谈电影片名的翻译.doc

谈电影片名的翻译Abstract The translation of film titles has become a popular phrase in modern life. As is known to all, how to translate the film titles has become a controversial topic in the field of translation for a long time. The translation of western film titles is quite different from the translation of Chinese film titles. In the process of the translation, sometimes films titles will have different translations owing to the different translators. Because every one has his own idea, experience and knowledge. Films are a very important part of cultural interchanges. Therefore, the culture of the countries is becoming a major content to present in the films. This paper points out the importance of the translation of film titles and calls on the translators to pay more attention to it. The art, commercial and social feature characterize the film titles. Translation isnt a process to change one language to the other. Foreign audiences are more often than not to comprehend the original film titles. The Chinese audiences wouldnt arouse sympathy when they see the original film titles. The author analyzes that people shouldnt hold one-side view that the literal translation is good or the free translation is good. The literal translation and free translation ought to supplement and complement each other. These two methods must combine and use adjusting orders, adding or reducing some words of the original film titles to get the best results of the translation of film titles.Key Words film titles; literal translation; free translation; culture 【摘 要】当今社会，“电影片名的翻译”已经成为一个流行的词语，众所周知，如何译好电影片名已成为翻译界很长时间内热烈讨论的话题；西片的片名不同于中国电影片名，在翻译的过程中，由于译者的想法、经验和知识不同，翻译也会有所不同。电影是文化交流非常重要的部分，所以，各国的文化成为电影中所要表达的内容。本文指出了电影片名翻译的重要性，并号召译者对其重视，其中艺术、商业、社会特征描绘了电影片名，那就是翻译不只是一种语言向另一种语言转换的过程；西方观众能一目了然的片名，中国人却不这么认为。作者分析了直译和意译的不同，这主要是由于文化的不同，最后得出结论：不能片面地说直译好还是意译好，这两者是相辅相承的，作者提议两者之间应结合起来，具体问题具体分析，在电影片名翻译的问题上应用改变词序、增词或减词的方法来翻译片名以求得这两种翻译方法之间的平衡。【关键词】电影片名；直译；意译；文化1. IntroductionA good film needs a wonderful title, which is known by the people in the street. Every time they hear about a film, they always get to know its title first. And they decide whether or not to see it. The pleasure of watching a film comes as much from its content as from its title. The translations of the film titles require using a few words to express the topic of the films and at the same time, people shouldnt forget it after seeing it. 1 The translation of western film titles is quite different from that Chinese film titles. The former ones take the reality important while the latter ones consider the mood is great. These different views also mirror the translation of film titles and lead to the different understanding of the translation of film titles. (This also can be seen from the different translations on Mainland China, Hongkong and Taiwan.) Simply out, they operate in different socio-cultural contexts. All of these are compounded in the translation of film titles. This paper gives a translation norm and a way to translating from the features and the approaches of the translation of film titles. And this paper gives a brief introduction to the features of the translation of film titles. People can see something of the translation of film titles from these features. Later the approaches of the translation of film titles are mainly observed by comparing the literal translation and the free translation. The author makes a conclusion that keeping a balance between literal translation and free translation is better, due to the cultural differences of the west and the east. A successful translation of film title is concentrated on the acceptant role: audiences. And the response of the foreign audiences and the Chinese audiences would be coherent when they accept the translation of film titles. This is the high standard of the translation of film titles. Hence, keeping the equivalence of the language, the culture and the style is useful to the audiences understanding of the original film titles. This equivalence demands us to observe more closely to the features of the film titles. The author analyzes that people shouldnt hold only one-side view that the literal translation is good or the free translation is good. The literal translation and free translation ought to supplement and complement each other. These two methods must combine and use adjusting the orders, adding or reducing some words of the original film titles to get the best results of the translation of film titles. 