1、1On the Processing of Discrepancies among Different CulturesIn Japanese TV and Movie TranslatingAbstract. In doing translations from Japanese TVs and movies into Chinese, I frequently have difficulties due to cultural discrepancies between the two countries. In this paper, Ive summed up some approac
2、hes to deal with these difficulties in several aspects such as words, proverbs, specific usages under specific conditions, et cetera, and these approaches include dissimilation, assimilation, refining and creation and the like. Doing translations must be faithful to original sources but without conf
3、licting customs of Chinese language and culture. It is only by translators subjective initiative can the regularities of working out these difficulties be found, and these regularities will make our translation more precise and successful. Key words: cultural discrepancy; dissimilation; assimilation
4、; cultural blending I. INTRODUCTION On Oct. 1978, the Japanese movie , directed by Junya Sato and starring by Ken Takakura, was introduced into China, which 2aroused peoples great fervor of watching movies, and then it became a symbol of China from the end of 70s to the beginning of 80s. Then in 90s
5、, Japanese cartoons and idol plays, depicting youths love stories and fantasy worlds, began to crop up. After , the first Japanese TV play introduced, every TV station started to strive to be the first introduce Japanese TV plays. From 1995 to 2002, more than 50 TV plays have been broadcasted: , , ,
6、 , and so on. Later, the movie which described ultra-marriage love affair between two middle-aged persons again became a hot topic during that time. The broadcast of these TV plays and movies, with the growing up of online viewing afterwards, brought about the upsurge of Japanese TVs and movies in C
7、hina. As a result, Chinese translation tasks have greatly increased. My major is not translation, nor do I have many experiences on translating literary work or professional papers. However, having been invited by TV stations several times to participate in translation of Japanese TV plays, I feel d
8、eeply that it is not easy to translate Japanese dialogues into Chinese. Aside from the requirement of faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance, there are still a lot of restrictions and prerequisites in translating TV plays. First, 3the length of time of Chinese translated versions is required to b
9、e equal to the corresponding Japanese one, and the last pronunciation of Chinese translated one, considering the seemingly sameness of two kinds of shape of mouth, must be similar to the last pronunciation of the original Japanese dialogue. Second, some other factors must be brought into considerati
10、on: not only preciseness of meaning, but also accordance with age, rank, civilization level, and so on, of characters in plays. But what anguishes translators the most should be those words, proverbs and specific usages under specific conditions which have been put on cultural coats, and these cultu
11、ral coats, which cover various aspects like social history, politics, economy, values, aesthetic taste, mode of thinking and life style, make translation full of challenge. II. ON WORDS For instance, the two frequently used words tempura and sashimi in Japaneses daily life, appears frequently as wel
12、l in TV plays which focus on delineating Japaneses life. Tempura is a kind of specific fried food in Japan, but in Chinese there isnt this word, so it was translated as Japanese soft fried food in quite a lot of previous translations. This kind of translation can make Chinese people 4know what tempu
13、ra is, but it is not suitable for TV plays because the large number of words will lead to difficulties on dubbing. On the other hand, the word sashimi has been translated as raw pieces of fish. However, those who have ever been lived in Japan all know that in Japanese sashimi can not only refer to r
14、aw fish pieces but also raw prawn, raw flesh-all slices that can be eaten raw with dipping of soy sauce. As the increase of Japanese restaurants like bamboo shoots after a spring rain in China, the number of people who have tasted Japanese food becomes countless, so do those who are familiar with Ja
15、panese food culture. With regard to the translations for tempura and sashimi in TV play scripts I have resorted to dissimilation 1: directly translated them as tenpura and sashimi (the Chinese letters are corresponding to Japanese hiragana). In which the requirement of time length can also be satisf
16、ied, and I believe it is easier for Chinese people to understand. As well, words for rain are particularly abundant owing to ceaseless rain all around four seasons in Japan: satsukiame (the elegant name for plum rain), harusame (spring rain), hisame (cool rain in autumn), shigure (the rain between a
17、utumn and winter), yuudachi (rain in summer evening), tooriame (a 5short rain shower always accompany with a piece of cloud), kirisame (continuous, gentle drizzle), tenkiame (sunny rain), sakuraame (rain in cherry-blossom season), and so on. Under the circumstance that words are not classified by se
18、asons or conditions in Chinese, the vacancy of this part of words cannot be filled merely by translators effort. So for these words, what I have done is just substitute them with Chinese words which are parisyllabic with original Japanese ones, on the basis of faithful to original word meanings to t
19、he greatest extent. Nevertheless, the appropriate method of translation, suitable for TV plays and movies, of hisame (cool rain in autumn) and shigure (the rain between autumn and winter) cannot be figured out yet, and this is the lack of words brought about by the lack of culture. III. ON PROVERDS
20、Next, let me talk about the problems of idiomatic use of language, especially proverbs. Proverbs are featured by structure conciseness, syllable gracefulness and rhythm coordination. Some of them apply rhetorics like metaphor and hyperbole; some of them are filled with humor, euphemism, more is mean
21、t than meets the ear. What must be achieved in translation are not just their exact meanings, but also the rhetoric characteristics encompassed by them. 6Japanese proverbs fall into two sections: one is from Chinese, and another is created by Japanese themselves. As for the ones from Chinese, all of
