Abstract:

Language is a part of culture, and also the carrier of culture. Different cultures carried in Chinese and English will cause the differences in idioms. This paper is to introduce some differences between Chinese and English idioms caused by geographical culture differences, social culture differences, religious culture differences and historical culture differences. Next, translation skills of idioms, such as literal translation and free translation, will be discussed, and the advantages of these two translation skills and how and when to use them will be elaborated. The results of the study reveal that because of differences of Chinese and English idioms caused by different culture, translators should choose different skills in the translation of idioms according to cultural differences.
 
Keywords: English and Chinese idioms; Cultural differences; Literal translation; Free translation

摘  要：

语言是一种文化现象，它是文化的载体。中西方文化差异必然造成对习语造成影响。作者将从地域文化差异、习俗文化差异、宗教文化差异、历史文化差异等方面阐述了英汉文化的差异对习语翻译的影响，并对这些差异进行分析与研究，找出这些习语翻译背后所隐藏的直译与意译的翻译技巧，同时总结出直译与意译各自的优点以及使用情况。本文指出了文化差异对英汉习语的影响，从而译者可根据文化差异选择翻译的方法。

关键词：英汉习语；文化差异；直译；意译

1. Introduction
    Idioms are pearls of languages, which are influenced by the cultural factors. Chinese and English idioms bear rich cultural information and embody distinctive national features as well. The main factors that cause cultural differences between Chinese and English idioms are geographical culture, social culture, religious culture and historical culture.
    At the beginning of this paper, some definition of idioms will be discussed
    Then, the second part of this paper is to introduce some differences between Chinese and English idioms caused by geographical culture, social culture, religious culture and historical culture. And some examples will be illustrated to explain these differences .
    After researching translation of idioms, we can find some translation skills which have been used by previous translators such as literal translation and free translation. However, different translators have different opinions on these two skills. So in the third part, the advantages of each translation skill will be introduced. At the end of this paper, we can know how to use and when to use these two skills.