Film Translation

Film Translation

 

Film translation, as a kind of mass multimedia translation, is a new field of art and translation. Extended beyond the field of art, it has become a part of people’s lives and gives a strong impact on the formation of people’s language, living patterns, attitudes and even values. It plays a vital role in making people realize the importance of both national identities and national stereotypes.

Also it is a brilliant way of conveying messages. One of the peculiarities of film translation is-that the readers see it with their eyes, but read it in mind. The audience of film watches what characters are doing and hear what they are talking about, thus messages reach the audience through visual and acoustic channels.

 

History of Film Translation

 

 Film translation started with silent movies. During the era of silent movies, translation was relatively easy. The so-called “intertitles” interrupted the course of a film every few minutes, so the target language titles were easily translated and put in place of the original ones. The problem of translation arose with the appearance of "talkies" in the late 1920s.

At first, the American film companies produced the same film in various language versions using the same set and scenario but different directors and actors. However, this was a very expensive option. Moreover, the films did not win over the public and were of poor artistic quality. The problem was solved in France where studios were built which began to produce dubbed versions of films instead.

By that time it was evident that film had become an extremely influential and profitable medium. Soon, countries like India, China, and other South Asian countries moved into film production and translation.

 

Types of Film Translation

 

There are 3 types of film translation:

 

Dubbing - method in which a foreign dialog is adjusted to the mouth and movements of the actor/actress in the film and thus makes it familiar to the target audience. Its basic purpose is making the audience feel as if they are listening to actors actually speaking the target language.

 

Voice over – is a technique in which a voice can be head over the original soundtrack which remains audible to audience.  Voice over consists of a narrator who begin speaking in the target language following the initial utterance in the original.

 

Subtitling- refers to translation of the films dialog in text form usually shown at the bottom of the screen. The text is written in the target language so that people understand the movie. Such kind of technique is widely used in Asian countries such as South Korea, Thailand, Chine, etc.

 

Kyrgyz cinematography

 

Kyrgyz films are very peculiar in their own way. By nature they are not “blockbusters”, but simple, calm films about the real life, about difficulties and happiness. In other words, Kyrgyz films tend not to be filled with action.  They are more atmospheric and have an artistic flair which marks them out as different from their Western counterparts. And this is really great as in such way Kyrgyz films attract foreigners. It is interesting for them to see our customs, to see our people, our wonderful and virgin djailoos. They even get shocked by our customs and traditions, values and attitudes, but nevertheless, they understand that it is “ours”.

 

History of Kyrgyz cinema

 

On 17 November 1941, an order from the People's Commissars Council of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Kyrgyzstan established the first newsreel studios in Frunze [today's Bishkek]. During the war years, the studios made many films about the workers who stayed behind the lines. From the second half of the 50, a large number of filmmakers from Moscow and Leningrad came to Kyrgyzstan and got interested in Kyrgyz culture which they portrayed in their films. By doing so, they trained the first national film officers.

The Filmmakers Union of Kyrgyzstan was established in 1962 and is a creative alliance of professional workers of cinema art and television.

 

Film translation in Kyrgyzstan

 

Film translation primarily deals with spoken language, rather than written language. Films are means of entertainment, so it is the translator’s duty to enable the audience to get entertained in the easiest way. Unlike other types of translation, film translation has stricter demand on completeness and logic. A movie is always originally film art concentrated in about two hours. All frames are connected with each other, parts of plots echoing from afar. If one part is missing, the whole is hit.

Our country cultivates a different tradition of translating films and subscribes to one of the two major modes: dubbing and subtitling, or sometimes to a third, minor, mode—voiceover—in the case of television translation. The decision as to which film translation mode to choose is by no means arbitrary and depends from several factors, such as historical circumstances, traditions, the technique to which the audience is accustomed, the cost, as well as on the position of both the target and the source cultures in an international context.

 

A lot of Kyrgyz films were translated into another languages (especially English) such as: Boz Salkyn- Bride Kidnapping, Saratan- Village Authorities, “Svet ake”- The Light Thief” and Atalardyn kereezi- the Wedding Chest, etc.

