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Abstract： Domesticating translation and foreignizing translation are two different translation strategies. The former refers to the translation strategy in which a transparent, fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for target language readers, while the latter designates the type of translation in which a target text deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreigness of the original. But what is the translation practice like in China? Do translators tend to use foreignizing methods or domesticating ones? What are the factors that affect their decision making? This paper tries to find answers to the questions by looking into the translation of English metaphors into Chinese.

Key words: domesticating translation; foreignizing translation; metaphor; target language reader

1. Introduction
"Domesticating translation" and "foreignizing translation" are the terms
coined by L. Venuti (1995) to describe the two different translation strategies. The former refers to the translation strategy in which a transparent, fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for target language readers, while the latter designates the type of translation in which a target text "deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreigness of the original" (Shuttleworth &Cowie, 1997:59).

The roots of the terms can be traced back to the German philosopher Schleiermacher’s
argument that there are only two different methods of translation, " either
the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves
the reader towards him; or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible,
and moves the author towards him" (Venuti, 1995: 19-20).

The terms "foreignization" and "domestication" may be new to the Chinese,
but the concepts they carry have been at least for a century at the heart
of most translation controversies. Lu Xun (鲁迅) once said that "before
translating, the translator has to make a decision : either to adapt the
original text or to retain as much as possible the foreign flavour of the
original text" (Xu, in Luo, 1984: 315).

But what is the translation practice like in China? Recently I have read
two articles which show completely conflicting views on this question.
In his article entitled "Chinese and Western Thinking On Translation",
A. Lefevere makes a generalization based on his comparison of Chinese and
Western thinking on translation,

When Chinese translates texts produced by Others outside its boundaries,
it translates these texts in order to replace them, pure and simple. The
translations

take the place of the original. They function as the original in the culture
to the extent

that the original disappear behind the translations. (Bassnett & Lefevere,
1998:14)

However , Fung and Kiu have drawn quite different conclusions from their
investigation of metaphor translation between English and Chinese,

Our comparison of the two sets of data showed that in the case of the English papermetaphor本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。