关于中英电影片名翻译的研究

The Study of Movie Titles’ Translation between

Chinese and English: Principles and Methods

Dong Huanhuan

Class 3, Grade 2009, School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Chongqing Normal University

Abstract: Many people have done many researches about the culture of the movies, but only a few researches are about movie titles. This paper discusses how to translate movie titles appropriately from what kind of principle people should obey and which method people should select.

Key Words: movie title; translation;principles; methods

1Introduction

Movie, as a kind of important cultural media, is an important way to spread their own native culture, and its title which decides its box office is the key part of it. Therefore, a good movie should have a good title. However, how to translate movie titles perfectly has been discussed for a long time, since during the process of translating, the translation can vary from one person to another, due to translators’ different thoughts, experience and knowledge.

In fact, the translation of the movie titles is a branch of literary translation. So, it has something in common with literary translation. That is they are both required to achieve the three principles: faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance (Xu Jianguo, 2008: 11). But unlike literary translation, the translation of movie titles is a vocal art, which should be real-time and oral. Therefore, in order to show people how to translate movie titles, this paper is going to discuss the translation of movie titles between Chinese and English from the following aspects: the characteristics of movie titles, and the principles and methods of movie titles’translation.

2The characteristics of movie titles

2.1 The characteristics of Chinese movie titles

2.1.1 Lead by the leading actor’s name

Many Chinese movies will name after the leading actor’s name of the movie, which is brief but clear. Such as “花木兰”(Mulan)，“叶问”(Yip Man) and a very famous one “梁山伯与祝英台”(The Butterfly Lovers)which was called the Chinese version of ROMEO and JULIET(罗密欧与朱丽叶).

2.1.2 Lead by verb

Chinese emphasize people’s ability of doing, while English emphasize people’s ability of thinking. So, Chinese get used to using verb instead of noun which is not the same active in English as in Chinese, for verb and its phrases make the movie title impressible, which can attract audiences’ attention. So, there are many famous movies that name after verb,Such as “卧虎藏龙”(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)，“十面埋伏”(House of Flying Daggers) and so on.

2.1.3 Lead by concise and comprehensive words

Chinese movie titles are concise and comprehensive, while English movie titles are brief and direct. It shows a different aesthetic mentality in different culture. As we all know, Chinese is a tonetic language, people in this country get used to using tune to show the beauty of rhythm, and express their exquisite and abundant feelings. Chinese are always dainty about harmony, the beauty of rhythm and diction. Moreover, Chinese language has many four-word phrases which are very similar to idioms. Those phrases, are always produced by people according to meaning, and can be understood by its literal meaning. Such as“天下无贼”(A World without Thieves),“花样年华”(In the Mood for Love),and“非诚勿扰”(If You Are the One).