暗喻（metaphor)也叫“隱喻”，常用“是”、“為”、“成”、“叫”、“做”、 “等于”等充當(dāng)喻詞(也有不用喻詞的，本體和喻體之間用逗號或破折號連接），在語言形式上最常見的格式是：本體、喻詞、喻體依次充當(dāng)句子的主、謂、賓。暗喻的本體和喻體的關(guān)系比明喻更接近，語氣更肯定，結(jié)構(gòu)也更緊湊。

我們首先從以下兩個例句的譯文比較談起：

1)把個尤氏揉搓成一個面團，衣服上全是眼淚鼻涕，并無別語，只罵賈蓉......（第六十八回）

楊譯：

Madam You, reduced to a squelch，her clothes covered with tears and snot, could only round on Jia Rong.

霍譯：

You-shi，whom all this time she had not let go of, was so mauled and crumpled that she was beginning to take on some of the aspects of a piece of well-kneaded dough and various parts of her clothing had become damp and discoloured with the moisture from Xi-feng's eyes and nose. As there was nothing much she could say in answer to Xi-feng，she shouted at Jia Rong instead.

2)襲人等笑道：“他奶奶病了，他又成了香餑餑了，都搶不到手?！逼絻喝チ瞬惶?。（第六十回）

楊譯：

Xiren and the others commented jokingly，“With her mistress ill she's in such great demand, everyone's trying to grab her."

霍譯：

Aroma and the others laughed, too.

‘She's grown as popular as hot cakes since her mistress's illness：everyone wants her at once! ’

上面兩例都是用“成”作喻詞的暗喻，分別用“面團”和“香餑餑”作喻體，十分通俗易懂，充滿生活氣息，且又契合特定場景和人物的特定身份。如此存質(zhì)、顯形的比喻將人與物合二為一，給讀者帶來了無窮的閱讀樂趣。但是，楊譯卻放棄了對比喻的語際轉(zhuǎn)化，沒有保留喻體富含的表現(xiàn)力和感染力，與對應(yīng)的霍譯相比，表達(dá)效果遜色了許多。霍譯對上述兩例中暗喻的處理方式，不管是照樣譯成暗喻（例1)，還是譯成明喻（例2)，都基本上保留了原作的風(fēng)采。

由此可見，對原文喻義的視而不“譯”是有悖于原文修辭效果的積極發(fā)揮的，因而應(yīng)竭力避免。但是，綜合楊霍兩譯本對《紅樓夢》原著中大量暗喻的翻譯，卻發(fā)現(xiàn)這種情況不乏其例：

3)賈政也撐不住笑了。因說道：“那怕再念三十本《詩經(jīng)》，也都是掩耳偷鈴，哄人而已。……”（第九回）

楊譯：

"Even if he studied another thirty volumes，it would just be fooling people,"he retorted.