2.Features of film titles Everything in the world has its own features, so do the film titles. They cant exist without their own features. To make the titles more impressive, people use many rhetoric devices are used in the translation of the film titles, such as simile, metaphor, oxymoron and the like. The features of the translation of film titles will be expounded from the art, economic and social perspective as follows.2.1Art feature Film is a living art and as such it tends to respond promptly to the development of science and technology, which differentiates it from the other forms of art that can be written or painted on the paper. As the translation of film titles is the right key to keep the audiences attention, many factors are contained to reach this aim. One of them is the art feature. For example, the Chinese version of the film title “The Accused” is “暴劫梨花”, which consists of two parts: 暴劫 and 梨花. Here, 暴劫 roughly means ravaged or devastated while 梨花, which literally means pear flowers, is often used to mean a fragile woman. There common Chinese expression 梨花带雨(a woman in tears) is condensed from Bai Juyis (白居易): 梨花一枝春带雨. 2.2Economic feature There is no wonder that the film investors try any ways to attract peoples eyes. The translations of film titles are often put on the leading places of the bills to attract peoples eyes. How to occupy the film market? They rack their brains to seek the high competitiveness of the film market from scripting, filming to showing. And the translations of the film titles are even to add an apt word to clinch the point. The film industry includes the industrial production, the commercial system and the cultural transmission. 2 There comes forth a great many films on the market. Just for the sake of high benefits from their investment, they didnt care much about the translation of the film titles, which led them far from the original film titles. Besides, for majority of the audiences, those improper translations are beyond their understandings. Even the national conditions have been taken into consideration, it is necessary to find a junction of the market and art. However, the importance is to find a naming that is close to the original title and eligible to the style of the film. Meanwhile, the response of the market should not be neglected. But they do the translating work only to pursue the advertising benefit. And in the field of western film industry, people benefit from the boundless chance to get more money from this productive business in spite of these. Some examples will tell us how this economic features of the film titles act. (1) It Happens One Night 一夜风流 (2) Sister Act 修女也疯狂 (3) Leon, the Professional 这个杀手不太冷 All these examples show us the demands the development of mass markets of film industry.2.3Social feature Foreign audiences are more often than not to comprehend the original film titles. Once they are translated using free translation, it would be hard for the Chinese audiences to understand the quite content of the films. As the practice testified, a ringing translated film titles are the purpose of evoking the audiences curiosity. For example, The words “黑帮” in “Shark Tales”(鲨鱼黑帮) gives us a room to associate. Are there “黑帮” in the world of sharks? Some people who have never seen the translated one will naturally translate it into “鲨鱼的故事”. You wouldnt expect its success of such a plain film. If so, it is really a documentary. Besides, films provide a forum in which certain pressing social problems. It is a way for the audiences to deal imaginatively with the problems to consider possible causes, to imagine possible consequences, and to hypothesize possible solutions. Here “Shark Tales” is an example to show the social problem. “Shark” symbolizes the bully in the society. Among these sharks, there is one who is the son of the leader. When he dies, the sea creature is happy with this and praises the untrue hero. It also conveys peoples wishes to wipe out the bad eggs. So the bad translation is unacceptable. It is a title just like the TV program“The world of the animals”. Quite often, the title of a film is used to inform would-be audiences. 3 Nevertheless, these audiences choose to go into the cinemas unconsciously to admire the content under the drive of “黑帮”. That is the contribution of the vivid film titles. The different features themselves characterize the film titles. They are simple and coherent with sporadic lengthy titles in view. The examples, which were mentioned above, are just like a drop in the ocean of the translation of film titles. Lets go further into the principal points of the translation of film titles. And the chief among the approaches of the translation of film titles is the literal translation and the free translation.3.Approaches of the translation of film titles The films are produced by men or women from certain areas for consumption by target audiences who also belong to certain groups. Therefore, the culture of the countries is becoming a major content to present in the films. Consequently, films become a major channel to spread culture. Its influence is so large that other arts are unable to keep pace with it. Our country is in an easy social environment and in a mood of cultural communications of two sides. 