Tips for Translating Popular Entertainment Texts

Translators working in the field of popular entertainment can take an important cue from politicians, used car salesmen and journalists… or at least the popular image we have of those kinds of people. 

Stereotypes: 

• • A politician will say anything for a vote. 
• • A used car salesman will say anything to sell a car. 
• • A journalist will write anything to sell a newspaper. 

Underlying Principle:

• ¬ Your message is only as good as the result it brings and it can and should be tweaked to get better results.

The number one rule of translation is: Be faithful to the original; don’t add anything or take anything away. When translating popular entertainment, though, success often depends on bending this rule to the limit, and sometimes – if you’re working closely with the original writer – disregarding it altogether. Your main goal is to sell more merchandise; any changes to achieve that end should be welcome.

Here are three of the many situations where a literary translator has to use a more flexible approach than a technical or legal translator: 

1. 1. Source culture behaviors and conventions that are viewed differently in the target culture 

A woman who walks up to a man who is not her significant other and kisses him on the cheek may not be viewed as unusual in Italy or Puerto Rico, but a woman who does the same in Istanbul or Beijing might receive some unwelcome propositions. Someone who likes a glass of wine with lunch might be viewed as a distinguished and refined person in California, New York and most of Europe, or as someone who lacks self-control and has loose morals in parts of the American South and the Middle East. An overly literal translation might convey something the author didn’t intend or confuse the reader. At the very least you’ll have to give some enlightening background on the custom. In some contexts, it may be necessary to insert a different behavior all together (Japanese > English, “bow” > “handshake”) in order to convey the author’s core message pithily and without distractions.

Even the way a language uses the word “you”, “him” or “her” might be really different from one language and culture to another. Some languages don’t distinguish gender, in other words, no he and she – which speakers of these languages may mix up when speaking English. Other languages go further, distinguishing not only gender but also social relationship, distance from to the speaker and even various levels of age. In some cases, the original language does not provide enough information to produce the translation without consulting the author. Sometimes, it gives you more than what you need, but don’t ignore the possibility of using that information to inform the rest of your translation.

1. 2. Subtle meaning in fictional place and character names 

Sometimes the choice of character or place names is an integral part of an author’s style. Take J. R. R. Tolkien who was so dissatisfied with how the first two translations of Lord of the Rings rendered his character and place names that he wrote a treatise on the subject for future translators to use as a reference. The town Esgaroth, for example, didn’t need to be translated at all since, in the original, it was an untranslated name from a fictitious language. The original Swedish translator, though, apparently thought Mr. Tolkien had the French delicacy in mind and dubbed the town Snigelöv… which, of course, means “snail leavings”. 

Sometimes character and place names are essential to a specific work of literature’s style – the Asterix series by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, for example. Translators of Asterix have taken considerable liberties with the humorous names of the characters… and quite successfully so. For example, the original name for Obelix’s canine companion is “Idéfix” which, if you only know English, means nothing. In French, it gives the notion of someone who is stubborn and hard-headed (idée fixe = set idea). Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge came up with a stunning solution: Dogmatix. With the creation of this name, they preserved the meaning and humor of the original and added a pun, since the character is a dog.

1. 3. Different pop cultural canons

More often than not the source and target cultures often have different pop cultural canons – in other words, different familiar famous people and art. For instance, in a recent Portuguese to English translation, an author wanted to encourage his readers not to give up after a setback and cited Herbert Vianna – a musician who suffered a coma but bounced back and had several post-coma hits – as an example of someone who persevered despite difficulties. I could have gone into a belabored explanation about who Hebert Vianna was to try to get the point across, but a thought occurred to me: Jerry Garcia, a parallel scenario of a musician who bounced back from adversity (in his case a diabetic coma). I was somewhat hesitant to discuss the option with the author since I knew I was on the fringes of my purview as a translator as it was. However, since the author had been such a pleasure to work with up to that point, I moved forward. He said he loved it, thanked me for the contribution and gave me the green light to include it in the translation.

Good translation in the field of popular entertainment, like so many other things, is about knowing what the rules are and knowing when breaking them skillfully is a thing of beauty.

Popular Entertainment in Translation

We live in a global village. Odds are the components for the screen you’re looking at right now came from at least three different countries. The salad I just had for dinner had lettuce from Mexico, mandarin oranges from South Africa and local tomatoes all drizzled with a Malaysian soy vinaigrette dressing and washed down with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (originally a French import to Kiwiland). I have to say, globalization can be quite delicious. 

When it comes to language-based entertainment, though, we seem to be a bit choosier. Unlike most other language communities, in English-speaking countries, the vast majority of imported popular music, books, TV and movies are from another English-speaking country. There has been, however, the occasional exception to this rule. 

