一般人认为，西方人喜欢抽象，中国人喜欢具体，因此英译汉时往往运用化抽象为具体的方法。这只是问题的一个方面，在英译汉时，抽象与具体的转换其实是双向的：原文抽象的概念可以化为具体，具体的概念也可以化为抽象。
（1） 从认知的角度来看，（2） 任何语言中都充满了隐喻。为了使语言的表达形象生动，（3） 人们往往用意象表达抽象的概念，（4） 用部分代替整体。
man for the field and woman for the hearth;
man for the sword and woman for the needle;
man with the head and woman with the heart;
man to command and woman to obey
--------- Tennyson
男人适于农耕，女人适于家务
男人宜于征战，女人宜于缝纫
男人善于深思，女人富于感情
男人发号施令，女人惟有服从。-----坦尼森
2 Your credentials as a friend and supporter of those of our brethren fighting against alien domination for freedom and independence need no further elaboration.
对于那些为反抗外来统治，为自由和独立而斗争的兄弟们来说，你作为他们的朋友和支持者的资格是毋庸赘言的。
3 Over the past hundred odd years, the Chinese people have gone through storm and stress, and in the course of vigorous struggle they have accomplished a great historic transformation.
在过去的一百年间，中国人民历经沧桑，在奋起斗争的过程中进行了伟大的历史变革。
4 I dragged up stairs, whence, after putting on my dry clothes, and pacing to and fro for thirty or forty minutes to restore the animal heat.
句中animal heat 如果具体地译为“动物的热量”，不伦不类，根据语境作抽象化引申，译为“元气”
我拖拖遢遢地上楼去，换上干衣服后，踱来踱去走了三四十分钟好恢复元气。
5 He ---probably swayed by prudential consideration of the folly of offending a good tenant ---relaxed a little in a laconic style of chipping off his pronouns and auxiliary verbs, and introduced what he supposed would be a subject of interest to me.
句中his pronouns and auxiliary verbs不可直译为“代词和助动词”，由于英语中的代词与助动词可以表达委婉的说法，所以整个句子可译为：
也许出于谨慎，他认为得罪一个好房客是愚蠢的，语言便稍稍委婉些，提出了他认为我会感兴趣的话头。
（二） 英语中成语，谚语与熟语等民族性习惯表达法多用具象概念来传递抽象概念，语词中间蕴涵着丰富的文化意义。这些文化负载词的语用意义，文化内涵在两中语言中截然不同，产生的联想也大不一样。所以在翻译时，只好舍弃其具体形象，而保留其意义。
A good conscience is a soft pillow. 良心过得去，睡觉才安稳。
Kissing doesn’t last; cookery does. 甜言蜜语不可靠，粗茶淡饭才长久。
Love is the mother of love. 情生情，爱生爱。
Love lives in cottages as well as in courts 爱情不分贵贱。
You should not show your hand to a stranger. 对陌生人要保持戒心。
She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. 她生长在富贵之家。
练习
一 运用具体抽象相互转换的方法翻译下列句子：
1 He has many hot potatoes to handle every day.
2 We should never warm snakes in our bosoms.
3 The pen is mightier than the sword.
4 They have their smiles and tears.
5 It’s regrettable that our appeal remains a dead letter.
6 Is the emigration of intelligence to become an issue as absorbing as the immigration of strong muscle?
7 If looks have language, the merest idiot might have guessed I was over head and ears.
8 He has been blaming our fathers (How dares he?) for treating H too liberally, and he swears he will reduce him to his right place.
9 The following week was family conference, something I dreaded. This was the day the dirty laundry got hung out to air in a private session between parent, child and counselor.
10 I’ll break my neck to get this done by Friday, but I can’t promise for sure.
11 The matter was finally settled under the table.
12 Since I only got the news at second hand, I took it with a grain of salt.
13 By this means she cast in a bone between the wife and the husband.
14 Each of us has his carrot and stick. In my case, the stick is my slackening physical condition, which keeps me from beating opponents at tennis whom I overwhelmed two years ago. My carrot is to win.
15 When your mother sees those torn trousers, you will be in for it.
16 His arrogance sent him into isolation and helplessness.
17 Gas looming through the fog in divers place in the streets, much as the sun ray, from the spongy fields be seen to loom by husbandman and ploughboy.
