Dealing with sounds in sub-titling
Thread poster: Nepali_English
Nepali_English
Nepali_English
Nepal
Local time: 20:09
English to Nepali
Nov 4, 2016

I am doing a film subtitling project and I am facing a couple of issues with it.

1. The major one is while translating dialogues that are built on rhyming words. For example in one of the dialogues a character says: One son-in-law is like 'diamond' ('Hira' in Nepali), the other is like caterpillar ('jhusil kira' in Nepali). The dialogue makes sense in Nepali, because Hira and Kira rhymes. But when I translate it in English, it doesn't give the same sense.

In another ex
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I am doing a film subtitling project and I am facing a couple of issues with it.

1. The major one is while translating dialogues that are built on rhyming words. For example in one of the dialogues a character says: One son-in-law is like 'diamond' ('Hira' in Nepali), the other is like caterpillar ('jhusil kira' in Nepali). The dialogue makes sense in Nepali, because Hira and Kira rhymes. But when I translate it in English, it doesn't give the same sense.

In another example, the dialogue is: 'One daughter is like a queen (Rani), the other is like ash (KhaRani)'

I have tweaked the words slightly and translated them as:

For first example:
'One son-in-law is like 'diamond pillar', the other is like caterpillar.'

For second example:
'One daughter is like queen, the other is like mannequin (instead of ash, because the character was saying something worthless by saying 'ash')'

Does that work? Is that ethical ?

How do other fellow translators deal with such situations in sub-titling in other language pairs ?




2. The other issue is also related to sound of certain words. Certain words have two meanings in Nepali and the dialogue is formed around that notion. For example, one of the character's son's name is 'Iman'. The word 'Iman' also means 'integrity' in Nepali. So, when the character says: I have got integrity ('Iman' in Nepali), the other character replies saying: He has not just one, but two 'Imans' . I makes sense in Nepali.

But, when I translate it in English I can't say: He has got two 'integrities'. How do I deal with such situation?

In another example: a character's name is Safal, which means 'successful' in English, and the dialogue he uses is: My name is Safal (successful), so I haven't learnt to become 'A-Safal' (Unsuccessful).

Now, I can't translate it as 'My name is Successful, I haven't learnt to become unsuccessful.'
and if I translate as: 'My name is Safal, I haven't learnt to become unsuccessful', it doesn't make any sense.



I guess such situations also arise in other language pairs. I would be most grateful, if my fellow translators and seniors here shared some insights. Thank you.
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Sylvano
Sylvano
Local time: 15:24
English to French
Welcome to translationland Nov 5, 2016

Play on words, puns, polysemy, alliterations, rhymes, etc: that's why, among other things, translation (for the screen) is a very specific job, if not an art. It happens in all languages (as it is one of the bases of dialogue, humor, poetry and fiction) and you have/it's your job to deal with it every time in a different way. It's the creative part of translation.

 


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Dealing with sounds in sub-titling







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