代写商务英语论文Abstract
Abstract: The idea hat film is a form of art loved by people has been generally accepted. Nowadays, films have been more and more internationalized, and the translation of the films’ title has become one of the important parts in translating of a film. The translation in this field has its character and good translation of film titles plays a key role in attracting audience. Through analyzing many translated titles, the author found some classical ones. However, not all the translated titles are satisfying. There are some inappropriate ones, which are only made with the purpose of pursuing the success in business. Therefore, there are also some translations, which have nothing in common with the original English ones. So, in order to avoid these mistakes, translator should pay close attention to the basic principles and methods of film title translation. The basic principles of film title translation not only provide a theoretical ground for the dynamic process of translation of movie titles, but also serve as a guidance for standardizing such kind of translation. What is more, with the guidance of equivalent translation theory, through devices such as literal translation, transliteration, and free translation, it is possible to ensure that the translated Chinese-English film titles can produce equivalent effects on target audience.
Key words: film title translation principles methods
摘要
摘要：电影是一种人民喜闻乐见的艺术形式，这一点已得到公认。目前,电影越来越表现出国际化的趋势,而电影片名的翻译是电影国际化的点睛之笔。电影片名的翻译有自身的特点，其翻译质量的好坏将直接影响到能否吸引译入语观众。由于各民族间文化和审美之间存在差异,对外来电影片名的翻译很难把握。本研究通过对大量实例的分析发现，虽然片名的翻译中不乏经典之作，但并不是所有的电影片名翻译都让人满意。有些电影一味追求商业效果而使片名哗众取宠，有些翻译的片名与电影内容大相径庭。因此，在电影片名的翻译中应该注意翻译原则和方法。电影片名翻译的四大原则不仅为片名翻译的动态性过程提供了理论依据，同时对规范电影片名的翻译起到了引导作用。而且，只有在翻译理论的指导下，灵活运用直译，音译，意译等多种手段，才能保证英语电影译名在译入语观众中产生和在原语观众中相似的效果。
关键词：电影片名翻译 翻译原则 手段
Contents
Abstract----------------------------------------------------------------------------------ⅱ
摘要---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ⅲ
Introduction------------------------------------------------------------------------------1
PartⅠ Review of Related Translation Theory -----------------------------------1
1.1 The basic principles of film title translation--------------------------------------2
1.2 The basic methods of translation---------------------------------------------------3
Part Ⅱ The translation of film titles------------------------------------------------4
2.1 The translation of person and place names----------------------------------------4
2.2 The translation of other types of films---------------------------------------------4
2.2.1 Literal translation-------------------------------------------------------------------5
2.2.2 Free translation----------------------------------------------------------------------6
2.2.3 The synthesis of transliteration and free translation----------------------------7
Part Ⅲ Case Analysis------------------------------------------------------------------7
3.1 美国丽人vs. 美国红蔷薇----------------------- ----------------------------------8
3.2我知道你是谁vs. 有种来抓我----------------------------------------=-----------8
3.3 洛丽塔vs. 一树梨花压海棠-------------------------------------------------------9
3.4后天vs. 末日浩劫------------------------------------------------------------------10
Conclusion--------------------------------------------------------------------------------10
Bibiography------------------------------------------------------------------------------12
Appendix----------------------------------------------------------------------------------13
Introduction
This is a study of the problems in translating the titles of English films into Chinese. This kind of translation is an interesting topic, and it is also an important one. It is interesting because it involves the elements of history, art, culture, nature and literature, which never cease to amuse audiences. Its importance is due to the fact that the successful translation of film titles determines whether certain movies can be successful or not in the market of China, especially at period of time when the English films are flooding. This thesis will focus on the translation of English films’ titles, categorizing a number of collected translated terms on the basis of the translating methods translators use and judging the translations based on the rules of culture. It can be seen that the translation of English films into Chinese deploys mainly four translating methods：(1) literal translation; (2) free translation; (3) transliteration; (4) the synthesis of transliteration and literal translation. However, several cases discussed in this paper don’t fall into any categories listed above, and a further study and analysis are devoted to them. As we know, there are many differences existing between China and English speaking countries in terms of history, culture and language. We lack both translators who know languages as well as cultures well enough, and theoretical guidelines of translation. Therefore, more efforts are required in this field.
