隐喻在英语里被叫做metaphor。其实这个单词源于希腊，在希腊语里，metaphor表达“transfer”或者“carry across”的意思，即把一物的意思转移到另一物上。
在这篇文章中，我们通过两首诗歌来学习两种不同类别的暗喻。
Conventional Metaphor常规隐喻
美国诗人罗伯特·弗罗斯特（Robert Frost）创作的《未选择的路》（The Road Not Taken）这一首诗当中，诗人就将生活比作路（road），展现了现实生话中人们处在十字路口时难以抉择的心情。
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
黄叶林中出条岔路，
无奈一人难于兼顾，
顺着一条婉蜒小路，
久久伫立极目远眺，
只见小径拐进灌木。
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
接着选择了另一条，
同样清楚似乎更好，
引人踩踏铺满茂草，
踏在其间难分彼此，
尽管真有两条道。
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
清晨里躺着两条路，
一样叶被无人踏脏，
愿将第一条来日补，
但知条条相连远途，
怀疑日后怎能回返。
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
在很久以后某一地，
我将叹息诉说于人，
两路岔开在树林里，
我选的那条足迹稀，
而一切差别由此起。
Visual Metaphor视觉隐喻
还是不了解什么是视觉隐喻？没关系，我们先看一首诗你就明白了。
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
肯明斯（E.E. Cummings）的这首落叶诗是很有名的视觉诗。视觉诗指的是利用文字的特别排版以达成特定视觉效果表达作者思想的诗体。这首诗里包含了两种视觉隐喻。要赏析这首诗，可以先打破作者创造的视觉效果，如此一来，这首诗就变成了这样：
l (a leaf falls) oneliness
括号内是a leaf falls（一片树叶落下），括号外是loneliness（寂寞），作者用叶子落下来与寂寞相联系，这就是第一种隐喻。再看诗呈现出的视觉效果，仿佛一片树叶从树枝慢慢落地，这就是第二种隐喻。
声明：本内容为沪江英语原创整理，转载需征得同意后，注明出处【沪江英语】。