Các chiến lược áp dụng trong dịch lời bài hát nhạc trẻ từ tiếng việt sang tiếng anh

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER STRATEGIES IN TRANSLATING VIETNAMESE TEENAGER SONGS INTO ENGLISH Supervisor: Vương Thị Thanh Nhàn Student: Bùi Thị Mai Hương Course: QH2011.F1.E19 HANOI – 2015 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC ÁP DỤNG TRONG DỊCH LỜI BÀI HÁT NHẠC TRẺ TỪ TIẾNG VIỆT SANG TIẾNG ANH Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Vương Thị Thanh Nhàn Sinh viên: Bùi Thị Mai Hương Khóa: QH2011.F1.E19 HÀ NỘI – 2015 ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I: Bui Thi Mai Huong, QH2011.F1.E19, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Hanoi, 2015 Bui Thi Mai Huong ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Vuong Thi Thanh Nhan, for her precious guidance, valuable advice as well as her inspriration which were the decisive factors assisting me in finishing the paper on the right track My sincere thanks also go to my foreign interviewees whose great kindness provided me with useful ideas and information to complete my paper I am also grateful to my friends whose helpful advice and comments are always beside me whenever needed Last but not least, I truly appreciate the support and care from my family and my friends from the beginning to the end of the research i ABSTRACT As music became a thriving industry around the world, the translation of song lyrics among languages acts as a stimulating tool for the development of the industry Following this global trend, Vietnamese translators have also made remarkable efforts to create English translated versions of Vietnamese songs However, the number of translated songs, especially teenager songs, remains limited while no standard has been established to assess these translations, therefore hindering the translated songs from appropriate recognition of audiences In this paper entitled “STRATEGIES IN TRANSLATING VIETNAMESE TEENAGER SONGS INTO ENGLISH”, Vietnamese and English versions of song lyrics were compared and analysed based on Newmark’s theory of translation methods and procedures and Koller’s theory of formal equivalence in order to identify strategies frequently employed in the Vietnamese – English translation of teenager songs and their equivalent effect Eight Vietnamese teenager songs were chosen on purpose as the subjects of the research Strategies were acknowledged and then sorted out into adaptation and semantic translation methods While analysing songs translated by applying semantic translation method, the researcher pointed out three subclasses of this method which are omission, addition and paraphrase ii TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I ABSTRACT II TABLE OF CONTENT III LIST OF FIGURES VI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VII CHAPTER 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Research aims and research questions 1.3 The significance of the research 1.4 The methods of the research 1.5 The structure of the research CHAPTER 2.1 Theoretical background 2.1.1 Song 2.1.2 Translation 2.2 Translation methods and procedures 2.2.1 Translation methods 2.2.2 Translation procedures 2.2.3 Translation of songs 2.3 Equivalence and Equivalence effect 11 iii CHAPTER 14 3.1 Design of the study 14 3.2 Phase one 14 3.2.1 Sample selection 14 3.2.2 Data collection procedures 15 3.2.3 Data analysis procedures 16 3.3 Phase two 17 3.3.1 Sample selection 17 3.3.2 Data collection procedures 17 3.3.3 Data analysis procedures 18 CHAPTER 19 4.1 Research question 1: What strategies are applied in translating Vietnamese teenager songs into English? 19 4.1.1 Adaptation 19 4.1.2 Semantic translation 23 4.2 Research question 2: To what extent the translations of those songs achieve equivalent effect? 