Acknowledgements
The completion of this graduation research owns the help of people who have
enthusiastically contributed in different ways.
First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Mr.
Nguyen Duc Thang, M.A. for his enthusiastic and usual guidance and
encouragement. His valuable suggestions, and careful and critical comments have
been vital to the completion of this research.
I would like to give my thanks to teachers of Foreign Language Department, Hung
Vuong University, for their useful lectures providing me with basic background of
translation studies and metaphors in linguistic terms
My gratitude also goes to students in Foreign Language Department for their
great encouragement and provision of valuable documents.
1 1
AbStract
The title of this research is “ How to translate some of the metaphors in Harry
potter Books ( book 3 and book 7 ) into Vietnamese”. This topic is chosen due to
the difficulty of translating metaphors, particularly in literary translation. The
language in Harry Potter’s books must be smoothly rendered so that it is both
expressive to the readership and faithful to the authors’ intention. The major
purpose of this research is to study the fundamentals of translation studies and
different ways to translate metaphors through professional translation of
metaphors in two Harry Potter’s books, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The results of the analysis of professional translation shows that metaphors
could be translated in five different ways: reserving metaphors of the source
language, translating as similes, using target language equivalent metaphors,
reserving metaphors and giving explanations, and removing metaphorical imagery.
Secondly, semantic and communicative translation methods are equally effective
in translating metaphors, while literal translation is likely to lead to wrong
metaphoric translation. Thirdly, to successfully convey the meaning of a metaphor,
understanding its context and good knowledge of English grammar and semantics

II.2.1. Definition: ……………………………………………….………...18
II.2.2 Types of metaphors: ……………………………………….……….19
II.2.3. Recognizing a metaphor: ……………………………………….....21
II.2.3.1. Metaphor and similes: ……………………………………....21
II.2.3.2. Metaphor and idioms: …………………………….…………21
II.2.3.3. Analyzing a metaphor: ……………………………………...23
II.2.3.4 Problems in understanding and translating metaphors:... 25……
II.3. Translating metaphors: ……………………………………………...27
CHAPTER III: TRANSLATION OF METAPHORS IN HARRY
POTTER BOOKS (BOOK 3 AND BOOK 7)
III.1.Reason for choosing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows: ……………………………………..….…..32
III.2. Translation of dead metaphors in Harry Potter books 33…………………
III.3. Translation of live metaphors in Harry Potter books ………………….34
III.3.1. Reserving a metaphor: ………………………………………...39
III.3.2. Using target language equivalent metaphors and removing
metaphoric imagery: ……………………………………………..………..40
CHAPTERIV: CONCLUSION
IV.1.Recapitulation: ………………………………………………….……....43
IV.2.Implications : ………………………………………………….….……..43
IV.3.Limitations : ………………………………………………………..…...45
IV.4.Recommendations for the further research: ………………………..…...45
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References: …………………………………………………………...…47
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
I.1. Topic
How to translate some of the metaphors in Harry Potter Books ( book 3 and
book 7 ) into Vietnamese
I.2. Rationale
In occasion of doing the graduation research, I decided to study in depth the

mention detail to types of metaphor, such as: fishing metaphor, cooking metaphors,
weather metaphors,… in order to show that : metaphors are vivid, anominous. Giving
these metaphors in translation is interesting but difficult. There appeared some
methods, some solutions which many authors found. However, they are in general
and scrattered.
Furthermore, Harry Potter series are famous and well-known with readers,
especially with children. Its languages are vitally remarkable to study. However,
there’re few researcher find that Harry Potter’s books are the golden store of
metaphors. In comperation with professional translator, Lý Lan, those metaphors are
turned into interesting, vivid and precious picture.
So, the research on “How to translate some of the metaphors in Harry Potter
Books (book 3 and book 7) into Vietnamese ” is an attemption to convey these hidden
things. It is the first research in Foreign Language Department of Hung Vuong
University.
I.4.The purpose of research
With this topic, my research is conducted with the following purposes:
First, researching metaphors in semantics and translation theory terms and finding
the way to apply theory to practice.
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Second, discussing the way to translate some of metaphors in Harry Potter books
(book 3 and book 7) to illustrate the theory.
Third, finding the best way to translate some of metaphors in Harry Potter books
( book 3 and book 7 ) into Vietnamese and techniques for translation.
Therefore, the research questions are as followed:
• How is a metaphor recognized and its hidden meaning understood?
• In term of translation theory, what are the possible ways to translate an English
metaphor into Vietnamese?
• How have English metaphors actually been translated in Harry Potter books
(book 3 and book 7 ) in written English ?
• What conclusions could be drawn to help students of Foreign Language

English – Vietnamese translation of metaphors, so that readers of this research
could have a sense of how to translate a metaphor into Vietnamese in a natural way.
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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
II.1. Translation
II .1 . 1.Definition
Translation is widely recognized as an occupation of long history, dating back
thousands of years ago, and of great importance to human cross- cultural
communication, knowledge exchange and economic development
The first trace of translation dates from 3000 B.C, during the Egyptian Old
Kingdom, the area of the First Cataract, Elephantine, where in descriptions in two
languages have been found. It became a significant factor in the West in 3000 BC.
Luther’s Bible translation in 1552 laid the foundations of modern Ger man. However,
as the last century witnessed the rapid-than-ever progress of natural science and
technology, translation subjects were no longer bound by literary texts, but have been
varied by every aspect of life, from technical issues to health, medicine, law and
administration.
Until the last half of the 20th century (the age of translation) did the very first
translation studies emerge to academically define what translation was. Though
scholars have stated various definitions with different points of view, almost all of
them regard translation as a process and product, and the nature of equivalence is
frequently mentioned.
In Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice (1991) Bell introduces
Meetham and Hudson’s general view on the notion of translation:
Translation is the replacement of a text in one language by a
representation of an equivalent text in a second language (p.713)
Munday (2001) goes further with more details:
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The term translation itself has several meanings: it can refer to the
general subject field, the product (the text that has been translated) or