PartⅠ Review of Related Translation Theory
As a new thing in the last century, the development of film factory is amazing. Both in China and other countries, there are many classic works, which are already part of valuable culture. Films have been a new bridge of countries. They can present the history, nature and literature in a direct way. No matter whether it is a Chinese film or an English film, translation is needed if the film is going abroad. Therefore, the translation of film title is the key point in this field.
The film title is the summarization of scenario and thoughts of one film in a few words. The title must be concinnity, dramatic, meaningful and accepted by different kinds of audience. The good examples in this field, such as Waterloo Bridge, Gone with the Wind, and Top Gun, make great contribution to their successful releasing of the films in China. Another case in point is the American film The Matrix. Originally, “Matrix” is a professional word of calculating machine, which makes audience puzzled. The Chinese translation of this title is “黑客帝国”. It not only tells people the film is a science fiction, but also arouses audience great interest. In fact, for the audience, the title is the first sight of the film and it makes a lot of sense.
1.1 The basic principles of film title translation
In order to provide us with a good basis for observation and discussion, it is necessary to clarify some basic ideas about film title translation. Although the film title translation is one of the important parts in the development of film, in fact there are few determinate rules and theory about it (Ruan＆Li,2006). The problem will be discussed in details in the following paragraphs.
As Susan Bassnett puts it, “The purpose of translation theory, then, is to reach an understanding of the process undertaken in the act of translation and, not, as is so commonly misunderstood, to provide a set norms for effecting the perfect translation.” (Susan Bassnett，2005) To better perform the job of film title translating, there are several fundamental principles of translation for translators to follow.
First, the translator should understand perfectly the importance of the culture. Each person has his own way of expressing ideas, and there are also phrases, idioms and names, with particular meaning. It is really important because if the translator does not understand and use them correctly, his translation will be misunderstood by people. There was a famous American film Seven in 1995. “七宗罪” is the final Chinese title for it, because the film tells us a story about a crazy guy. He thought he was the God and killed person who made mistakes concerning gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy and wrath. Based on the plot, the translation of “七宗罪” is much better than a simple character “七”.
Second, the translator should make connections between language and the story in the film. This is called the rule of information. At this point the translator must have an appropriate word to sum up the plot of the film to making the audience clearly understand about the film. In fact, this is a hard job, especially when there are parallels between the films. For example, the films acted by Arnold Schwarzenegger are translated as the family of “魔鬼”，no matter what they are about. Some of the family members are Terminator (魔鬼终结者), Kindergarten Cop (魔鬼孩子王)， Eraser(魔鬼毁灭者)， Total Recall(魔鬼总动员). This series of titles greatly lack the information of films, which give the impression that all of these films have the same story.
Third, the translator should pay attention to the aesthetics in title translation. Different countries have disparate definitions of aesthetics. For Chinese, we purse symmetry and rhyme, adore the four-word structure for the film title and sometimes even have recourse to rhetoric. However, English countries prefer the terse ones. We can see it form the film titles. There are many English films’ titles only have one word, such as, Fugitive, Patton, Eraser, Happiness, Bounce and Beautiful. In China ,the names are translated as “亡命天涯”, “巴顿将军”, “蒸发密令”, “童年往事”, “机票情缘” and “美若天仙”. Another way to get the aesthetics in title translation is rhetoric. In this way, we get many good ones, the Chinese name for Gaslight, the Great Gatsby，Old Wives for New and Love Me Tenderly are “郎心如铁”、“大亨小传”、“旧宠新欢” and “铁汉柔肠”. The aesthetics plays an important role here. Chinese people are familiar with this kind of titles and they will be more willing to watch the movie.