31 CHAPTER 34 5.1 Summary of the research 34 5.2 Limitations of the research 35 5.3 Suggestions for further research 35 REFERENCES 36 APPENDICES 38 iv APPENDIX 38 APPENDIX 48 v LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure The percentage of most commonly used strategies vi 31 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SL: Source language TL: Target language vii CHAPTER CONCLUSION This chapter presents the results delivered from the thesis and draws a conclusion on the work of the researcher It also estimates the possibility of further research in the future The chapter ends with the sum-up of the thesis’s contribution and significance to translation field 5.1 Summary of the research The research is devoted to study about strategies applied in Vietnamese – English translation of teenager songs basing on Newmark’s theory of translation methods and procedures and Koller’s theory of formal equivalence After analysing semantic features of eight Vietnamese teenager songs selected, the researcher wrote up some main findings of the research: On text level, adaptation and semantic translation are detected as common methods used by translators in the translation of song lyrics Translators who use adaptation act as the second authors of the songs They rewrite the whole lyric within existing musical constraints while preserving only the songs’ plots, characters and messages These translators are usually foreigners who know more about target language than source one On the other hand, translators applying semantic translation tend to be more loyal to original lyrics They translate the texts from source language to target language word by word and sentence by sentence Understanding fully the original songs, domestic translators are likely to prefer this translation method For songs translated by semantic translation method, omission, addition and paraphrase are frequently used translation procedures Possessing 52% of all the strategies used in translating six sample songs, omission is considered as the most commonly employed procedure Following this procedure with an appearing rate of 30%, addition is ranked second and succeeded by paraphrase with 18% All three translation procedures hold a strong point of allowing translators to preserve musical patterns while causing certain problems in the conveyance of songs’s meaning in detail 34 All translated lyrics of selected songs are assessed as successful at delivering the overall messages of original songs Most of them can be sung along with the existing musical sound beats However, none of them achieves naturalness in expression Besides, the translations still reveal certain mistakes and weaknesses in terms of vocabulary and grammar which should be improved for better quality 5.2 Limitations of the research In spite of the researcher’s effort, shortcomings are inevitable due to the lack of resources and time pressure Firstly, the number of songs selected as research subjects is limited Therefore, the research’s findings on common strategies used in Vietnamese teenager songs translation are only relative and cannot be applied to the translation of every teenager songs from Vietnamese into English Secondly, there is a modest number of interviewees In addition, the interviewees are foreigners who are not familiar with Vietnamese language as well as Vietnamese music style Thus, within a short time of listening to totally strange sound beats of strange songs with only a copy of those songs’ lyric in word, their assessment of the singability of those songs cannot be perfectly reliable Besides, because of the researcher’s limited knowledge about translation theory, the mistakes in analyzing data were unavoidable 5.3 Suggestions for further research From the limitations mentioned above, the researcher suggests forthcoming studies to widen the scope of study The larger amount of data should be studied to increase reliability of the findings Beside studies on identifying strategies used in song translation and their effectiveness, other researches on evaluating the quality of translated versions of song lyrics also need to be conducted to set an assessment framework or standards for song translation so that the quality of translated songs is enhanced, which helps them gain more widespread popularity Also, the scope of song translation study should not stop at teenager songs but expand to other types or genres of music 35 REFERENCES Baker, M (1992) In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation London: Routledge