4 In other words, translations are products of the times. To attain the best effect of translation of the film titles according to the original language and the target language, the translators of the film titles need special training. 5 Because the purposes of the translators are not only media to show the meaning of the film titles, but also to give keen enjoyment, the creativeness of the translators is important. That demands translators endeavor to combine the original titles with the translated ones well. Translation is closely bound up with the socio-cultural matrix in which the translation act is conducted. At present, the dubbed films are seen by more audiences than the readers of the literary works. 6 The foreign cultural information is also to be reflected in their films. So translation is never a completely independent, autonomous activity.3.1Literal Translation Some film titles need not be considered and designed again by the translators, just use literal translation that can get the maximum effect?Dtransmitting the original meaning and keeping the unity of the original naming and content of the film titles. 7 Sometimes, the orders of the translated film titles are the same as the original ones, which are seen clearly to the audiences. Literal translation can keep the form, meaning and information of the film titles to be closely to the original film titles. 8 For examples, the translation of the western film titles “Beauty and Beast”(美女与野兽), “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (指环王3：王者归来), “Snow White” (白雪公主), “Sleeping Beauty” (睡美人), “March of the Penguins”(帝企鹅日记), “Crocodile Dundee” (鳄鱼邓迪), “Ben Hur” (宾虚), “Madam Currie” (居里夫人), “Stigmata” (圣痕), “The Passion of the Christ” (耶稣受难记), “The Last Temptation of Christ” (基督最后的诱惑) and so forth, people can see from the examples above that it must use literal translation especially with regard to the historical figures and events or religious and ethical concerns which they are familiar with. People should notice that other film titles, which are adapted from famous books, also employ the literal translation. For example, “The Old Man and the Sea”(老人与海), “The Godfather”(教父), “Anna Karenina”(安娜?卡列尼娜). One reason is to avoid the misunderstanding of the audiences who may be strange to them, and the other reason is that the effect of famous books titles can attract the eyes of the audiences. And the translation of Chinese film titles like (断背山), (向左走，向右走), (新警察故事), (金刚), (成吉思汗), (可可西里), (如果?爱), (暖), (手机), (阳光灿烂的日子) are “Brokeback Mountain”, “Turn left, Turn right”, “New Police Story”, “King Kong”, “Genghis Khan”, “ke ke xi li”, “If?Love”, “Nuan”, “Cell Phone”, “The Days Under the Bright Sunshine” to be the successful literal translation of film titles. And the literal translations of film titles listed above are more close to the original titles in the forms, meaning, information and so on. Take “如果?爱” as an example, its literal translation is “If?Love”. This original film title which use literal translation itself express the most beautiful mood of the film theme. It indeed need not be considered and designed again by the translators. If, this literal meaning of this film title can get the maximum effect to give hypothesis and at the same times, it arouses peoples imagination. The literal translation of this film title just reaches the best result of translation. Another example of these Chinese film titles is (成吉思汗) “Genghis Khan”. The foreign people are getting to know more and more about Chinese culture and history with the communication of two countries. And they have plentiful knowledge to understand the literal meaning of this film title. It is no need to make a note to explain it. As is known to all, how to translate the film titles well has become a controversial topic in the field of translation for a long time. In translating a foreign language into Chinese, the Mainland China. Taiwan and Hongkong always keep their own styles of translation. The unbounded literal approach is adopted by translators in Hongkong and Taiwan, particularly those in Hongkong. The translators in Hongkong are deeply influenced by the commercial entertainment culture. But the translators on the mainland show more respect for their profession and display less flippancy, and this is also reflected in the translation. People can see the advantages of the literal translation by comparing the differences in translation among three districts. There are some examples lined below to show the differences of the 3 places:EnglishHongkongTaiwanMainlandThe Unbearable Lightness布拉格之恋布拉格之春生命中不能承受之轻Brave Heart惊世未了情英雄本色 勇敢的心Bodyguard护花倾情终极保镖保镖Raging Bull狂牛蛮牛愤怒的公牛The Rock石破天惊绝对任务勇闯夺命岛A Fish called Wanda倩女大贼神仙鱼笨贼一箩筐一条名叫旺达的鱼Pulp Fiction危险人物黑色通缉令低俗小说Primary Color这个总统真太滥风起云涌原色 The evidence is that the translators in Hongkong and Taiwan favor the vulgar and bombastic language. They