 The last one is one of the fantastic films of the whole Kyrgyz cinematography. It was rewarded by many international awards and even nominated as “The best Foreign Film” at the Russian Festival “Listopad” in 2006.

 

The Wedding Chest

 

 “The Wedding Chest” is a really vivid film. It was produced by 4 countries as Kyrgyzstan, Russia, France, and Germany in 2006. The director is Nurbek Egen, a graduate from Moscow Film Institution. 

 

The summary:

 

This impressive and picturesque film is about the confrontation between the civilization and centuries-old traditions. The main theme is love. Love- where there is no nationality and no age. Picture was shot in the mountains and on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul. With the beauty of the Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyz color small villages and almost postcard-glamorous species, which themselves could pass and for the climax, and denouement of the film.

The guy from the Kyrgyz village, becomes a journalist living in Paris, works on the radio and loves a Frenchwoman -Isabel by name.  And one difficult day for him decides to introduce her to his Kyrgyz relatives. But according to their traditions mixed marriages fall as a stain on the history of the family, lead to the curse of, so for him to admit mother and father that he chose his bride foreigner - a feat. His fiancée did not understanding a Kyrgyz language, thinking that she had already been accepted into the family. And here all interesting stories began…

 

     Translation of the film

 

Title.   As we are going to speak about this film, first of all, let’s pay our attention to the title: “The Wedding Chest”. It is known that titles can be in 4 types (transliteration, literal translation, explicit translation and adaptation). In our case, the title of the film was used as the adaptation, because in other western countries there is no understanding as wedding chest. In case of word-for-word translation it would be like-“the chest of the ancestors”. But there is no link between “wedding” and “ancestors” as for many foreign cultures it carries no meaning at all. Of course we know the significance of the chest as the most valuable gifts from our ancestors, whom we must keep in safe and be proud for such an honor. So, in order to make it clear translators decided to adapt into our culture and little bit paraphrase the title, thus present it like “The Wedding Chest”.

 The film ought to be understandable and accessible to other western countries. At the same time the director and film crew wanted it to be different from other films and preserve its own distinction. That’s why subtitling method was used. Due to the bilingualism of the film translators of both Kyrgyz and French languages were needed in subtitling.

In translating from French language Maryline Fellous’s (a famous French language translator) help was great, while Kyrgyz subtitles were translated by Temir Dyushekeyev (a well-known filmmaker). It was really important to preserve the identity of the dialogs talked in the film.

 

English translation.   Also the “The Wedding Chest” was translated into the English language as it was supposed to be shown in the international cinematographic arena. Here comes the second thing for discussion- the harmonization of English and Kyrgyz subtitles. As you know there is a huge difference between these two languages (grammatical, lexical, semantic, syntactic and of course realias). As film translation tends to give only the atmosphere of the film, here we should analyze mostly lexica-semantic parts.

 There is a part in the film, when Aydar’s mother called older women to come into the house and see the bride’s dowry.

 

Апа: Кана эмесе, сакалдуу баштуулар тургула, аялдар! Баарыңыздар баскыла, ай баспайсынарбы, айй, Айдар бас бери! Изабелльди ала кел, айланайын! Жүрүңүздөр анда эмесе.

Тууган: Ай жеңелер чөнтөгүңүздөргө көрүндүктөн кичине көбүрөөк салып ала барсаңыздар.

Апа: Бул эми конок кыз эмеспи, кичине биздин салт- санаабыз менен тааныштырып коеюн. Айланайын, мобурээки ченин баардыгы кыздын себи. А тигинин аркасында кечинде уул-келин келип жатат. А бул- сандык. Жүрөгой.

        Айдар: Ой апа эми.

Апа: Айтыр бер балам, буга керек да.  Аийййййй, мына-бул кыздын көйнөгү. Көрдүңбү? Мына, көрүңүздөр. Бала төрөлгөндөн баштап эле тойго чейин эне-атасы ушу сандыкка баардыгын жыйа берип, кийин келинге өткөрүп берет. Мынакей, муну алгыла. Бул дагы сонун көйнөк экен карасаңар.

