Abstract:Film translation has an important effect on the development of movie industry, which has not got enough attention and is almost neglected by translation rearchers. In order to attract people’s attention to discuss the importance of film translation from the perspective of cultural image transmission, the paper is divided into five parts: Part one is introduction, illustrating the purpo of the paper and three important concepts in the paper. Following the introduction comes three important parts: reconstruction, modification and transformation of cultural images, which constitute the main body of the paper.
Key words: film translation, cultural images, reconstruction, modification, transformation
On the Cultural Image Transmission in
English Movie Translation
英语电影翻译中的文化意象转换
1. Introduction
1.1 Purpo of the Prent Study
Film translation is an emerging translation domain. In our country, large-scale film translation has developed more than 50 brilliant years since China’s reform and opening-up at the end of 1980s(Qian, 1). In this half-century, movie translators have offered many outstanding translated movies to the mass audience. The audience has not only appreciated the foreign landscape and social customs from the outstanding translated movies but also felt the charm of the language. Splendid dialogues in many outstanding translated movies have become popular with Chine audience, such as “Bread will be ready, everything will be available”,（Former Soviet Union movie "Lenin in 1918"）which had inspired Chine audience for veral generations. As a social medium, the social effect of movies cannot be easily estimated. But in academic circles, as a result of the influence of common prejudice, movie translation rearch has not got enough attention, and this domain is almost neglected completely by the translation rearchers for quite a long time. In our country the renowned scholar on film translation Professor Qian Shao-chang (1) wrote an article to point out that: The emphasis on film translation is inferior to the literature translation, which is not symmetric with the social function of the film translation. This phenomenon should arou people’s attentio n, especially tho working in the field of translation. Movie is bound to be an important human culture carrier and a main cultural exchanging way from its birth. Opening China gains great achievement in the foreign cultural exchange domain. The import of various foreign films has enorm
ously enriched people's spare time. Meanwhile, the film translation has become important gradually. But it is a pity that little rearch is made on film translation by domestic translators, and few discussions of film translation strategies come up from overall skeleton of translation theory. Hence the graduation thesis focusing on the discussion of reconstruction, modification and transformation of cultural images conveyed in film translation from the linguistic perspective.
1.2 Basic Concepts in the Thesis—Language, Culture and Cultural image
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols ud for human communication. It is not only a tool which express and communicates the human thoughts and feelings, but also a cultural constituent and carrier (Dai & He, 10). Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually ud oral-auditory arbitrary symbols (Ibid., 9).” Language can clearly
reflect a country, a nationality's ecological region, political economy, material culture, religious belief, manners and customs and so on. Different languages decide different thinking modes, behavioral ways and expressing methods. Language is an indispensable part in sound films, becau the visual and auditory artistic methods of synchronization of sound and picture can simulate reality at most, an
d create an artistic space and time, which remble the reality. Like tho films which are extremely familiar to Chine audience,The Bridges of Madison County，Waterloo Bridge，Jurassic Park, Bat Man , Gone with the Wind ,E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,The Silence of the Lambs,Rebel Without a Cau, Forrest Gump, Jaws,The Graduate, Schindler's List, The Wizard of Oz, Bonne and Clyde, The Godfather I, The Godfather II, Fantasia, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, The French Connection and so on, of which the language translated with alien customs is exquisite, unique, clear, bright, and vividly filling with the touch of life. Thus the splendid dialogues are worth hearing a hundre d times, and can’t be dismisd out of mind for a very long time. They leave audience endless enjoyment.
What is culture? Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achie vement of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the esntial core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and lected) ideas and especially their attached values. Cultural systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand, as conditioning elements of future action. We define culture in terms of “the artistic and social pursuits, expressions and tastes valued by a society or class ”(David Katan, 16)
What is culture like? Culture is like an iceberg. It’s very beautiful but very dangerous. Only a small part of culture is visible. For instance, food, dress, painting, architecture, and dance, etc are apparent to the eyes. But a greater part of culture is hidden under the water, such as views, attitudes, preferences, love, customs and habits, and so on. They are out of our awareness. This makes the study of movie translation difficult (Dou, 91).
It is generally held that there is a clo relationship between language and culture. It is impossible to understand a culture without taking into account its language; and it is equally impossible to understand a language outside of its cultural context, becau language is not neutral codes and grammatical rules. Each time we lect words, from ntences, and a message, either oral or written, we also make cultural choices. If we are to communicate successfully across cultures, we must recognize the power of language. We all agree that language helps in communication with people from different backgrounds. However, we may be less aware that cultural literacy is necessary in order to understand the language being ud. If we lect language without being aware of the cultural implications, we may at best not communicate well and at worst nd the wrong message (Ibid., 90)
Cultural image means “a system of cultural marks, and it has a relatively fixed unique cultural meani
ng, some of which also has rich significance and profound association, and people will easily interchange their thoughts when mentio ned” (Mu, 46). Physical image and connotation are two important constituents of cultural image.
