时间：2022-10-19 01:27:46
In the book Toward a Science of Translation, Eugene Nida brings out two important concepts: formal-equivalence (to reveal as much as possible of the form and content of the original message) and dynamic-equivalence (the closest natural equivalent to the source-language message). (Nida, 1964) When we translate from poetry to poetry, prose to prose, novel to novel, we try to achieve F-E as much as possible
As the formal-equivalence (F-E) is basically source-oriented, and dynamic-equivalence (D-E) emphasizes on natural equivalent of source language and target language, F-E translation requires the reader to understand the source language culture as much as possible while D-E translation does not necessarily require such knowledge. This differentiation of culture understanding is very useful in analyzing the translation of culture-specific terms.
There are many culture-specific terms in the film Eat Drink Man Woman. The title of this film is derived from the sentence “饮食男女，人之大欲存焉”, from The Book of Rites. It is translated as “Eat drink, man woman. Food and sex. Basic human desires. Can’t avoid them!” Three strategies: literal translation, explicitation and addition, have been adopted. The translator closely preserves the shape of the original one, and translates “飲食男女” word by word, but by adding “food and sex”, which is an explanation of “eat drink, man woman”, the translator not only keeps the form, but also provides an explanation to the target audiences. For the phrase “飲食男女”, the translator uses literal translation, and tries to achieve F-E as much as possible. Then the translator further explains it as “food and sex”, and makes it understandable for the TL audiences. Here the translator wants to achieve F-E effect.
There are many dish names in the subtitle of the film Eat Drink Man Woman. For example, “龍鳳呈祥” is translated into “Joy Luck Dragon Phoenix”. Without explain “龍” is shrimp and “鳳” is chicken, here the translator adopts both literal translation and explicitation: keeping the original word pattern and explaining “呈祥” with “Joy Luck”. That is because according to the picture of the film, audiences can actually see the dish, so the translator does not have to explain the name any more. In doing so, the translation keeps the closest form of the original dish name, and the western audience could understand the literal meaning of that dish. So here, the translator wants to achieve the F-E effect.
The chef in the film says: “我喜歡烧功夫菜”. For the western audiences’ lacking of knowledge about “功夫菜”, if translated as “Kong Fu dish”, it may cause some misunderstanding that they can possibly think something related to martial arts. Thus the translator gives an explanation of “elaborated dishes”, which means that it takes a long time to prepare the dish, and it is a complicated cooking process. This translation keeps the original sentence pattern while expressing the meaning in a clear and natural way, achieving the D-E effect.
Nida’s theory about equivalent effect provides us a kind of solution of the debate between literal and free translation. It is very useful in analyzing culture-specific terms. In addition, it helps us to narrow the culture gap between the source language and target language and achieve efficient communication.
Bibliography:
1. Nida, Eugene A. Toward a science of translating : with special reference to principles and procedures involved in Bible translating, Leiden : E. J. Brill, 1964
2. Yves Gambier, Henrik Gottlieb. (Multi) media translation: concepts, practices, and research, Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins, 2001
3. 策划，中央电影公司；编剧，王蕙玲，王安，James Schamus；采访, 陈宝旭，1994，《饮食男女 : 电影剧本与拍摄过程》，台北：远流