摘 要
英语 谚语是英国人民智慧的结晶。作者从语言形式上介绍了英语谚语的特点：简练的文字，短小的形式，鲜明的比喻，深刻的寓意，具有鲜明的民族特色和地方色彩等。同时，作者从文化背景方面介论文联盟
www.lwlm.com整理绍了英语谚语的产生与英国的传统习俗，宗教信仰，典故及其文学作品有关， 正是以上这些因素使得英语谚语翻译比较困难。最后，作者分析了英语谚语的四种翻译方法：直译，同义谚语套用法，意译，直译与意译相结合。Part I
Introduction
Like other nation’s proverbs, English proverbs are the essence of English people’s wisdom. A well-translated English proverb can not only teach, enlighten and persuade people, but also can enrich our Chinese language and culture. So it is necessary to study a nation’s proverbs when we try to study its language and culture．
English proverbs have many characteristics, such as religious structure, concise form, deep moral, bold image, unique geographical and ethnic characteristics. These characteristics make difficulties for us to translate English proverbs if we want to keep the original proverb’s language form and taste.
Moreover, because of the differences of religious beliefs，habits and customs，fables and myth，and culture and art，English proverbs and Chinese proverbs carry on the different national cultural characteristics and information. If we do not know these cult论文联盟
www.lwlm.com整理ural backgrounds, we cannot understand the English proverb’s connotation and cannot translate them precisely. To our Chinese people with a little cultural knowledge about English, it is very difficult for us to understand and translate English proverbs. So when studying English, we should try to study its culture firstly.
In order to present an adequate translation of a proverb，we can use the four translation methods flexibly：literal translation，free translation，substitution translation，literal translation combined with free translation．When translating, we should try to choose a proper translation method firstly. Secondly, we should translate the proverb’s connotation. Meanwhile, we should try to keep the original proverb’s form.
In this paper, the author aims to introduce the characteristics of English proverbs, and discuss the four translation methods and thEir advantages respectively．
Three cobblers are more clever than Mr. Zhuge Liang.(三个皮匠会比诸葛亮先生更聪明。)
其实，我们中国的许多谚语，都有对应的英语谚语，两者意思相同或者相似，完全可以互相代替，一般情况下，不需要我们自己翻译。比如“三个臭皮匠，赛过诸葛亮”这个谚语，就有一个对应的英语谚语，请看下面第一行。另外一个与《三国演义》人物有关的谚语“说曹操，曹操到”，也有对应的英语谚语，请看下面第二行。
①Two heads are better than one.(两个脑袋比一个脑袋更好。)
②When we talk about the devil, he will appear.(当我们谈论魔鬼的时候，他将会出现。)
看到这里，有些朋友可能会问：在哪里可以找到这些对应的英语谚语呢？我曾在北京王府井的外文书店中，看到过这方面的书，书名好象叫做《汉英谚语词典》(时间长了，记不清楚了)，我们可以从这种词典中，查出大多数中国谚语的对应英语谚语。现在国内是“英语热”，英语图书(包括英语词典)多如牛毛，我想这种词典应当不难找到。
一个中国谚语，只有在词典中找不到对应的英语谚语时，我们才考虑自己翻译，不过这种情况好象并不多见。比如“周瑜打黄盖，一个愿打，一个愿挨”这个谚语，我就一直没有找到对应的英语谚语，因此我把它翻译为：
One is willing to sell, and the other is willing to buy.(一个人愿意卖，另外一个人愿意买。)