Some opinions on subtitling translation IV

Finally, there are some situations in which we could find a specific method to deal with them properly, so some translators may find a brand-new method or create some new expressions instead when encounter problematic reference.

Therefore, some interesting examples could be discussed next.

We can see it in the following example:

It’s a scene that a girl C is looking for job; she and her best friend are copying her resumes by printer together now. Then her friend D said :

D: hey, we’re nearly running out of paper now.

嘿，我们的纸要用完了。

And are you really interested in working in Modes magazine?

还有你真的有兴趣到时尚杂志去工作嘛？

C: yeah! I want it more than anything else! I am tired what I am doing now, it is so boring.

是的！我太想要这份工作了！我厌倦了现在的工作，太枯燥了。

D: Sorry to interrupt, but have you ever proofread your resume?

抱歉打断你，但是你有检查过你的简历嘛？

C : of course ! Why you ask that?

当然了！为什么这样问？

D:Uh……，I’m afraid that they’ll be deeply impressed with your excellent `compuper’ skills.

呃……我恐怕他们会对你的娴熟的“癫脑”技巧印象深刻的。

Here, friend D finds a bug on the resume that girl C mistypes a word “compuper” instead of “computer”. As it results from a simple mistake, it would be difficult to find corresponding reference for the word in target language.

Here the word “compuper” is absolutely a nonsense expression. So we need to choose a special way to deal with it. In this case ,as the example listed above , the translator take the strategy of inventing or creating a new word “癫脑” in Chinese to keep and transmit the original meaning contained in source language. Then audience could understand what the message implied in the comment of friend D “they’ll be deeply impressed with your excellent `compuper’ skills.” and his criticism to girl C’s carelessness.

After discussing and analyzing so many methods could be applied to the subtitling translation, it seems quite difficult to find a general agreement on which method should be used or preferable to be took when faces source languages texts from different cultures them try to convert them into target language ones properly for translators: there is no absolute choice for the procedure of culture conveys.

All the translations discussed above involve compromise of certain degree. In dealing with this kind of problem, there is no real solution, but a preferable choice or option right now. I believe there are a wide range of methods to be applied could be talked and discussed in the future by you and me.

So it’s all. Thanks for your time and patience to read it through. : )

Read Also: User manual translation-Part 1