / Certified Court Interpreter, Judicial Council of California
PROVERB:
A short, memorable, and often highly condensed saying embodying, especially with bold
imagery, some commonplace fact of experience. (The Collins English Dictionary).
Proverbs usually express folk wisdom or advice. For example: Like father, like son
IDIOM:
A group of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent
words, as for example: (It was raining) cats and dogs. (The Collins English Dictionary)
CHARACTERISTICS OF IDIOMS
Fixed structure (“Black and White” but not “White and Black” ) and indivisible meaning
(we cannot usually discover their meaning by looking up the individual words).
Idioms form a continuum from transparent to opaque based on what can be inferred from
their literal meaning.
Transparent Idioms (e.g. “to see the light” = to understand)
Semi-Transparent Idioms (e.g. “to break the ice” = relieve the tension
Semi-Opaque Idioms (e.g. “to know the ropes” = to know how a particular job should be done)
Opaque Idioms (e.g. “to kick the bucket” = to die)
CHARACTERISTICS OF PROVERBS
Syntactic features: proverbs are rhythmically structured in rhymes
Semantic features: they originate from people’s real life experience; they are produced by
people, in daily conversation, folklore, or literature; they usually have two layers of meanings:
literal and figurative; they are codes of behavior; they reflect people’s living conditions, working
environment, and life experience and ideology; and they are short in words but long in meaning.
When translating proverbs and idioms, learn about the forms, contents, origins, functions and
figurative style of the idioms. Make sure you understand the meaning of the proverb/idiom in the
source language (collect idioms involving special keywords, and study their syntactic and
semantic usages in particular contexts; listen to educated native speakers and use different course
books, dictionaries and other resources to check the correctness of idioms). Also, make sure you
master your own language and culture.
Keep in mind that cultures share many similarities in proverbs and idioms, that come from the
process of word borrowing and cultural exchange throughout history, and also, from identical
political situations, geographical features, and historical development.
LITERAL TRANSLATION
Like water for chocolate (from Mexican Spanish proverb)
Meaning: really mad and sexually excited
English alternatives: Mad as hell / Hot and ready
EXPLANATION OR DESCRIPTION
When in Rome, do as the Romans (English)
Meaning: Behave as those around you
Enter house, follow customs (Vietnamese)
Move your neck according to the music (Ethiopian)
Wherever you go, do what you see (Spanish)
To play innocent
Meaning: To act as if you didn’t do a thing
To play an innocent one (Polish)
Play the dead fly (Spanish)
Play Saint Don’t Touch (French)
CULTURAL SIMILARITIES/DIFFERENCES
When pigs fly (English)
Meaning: Impossibility, something that’s very unlikely to happen
When donkeys fly / When frogs grow hair (Spanish)
When the crow has turned white / When the stork has become black (Tagalog)
Out of the frying pan into the fire (English and Spanish)
Meaning: To escape a bad situation to get into a worse one
Avoid melon skin, then come across a coconut shell (Vietnamese)
Idioms and Proverbs in Translation and Interpretation 4
Scratch my back and I will scratch yours (English)
Meaning: If you do something for me, I will do something for you (reciprocity)
If I give you a ham you have to give me a bottle of wine (Vietnamese)
Today for me, tomorrow for you (Spanish)
It’s the last straw that breaks the camel’s back (English)
Meaning: The last of a series of annoyances or disappointments that leads one to a final loss of
patience, temper, trust, or hope
One more water drop will spill the glass (Vietnamese)
The drop that makes the cup overflow (Spanish)
The drop that makes the vase overflow (French)
2. If you gladly stoop to the ground, don’t be surprised if they trample over you
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7. The eye of the leopard is on the goat, and the eye of the goat is on the leaf
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9. What one hopes for is always better than what one has
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