【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 speech and writing such as drama, TV serials, movies, monologue in the novel but are rarely used in formal contexts.3. Idioms, culture and translation Idioms and cultureIdioms are usually highly specialized in meaning and closely tied to distinctive cultural features and cultural attitude. It is believed that idioms are the most culturallyloaded element in any language’s vocabulary. As the kernel and cream of a language, idioms are usually closely with the historical backgrounds, economic life, geographical environment, customs and mental states of the native speakers. As a matter of fact, idioms have been accepted by people and handed down to the present day because of their universal value. As such, they can be regarded as the sinew of the language. Without idioms, language would lack color and bee uninteresting.Let’s take proverb as an example. Proverbs are the daughters of daily experience. In nearly every culture, proverbs offer an important set of instructions for members to follow. And thanks to the endurance of these “words of wisdom”, each generation learns about what a culture deems significant.Below are some proverbs from the United States, each of which stresses an important American value: a value held by the dominant culture. (10) Strike while the iron is hot. In the United States, people who take quick action are valued.(11) God helps those who help themselves. This saying calls attention to the strong belief in America that people should show initiative.(12) The squeaky wheel gets the grease. In the United States, people are encouraged to “speak up” and make sure their views are heard. Culture and translation Translation is the transfer of the meaning of a text which may be a word or a book from one language to another for a new readership. Since language is part of culture, translation of language cannot simply be the transfer of linguistic symbols. Over the recent 20years, with the deepening of cultural studies, it has been monly accepted that translation involves both language and culture. Translation deals not only with turning the content in one language into another, but also with turning the cultural connotation in one language into another cultural form. So, it is quite necessary for a translator to think about the cultural connotation every unit may embody when translating [4] p39. The film The First Blood is translated into“第一滴血”.However, the translation cannot reflect the cultural connotation behind the words. In fact, “the first blood” is an idiom full of cultural implication, referring to the first success in contest. It will be more reasonable if translated into “初戰(zhàn)告捷” or “旗開得勝”. A translator must be a real culturist. It’s said that a translator must grasp two languages。 indeed, he must. But without understanding the social cultural connotation in one language no one can really master the language [5] p5. Even Nida . once also pointed out that for a truly successful translator, it is more important for him to get familiar with two cultures than to master two languages, because a word will make sense only in the cultural background where it functions. A translator should know foreign culture as well as the culture of his own people. Human beings have much in mon. They live on the same globe. Experiences and observations of the world are in many respects similar. Cultures of various countries also have something in mon. All these similarities and generalities are inevitably embodied in languages. That’s why equivalents or close approximates can be found in terms of linguistic form and meaning. For example, the English idiom “castles in the air” has its absolute equivalent of Chinese idiom“空中樓閣”.However, culture is important in giving a language its own characteristics, so the dissimilarities are naturally more apparent. In the process of translation, a translator is more often faced with cultural differences. Every country has its own ethnic groups, geographical location, religious beliefs, values, political systems and so on. All these form the differences of national culture, which are also certainly embodied in language. The influence of culture on language brings difficulties to translating. The lack of cultural awareness on the part of the translator is often the cause of errors or defects of cultural nature in translating. As language is a tool for cultural dissemination and munication, translation is, of course, a bridge and an essential means of cultural understanding and exchange. Without translation, there was no cultural munication. Studies on the relationship of culture and translation will give an impetus to cultural munication, to the promotion of the prosperity of cultures in different countries and different nations, to the enrichment of the global culture and acceleration of the development of the world civilization. The purpose and characteristics of translation are to exchange ideas and culture. Therefore, translation is referred to as a crosslinguistic, crosscultural and crosssocial munication event.As stated above, language is the carrier of culture and translation is a tool for cultural exchange. As an essential and more expressive ponent of languages and cultures concerned, a beautiful gem of a language as well as crystallization of national culture, a close study of them is inevitable in translation. The possibility of translation is due to the generality of cultures in different countries, while the limit of translation is based on their cultural differences. As we know, an idiom is a form of expression peculiar to a language. Every language has its own peculiarities in expression, alien from each other. The fourcharacter structures dominate the Chinese idioms, while an English idiom is a bination of two or more words. Both Chinese and English idioms are usually structurally fixed and semantically opaque, . metaphorical rather than literal and function as a single unit of mean