Denzin, N K., & Lincoln, Y S (2005) Handbook of qualitative research Thousand Oaks: Sage Duong, V A (2000) Ca từ Âm nhạc Việt Nam Vietnamese Institute for Musicology Hartman, R & Stock, F (1972) Dictionary of Language and Linguistics In Bell, R.T (1991), Translation and Translating London: Longman Haupt, E (1957) Stil – und sprachkundliche Untersuchungen zum deutschen Schlager (Unpublished PhD thesis) Munich: University of München Hurtado Albir, A (2001) Traducción y traductología Madrid: Cátedra Jakobson, R (1960/2001) Lingỹớstica e Poộtica, Lingỹớstica e comunicaỗóo Sóo Paulo: Cultrix Kearns, J (2009) Strategies In Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha, Routledge Encyclopedia or Translation studies London and New York: Routledge Koller, W (1979) Einführung in die Übersetzungswissenschaft Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer Larson, M (1984) Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross-Language Equivalent Boston: University Press of America, Inc Low, P (2006) Translation of songs: What kind matches your purpose?, Journal of Singing - The official Journal of the National Association of teachers of singing (May - June 2006) Merriam, S B (2009) Qualitative research: A guide to Design and Implementation California: John Wiley & Sons Munday, J (2001), Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications London and New York: Routledge Newmark, P (1980) Approaches to Translation Oxford: Pergamon Press Newmark, P (1988) A Textbook of Translation London: Longman Nguyen, T D (2001) Tôi viết Ca khúc Tiếng Việt Trẻ Publishers Nida, E (1964) Toward a Science of Translating Leiden: E.J.Brill 36 Nida, Eugene A & C.R.Taber (1969/1982) The Theory and Practice of Translation Leiden: E.J.Brill Nkwi, P., Nyamongo, I & Ryan G (2001) Field Research into Socio-cultural Issues: Methodological Guidelines Washington, D.C.: UNESCO Phan, T Q (2010) Danh mục hát dịch [Weblog post] Retrieved from http://baihatdich.blogspot.com/p/danh-muc-bai-hat-dich.html Schleiermacher, F (2012) On the Different Methods of Translating In L Venuti (ed.), The Translation Studies Reader (pp 43-63) New York: Routledge Schulte, R (1980) Life as Translation Texas: University of Texas Press 37 APPENDIX ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED VERSIONS OF SAMPLE SONGS VẦNG TRĂNG KHÓC - THE MOON CRIES (1) Vietnamese English Author: Nguyễn Văn Chung (2001) Translator: Tyrantlubu Đã khơng cịn người yêu hỡi, It is gone - the good times, the times đôi ta bên không rời when you and I were side by side Ngồi cát nhìn biển đêm, hát vu vơ Sitting here, watch the waves, singing câu tình ca songs of you and me Trái tim buồn thương nhớ, đau xót My heart aches - I miss you, why must đơi ta mau chia lìa we go different ways tonight? Đời giông bão nhiều đắng cay, Life's a storm with heartache, blowing trôi mau tình nồng away my love from you Thì thơi em đừng mong nhớ, đừng There's no point, don't feel sad, don't thương tiếc chi thêm đau lòng regret don't you feel bad Tình phơi pha, em anh But our love, blown so far, you and I người nơi we're so apart Ngồi nơi đơn cơi, vầng trăng Sitting here loneliness, moon cries out, khóc rơi sơng dài stars feel my pain Tiếc cho tôi, tiếc cho người cho bao Sympathise with your pain and with all yêu thương trao the love we had Gió đơng buồn Sad east wind… 38 Khóc chi người anh biết, Don't you cry, because I know no one muốn mai sau chia ly đôi đường planned for us to be apart Tình yêu đến bỏ đi, vui với Love will come, and will leave, there muôn đời are few whose love won't part Chắc tìm duyên mới, anh Maybe when, you find love you will mau quên bao ân tình soon in time forgot bout me Và em chúc người quen, bên I will bless, your new love, hope that anh yêu anh thật lòng she's the one you need Thì thơi em đừng mong nhớ đừng There's no point, don't feel bad, don't thương tiếc chi thêm đau lịng regret don't you feel sad Tình phôi pha, em anh But our love, blown so far you and I người nơi we're so apart Ngày mai sau dù gặp nhau, xin As life flow, I'll see you, please give cho lời onto me one word Để không quên êm đềm mà tình Won't forget, the good times that you yêu