Though Italian and French operas – as well as the odd German or Russian opera – have been staged in English-speaking countries for centuries, we could hardly call the opera scene “popular” entertainment. Opera’s less elitist cousin musical theater, though, could be considered to be on the fringes of popular entertainment, and seems to be especially tolerant – not to say fond of – French-language imports. Herbert Kretzmer’s 1985 English-language adaptation of Les Misérables along with the Andrew Lloyd Webber version of Phantom of the Opera (English lyrics by Charles Hart, Richard Stilgoe, Alan Jay Lerner et al.) have become two of the longest-running plays on Broadway. Some other Tony-nominated shows translated from French are La Plume de Ma Tante (1959), Irma La Douce (1961) and Cage aux Folles (1984, winner). 

A handful of songs in foreign languages have received a warm reception through the years (Dominique (1963), Sukiyaki (1963), Eres tú (1973) and Macarena (1996)). A very small number of songs have also done well in translation – particularly Brazilian and French Bossa Nova tunes like “Girl from Ipanema” and “Watch What Happens”.  The bilingual versions of Volare, by Dean Martin and others, is an example of a partially-translated hit song.

In the past decade or two, though, everything has changed. English-speakers around the world are shelling out pounds, dollars and rand for English translations of Japanese manga. English translations of Latin American writers like Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende, and Paulo Coelho are selling big throughout the Anglosphere.

What does this mean for the into-English translation industry? I think it's safe to expect this upsurge to continue, so stay tuned for a few tips on how to translate creative works well in an upcoming post.

Dealing with Set Phrases: Undertranslating, Overtranslating and Getting It Just Right

Imagine this scenario: You're translating a document for a new client. Though the writer is fairly good in terms of grammar, he tends to squeeze clichés and idioms into nearly every sentence (think a bird in the hand that beats around the bush in a cart before a gift horse in the mouth). You have to make a tough choice. Do you just translate these set phrases literally? Do you spend precious time searching Google for a similar phrase in the target language? Do you just explain the thought or rewrite the sentence? Here are the pros and cons of these three approaches with some examples:

● Literal Translation (word-for-word):

Pros: Quick and easy. No bothersome research.

Cons: This is likely to leave the translation full of gobbledygook that the reader doesn’t understand at all or that they would only make sense of if they were able to read the original in the first place. For example, several years ago, I back-translated a horrible translation of some instructions for a physical therapy patient. One of the instructions was “lie back” (phrasal verbs like this are the simplest and most common type of set phrases). The translator had rendered the phrase into Spanish as “mentira en la parte de atrás”, which means “lie” – as in untruth – “in the back” – as in the back of the room. At the very least, the reader might have some comic relief that the original author didn’t intend. 

Example 1, Literal Translation:

Portuguese: “Cada macaco no seu galho”

English: “Each monkey on his branch”

● Searching for the Perfect Equivalent:

Pros: A perfect equivalent, when one exists, is the ideal option. It carries the meaning of the original and the cultural impact of a time-honored turn of phrase, including the occasional rhyme. The commonest of idioms usually have equivalents in other languages, “to put the cart before the horse”, “to kick the bucket”, etc.

Cons: Sometimes no equivalent exists, or if one does, it’s much more obscure in the target language than in the original. You can waste precious time on a wild goose chase… or wind up with nothing but plums as the French say.

Example 2, an Idiom with a Direct Equivalent:

Portuguese: “Cão que ladra não morde”
(literally: A dog that barks won’t bite)

English: “His bark is worse than his bite”               

● Explanation or Rewriting the Sentence:

Pros: It’s often easier and quicker to put on your copywriter’s hat rather than searching for a pie-in-the-sky equivalent. This tactic successfully conveys the basic meaning of the original, and saves the potential embarrassment of word-for-word translation. If an equivalent doesn’t come to you after a minute or two of thinking and Google searching, you’re probably better off doing a little retooling of the sentence. This alternative is preferable to using a set phrase you found in some dusty old tome after hours of searching… that no one’s ever heard of. 

Cons: If a perfect equivalent does exist, you’d be wasting an opportunity to hit the nail squarely on the head, so don’t jump too quickly to this alternative.

Example 3, an Expression with No Perfect Equivalent:

Portuguese: “É melhor não cutucar onça com vara curta”
(literally: It’s better not to poke a jaguar with a short staff)

Option 1, Translate using an outdated, unknown equivalent: “To sup with the Devil, use a long spoon”

Option 2, Incorporate a well-known English Idiom: “If you’re going to play with fire, you ought to at least wear a good pair of gloves.”

Option 3, Explain according to context: “She knew he was a fierce negotiator, and she knew she had better go to the table with the goods or bow out all together.”

Just for fun, see how you’d translate a couple of the set phrases purposely embedded in this article into another language you know.