谈电影片名的翻译[Abstract]The translation of film titles has become a popular phrase in modem life.As is knownto all,how to translate the film titles has become a controversial topic in the field of translation fora long time.The translation of western film titles is quite different from the translation of Chinesefilm titles.In the process of the translation,sometimes films titles will have different translationsowing to the different translators.Because every one has his own idea,experience and knowledgeFilms are a very important part of cultural interchanges.Therefore,the culture of the countries isbecoming a major content to present in the films.This paper points out the importance of thetranslation of film titles and calls on the translators to pay more attention to it.The art,commercialand social feature characterize the film titles.Translation isn't a process to change one language tothe other.Foreign audiences are more often than not to comprehend the original film titles.TheChinese audiences wouldn't arouse sympathy when they see the original film titles.The authoranalyzes that people shouldn't hold one-side view that the literal translation is good or the freetranslation is good.The literal translation and free translation ought to supplement andcomplement each other.These two methods must combine and use adjusting orders,adding orreducing some words of the original film titles to get the best results of the translation of film titles.[Key Words]film titles;literal translation;free translation;culture【摘要】当今社会，“电影片名的翻译”己经成为一个流行的词语，众所周知，如何译好电影片名己成为翻译界很长时间内热烈讨论的话题：西片的片名不同于中国电影片名，在翻译的过程中，由于译者的想法、经验和知识不同，翻译也会有所不同。电影是文化交流非常重要的部分，所以，各国的文化成为电影中所要表达的内容。本文指出了电影片名翻译的重要性，并号召译者对其重视，其中艺术、商业、社会特征描绘了电影片名，那就是翻译不只是一种语言向另一种语言转换的过程：西方观众能一目了然的片名，中国人却不这么认为。作者分析了直译和意译的不同，这主要是由于文化的不同，最后得出结论：不能片面地说直译好还是意译好，这两者是相辅相承的，作者提议两者之间应结合起来，具体问题具体分析，在电影片名翻译的问题上应用改变词序、增词或减词的方法来翻译片名以求得这两种翻译方法之间的平衡。【关键词】电影片名：直译：意译：文化1.IntroductionA good film needs a wonderful title,which is known by the people in the street.Every time theyhear about a film,they always get to know its title first.And they decide whether or not to see it.The pleasure of watching a film comes as much from its content as from its title.The translationsof the film titles require using a few words to express the topic of the films and at the same time,people shouldn't forget it after seeing it.[1]The translation of western film titles is quite different from that Chinese film titles.The formerones take the reality important while the latter ones consider the mood is great.These differentviews also mirror the translation of film titles and lead to the different understanding of thetranslation of film titles.(This also can be seen from the different translations on Mainland China,Hongkong and Taiwan.)Simply out,they operate in different socio-cultural contexts.All of theseare compounded in the translation of film titles.This paper gives a translation norm and a way to translating from the features and theapproaches of the translation of film titles.And this paper gives a brief introduction to the featuresof the translation of film titles.People can see something of the translation of film titles from thesefeatures.Later the approaches of the translation of film titles are mainly observed by comparingthe literal translation and the free translation.The author makes a conclusion that keeping abalance between literal translation and free translation is better,due to the cultural differences ofthe west and the east.A successful translation of film title is concentrated on the acceptant role:audiences.And the response of the foreign audiences and the Chinese audiences would becoherent when they accept the translation of film titles.This is the high standard of the translationof film titles.Hence,keeping the equivalence of the language,the culture and the style is useful tothe audiences'understanding of the original film titles.This equivalence demands us to observemore closely to the features of the film titles.The author analyzes that people shouldn't hold only one-side view that the literal translation isgood or the free translation is good.The literal translation and free translation ought to supplementand complement each other.These two methods must combine and use adjusting the orders.adding or reducing some words of the original film titles to get the best results of the translation offilm titles.2.Features of film titlesEverything in the world has its own features,so do the film titles.They can't exist withouttheir own features.To make the titles more impressive,people use many rhetoric devices are usedin the translation of the film titles,such as simile,metaphor,oxymoron and the like.The featuresof the translation of film titles will be expounded from the art,economic and social perspective asfollows.2.1Art featureFilm is a living art and as such it tends to respond promptly to the development of science andtechnology,which differentiates it from the other forms of art that can be written or painted on thepaper.As the translation of film titles is the right key to keep the audiences'attention,manyfactors are contained to reach this aim.One of them is the art feature.For example,the Chineseversion of the film title“The Accused'”is“暴劫梨花”，which consists of two parts::暴劫and梨花.Here,暴劫roughly means ravaged or devastated while梨花，which literally means pearflowers',is often used to mean a fragile woman.There common Chinese expression‘梨花带雨'(awoman in tears)is condensed from Bai Juyi's(白居易)：梨花一枝春带雨.2.2Economic featureThere is no wonder that the film investors try any ways to attract people's eyes.Thetranslations of film titles are often put on the leading places of the bills to attract people's eyes.How to occupy the film market?They rack their brains to seek the high competitiveness of thefilm market from scripting,filming to showing.And the translations of the film titles are even toadd an apt word to clinch the point.The film industry includes the industrial production,thecommercial system and the cultural transmission.[2 There comes forth a great many films on themarket.Just for the sake of high benefits from their investment,they didn't care much about thetranslation of the film titles,which led them far from the original film titles.Besides,for majorityof the audiences,those improper translations are beyond their understandings.Even the nationalconditions have been taken into consideration,it is necessary to find a junction of the market andart.However,the importance is to find a naming that is close to the original title and eligible to thestyle of the film.Meanwhile,the response of the market should not be neglected.But they do thetranslating work only to pursue the advertising benefit.And in the field of western film industry,people benefit from the boundless chance to get more money from this productive business inspite of these.Some examples will tell us how this economic features of the film titles act.(I)It Happens One Night一夜风流(2)Sister Act修女也疯狂(3)Leon,the Professional这个杀手不太冷All these examples show us the demands the development of mass markets of film industry.2.3Social featureForeign audiences are more often than not to comprehend the original film titles.Once they aretranslated using free translation,it would be hard for the Chinese audiences to understand the quitecontent of the films.As the practice testified,a ringing translated film titles are the purpose ofevoking the audiences'curiosity.For example,.The words“黑帮”in“Shark Tales'"(《鲨鱼黑帮》)gives us a room to associate.Are there“黑帮”in the world of sharks?Some people who havenever seen the translated one will naturally translate it into“鲨鱼的故事”.You wouldn't expectits success of such a plain film.If so,it is really a documentary.Besides,films provide a forum in which certain pressing social problems.It is a way for theaudiences to deal imaginatively with the problems to consider possible causes,to imagine possibleconsequences,and to hypothesize possible solutions.Here "Shark Tales"is an example to showthe social problem."Shark"symbolizes the bully in the society.Among these sharks,there is onewho is the son of the leader.When he dies,the sea creature is happy with this and praises theuntrue hero.It also conveys people's wishes to wipe out the bad eggs.So the bad translation is unacceptable.It is a title just like the TV program-"The world of theanimals".Quite often,the title of a film is used to inform would-be audiences.[3]Nevertheless,these audiences choose to go into the cinemas unconsciously to admire the content under the driveof“黑帮”.That is the contribution of the vivid film titles.The different features themselves characterize the film titles.They are simple and coherentwith sporadic lengthy titles in view.The examples,which were mentioned above,are just like adrop in the ocean of the translation of film titles.Let's go further into the principal points of thetranslation of film titles.And the chief among the approaches of the translation of film titles is theliteral translation and the free translation.3.Approaches of the translation of film titles