xưa trao have once gave to me Giấc mơ đầu The first dream… 39 VẦNG TRĂNG KHÓC - THE MOON CRIES (2) Vietnamese English Author: Nguyễn Văn Chung (2001) Translator: Only Brian (2006) (Ver 1) Đã khơng cịn người u hỡi, Wipe your tears walk away đôi ta bên không rời There's a lesson that has yet been told Ngồi cát nhìn biển đêm, How love comes and it goes hát vu vơ câu tình ca Down the stream to where unknown Trái tim buồn thương nhớ, Trust your heart and your soul đau xót đơi ta mau chia lìa You will turn the pain inside to gold Đời giông bão nhiều đắng cay, When you find your true love trôi mau tình nồng He will guide you down the road Thì thơi em đừng mong nhớ, Don't let go don't give up đừng thương tiếc chi thêm đau lòng Have the faith to stand again Tình phơi pha, What we shared disappeared em anh người nơi You and me will never be Ngồi nơi đơn cơi, Sitting here side by side vầng trăng khóc rơi sơng dài Look upon the crying moon Tiếc cho tôi, tiếc cho người Ashamed for me ashamed for you cho bao yêu thương trao What we had so long ago Gió đơng buồn Gone away… 40 EM TRONG MẮT TÔI - HOW I SEE YOU Vietnamese English Author: Nguyễn Đức Cường (2008) Translator: Dreamyblue001, Tyrantlubu Em đẹp không cần son phấn Pretty without makeup Duyên thầm xinh, thật xinh, hiền You look very angelic Khơng quần jeans, giầy cao gót Don't need jeans or high heels, Em chọn riêng em áo dài, duyên dáng You choose for yourself áo dài, so fine Giống hoa bên thềm Like the blooming flowers Ngát hương không khoe sắc màu Giving off those colors Ngàn đóa hoa rực rỡ khơng sánh They don't look half as pretty as you Nhẹ nhàng tung bay tà áo dài Your softly blowing áo dài, Em phụ nữ Việt Representing Ánh lên bao rạng ngời người phương Đông Shining beauty from Eastern lands Người đẹp dáng xinh Are you an angel Hay anh Or am I just Ngập tràn hạnh phúc bên em bừng lên khúc Flooded in awe by you and your xuân xanh ngời charming beauty 41 Người gái Việt mặc áo dài A Viet woman, in her áo dài Đẹp khắp bốn phương nét Á Đông Radiating, oriental Một ngày nơi xa, chiều buồn lang thang, One day by chance, in foreign lands, she tình cờ ngang qua came my way Một tà áo trắng, bờ vai xinh không A white flutter, pretty shoulders, quen unfamiliar Lịng ấm áp, gửi gió nói miền A warming heat, I felt complete oh my yêu thương homeland Tôi yêu em, nhớ em I love you, I miss you 42 BÀI HỌC ĐẦU TIÊN - THE FIRST LESSON Vietnamese English Author: Trương Xuân Mẫn Translator: Phan Tuấn Quốc Thưa thầy em thuộc, học sáng nay, Master I've learnt all by heart the giảng có bụi phấn trắng bay bay lesson this morning I could see chalk tóc thầy dust on your hair Giọng thầy tiếng hát, lời thầy As if you're singing or reading poem, thơ, cho em ước mơ, tới chân trời taking me with dreams to open rộng mở horizons Bài học có bóng hình núi sơng, u The first lesson was with rivers and thương cánh đồng, nối tiếp đường cha mountains and rice fields, and with ông ancestors Bài học ấm êm lời ru mẹ, The first lesson was with mom's cò trắng bay qua câu ca dao lullabies, with flying white storks and ngào with sweet folk songs Bài học ấm êm lời biển xanh, căng The first lesson whispered by blue no cánh buồm chở tiếng hò quê sea, full of sailing boats with country hương yodels Bài học cám ơn thầy, thầy dạy The first lesson you've taught me, the đường tới tương lai xây đất nước đẹp giàu way to future building good nation Bài học em thuộc thầy ơi, I've learnt by heart your first lesson ca yêu Tổ Quốc không em that's to love my motherland I'll never quên forget 43 ĐƯỜNG LÊN ĐỈNH NÚI - ROAD TO THE MOUNT Vietnamese English Author: Hoàng Vân (1998) Translator: Phan Tuấn Quốc Cùng hát vang lên câu ca Let's sing the song loudly Chúng ta lên đường vượt đèo leo dốc Then we will climb up the mountains Đỉnh núi Olym cao vời vẫy gọi The high Olympus still calls for bao gian nan those (who) overcome hardship Đường tiến tới khoa học, thử thách chí kiên The path to science, the way of cường patience Đỉnh núi vinh quang chờ dẫn The glorious mount still waits for đầu those (who) come foremost Một vòng nguyệt quế cho người chiến thắng A winning wreath will be placed on chiến thắng chiến thắng the winner's neck (An olive wreath waits for the winner winner winner.) 