Jalanjäljen jäljillä

A well-known proverb ”A picture is worth a thousand words” is applicable for describing the relationship between an image and a text – whether written or spoken. The use of different figures of speech is especially typical of fiction, but metaphors are used in other genres as well. In fact, metaphors are a crucial part of our everyday language use. It is necessary for a language user to realize that the same ”image” (for example, the same metaphor) does not always transmit the same information in every culture. When translators translate different figures of speech, they have to take into account the conventions of the genre and the typological characteristics of the text, and also the language- and culture-specific matters that either help or complicate the translation of the metaphor. In this paper, I will discuss the possibility of metaphor translation from two points of view. First, I will examine to what extent it is possible to talk about the universal nature of conceptual metaphor and in which way the conceptual metaphor that can be found behind a certain metaphor influences the translation process. I will concentrate on the expressions carbon footprint, ecological footprint and water footprint and their relationship with the conceptual metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY. Secondly, I will use the antropomorphic model as a tool to explain how the embodiment that the metaphor is based on – in this case, foot –makes it easier to understand a metaphor that is new or unknown in the target culture. From this perspective, for example, a carbon footprint should be easy to translate and understand, independent of whether the concept already exists in the target language or not.