When we decide to watch a movie, we may first look at the name of the movie. Therefore, the name of the movie is very important.
Here is the example of back translation of movie.
Original:The Full Monty
Chinese Translation: 光豬六壯士
Back Translation: Six Naked Pigs
光豬 means naked, but not naked pigs and it does not include any "pig" meaning even it has a "pig"(豬) word. The back translation actually leads to a misunderstanding that Hong Kong has mistranslated the name. This is the problem of back translation. It is because the Chinese translation actually tried to use domestication that translating in a common Cantonese term so that the Hong Kong people can be attracted more easily. How do translator translate or back translate something somehow reflect the translator's knowledge of the source language and the values.
Interesting Topic hahaXD
ReplyDeleteThere are many occupy central posts including mine. When I scanned your post, my eyes open wide.
However, there is less bilingual elements in this post.
Ivy
I was attracted by the picture actually@@
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting example of back translation.
But i am wondering is the "back translated" movie title being used officially?
Mia:)
Hello Cherbi, funny example for back translation. And I love that your article is quite short.. As in Germany we translate every movie title, many strange titles appears. I always have to search in the internet for the original english title, because when I am doing back translation it is really different. So the movie "Frozen" is called "die Schneekönigin", which back translated would mean "the queen of snows". Pretty different, isn't it?
ReplyDelete