修辞这里主要指修辞格。从文体学的角度来说，所有修辞格都是正常表现法的偏离，通过“突出前景”（foregrounding)，加强语言的表达效果，从而更有效地打动读者和感染读者。英汉语都有丰富的修辞格，英语中常用的修辞格大多数都能在汉语中找到对应的修辞格，比如明喻（simile)、暗喻（metaphor)、借代（metonymy )、拟人（personification)、夸张(hyperbole)、反语（irony )、排比 (parallelism)、设问(rhetorical question )等。为了忠实地传译原文的修辞格，再现原文的修辞美,翻译时译者可以尽量采用与原文相应的修辞格。下面我们来看一则英译汉：

（1）只见府门洞开,两边灯笼照如白昼，乱哄哄人来人往，里面哭声摇山震岳。（《红楼梦》第13回）

译文：Arriving in haste at the entrance of the Ning-guo mansion，they found the gates flung wide open and lanterns on either side turning the night into noonday. Despite the hour, a multitude of people were hurrying through it in both directions while from inside the house issued a sound of lamentation that seemed to shake the very buildings to their foundations.

这里描写秦可卿去世后，宁国府上下人等忙乱举哀的情景。短短一句话，用了比喻和夸张两个修辞格。比喻句“两边灯笼照如白昼”非常自然地译为“lanterns on either side turning the night into noonday”，保留了原文的比喻。而用 “a sound of lamentation that seemed to shake the very buildings to their foundations”译“哭声摇山震岳”却似乎比原文更为贴切。"摇山震岳"之类的夸张说法 在我国话本小说中用得太滥，反而不及英文的“to shake the very buildings to their foundations”更富有生命力，并且这样译也更为符合当时具体的语境。

然而，在有些情况下，译者试图保留原修辞格的努力却难以收到好的效果。例如：