Translating Metaphor, Translating a Semantic Novelty

This study is an attempt to address the translation of metaphor. This figurative language can be described as the use of language to refer to something other than what it was originally applied to or what it literally means, in order to suggest some resemblance or make a connection between two things. However, transferring metaphors into the target language is not an easy task for translators. This is because metaphor, by definition, is a semantic novelty which can clearly have no existing equivalence in the target language. In fact, untranslatability can have a close relationship with live metaphors because the essential and undeniable trait of live metaphor is creativity. Live metaphor is coined by the writer or speaker and can be considered as a new piece of performance. Thus, something that is unique has no equivalents in the receptor language. Now translator’s mastery over both languages and culture of receptor language can help him to handle the rendering of the metaphor, i.e., there is no equivalent to be found for the metaphor, but he has to create one.