Forth, the translator should know that the success in business is the final goal for the title translation. A good title may arouse people’s interest at their first sight and make them pay for the film. If the title makes people think that the movie has a boring plot, the film will fail. Due to this principle, the Chinese name of The Rock becomes “勇闯夺命岛”. The suspension in the title makes it novel and brings about the success of tickets selling. Examples of this kind vary , such as It Happens One Night (一夜风流), Sister Act(修女也疯狂) and The Net(网络惊魂).
1.2 The basic methods of translation
Without any doubt, the methods of translation are major issues when we are dealing with translation. So far, there are four major basic translating methods in film title translation, and they are transliteration literal translation, free translation as well as the synthesis of literal translation and free translation.
The first method is transliteration. Transliteration refers to the process by which one reads and pronounces the words and sentences of one language using the letters and special symbols of another language. Thus transliteration is meant to preserve the sounds of the syllables in words.
The second method is literal translation. Literal translation refers to translating a sentence literally, keeping the original message form, including construction of sentence, meaning of the original words, metaphor of the original and so on. Literal translation works when equivalence can be found among the language as well as the target language in terms of forms and contents, at the same time, the cultural information can be preserved.
Another way to translate the film title is free translation. Free translation refers to, according to the meaning of the original, without paying attention to the details and the translation would also be fluent and natural. In free translation, in order to preserve the contents, the literal meaning of the source language would be given up because of certain social and cultural limitations.
The last way combined the above-mentioned two ways. The synthesis of transliteration and literal translation is being used in phrases or sentences that, partly, can use transliteration while the other is confined to free translation.
Part Ⅱ The translation of film titles
After reviewing the methods used in film title translation, it is necessary to analyze the cases. Generally speaking, the translation of film title can be divided into two categories: the first one is the translation of person and place names, which usually adopts the method of transliteration; while the second one is the translation of other types of films, which involves much more complicated translating methods. A great number of examples will be analyzed to explain the theoretic above.
2.1 The translation of person and place names
As a part of film title translation, the translation of person or place name adopts transliteration, which preserves the sounds of the syllables. The application of transliteration requires veracity, standardization as well as special consideration to traditional translated term. In other words, transliteration requires rigidly abiding the standardized pronunciation rules of the source language and the target language. The films named by person or place take a large part in English films. Transliteration is the best way when the person or place name is famous and known by most public. Usually, there is no right word matching the name of a person or a place in the language into which the translator is translating.
Among the collected translated terms of transliteration, Titanic must be the most famous one. As the name of a boat, there is no real meaning for the word “Titanic”, so the smartest way is to translate by means of transliteration. The same reason goes well in the case of Harry Porter, Casablanca and Sahara.
2.2 The translation of other types of films
The first type of films is easy to deal with. However, comparing to person and place name translation, other translations of film titles do not adopt the method of transliteration; instead, they usually employ literal translation, free translation or the synthesis of literal translation and free translation. The reason leading to the difference is that, to a film’s title, the basic principles play key role in the translation. Therefore, transliteration can make the translated term of a person or place name simpler and easier to memorize. However, to other types of titles, we need to know not only their pronunciation but also their meaning. Sometimes, the names of some titles have certain historical or cultural implications; hence, the translation of those types is much more complicated.
2.2.1 Literal translation
Translation should be fluent and easy to comprehend by target language readers. Generally speaking, a minority of film title translations employ literal translation. Compared with other methods, it is an easy and intelligent method because this kind of translation keeps the style of the film. So literal translation is the first choice when equivalence can be found between the source language and the target language in terms of forms and contents. In this way, the cultural information in the film title can be preserved.
However, literal translation makes the translated film title confusing sometimes. There are some bad examples in this field. The film The Duke is translated as “公爵” at first. But the film is about a dog which gets a large heritage. The title “亿万神犬” is a much better choice than “公爵” for this film. Another example is The Third Man. If it is translated by the way of Literal translation, the Chinese title for it should be “第三者”. Therefore, the third man here means the third witness of a traffic accident, not a mistress. But Chinese will lose interest in it because they think it is a film which talks bout family life. Later, the film has a new name, “黑域亡魂”. This one is perfect because the film tells us a series of mysterious incidents while someone is looking for the truth of another’s death.
