A Study of English-Chinese Translation of Lyrics from the Perspective of Cultural Differences

By

Yin Yashuang

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

January, 2016

Acknowledgements

My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Mr.Lu Huaguo, my supervisor, for his constant encouragement and guidance. He has walked me through  the whole course of the writing of this thesis. This thesis could not have reached its present form without his consistent and illuminating instructions.

    Then my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. I also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me get through the difficulties in the  course of writing the thesis.

Contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………… 1

2. Emotional differences and English-Chinese translation of lyrics…………………………………………………………………………………2

2.1 The explicitness/implicitness distinction and English-Chinese translation of lyrics…………………………………………………………………………………2

2.2 The conservativeness/openness distinction and English-Chinese translation of lyrics………………………………………………………………………………3

3. Formal differences and English-Chinese translation of lyrics …………………………………………………………………………………6

3.1 The diversity /monotony distinction and English-Chinese translation of lyrics. ………………………………………………………………………………6

3.2 The elegance/simplicity distinction and English-Chinese translation of lyrics. …………………………………………………………………………………8

4.Descriptive differences and English-Chinese translation of lyrics…………………………………………………………………………………9

5. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………12

References 13

A Study of English-Chinese Translation of Lyrics from the Perspective of Cultural Differences

Yin Yashuang

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: Due to the differences in the national conditions, geographical environment, values and historical development between China and the United Kingdom, there are many differences in the language and culture and lyrics translation between China and Britain. This paper tries to analyze the differences of language and culture between English and Chinese from such angles as ‘what the emotion differs in translating lyrics ’ ‘differences of the form in the translation of lyrics’ and ‘how the description differs when translate lyrics’ to analyze some problems in the translation of lyrics. For example, the attention should be paid to the differences in the formal differences and English-Chinese translation of lyrics, and remember to be aware of all kinds of distinction,such as the explicitness and implicitness, the conservativeness and Openness,the diversity and monotony,the elegance and simplicity and so on.

Key words: language ，culture，differences，lyrics ，translation

摘 要

由于中国和英国在国家产生条件，地理环境，价值观念和历史发展等方面不同，所以中英歌词也就存在着差异。本文通过对比中英两国语言文化几个角度---“歌词翻译中的情感表达,”“歌词翻译中对词，句的使用”和“歌词翻译之语言表达的内容侧重点的差异”来分析在歌词翻译中需要注意的一些问题,比如要注意情感表达方式的差异和情感表达的视觉效果差异，注意词汇与句式表达的多样与单一与词句的表达形式差异等。

关键词: 语言，文化，差异，歌词，翻译

1. Introduction

This paper mainly studies the lyrics translation from the perspective of cultural differences between English and Chinese. As a branch of the field of translation, the translation of the lyrics is based on the text and convert a lyric from one language into another, in case of grasping the differences of language and culture. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Chinese began to translate foreign lyrics. In order to facilitate the translation of words with music, people often use metrical relatively free and varied syntactic ancient "song". After the revolution of 1911, translators preferred five, seven words or short sentence in translation of lyrics, which used Chinese poetry rules to deal with foreign poetry. After "The May 4th Movement", people tend to translate the lyrics in vernacular Chinese. In fact, there are few studies on the translation of lyrics in translation studies. Although music is the language of the world, the restrictions on the understanding of foreign language lyrics often more or less hinder listeners appreciating a wonderful song. Therefore it is necessary for us to study the lyrics translation. So the lyrics translation has very important value and broad prospect for research. To some extent, lyrics translation belongs to literary translation and poetry is the literary genre which is the closest to the lyrics. Like poetry, lyrics generally pays more attention to the poetic and aesthetic feelings, and even some of the songs are composed by poems.

Emotional Differences and English-Chinese translation of lyrics

2.1 The explicitness/implicitness distinction and English-Chinese translation of lyrics

Translation, links people of different languages in communication. It is a progress to convey the information in one kind of language with the information conveyed by another kind of language. The process of translation is not only shift between two languages, but also the communication between the two cultures. The differences in the expressions caused by the differences in language and culture can be traced back to the deeper thinking. As everyone knows, due to the deep influence of the traditional culture, Chinese tend to express emotions in a subtle way. We usually do not directly reveal our feelings. But logical thinking in British culture is linear, and the expression of emotion tends to come straight. And this difference is also reflected in the lyrics translation.

For example, in the song Chasing pavements sang by Adele, there is one paragraph, “ If I tell the world, I’ll never say enough, Cause it was not said to you”. The lyrics seem simple and easy to translate, but it would be strange without considering the emotional and cultural background of the song.

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