论欧美电影片名的翻译

论西方电影片名的翻译

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 everyone 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 isn‟t a process to change one language to the other. Foreign audiences are more often than not to comprehend the original film titles. The Chine se audiences wouldn‟t arouse sympathy when they see the original film titles. The author analyzes that people shouldn‟t 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 difference

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；文化差异

目录

1. Introduction 1

2. Features of film titles 1

2.1Art feature 1

2.2 Economic feature 1

2.3 Social feature 2

3. Approaches of the translation of film titles 2

3.1 Literal Translation 2

3.2 Free Translation 3

4. Conclusion 3 参考文献4

1.Introduction

A 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 should n‟t forget it after seeing it. 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. Simply out, they operate in different socio-cultural contexts. 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 can‟t 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 Ba i Juyi‟s (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 people‟s eyes. The translations of film titles are often put on the leading places of the bills to attract people‟s 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. There comes forth a great many films on the market. Just for the sake of high benefits from their investment, they didn‟t care much about the translation of the film titles, which led them far from the original film titles. And in the field of western film industry, people