Because of the difference of modality between two languages, the sequence and structure should be changed in order to help the audience comprehend the meaning of the title, such as the film Man in Black. The Chinese title is “黑衣人”, instead of “男人穿着黑色”.
2.2.2 Free translation
The theory of free translation has been discussed before. Free translation refers to stressing the meaning of the original title without paying attention to the details, and translation will also be fluent and natural. Free translation need not pay attention to the form of the original, including construction of the original sentences, meaning of the original works, and metaphor of the original and so on. But free translation does not mean to delete or add content to the original and translators must consider the original carefully, know its stress, translate it naturally, and express the meaning of the original. Free translation is a skill which means translators must be aware of the culture of both source language and target language, and must be learned and knowledgeable.
The free translations of film title could be further divided into several categories, in accordance with the translating methods they employ, among which deviated translation and creative translation are two most frequently deployed methods.
Translators will consider about deviated translation when the film’s English title contain some particular culture features or metaphors, such as place and persons’ names, which may not be comprehensible by Chinese. Deviated translation will keep the style of the English title but add or reduce some information in the translated title. Forrest Gump is a good case in point. Its Chinese name is “阿甘正传”. The Translator keeps the last part of the title and adds Chinese culture in the translation. It will remind Chinese of <<阿Q正传>>( the masterpiece of Lu Xun). Both of the two stories tell us an unusual era from the eyes of a person. Both heroes are asinine and many historical events happen in their ages. Although “阿甘正传” has no relation with <<阿Q正传>>, the title makes audiences interested in the movie because the latter one is classical and known by almost everyone in China.
Translators will consider about creative translation when the film English title is unacceptable for Chinese because of the culture gap between two different countries. Creative translation should observe culture rules. Many foreigners are familiar with Bourne, who is a famous character in Robert Ludlum’s book, but few Chinese have heard about it before. Bourne is a mysterious hero, dealing with espionage, so The Bourne Identity is translated as “谍影重重” rather than “伯恩的身份”. Kate ＆Leopold is another film that should be creative translated. The movie is about a romantic love story and the distinguished plot is that the hero and the heroine are in different times. Kate is a successful modern woman, living in the 21th century, while Leopold is a charming duke, living in the 19th century. Both of them live in New York and they fall in love with each other. However, there are many conflicts between them, in case of life style, the way of thinking, and so on. The Chinese title “隔世情缘” expresses the exact meaning of the film. If the translator simply translated these two English names into Chinese and use them as a title, it will leave no impression.
In the wok of translation, the culture gap is too critical to be ignored. However, some English film titles can find perfect Chinese idiom for them. For example,“女大不中留” is the Chinese name for the film Hobson’ s Choice. There seems to be no relation between the two titles. Actually, it was mistakenly translated as “霍布逊的选择” and “无可选择”. The latter is much better than the former ,but still not the best choice compared with “女大不中留”. Hobson is the boss of a shoe shop and he is unwilling that his three daughters will marry to the shoe shop workers. At last, he has to accept the fact because of the insistence his daughters. The same thing happens in China, parents get angry about daughter’s marriage but finally, they can do nothing but bless her. So the Chinese idiom “女大不中留” perfectly suits this English film.
2.2.3 The synthesis of transliteration and free translation
From what we have talked about, a film named by place or person’s name is usually translated by the way of transliteration. While, sometimes it does not work that well when the name is not that famous and familiar by audiences. So, in order to make audience more clear about the film, translators choose the methods of transliteration and free translation for one title. Here is an example, Patton. Patton is one of famous hero in American history. It has no wrong for the film named by him as for the audiences in American know him well. However, the thing is different in China. Most Chinese have not heard of him before, so it is considerable to translated as “巴顿将军”. The character of “将军” makes audiences know the identity of this person. Another example is Bambi. If it is translated simply as “班比” ,there must be few people know that Bambi is a deer, not a person. So the better title for it should be “小鹿班比”.
