Translation of Idioms: A Hard Task for the Translator

Idioms can be considered as a part of everyday language. They are the essence of any language and the most problematic part to handle with. Not all idioms have direct equivalents in another language, because they are linguistic expressions which are typical for a language and specific to a single culture. It is impossible to define any unique approach in the translating process since so many idioms are culturally specific and thus the pragmatic meaning must be much more prized than the literal meaning. If they are to be translated literally or word for word, they lead to extreme confusion. The present study investigates some important idioms in the book What You Asked For, and provides the readers with the procedures and strategies used to translate them. The procedures are proposed by Baker (1992). This paper presents the definition of idioms to see what they are. Then, it classifies the idioms into different categories and in the end, gives some techniques and procedures to translate them.