A Report On Chinese To English Subtitle Translation Of Song Suites Excerpted From Nanguan Music:An Annotated Anthology

Nanguan music,recognized as the "the living fossil" in the history of Chinese music,boasts both aesthetic and research values.Nevertheless,with its unique notations,vernacular lyrics,culture-bound expressions,and dialect singing,the translation of the genre has rarely been studied,leaving a sign of potential for nanguan lyric translators.This report is aimed at offering strategies for subtitle translation of nanguan music.It is based on the author's translation practice of 18 song suites selected from Nanguan Music:An Annotated Anthology.It comprises four chapters.Chapter One outlines translation background and objectives,the composition of nanguan music,and the cause of the translation task,reviewing the history and development of nanguan music and pointing out potential for subtitle translation of nanguan music.Chapter Two concerns pre-translation preparations.This chapter gives a description of the translation task,i.e.introduction to the source text(including categories of nanguan song suites,characteristics of the lyrics as well as the resulting difficulties in rendering the lyrics into English),and general requirements for nanguan lyric translators.Besides,this chapter presents how the translator tackles punctuation difficulties,probes into the features of subtitle translation and provides requirements for subtitle translators.Based on the challenges posed in Chapter Two,Chapter Three exemplifies the three principles of subtitle translation and illustrates the strategies for rendering titles and tune names,for translating vernacular and culture-loaded words and for conveying musicality in the target text.Chapter Four draws conclusions from the previous discussions and analyses.Conclusions are as follows.First,despite the constraints of subtitle translation,cultural aspects also deserve consideration,for there is comparatively enough response time and imaginable space for the target audience.Second,when translating vernacular words,the translator should think in that vernacular from phonetic and grammatical aspects so as to understand the source text.Third,when rendering culture-loaded words and expressions,the translator should exert his/her subjectivity by extracting the message from the original images and allusions,digesting the message and translating it into everyday English.Fourth,when dealing with rhythm and rhyme,the translator should make flexible adjustments to the original rhyme pattern seeing that there is impossibility of rhyming with a single vowel from the beginning to the end.Besides,the translator should learn to utilize the phonetic devices of the target language so as to convey the feelings of the original.By presenting qualified translations of suite subtitles,the author,a native of Quanzhou,attempts to conjure up poetic images of the original in the target audience,enhance their aesthetic experience and transmit the quintessence of local culture and Chinese culture as a whole.And it is hoped that this report could offer reference for later nanguan lyric translators.