Part Ⅲ Case Analysis
In this part, I would like to compare some cases of translation, showing the difference between two transplanted titles, which are for the same English film. Usually, they are translated by different methods. Some of them are terrific, some are mediocre and some are even wrong. We can learn the point that there are four methods of film title translation and four basic principles which should be considered. The method the translator choose and the word he picks can change the meaning totally.
3.1 美国丽人vs. 美国红蔷薇
Even though most of us are quite familiar with the Chinese translated term “美国丽人” as the title of American Beauty, it is not strange that some of us know that it is a completely wrong translation. Then, the question arises that how the translation comes about.
American beauty won the Oscar in 2000 and it is hard for Chinese to understand what the life in the film is about because most of us have not been to The USA. It is really ridiculous to choose literal translation for it because American beauty is a word here. It means a kind of flower, which shows up many times in the hero’s fantasy, even on the poster of the film. This flower is the symbol of America middle class because it is elegant, vivid but decadent. The man in the film is a member of middle class and he is going through the confused age of his life. Neither Family nor career goes well. According to Chinese ordinary opinion, “美国丽人” should be a story somewhat like talking about a beautiful American girl. The American culture signification is not expressed by the title at all. In Taiwan, the name for it is “美国心,玫瑰情”, which is better than “美国丽人”. In my opinion, the right one for it should be “美国红蔷薇”.
The example above reveals a problem existing in current film title translation. As we have mentioned before, one of the major rule of film title translation is delivering information. No matter which method translators choose, they should hew to it. A good title could tell people the main idea of the film, while a bad one could make people confused, and a wrong one will even be a blemish to the film.
3.2 我知道你是谁vs. 有种来抓我
Both of the titles are for the same English film, Catch Me If You Can. It is about a 17-year old boy, who is a swindler. He pretends to be doctor, professor, public prosecutor and so on, swindle a large sum of money from people around him. At that time, he is the NO. 1 on the list of the FBI, meanwhile, he is the youngest one in the FBI history. In order to catch him, the FBI members try their best and fail one by one. It is somewhat like “cats ＆ rats” in the real life. To everyone’s surprise, the Chinese name for it is “我知道你是谁”. Some audiences jeer at the title after they finish watching. They say that it should be “我不知道你是谁”. The better one for it should be “猫鼠游戏” or “有种来抓我”.
The rule of business success works greatly in this case. The business success is the final goal for the title translation. “我知道你是谁” does not make any sense here and actually, the FBI hardly know who he is. If the title is “有种来抓我”, everything would be changed. Chinese people admire the hero who is brave enough to resist the police and the government. People will have great interest in the film because they get the hint from the title that it will be a drastic story. Then, the success of business comes form the first step.
3.3 洛丽塔vs. 一树梨花压海棠
Lolita is written by American writer Vladimir Nabokov and there are two films produced. The first one is turned into 洛丽塔in the way of transliteration, while the second one is changed as “一树梨花压海棠”. The reason for the change is due to the culture rule. The new title comes from the poem of SuShi. The poem was made by him to jest with an old friend, who is eighty and marries an eighteen-year-old girl. The whole poem is here.
十八新娘八十郎,
苍苍白发对红妆。
鸳鸯被里成双夜,
一树梨花压海棠。
Later, the last sentence becomes Chinese idiom for old-young love. The words “梨花” and “海棠” have special meaning in Chinese culture. “梨花” stands for the white hair, which the old man has, and “海棠” is a good comparison for the young girl because both of them are beautiful and attractive. Actually, the film Lolita tells the exactly same story in the poem. An old professor madly falls in love with a twelve-year-old girl. The translator will find no more appropriate translation than “一树梨花压海棠” for it. This is one of the best translated film titles I have seen as for the latter is a good example for the four basic principles.