Изабель: does Aydar also have one?

     Апа: Иии Айдардыкыбы? Бар эмей, балакеетиңди алайын, Айдардыкы тооолтура.

    Изабель: That means it is high time he married- Aydar, translate that.

Айдар: Аябай жакты дейт апа.

      Апа:   Ий, жакпай, секетин болоюн десе.

 

 

 

Mother: Dear guests, it is time to look at the dowry and open the wedding chest

Relative: You have to pay for the look-see. Ours is a rich dowry. People with empty pockets will not see it.

 

     Mother:  Make way. She is our chief guest. All this is a bride’s dowry. The newlyweds will sleep behind the carpet the first week. But this is the most important thing. Aydar, translate her about the chest. You have to prepare for the wedding right from the child’s birth. As he grows up the parents collect his dowry in such a chest and later give it to the groom or the bride.

Isabel: Does Aydar also have one?

Mother: Of course, he has. It is long full

Isabel: That means it is high time he married- Aydar, translate that.

Aydar: A very good chest, Mum

Mother:  Of course, it is good    

 

This is a dialog from the 6- part of the film “The Wedding Chest”. There were used many interesting transformations, realias, etc. Also it is in everyday-conversational style, which is appropriate to the genre of the film. Nevertheless translators decided to translate it in literary and more formal way, despite the fact that preservation of the style is preferable. There appears a kind of neutrality in the translation and conveying of the Kyrgyz message is failed.

While analyzing this dialog I have paid my attention to 3 main elements such as:

 

1. Realia (words and expressions for culture-specific material things)
2. Endearment words- words as parents addressing their children and lovers addressing each other.
3. Exclamatory words (expression of surprise, admiration, pain, anger, dissent, or the like; an emphatic or clamorous outcry.)

 

 

Realia	Endearment words (refer to “my dear”)	Exclamatory words
Look-see=Korunduk	Aylanayin	Ay -calling someone
Carpet= Koshogo	Seketin boloyun	Aiiiiii- expresses the desire or pleasure
	Balaketindi alayin	Oy – expresses surprise

 

I think for translator the conveying of the main ideas was the leading purpose. That’s why many transformations (omissions, additions, generalization, concretization, etc) were used:

1.   - Кана эмесе, сакалдуу баштуулар тургула, аялдар! Баарыңыздар баскыла, ай баспайсынарбы, айй, Айдар бас бери! Изабелльди ала кел, айланайын! Жүрүңүздөр анда эмесе.

-  Dear guests, it is time to look at the dowry and open the wedding chest.

 

• In Kyrgyz version the words like “сакалдуу баштуулар, аялдар” were given in English as «dear quests”. So, we see here a generalization.

     And also in English version there are no endearment words such: aylanayin, balaketindi alayin, seketin boloyun”. We all know that these words are Kyrgyz endearment words, which are used in referring of elderly people to smaller ones (especially to children). But, in target passage they were not used.

          The dialog is full of exclamatory words and addresses like “ay, aiiiy, anda emese”. In English version they are omitted and this degrades the quality of translation.

 

 

2)   - Бул эми конок кыз эмеспи, кичине биздин салт- санаабыз менен тааныштырып коеюн.

            -   Make way. She is our chief guest.

 

• In this passage-there were replacements. Here the speaker has mentioned about their old traditions, explaining other quests the necessity of showing their customs to a foreign girl. But in English this part was taken. The expression “салт- санаабыз” was omitted at all. But this has led to the loss of features of Kyrgyz traditions.

 

My version:

    - You all know she is our quest, let me introduce her with our traditions.

 

It seems to me that it would be more correct to give all key elements of the sentence as they convey the main idea of the message.

 

 

3)   - Аийййййй, мына-бул кыздын көйнөгү. Көрдүңбү? Мына, көрүңүздөр. Бала төрөлгөндөн баштап эле тойго чейин эне-атасы ушу сандыкка баардыгын жыйа берип, кийин келинге өткөрүп берет. Мынакей, муну алгыла. Бул дагы сонун көйнөк экен карасаңар.