translate them in a flexible way, mainly sacrificing the form to achieve the meaning. The translation of A Fish called Wanda” into “倩女大贼神仙鱼” reveals the customs of the daily language of Hongkong. The film “Primary Color” are translated into “这个总统真太滥” , which is also adopted this way. These probably do not make any sense to the audiences in mainland. Here Mainland China use the literal translation “一条名叫旺达的鱼”, directly and clearly. It is better that the 3 places should work together to standardize the translation of film titles because different translations will confuse the cinemagoers. On the basis of the comparison, Hongkong translators tempt to make more fun to attract people.As a coin has two sides, it also has some advisable places of the translation of Hongkong. Their creativities are undeniable to the public. Lets see a new American horror film to be first shown on a city of Mainland China recently. As a result, the news about this new horror film is that the ticket office is not as good as expectation. A major influence is the translation of the film title. The literal translation of this film would be (当树枝折断的时候) “When Bough Breaks”. The original translation “第七只断手” is considered bloody, but many audiences took this new film as a scientific film. The ticket offices are naturally to be suffered from considerable influence. Those who want to see this new film feel queer if it is worth paying money for it. Whereas, other groups who show not interests in the film will not even take a glance at it. The original translation of this new film gives people a horrific feeling. And they also get a general idea of the film. The example here is referred to the free translation. Can people just use literal translation when translating the film titles in spite of the content or others arent contained in the literal meaning of the film titles.3.2Free Translation Translation isnt a process to change one language to the other. But the original film titles of western countries are always concise and implied. These enhance the difficulties in translation. And people who like western films wont understand them quickly when they see them at the first sight. Yet, if translation is good enough it can help them to master the essence and imagine the plots of the film. And it can arouse their desire to see the film. When translators set about their works, they are hesitant to translate creatively. The assumption is to play safe, one would do well to give a faithful rendering. If there is no creativeness in the advertisements, the advertisements are doomed to die. That is also suitable to the translation of film titles. The public is becoming serious to the qualities of the films with the improvement of peoples life. The film titles are specially the heart of films. Therefore, the translations of film titles need the translators to do their best because of the different cultures of the different countries. Many people considered that the translations of film titles are complicated. The reasons are that the original titles of western countries are always literary. However, its cursory if we translate them word-by-word into Chinese. Lets take some films titles as examples, like “Mr. Hollands Opus”, “Walk the Line”, “Lilo and Stitch”, “The Incredibles”, “A Bugs Life”, “Chicken Run”, “Garfield”, “Tarzan”, “The Wizard of Oz”, “Best in Show”，are translated into (春风化雨), (一往无前), (星际宝贝), (超人特攻队), (虫虫危机), (小鸡快跑), (加菲猫), (人猿泰山), (绿野仙踪), (宠物狗大赛). The Chinese audiences wouldnt have the same feeling with the foreign audiences when they see these original film titles. They keep this doubt until the translations of the film titles are discovered. It comes the right time that they understand the naming suddenly. Precondition all the content and form of the films, its the key point to translate a film title. Besides, the translator himself must possess abundant cultural knowledge and steady linguistic plane. 9 So the translators ought to elaborate a plan to change the original titles accordingly. Like “Mr. Hollands Opus”, an American film, which narrates a story about an ordinal musical teacher: Mr. Holland. Mr. Holland contributed 30 years life to teach his students. Not for money and for fame. All his students are deeply affected by him. A correct comparison is for him in the film: the leader of a symphony orchestra. And every student is one of his notes, his opus. If we use literal translation, it must be (贺兰先生的作品). It looks so bad for the awful translation. But the translator applies all his wit to deepen its meaning and translate it into(春风化雨).This is plentiful to reveal us the devotion of a teacher. Because “春风化雨” is usually a parable to the good education. Thus successful example isnt only this. Film acted by American actor Jim?Carrey who is good at changing his facial expression freely“The Mask”(变相怪杰). Everyone guess that this born co