摘 要

鉴于中西方文化背景存在巨大差异，英文歌曲汉译过程中，常因文化缺失或冲突而造成听众理解上的障碍，从而影响文化的传播。因此，译者应充分考虑英文歌曲歌词所蕴含的文化信息，以求在源语文化和译语文化中达到最大程度的功能对等。本文第一章介绍了论文的研究目的及意义，阐明英文歌曲翻译的可译性以及必要性。第二章概述了英文歌曲翻译国内外研究成果、并对研究文化适应理论与英文歌曲翻译关系的文献进行综述。第三章借助流程图解释了翻译过程中文化适应理论的运用，并简要介绍了直译、意译、直译与意译相结合的三种翻译手法。第四章基于三种翻译手法，从功能对等以及文化意象转换的层面对英文歌曲歌词翻译中文化适应现象进行举例分析。第五章，针对英文歌曲翻译中存在的问题向译者及社会媒体提出意见与建议。

关键词：英文歌曲歌词翻译;文化意象;文化适应理论

Abstract

In view of the great differences between Chinese and Western cultural background, it is not easy for audiences to understand songs’ translation, in the process of translating the lyrics of English songs into Chinese with cultural default and conflict which may affects the spread of culture. Therefore, the translator should give full consideration into the cultural information contained in the lyrics of English songs, and use acculturation theory in order to achieve the maximum functional equivalence between the source language culture and the target language culture. In the first chapter, the paper introduces the aim and significance of the thesis, illustrates the translatability and necessity of English songs' translation. The second chapter summarizes the researches of English songs' translation, and reviews literatures on the relationship between Acculturation Theory and English songs' translation. The third chapter explains the application of Acculturation Theory in the process of translations with the help of the flowchart, and briefly introduces the three kinds of translation methods as literal translation, liberal translation and the combination of them. In the fourth chapter, based on three kinds of translation methods, the author analyzes Acculturation Theory in English song lyrics translation from the aspect of functional equivalence and the transformation of cultural images. The fifth chapter gives comments and suggestions to translators and social media on the problems existing in the translation of English songs.

Key words: English songs’ translation; Cultural image; Acculturation Theory

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Previous Studies on English Songs’ Translation 3

2.1.1 Previous Studies on English Songs’ Translation at Home 3

2.1.2 Previous Studies on English Songs’ Translation Abroad 4

2.2 Research on Acculturation Theory and English Songs’ Translation 5

3 Acculturation Theory and English Songs’ Translation Methods 6

3.1 Acculturation Theory 6

3.2 Three Ways of English Songs’ Translation 8

3.2.1 Literal Translation 8

3.2.2 Liberal Translation 9

3.2.3 Combination of Literal Translation and Liberal Translation 9

4 Case Study—English Lyrics’ Translation 11

4.1 Literal Translation: for the Sake of Equivalence 11

4.2 Liberal Translation: for the Sake of Cultural Image Conveying 12

4.3 Combination of Literal and Liberal Translation: for the Sake of Functional Equivalence 15

5 Enhance Acculturation Theory in English Songs’ Translation 18

5.1 English Translators: Polishing Translation Versions 18

5.2 Social Media: Enhancing Correct Values 19

6 Conclusion 21

References 22

Acknowledgments 24

Translation of English Songs—From Acculturation Theory Perspective

1 Introduction

As a bridge for cross-cultural communication, translation is not only a translation of language but also a translation of culture. For a long time, English songs' translation was considered to share much similarity with that of poetry translation, and a majority of scholars were focused more on poetry than songs’ translation. Hence, English songs’ translation is lacking of systematic and specialized translation strategies and criteria. With the development of Internet, not only at macro level that the world melts into one, but also at micro level, such as Music. Since music gets increasingly attention, the potential problems of English songs’ translation appeared, and the prominent problems are zero of equivalent word, conflicts of word meaning, semantic association and pragmatic implication (Bao, 2003).

This paper adopts acculturation theory as its main theoretical framework to study English songs’ translation, meanwhile, the author chooses several different English songs’ versions as cases to analyze in detail to illustrate how acculturation theory masterly perfects the four prominent problems. Besides, the author was largely inspired by Professor Xue Fan's book Exploration and Practice in Translation of Songs and this paper will cite and introduce some of Professor Xue's views to complete the whole paper.

People come from all over the world have similar experience and emotion in their life, such as anger, pleasure, despair and joy, etc. In the process of growth, people gradually fit in their cultural environment of their own society, yet also to touch culture from the other cultural environment. Music is much more universal than words, the saying goes. As a significant channel for cross-cultural communication, music is considered as one of the most convenient and efficient tools. For there exist countlessly excellent musicians and billions of people spend their idle time in listening to music. Within deepening international exchanges, many English songs have been introduced to China and have gained great popularity. However, due to the differences between Chinese and foreign in culture, English songs are difficult to be understood by most Chinese people. Though many English songs was widely accepted by the Chinese people, most Chinese song-lovers just tend to listen to English songs (mostly the melody) while referring to the Chinese translation of the lyrics. (Jiang, 2017) Therefore, it is hard for translators to translate qualified version but it is extremely worthy of studying.

A chronic lack of attention on English songs' translation led to a lot of semi-finished Chinese versions was translated and even spread, which directly reflects the declining of whole English songs’ translation industry. For drawing translation circles' attention of English songs and further improving it, this paper focuses on English songs’ translation and analyses it from acculturation theory perspective. In a great degree, the differences of various cultures are hindering the mutual communication and understanding of them. Thus, this paper utilizes acculturation theory to analyze how it successful shorten cultural distance and masterly translate English songs into Chinese.

2 Literature Review

For a long time, English songs’ translation has not been considered as a hot topic in translation. However, compared with other text translations, English songs’ translation shows a great deal of particularity. This particularity is largely due to the interdisciplinary nature of song translation, which not only require the translator to master on the knowledge of both the translation and music disciplines, but also require the translator has the ability to integrate the two parts as a harmonious whole. Therefore, many people think that songs are not easy to translate or even untranslatable. There is little research on the translation skills and strategies of songs, and the lack of theoretical results has further increased the difficulty of songs’ translation.

2.1 Previous Studies on English Songs’ Translation

Songs’ translation is always lacking of attention, for it requires that translators not only are proficient at literature and multiple languages, but also profound at artistic accomplishment.

2.1.1 Previous Studies on English Songs’ Translation at Home

The earliest songs' translation in China began in the late Qing Dynasty, and it can be traced back to the American song "Flying the Rinpoche" ("Advance to Georgia") translated by Ye Zhong-Leng in 1908. After the May 4th Movement, the West Wind gradually came to the east and some oversea music began to be translated into China, including songs from Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia. In 1949, the translation and introduction of foreign songs also entered an unprecedented period of prosperity both in quantity and quality far more than the 30s and 40s. As a result, a large number of excellent songs’ translation and workers such as Xue Fan, Mao Yukuan, Zhou Feng, Shang Jiaxuan, Deng Yingyi, and Lin Caibing had emerged, forming a relatively stable team and delivering a large number of popular songs. However, the following "Ten Years Cultural Revolution" had suspended the songs' translated works until the 1980s, when the chaos was corrected, ushering in another glorious age for the translation of songs since the fifties (Xue, 2002).