We can learn from the Case that culture rule gives high standard to the film title translators. They should have a perfect knowledge of the culture from which he is translating and an equally excellent knowledge of the culture into which he is translating. At this point the translator must have a rich knowledge in both languages to find an equivalent in the target language, because the deficiency of the knowledge of both cultures will result in a translation without logic and sense.
3.4后天vs. 末日浩劫
The American film The Day After Tomorrow makes a big success in China because of the shock it gives to the audience, so Chinese accept the translated name “后天”. The film talks about a disastrous story. The whole earth, including New York, The USA and Europe, is inundated by the flood. And soon, the earth is covered by snow and ice. The earth goes back to the Ice Age again. In view of the plot, the title of The Day After Tomorrow means “where are we the day after tomorrow?” not just a simple time line. The deep meaning in the title will make audience think about the questions of environment, peace and life. However, the Chinese name “后天” is totally without the meaning of that. The words of “末日浩劫” have the warning of the disaster, which can not be seen in the title of “后天”.
The title translation of The Day After Tomorrow has more than one problem. One of them is the rule of aesthetics. “末日浩劫” can give people a feeling of tension and a impression of exigency.
Conclusion
As we can see from the above, the translation of film titles is a sophisticated part of translation in practice, because there has few authoritative theories concerning certain topics. The four translating methods discussed in Part Two are frequently used in the translation of English films’ names into Chinese. They are literal translation, free translation, transliteration as well as the synthesis of transliteration and free translation. All of them play the important part in it.
Generally speaking, a majority of English films named by means of place and people adopt the way of transliteration. Therefore, some well-known films are popular among the general public while some are not that unforgettable. Here, the synthesis of transliteration and free translation is another method when there is no right word matching the name of a person or a place in the language into which the translator is translating.
Among the four methods, literal translation is one of the most frequently used translating method since it reveals the meaning of the Chinese characters and can easily reach the goal of culture awareness. Cultural difference is a big problem when translators are coping with Literal translation because sometimes one word has more than one meaning in the source language. For example, the Chinese name for Shanghai Noon is “上海正午”. It is a mistake because the word “Shanghai” in English has another meaning except the city itself in China. It means “trap” here but unfortunately, the translator misses it. The title of Shanghai Noon means a noon that is unusual. The translated one has nothing in common with the original meaning.
Meanwhile, the collected translated terms belonging to free translation can be further divided into two subcategories: the one done by deviated translation, e.g. Top Gun is translated into “壮志凌云”; the other conducted by creative translation, for example, speed is translated into “生死时速”.
To sum up, one of the important purposes of English-Chinese Translation of film titles is to introduce culture outside world to Chinese. Although these film titles are easy to memorize, most of the methods of transliteration as well as synthesis of transliteration and free translation could not fully express the implications beyond the Chinese characters, that is, the superficial meaning. Therefore, further studies in terms of translation of the English film titles will be of great necessity. The reason is, most of the English films’ name’s mean far more than the words themselves, so it’s natural that translators take literal and free translating method as the priority, which also explains why the literal and free translations play a dominant role. As the famous American translator E.A. Nida said, “Translation means translating meaning”. ( E.A. Nida,1964) Of course, literal and free translations have their drawbacks as well. Comparing to transliteration, they are less memorable. In a word, good translation work requires not only a good knowledge of both the source language/culture and target language/culture, but also asks translators to pay attention to the method and principles.
Bibiography
Ruan, H ＆ Li, N. 2006. Cultural Adaptation in Translation of Movie Names (In Chinese). Beijing / (阮红梅，李娜，《电影片名翻译的文化适应》，中国青年政治学院学报，2006年第4期)
Susan B. Translation Studies, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2005. pp42-43.
Nida, E. A. Language and culture: context in translating, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2001.
Malcolm Willianms. Translation Quality Assessment: An Argumentation-Centered Approach. First Edition. Ottawa, Cananda. University of Ottawa Press. 2004. p70.