Translating food metaphors in Chinese literary discourse: a case study of Yu Hua's The Seventh Day

Translating food metaphors in Chinese literature, as exemplified by Yu Hua's The Seventh Day, presents significant challenges. These metaphors, deeply tied to cultural, linguistic and cognitive contexts, require careful handling to preserve their meaning and esthetic value when translated. We explore the intricacies of translating food metaphors, focusing on The Seventh Day and its English translation by Barr who balances fidelity to the original with target reader receptiveness. Utilizing the Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit (MIPVU) and the extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory, we identify all food metaphors and make a parallel analysis of their translations. The results show that most food metaphors are conventional and lexicalized, revealing shared metaphorical conceptual systems and reflecting distinctive Chinese lifestyle and social-cultural values. The translator removed over half of these food metaphors, focusing on conveying their semantic meanings. Compared with the less used translation strategies such as modification and omission, nearly 30% food words were retained, showing the translator's efforts to reproduce them in the target text. We argue that translating food metaphors requires a nuanced balance of linguistic precision and cultural sensitivity. This study highlights the importance of preserving their conceptual richness and contextual relevance while maintaining the integrity of the original text.