In addition, Bell (1991) and Larson (1984) illustrate translation as a process to
achieve the final product in a clear way by two translation models as followed: Figure 1: Bell’s translation model (1991, p.21)

Figure 2: Larson’s translation model (1984, p.4)
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Memory
Target
language
text
Semantic
representation
Synthesis
Analysis
Source
language
text
Translation
Text to be
translated

MEANING
11

Both models emphasize two major steps of translation process:
 First, the translator analyzes the source language text to discover its meaning,
or the semantic representation and the author’s intention and implication.
 Then, all these factors are synthesized and re-expressed into the target

intelligence, sensitivity, intuition, and knowledge. In his point, in translating process,
these factors directly affect translation methods and procedures applied by the
translator, and therefore, determine translation quality.
Knowledge of the subject area is so vast and no translator could know all topics from
science, technology, socio-economic, political issues, to literary and philosophical
works. However, it is admitted that a good language learner can translate a scientific
document better than a scientist with poor language knowledge.
Consisting with his previous explanation of a translator, Bell (1991, p.37) adds to the
stated translator’s knowledge-base the decoding skills of reading and the encoding
skills of writing. He comes to a condensed conclusion that a translator must know:
 How propositions are structured ( syntactic knowledge)
 How clauses can be synthesized to carry propositional content and analyzed to
retrieve the content embedded in them ( semantic knowledge)
 How the clause can be realized as information-bearing text and the text
decomposed into the clause (pragmatic knowledge).
All these views on translator competence have had great and useful contribution to
translators of any language. In addition, it is undeniable that practice and experience
in translation are also important to success of any translator, particularly to
newcomers.
II.1.3. Equivalence in translation
II.1.3.1. Definitions of equivalence in translation
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As mentioned above, equivalence is considered the central concept of translation
studies, yet theorists’ approaches to equivalence are so different. Such scholars as
Catford (1965), Nida and Taber (1969) claim that translation bases itself on
equivalence relation, hence, equivalence is the necessary condition for translation:
“translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural
equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in
terms of style” (Nida and Taber,1969/1982,p.12). On the contrary, Snell- Hornby
(1988) and Gentzler (1993) regard equivalence as irrelevant to or damaging

the reader or mainly aiming at the receiver to whom the translation is directed.
For example:
- She’s a cunning fox.
- Mô giµ quû quyÖt.
5. Formal equivalence: source and target language words have the same formal
aesthetic features, orthographic or phonological features
For example:
- To be, or not to be: that’s the question (Shakespeare, Hamlet)
- Sèng hay kh«ng sèng-®ã lµ vÊn ®Ò
Nida and Taber (1982) views equivalence as merely two types:
• Formal correspondence: focuses attention on the message itself, in both form
and content.
• Dynamic equivalence: based on “ the principle of equivalent effect”
Meanwhile, Baker (1992) identifies equivalence in translation more
comprehensively as equivalence at and above word level; grammatical equivalence;
textual equivalence; and pragmatic equivalence
Though from theorists’ point of view equivalence could be categorized in different
ways, it is the translator to decide when priority should be given to either form and
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meaning of the text to translate. This matter also concerns translation methods and
procedures, which are discussed right in the next part.
II.1.4. Translation methods
Translation, as mentioned, is viewed as a process and a product. Translation
methods provide translators with a theoretical background of how to translate in the
most appropriate way. In other words, the final products are certainly different from
each other in form, style, meaning and value. It is apparently the translator to have his
own option among these methods so as to achieve the most satisfied final translation.
In translation studies, the translation methods suggested by Newmark( 1985, p.45-
53) are highly appreciated. He introduces eight methods in the form of a flattened V
diagram:

semantic translation, the translator “follows the thought process of the author” , i.e
being faithful to the author’s style, word choice, expression, etc
Meanwhile, communicative translation is reader-oriented, written at readers’
linguistic level and is used for “informative” and “vocative” texts. In communicative
translation, author’s status is not significant. The importance lies in information
conveyed and whether readers could understand it. The translator, therefore, is
allowed to edit or correct the source language text if necessary, so that his translation
is not only accurate but also comprehensible to general readers.
Bearing in mind characteristics of each translation methods could be very helpful for
translators, particularly I the phase of synthesizing semantic meaning and re-
expressing it into the target language.
II.2. Metaphor
II.2.1. Definitions
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Metaphor is one of the literary devices, belong to figurative language. The
longman Dictionary of Contemporary English says that: “when a word or phrase is
used in a figurative way, it is used about something different from what it normally
refers to, to give you a picture in your mind” ( Ldoce.1995, p.515) . So, in other
words, metaphor or the figurative language is an imaginative comparison between
two unlike object or is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects.
In the simplest case, this take the form : “ The [ first subject] is a [ second subject] “.
More generally, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope that describes a first subject as being
or equal to a second subject in some way.
According to An introduction to literary study written by Nguyen Trung
Tanh, metaphor is the figure of speech expressing indirectly ( by implication not
using as or like ) a resemblance in one or more points of an object in one class to an
object of another class ( in general figurative language broadly ).
In linguistics, metaphor is one of the most conventional notions frequently
mentioned with metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, litotes and irony, metaphor is
traditionally defined as the hidden comparison, the transference of meaning, “ the