A cultural substitute sends across the meaning and image
comparable in the two cultures being translated. On the part of the translator,
the source and the cultural substitute are compared as in the case of
metaphor or simile. The translator looks for and selects a matching metaphor
in the receptor culture. The readers easily understand the meaning and
the emotional effect attached to the item because it is from their own
familiar culture. For example, Helen of Troy is understood in English with
all her famous history in a similar way as Queen Siida is known in Thai.
Queen Siida is then a suitable cultural substitute for Helen of Troy when
translating metaphor, expressing the meaning of a great beauty who is fought
over by men