22、 them can be processed in reduction method: to put them back into original Chinese proverbs. For example: bajitoufuu (talking to a brick wall)、kabenimimi (walls have ears)、 gouji kado wo dedesu (good news goes on crutches), et cetera, and they are not difficult to deal with. On the contrary, the inh
23、erent ones of Japanese are not as easy as Chinese ones, because most expressions and concepts adopted in Japanese proverbs are not usually used in Chinese proverbs even what they refer to is the same. Therefore, whether these inherent Japanese proverbs can be successfully translated depends on wheth
24、er they conform to Chinese habit of expression. Otherwise, Chinese audiences will feel hard to understand or accept, and the impact of the proverbs in the original scripts can hardly work. For example, when I was doing the translation of Japanese long TV series watarusekenn wa onibakari(means so man
25、y ghosts are in the world)(part six)2, I felt very puzzled about the lines:tadekuumushi mo sukisuki iimasuyottena3，with the interpretation in dictionary is (as some insect likes eating spicy polygonum, peoples tastes are diversified as well). The word-for-word 7translation in Chinese is not proper u
26、ndoubtedly. On the other hand, different people have different tastes or a hundred people enjoy a hundred dishes are yet too formalized, and the number of syllables is inconsistent with the original line which may cause trouble on dubbing. After repeated deliberation, the manuscript has been finaliz
27、ed as Just saying, to each their own which sounds more truly and consistent with Chinese habit of expression. Furthermore, the mouth shape of final auxiliary wordna4can match the ma at the end of the Chinese translation, thereby the preferable dubbing effect can be attained. To sum up, to deal with
28、the proverbs appeared in TV plays, I think there are two fundamental approaches: one is to translate them as far as possible into Chinese proverbs, allegorical sayings and idioms which share similar meanings with Japanese ones; another, for those cannot done by means of that mentioned above, is to m
29、ake translation accessible and conform to Chinese habit of expression. Under the second circumstance, what translators have to consider first is how to accurately convey the meaning of original text. As for whether the translation can be made into something like idioms, this should be taken into acc
30、ount second. Idioms are created by 8people, so they can be created more and more if appropriate but not be confined to those available now. Nonetheless, we have to admit that this is a huge challenge for translators because if creation is overreached, it will cause the translation alien to the origi
31、nal text. Not to create rather. IV.ON SPECIFIC USAGES UNDER SPECIFIC CONDITIONS Besides translation of words and idioms analysed above, what tormented me the most may be specific usages under specific conditions. The following line is in the TV play Asakusa Fukumaru ryokan(means Fukumaru Hotel in As
32、akusa), season 45 episode 1. Because of the rich flavor of Yedo (the ancient name of Tokyo) in this TV play, there is a certain difficulty on dealing with the translation of special lines. For instance: Aa,hateya ikenee,oyaji no atama, haranakya kuenee, teitouya toiu yatsu desune.(Ahhh, it cannot be
33、 put up on the head of an old man, but lantern shops without it cannot work just like this?) The underlined part is widely used for Japanese peddlers to shout on closet-size stalls, so it is representative and highly recognized by them. But after translated into Chinese, it is hard for Chinese audie
34、nces to comprehend. There is shouting 9words like come, come, just be here to have a look, no matter you are rich or not in Chinese, with the similarity in meaning, but still it is so different from the original Japanese line that cannot replace that immediately. As a result, I have to choose to do
35、it in the word-for-word way, neatly and orderly. Unfortunately but inevitably, the characteristic of rhymed end is lost. Saa,otsugiwa,konobananada. Banana no kazoekatanimo iroiroaruyo. Ichi, ni, san, shi wa atarimae, yii,aru, san, suu wa,maajyann yatterya daredemo ieru. Ichi wa bannbutsu no hajimari
36、,ni wa nikumarekko yoni habikoru, sannjuusann wa onnna no taiyaku, san de shinndadaga Mishima no senn. Saa,sokono obatyann toutyan no oyatsu no dou.aoaoshitete shinsen sonomono,ipponntabetara,gennkihyakubai. Wakagaette shinnkonnjidai ga kaettekuruyo！ (Cmon! look at these bananas! There are a lot of
37、ways to count them. One, two, three, four is common; yi, er, san, si is well known for Mahjong. One is the beginning of everything; two is the brutality of son of a bad person; thirty-three is womens disaster year in which the fairy in Mishima died of childbirth! Hey, Madam, why dont bring a bunch o
38、f bananas for your father? How fresh they are, you see! Take only one, and then feel so much better! 10Rejuvenate to the Young Age at once!) This part of lines is used by the protagonist when he was peddling his bananas. There are several allusions, which are closely related to Japanese traditional
39、cultural and folk customs, in the underlined part. The protagonists vivid and humorous expression baffled translators-not just need to be exactly and semantically, but have to fully consider the specific usage here for peddling. The best way is to find out the corresponding expression in Chinese, bu
40、t for this extreme Japanese language style, feasible approach to translation are failed to be got. In the face of this kind of case, I think translators ought to bring their subjective initiative to a large degree into play, adding some creative ideas of literature with respect to exactness of meani
41、ng, then making the translation reflect the spirit and charm of original texts as much as possible. V. CONCLUSION Due to discrepancies between the two countries on culture and language, there are quite a few phenomena in Japanese-to-Chinese translation that implanting Japanese expressions into Chinese, called dissimilation. Sometimes, this kind of approach is considered to be with too much Translationese, and even it may lead to something unclear to understand.