44 MÁI TRƯỜNG MẾN YÊU - LOVING SCHOOL Vietnamese English Author: Lê Quốc Thắng Translator: Phan Tuấn Quốc Ôi hàng xanh thẳm mái trường Over the branches of the trees in mến yêu the yard, Có lồi chim hót âm thầm tựa There's a bird singing about my nói teacher Vì hạnh phúc tuổi thơ cho đời thêm sức He taught us a lot to enliven the sống world Thầy dìu dắt chúng em với lòng thiết To make a better world for tha children's happiness Khi bình minh sáng phố phường We're still sleeping while the ngủ yên dawn's coming to town Khi giọt sương long lanh đọng When the dewdrops are still on the green leaves Thấy bước đến trường em, mang tình With a termless love, he goes to yêu ước mơ school alone, Cho ánh mắt trẻ thơ cho khúc Teaching the little kids to sing with nhạc dịu êm melody Như thời gian êm đềm theo tháng năm Time-like love goes by serenely Như dịng sơng gợn theo gió Like a stream rippled with the winds Mang tình yêu thầy đến với chúng Bringing love to school, he teach us em how Để dựng xây quê hương tương lai sáng ngời To construct a bright future nation 45 BỤI PHẤN - CHALK DUST Vietnamese English Author: Lê Văn Lộc Vũ Hoàng Translator: Lee Kirby Khi Thầy viết bảng, bụi phấn rơi rơi I love the way you changed my life Có hạt bụi nào, rơi bục giảng You opened up my heart and mind Có hạt bụi nào, vương tóc You encouraged me to follow my Thầy? dream(s) Em yêu phút giây I loved all those days, Thầy em, tóc bạc thêm when you showed me the way, Bạc thêm bụi phấn to trust in myself Để cho em học hay and learn well each day Mai sau lớn, nên người How could I forget, Làm quên ? the time that we shared? Ngày xưa Thầy dạy dỗ You helped me grow up Khi em tuổi thơ to an adult instead 46 CHÊNH VÊNH – (Not yet) Vietnamese English Author: Lê Cát Trọng Lý Translator: Lee Kirby (04/08/2010) Thương em anh trèo non cao For you, I’d anything Mua mưa thâu mây tan mệnh bạc Take flight, late night, silently Thương anh em lội sông sâu For me, you’ve done many things Trôi hương trôi hoa tan phận ngọc Sacrifice, protecting lies, your family Còn chần chờ chi anh Oh can’t you see, its easy Hôn em, ôm em cho nát chênh Just come here with me and crush this vênh disease Ừ tình điên khát say Love’s so extreme, insane Hôn em, ôm em nát chênh vênh Why hesitate, am I blinding your way? Thương em thương tình đa ma``ng Tried, tired, falling, falling sleepless eyes Yêu trăng 30, quên Recognise time flies, forgetting my life Thương thương phận long đong Chest pain, torn brain… I’m suffering Yêu tan mong manh, tan nhật Fragile, empty smile, I’m nguyệt helpless Thương tâm inside… 47 APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS I am Huong, a senior student majoring English Translation and Interpretation in University of Languages and International Studies I am doing my graduation thesis on song translation and need some foreigners to help me to answer some questions The answers to these questions will considerably support my graduation thesis The more detailed your answers are, the better my thesis can be So please give it proper consideration I deeply appreciate you spending your valuable time helping me with this Do you find those English lyrics singable? (Does the lyric match the musical rhythm in each song?/ Can you sing English lyrics along with Vietnamese original musical beats?) What message or meaning you think the songs carry (based on the English lyrics)? Do those English lyrics sound natural? Do you have any other comment about those English lyrics? 48 ... NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC ÁP DỤNG TRONG DỊCH LỜI BÀI HÁT NHẠC TRẺ TỪ TIẾNG VIỆT SANG TIẾNG ANH Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Vương Thị Thanh Nhàn Sinh viên: Bùi... Methodological Guidelines Washington, D.C.: UNESCO Phan, T Q (2010) Danh mục hát dịch [Weblog post] Retrieved from http://baihatdich.blogspot.com/p/danh-muc-bai-hat-dich.html Schleiermacher, F (2012) On the... Newmark, P (1988) A Textbook of Translation London: Longman Nguyen, T D (2001) Tôi viết Ca khúc Tiếng Việt Trẻ Publishers Nida, E (1964) Toward a Science of Translating Leiden: E.J.Brill 36 Nida, Eugene