Strategies for the English Translation of Rhetoric in the Naxi Epic Lu Ban Lu Rao
This article examines how four rhetorical devices in the Naxi epic Lu Ban Lu Rao — metaphor (including simile and implicit metaphor), personification, parallelism, and hyperbole — are handled in the Zhang Liyu/Li Ming English translation. Through paired original-translation examples, the author shows that similes are mostly translated literally to preserve the poem's plain, image-rich style, sometimes with shift-of-image (e.g., "cage" rendered as "house") when literal translation would confuse English readers; implicit metaphors are sometimes rendered as explicit similes or replaced with reader-friendly equivalents (e.g., "words of gold" becomes "words of wisdom"); personification of natural images (cranes, sky, grass) is generally translated literally, occasionally with zero-correspondence recasting; and parallelism and hyperbole are preserved through repeated phrasing and matching end-rhymes to capture the poem's musicality and emotional intensity, though some culturally specific hyperbole (e.g., "nine rivers") may need explanatory footnotes for English readers. The article calls for translators to prioritize faithful equivalence of meaning and style while drawing on authoritative source texts and deep cultural literacy.
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