我在内心深出不知考虑了多少次。[14]
(5)Everyone sprang to his feet, but the business was over in two twos. (R.Stevenson, New Arabian Nights)
此时大家都一跃而起，但转眼间他就一转命呜呼。[14]
(6)-- Are you taking Pam out tonight?
-- Ah, that’s the sixty-four-thousand dollar questions!
-- 你今晚打算带帕姆出去吗？
-- 唉，这真是个难题！[17]
As illustrated above, the idiom “seventy times seven” originated from the Bible. “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” (Matt, 18:22) [18]. It is a repetition of seven in a number, equivalent to saying “a large number” or “without limit”, but its original meaning is“七十七个次”. And “in two twos” which means immediately can be translated into“转眼间，一下子”. The expression “sixty-four-thousand dollar” started to be used because of a television Game Show, in which people played games or answered questions to win prizes, the presenter used these words just before he asked the last and most difficult question. So it means the most difficult and crucial.
This method of translation is not always concerned with the words of the original forms, but with understanding the meaning of the text. Sometimes more words, sentences or even paragraphs are to be added so as to be understandable.
3. 2. 2 Replacement and adjustment of numbers
It happens on the premise of not disturbing the original meaning and context. Since there exist substantial idioms or idiomatic usages about numbers in both English and Chinese, this method involves replacing a cultural specific expression with a target-language expression which is certain or likely to have a similar impact on the target language reader, so that the idiom in the target language conveys roughly the exactly same meaning as that of the source-language idioms. For example:
(1)普及工作若是永远停留在一个水平上，那末，教育者和被教育者岂不是半斤八两？（毛泽东《在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话》）
If popularization remains at the same level forever… will not the educators and those who are educated be six of one and half a dozen of the other?
(2) 廖湘云用尽九牛二虎之力, 才把季交恕拉曳起来。（李六如《六十年的变迁》）
Liao xiangyun eventually succeeded in pulling Ji Jiaoshu up from the ground with Herculean efforts. [14]
(3) 柳嫂子有八个头，也不敢得罪姑娘。（曹雪芹《红楼梦》）
Even if Mrs. Liu had nine lives, she’d never dare offend you. [15] (杨宪益，戴乃迭译)
In the first sentence, “半斤八两”is a Chinese usage. According to the old weighing apparatus, one jin（斤）equals sixteen liang(两) “jin” and “liang” are both units of weighing. So,“半斤八两”means a situation that is good and bad to an equal degree. When translated into English, it can be transferred into the corresponding the English idiom “six of one and half a dozen of the other” on account of duodecimal number system in western countries like English and so on.
Such methods of translation can be found in other idioms as following:
人生七十古来稀 The days of our years are threescore years and ten[19].
二一添作五 go fifty-fifty
一不做，二不休 in for a penny, in for a pound.
a nine day’s wonder 昙花一现
ten to one 十有八九
to be flung to the four winds 抛到九霄云外
at sixes and sevens 乱七八糟
a thousand and one ways 千方百计
In order to be in conformity with the principle of tradition and thinking of the target language, some expressions of numbers should be enlarged or narrowed when translated into another language, because of the different usages in numbers. For example:
(1)薛蟠也假说来上学，不过是“三天打鱼，两天晒网”，却不曾有一点进益。（曹雪芹《红楼梦》）
Xue Pan had hastened to register himself as a pupil. His school-going was, needless to say, a pretence—“one day fishing and two days to dry the net” as they say, and had nothing to do with the advancement of learning. (杨宪益，戴乃迭译) [20]
(2)鹰击长空，
鱼翔浅底，
万类霸天竞自由。 （毛泽东《沁园春•长沙》）
Eagles cleave the air,
Fish glide in the limpid deep,
Under freezing skies a million creatures contend in freedom [4].
(3)背河的这面街房，却故意不连贯，三家五家隔有一巷。
The houses on the northern bank of the river are separated according to the design that has lanes running between every three or four of them and steps leading down to the river bank [12].
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