 

          -  But this is the most important thing. You have to prepare for the wedding right from the child’s birth. As he grows up the parents collect his dowry in such a chest and later give it to the groom or the bride.

 

• In Kyrgyz text we see the concrete person- kelin (daughter-in-law) who will receive the wedding chest. I suppose that is because of that Aydar’s mother has Aydar in her mind. She said kelin because she was going to find a good bride to her son later and give her this chest.  But in English appears neutrality- either groom or bride, because the foreign audience doesn’t know about the intention of Aydar’s mother.

Then of course, there are a lot of omissions- nothing about her addressing to other women in the room whenever she showed the bride’s dresses. And the sentence where she explains Isabel about the preparation of the wedding chest from child’s birth was translated by dividing into two parts in English.

 

 

 

• Translators aimed to interpret the realia (in medieval Latin “the real things”), which are almost untranslatable:

 

1)  - Ай жеңелер чөнтөгүңүздөргө көрүндүктөн кичине көбүрөөк салып ала барсаңыздар.

         - You have to pay for the look-see. Ours is a rich dowry. People with empty pockets will not see it.

 

2)     - А тигинин аркасында кечинде уул-келин келип жатат.

 

        - The newlyweds will sleep behind the carpet the first week.

 

 

•    The first passage was divided into three sentences in order to convey the intended message. The word “look-see” is explained as “survey, a brief look” and refers to our “korunduk” (giving money for looking someone’s bride, groom or children or newly acquired property).  It derived from the Kyrgyz word “koruu”-“to see”.

     And the sentence “Ours is a rich dowry” is added to convey more vivid peculiarity of look-see tradition. Also the speaker addresses to “jeneler” (wives of relatives), because in our culture mostly these women are eager to see the dowry. But in English version there was no referring to them, but to all guests. And the sentence where was said that people with empty pockets would not see the dowry adds extra information to make the message more colorful. Then we can see here the addition “first week” in translation, though in source sentence there is no information about that. It may tell us that the translator has some background information on Kyrgyz wedding traditions.

•     As for the second passage the word “тиги” (in Eng. that place) refers to the koshogo (the special wedding curtain beyond which the new bride sits first 2-3 days). In the film the mother shows the place where a new bride will sit after coming in home. But in English it is given as the “carpet” (denoting a thick fabric used as a cover for a table or bed- from Old French carpite or Medieval Latin carpita). As you see there is no connection between koshogo and carpet. It would be appropriate if instead of carpet, we used “the wedding curtain” or just wrote as “koshogo” and then gave a footnote.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Films can be a tremendously influential and extremely powerful vehicle for transferring values, ideas and information. Different cultures are presented not only verbally but also visually and aurally, as film is a polysemiotic medium that transfers meaning through several channels, such as picture, dialogue and music. So, we can conclude that film translation plays a great role in linking the cultures.

In past several years Kyrgyz cinematography managed to take its own honorable place in world arena. Although, our “movie-path maker” can not compete with other leaders of cinema world, outstanding directors played the great role in presenting our culture and us, and creating the “Kyrgyz” image.

And the translation itself in Kyrgyz cinematography also is of great importance. It is considered to be the best and the easiest way of presenting our society, our culture and our people. The film “the Wedding Chest” is the good proof of that. Though translation is a little bit formal and can not fully convey the essence of ideas, I consider this film to be one of the best “mediums” that render our national identity.

 

 

 

 

Bibliography:

 

•  Michael Cronin, Translation goes to Movie
• Dirk Geeraerts, Theories of Lexical Semantics
• Vlahov and Florin, “Ne perevodimoe v Perevode” 1980
• Yan Chan A Tentative Analysis of English Film Translation Characteristics and Principles
• “The Power of Film Translation” by Agnieszka Szarkowska
• http://www.tomedes.com/subtitling-and-film-translation-service.php
• http://ianbek http://ianbek.kg/?tag=cinema
• http://www.mydigitallife.info/translate-movie-subtitles-with-subtitle-translation-applications
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460832
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedding_Chest