The physical image is the carrier of information significance, and the fact to form image. The connotation is the amplifying meaning of the physical image in a certain language environment. The function of image is that, in different linguistic environments, displaying the abstract by concrete, enlightening the unknown or the difficult knowledge by known or easier one. For example an English proverb goes like thi s: "It is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back". It means “骆驼负载过重时，再加上一根稻草也会把它压死”①. The image in this proverb “the last straw” means the very light extra weight, vividly expressing that people’s endurance has a critical point. This cultural image is familiar to different people from different cultures; therefore it has no barrier for understanding. But some special cultural images have unique implied meanings that are very difficult to understand due to different cultural background. Movie translation will inevitably involve reconstruction, modification and transformation of cultural images, according to specific situations. 2．Reconstruction of Cultural Image
The dubbed movie is also called the translated movie. Some overas outstanding movies can only
be accepted and appreciated by Chine audience through translation. Movie translation has something in common with other literary translation works, namely expressing the excellent artistic ideal conditions in images with the visualized language. But the movie translation is also different from other translations, namely, its translation must be en in the article, shaped in sound, understood by the audience.
A famous translation theorist Nida pointed out that translating consists in reproducing in the language receptor the clost natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and cond in terms of style（Nida & Taber, 12）.
Chine and English belong to two big different language families. It is not easy for the film translation workers to convert the two kinds of different language families. The movie translator has to unify each kind of knowledge, mostly manifest the flavor of the prototype.
For example, there is an American campus life film called Mr. Holland’s Opus, who first translation was"《贺兰先生的作品》" (Zhang, 5）.The movie narrates a story of an ordinary music teacher Holland who has conscientiously been working on the teaching post for 30 years. Though he "is not rich, and is not famous either, his achievement has surpasd both of them”. All students are under
his influence in school. He is the director of the symphony orchestra and everyo ne becomes his note and his opus. Although the translation unmistakably translates out the English original intention and threads up the plot, it has not a deeper implication. If the audience only looks at the film title, they will not be allured to come into the cinema. Now another version of translation "《春风化雨》", is of a deeper and more profound significance than the original, demonstrating an extraordinary story which ems ordinary, and making the audience realize the unnoticeable but strong influence o f education and personal charm of a teacher. The interesting part of the translated name is that it has a
①XiaoMa，英语口语8000句--(12)商谈, /3484732.html, 2005.11.10.
profound massage with a special cultural image, giving the audience a happy association. "《春风化雨》" refers to the gentle wind and rain which are favourable to vegetation, commonly ud in analogy to the effect of education. Seeing that name, the Chine audience could easily associate it with the classical famous poetry phra "Run to be thin silently", and "the gardener", and thus has a rious respect for the teacher. At the same time, a wonderful translated name also looks like a piece of artistic goods with beauty to people, thus successfully reconstructs a new cultural image which is familiar, understandable and acceptable to the general Chine audience.
The translation technique of reconstruction of cultural image is frequently ud in the movie translation.
Like the movie Erin the Brockvich with the leading role of Hollywood movie star Julia Roberts in 2000, it was translated into "《永不妥协》", which is a thought-provoking translation. The leading character Erin is rigid and never compromis, which has made a deep impression on the audience. If the translator straightly translated it according to the wording of the film title " 《艾琳·布罗克维奇》" , that name was not suitable to our audience's appreciation custom, which is difficult to remember and lacks artistic power.
Like movie They, for the Chine audience the original film title is not attractive at all, and even is bewildering. And the translated name "《噩梦缠身》" is better than “They” in artistic and market respons.
And the movie Bat Man is translated into “《蝙蝠侠》”, which makes perfect u of the narration in a matter-of-fact manner. The original title is not translated into “《蝙蝠人》”becau it fails to ref lect the protagonist heroic spirit.“侠”, a Chine cultural image , means a hero, brave, courageous and unconquerable and is ready to help tho needed. Therefore, this cultural image mirrors the heroic b
ehavior of the protagonist in the movie on the one hand, and completely echoes the image in the heart of Chine audience on the other.
The movie Welcome to the Suck is translate into “《锅盖头》”with a good u of cultural image. The sardonic film depicts the Iraqi war from the perspective of soldiers rather than from the perspective of politics directly.If the translator straightly translated it according to the wording of the film title, it should be《欢迎卷入》, which makes no n to the audience.“锅盖头”means the special hairstyle worn by the soldiers, embodying the war and catching the theme of the movie .
Another example,the outline of the film Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit is that she brings the gift of laughter, that get everybody’s favorite fake nun back in the nun’s team. Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit is translated into《修女也疯狂2》instead of the literal translation of the original title. The title“修女也疯狂” conveys that the nun also goes crazy, which is a vivid description of emingly crazy, but freedom-pursuing nuns’ actions. It transmits a strong visual impact before our eyes. The comic plots, together with the impressive title, will lock the movie in our mind.
If the film “The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King” is translated into “王者归来” from its literal meaning, it cannot offer people a complete understanding of the original work . “无敌”in Chine culture means the most powerful, the most
