Analysis on the Translation of Lines in English Movies 第7页
3.2.2 Focus on Source Culture
Also, this point can be best grasped by the vivid examples as follows.
Example ﹙4﹚
The line is from a once-popular movie.
Cynthia: We've checked you out. Timmy, juvenile offender record as long as Constitution Avenue.
辛茜亚: 我们查过了，蒂米，你的犯罪记录有厚厚一大迭。
Here “Constitution Avenue” refers to an avenue in Washington. If we made our choice of a word-for-word translation, that would be indigestible to the audience without English-learning background. So the translation above is faire enough.
Example ﹙5﹚
At the beginning of English film Ghost, there is a piece of off-screen voice as follows
Announcer’s Voice: At eleven-fifteen this morning the Prime Minister, speaking to the nation from Number Ten Downing Street, announced that Great Britain is at war with Germany.
﹙Ghost﹚
广播员:今天上午11 点15 分,首相在唐宁街10 号向全国发表了讲话,宣布英国与德国处于交战状态。
There is no doubt the translation above is loyal to the literary meaning of the lines. But the average Chinese audience may be confused by Number Ten Downing Street --- a hidden cultural image. Without certain explanation, the general viewers not only get no idea about Number Ten Downing Street, but also would be unknown the significance of referring this place by the announcer here. Therefore, I individually am inclined to translate it as the following, for the cultural image was fully presented in front of the target audience and meanwhile grasped by the target audience.
Etc.今天上午11 点15 分,首相在唐宁街10 号——英国首相府邸向全国发表了讲话,宣布英国与德国处于交战状态。
To summarize, when meeting cultural elements during film translation, the translation should use cultural substitution by replacing a culture-specific item or expression with a target-language item which does not have the same prepositional meaning but is likely to have the same impact on the target reader. Thu s function equivalence is reached by free translation (Nida and Taber, 1969: 31). In other words, film translation should be directed to the target audience. The translator deals with film language just according to the background of the target audience.
However, the obvious downsides of subtitling are the enormous shortcuts made in the process. Some researchers counted that as much as half of the original dialogue is lost due to the spatial constraints. The translator not only translates but also determines which fragments to omit, which of them are irrelevant, and which are vital to the target audience. In an attempt to convey 'the core' of the script, translators often forget that it is not only the dialogues from the main plot that constitute the substance of a film. Other factors, such as various dialects, idiolects, register or expressions of politeness, which frequently undergo reduction, can be equally important in the full comprehension of a particular work. Consequently, "the minor subtractions that litter these scenes may not seem significant in terms of the general understanding, but during the course of a whole film they add up to a large number of drastically altered meanings" (Mera, 1999: 78).
Ⅳ Conclusion
The discussion concerning the aspects above aims to combine the general translation techniques with the particularities of film translation. As analyzed in the former part of the paper, the principle of Faithfulness can be understood as movie-oriented in the film translation, while the second one as audience-oriented, and the last as art-oriented. Frankly speaking, the following analysis of the two distinctive features of lines’ translation in the paper is just under the requirements of the three golden principles in the field of translation. We may safely come to conclude that the three above-discussed aspects of film translation are much close to each other. They are mutually interacted, for three respects are just three parts under the same objective concerning the film translation. The principle is regarded as a general guidance, while the language characteristics and cultural value are the tools to make the guidance specific. As a result, no one, among the three, is affordable for the translators to ignore. This is also a great challenge for them to choose faithful, expressive and elegant words to ensure theme and beauty of the original works, and at the same time, pay enough attention to clean off the obstacles in perception of language characteristics and cultural diversity of lines in English movies for the audience.
To weigh up, someone prefers to call the lines’ translation “dancing with the bonds” (Lu，2002:84-88). That is a vivid but amazing metaphor since it is true that there are too many limits and requirement in this area. However, more practice, deeper understanding and proper combination of the three discussed aspects will witness our ultimate success in reliving dialogues-soul of a film, prove our ability to bring in more excellent foreign films as well as attract more academic attention on the further research in this area.
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