The extempore interpreting of idioms is always difficult. Our mother tongue, the Chinese language, is particularly rich in idioms. So is English. The same meaning could of course be set forth in some other ways, but not with equal force and terseness. This feature of idioms makes it difficult to translate - and all the more difficult to interpret - into a different language offhand. But we are not pessimists. Practice has led us to believe that we can present an adequate rendition of an idiom (either C– E or E– C) provided we manage to get an accurate comprehension of the meaning (and implication) and, on this basis, put across the idea or meaning properly in the light of the context.

If we have stored up in our memory an established version (or official translation) of a given idiom, well and good. The problem is: what we are to do if we have not.In translation, we would naturally consult an appropriate dictionary or some other relevant publications. These facilities are denied an interpreter, who has to complete the process of listening – transference – speaking in a few seconds or even in a split of the second! He simply cannot afford pondering over an individual idiom at the cost of losing the thread of the original speaker, or losing the whole next sentence in the case of simultaneous interpretation. If we hear, in the original speech, an idiom (or a string of idioms) the exact rendition of which is not known to us, usually we can safely go by the following rules.

I. Render the Meaning, not mere Words, in the Light of the Context

Comprehension of the meaning of the idiom is, of course, our foremost concern. As soon as the meaning of the idiom is grasped, what we must do is to put across the meaning (NOT every individual word in the given idiom) in the light of the context. For instance, “独立自主地……”was translated into“independently by taking our destiny into our own hands”in some documents, and“自力更生”into“relying on our own efforts”.However,while interpreting“独立自主、自力更生地发展民族经济”we should on no account lump in every individual word and sound so wordy! Normally an appropriate interpretation would be "to develop our national economy independently and self-reliantly”.Similarly,“从弱到强”and“从小到大”are both Chinese idioms, which literally mean "from weak to strong" and "from small to large";however when we are to interpret this sentence,“中国人民解放军60年的历史，是我军从小到大、从弱到强的发展史”,we should put across the meaning and avoid verbosity (resulting from rendering every individual word of the idioms),so that normally the sentence could be rendered into:“The 60 years'history of the PLA is a history of its growth in size and strength".

Similarly, in interpreting this English sentence,"This piece of information has not been made public yet, so keep it under your hat", we can grasp the meaning of the idiom from the context and render the sentence into：“这条消息尚未发表，因此你要保密。”