Abstract: The metaphorization of body-part term “heart” and “xin” is of significance for human thinking and cognition. Conceptual blending, a universally cognitive operating process, can adequately account for the dynamic construction of metaphorical meanings, and metaphor translation itself is a dynamic conceptual blending. With the aim to figure out how translators deal metaphors related to “heart” and “xin”, the thesis comparatively analyzes “heart”in Shakespeare’s four tragedies (King Lear, Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth) and “xin” in Cao Yu’s Leiyu and Richu with reference to representative versions of Zhu Shenghao, Liang Shiqiu, Bian Zhilin, and Sun Dayu as well as Wang Zuoliang and Barnes from the perspective of Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT). The authors find that three translation strategies of “heart/xin” metaphors in these plays are: total- and semi-correspondence projection strategies (source text space projection and translator space projection) and non-correspondence integration projection strategy; and that conceptual blending fits metaphor translation well.

Key words: heart/xin, metaphor translation, conceptual blending, Shakespeare’s plays, Cao Yu’s plays