Translating English Songs Into Chinese

With the continuous development of worldwide information exchanges, an increasingly large amount of English songs are flowing into China and are sometimes being translated into Chinese in one way or another. Due to the differences between the English and Chinese languages and cultures and especially the lack of adequate views, theories, principles and procedures of song translation, however, the practice of song translation has been characterized by a low level of proficiency or efficiency, being often handicapped by some losses in form, meaning or function. At the same time, the study of the translation of English songs into Chinese has been carried out by some translators or translation scholars, leading to some understanding of the challenges of song translation and certain proposals of techniques to tackle some of the challenges. Studies of song translation so far are however inadequate both in quantity and in quality, being especially short of integrated investigations of the views, theories, principles and procedures of song translation on the basis of general theories and methods of translation.In view of the achievements and weaknesses in the practice and study of the Chinese translation of English songs, on the basis of Eugine Nida’s theory and principle of translation, especially his functional equivalence approach to translation, and through an integrated methodology incorporating theoretical deduction and exemplification, therefore, the present study attempts to make a systematic investigation of English-Chinese song translation so as to formulate a systematic understanding of its nature and features, and to devise a feasible principle and procedure for it. Through the study, it is found that(1) English-Chinese song translation is an artistic as well as scientific activity of reproducing in the Chinese language the closest natural equivalent of the English song firstly in terms of basic content or meaning, and secondly in terms of general form or style;(2) it is mainly characterized by such general features as integrity in terms of its components, relevance or openness in terms of its environment, and dynamicness in terms of its process, and is marked by such textual features as rhyming, rhythm, and tone of voice; and(3) it should best be carried out following the principle of functional equivalence, using a complementary method of more free and less literal translation, a flexible mixture of techniques such as transliteration, adaptation, amplification, and reduction, and a systematic procedure of analysis-transfer-restructuring-testing.This study may be both practically and academically relevant to English-Chinese song translation in particular and song translation in general. Practically, this study may help to improve English-Chinese song translation practice by providing a systematic view, theory, principle and procedure for practicing translators. Academically, it may compensate for the inadequacy in both the quantity and quality of the study of English-Chinese song translation by arousing the attention of translation researchers and by pointing to more integrated approaches targeting at systematic views, theories, principles, and procedures.