3。1 Metaphor

3。1。1 Definition

     Metaphor is to use A to compare B according to the similarity between two things。 Systematically, it consists of three components: noumenon, metaphorical objects and metaphorical words。 Because of the similarities and differences between these three components, metaphor can be pided into simile, metaphor and metonymy。 Simile means that noumenon and metaphorical objects appear in the sentence and are connected by the metaphorical words such as “like, as if。” etc。。 Metaphor means that noumenon and metaphorical objects appear in a sentence at the same time, but the poet uses the words “is”, “be, become”, and other words instead of words like “like” and “as if” 。 （Lan 306） Metonymy means that noumenon and metaphorical words do not appear in the sentence, and the poet directly describes the metaphorical objects。 （Cui 243）

3。1。2 Its use in the poem

    The poet used three kinds of metaphor in this poem: simile, metaphor and metonymy。 First, the poet using the phrase “朝如青丝” is a kind of simile, for there is a metaphorical word “如（as if）” and the poet compared the hair to the black hair。 The word “青丝” means black hair in the ancient time while nowadays, it refers to hair。 Second, the phrase “暮成雪” is a kind of metaphor, for there is a metaphorical word “成（become）” , and the poet compared the white hair to the color of snow。 Both two phrases were used to sigh with the fast elapse of time。 Third, the poet used the surging of the Yellow river to state that time is flying and will never come back in a metonymy way。 

3。1。3 The different versions of translating it

     When they translated the words “青丝暮成雪”，Gong and Xu used the word “silken black” or “silk black” to describe the color of black hair, which is similar with the original meaning of “青丝”。 Stephen used “blue-black” which is a little bit weird because there was no blue hair at that time, and the word “青丝” means black hair which is a kind of poetic writing usually used in ancient poems。 For the lack of the Chinese ancient culture, Stephen misunderstood the meaning of the word and translated it wrongly。 When they translated the word “雪”, Gong used the word “hoary” to describe the color of the white hair。 This word means gray and white which is not like the Xu’s “snow-white” and Stephen’s “snow”。 It looks like more miserable and pathetic than the others。 When they translated the words “朝如、暮成”, Xu Y used the word “once” to describe the change of the color which is faithful to the fact, while Xu J used the word “as if” which made the changing more natural and also ensured the faithfulness。 And others just translated it simply to “in the morning, in the evening or nightfall” which is faithful to the original poem while not to the fact。 So to this point, Xu J’s version “As if turning snow-white at dusk from black at dawn”is better。 It not only showed the short of time but also be faithful to the fact and original poem, that’s to say, kill two birds with one stone。 When they translated the metonymy sentences  “君不见黄河之水天上来，奔流到海不复还。”,  Gong used the words “rushing, never turning back” to modify the elapse of time, Sun used “roll off to and never come back” to describe the waves of the river vividly。 They didn’t choose to use the word “like time or as if” to strengthen the elapse of time。 For the function of the later sentence, readers can understand these two parallel sentences were telling the same thing, that is, time is flying。 So most of them chose to be faithful to the poem in this sentence and tried to depict the magnificent scene of the Yellow River。 While in the translation of the sentence “朝如青丝暮成雪” , Xu Jingcheng used “as if ” which is different from others。 This version is faithful to the poem, also to the fact which is suitable in the theory of faithfulness and expressiveness。