摘要：本文主要是关于中西方文化对习语翻译的影响以及翻译方法。从很多方面讨论了中西方文化的异同，例如生活环境，社会文化，宗教及信仰以及历史典故。根据这些异同，本文还给出了翻译的方法。依照这些方法，我们各以更好的促进种族间的文化交流。
关键词：习语翻译 文化差异 习语
Cultural Similarities and Differences Embodied in Idiom Translation
Abstract: This paper mainly talks about the influence of Chinese and Western culture in idiom translation and the approaches of translating them. It shows the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western culture in many aspects， such as living environment， social customs， religions， believes and historic allusion. According to all these similarities and differences， the paper gives several methods about how to translate idioms well. By following these， people can translate well and promote the understandings of all nations well.
Key Words: Idiom Translation; Cultural Difference; Idioms
1 Introduction
It is an acknowledged agreement that translation， in its narrow sense， is an inter-lingual communicative activity. The birth of translation is a result of a strong need for communication between people speaking different languages. In all translating and interpreting， the source and target languages must be implicitly or explicitly compared. However， such inter-lingual communication extends far beyond the structure of linguistic similarities and contrasts. One if the main reason for this is that some words’ translations depend on the culture of the language community. Therefore， translation is an inter-lingual and intercultural activity. It must be restrict by culture. In translation， any attempt to separate the text from the culture is wrong. The translators should take the culture factors of both Chinese and English into careful consideration when he or she tries to translate Chinese into English. This requirement is especially necessary for the translation of idioms.
Idiomatic expressions are usually concise and meaningful. They are widely used in every language. People of every age and from every place frequently use idioms both in speech or writing. Using idiom is actually a common lingual preference all over the world. However， when people translate idioms， they often face the difficulties for cross-cultural communication. Idioms rather than any other lexical items in any language are often depending on cultural element. Some of them may be unique to one specific language community only. As in any other language， idioms in both Chinese and English are heavily bound up with cultural elements. When translating， we should take culture inside.
2 Similarities and Difference Between Chinese and English Culture
English and Chinese cultures are totally different. Their origins and development are not the same. Chinese has a close relation with the Chinese culture. Many Chinese idioms can be translated when the Chinese culture expressed by them are uncovered. However， English idioms are bound up with British and American cultures. Culture similarities and differences between Chinese and English idioms are mainly reflected in the following aspects.
2.1 Similarities
Both China and Britain have a long-time history， ancient civilization and glorious culture. Both the two countries have the similar experience and thought. During the communication of the two countries， cultures are interacting. This made some idioms have the same or similar culture characteristic. Therefore， the idioms are corresponding no matter in meaning， image cultural flavor. In such condition， we could use the source language to translate the target language directly. For example， “失败乃成功之母” “Failure is the mother of success”. In this idiom， we see that it is translated into English directly. “失败” is translated into “failure”， while “ 成功” is “success&
