The Quality of Culture-Specific Items’ Translation in Rob Marshall’s Film Memoirs of a Geisha

Öz

This study analyzes cases of culture-specific items, which are often challenging to translate. Lithuanian voice-over version of Rob Marshall’s film Memoirs of a Geisha is being examined, taking a deeper look into translation of culture-specific items in terms of quality. Quality assessment is one of the most important aspects when evaluating translations. However, audiovisual translation differs greatly from traditional translation, and it can pose difficulties not only translating, but also evaluating translation quality or trying to justify certain choices made by the translator. Hence, the paper seeks to define quality of translation having voice-over and its constraints in mind, and to discuss translation strategies of culture-specific items in the film. To this end, the study relies on definitions of quality provided by Juliane House (2013), categorization of culture-specific items by Willy Vandeweghe (2005), and their translation strategies by Eirlys E. Davies (2003). It is found that the mode of the text in the target language remains the same as the text is always spoken, and it includes narration and dialogues. Mismatches between the source text and the translation mainly appear with culture-specific items that are more difficult to translate (for example, ethnographic references). Overall, the translation quality can be deemed to be good enough, with the translator using translation strategies wisely trying to maintain authenticity where possible.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• audiovisual translation
• voice-over
• culture-specific items
• translation strategies
• quality

Kaynakça

1. Bogucki, Łukasz. 2016. Areas and Methods of Audiovisual Translation Research. Edited by Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Łukasz Bogucki. New York: Peter Lang.
2. Chiaro, Delia. 2008. “Issues of Quality in Screen Translation: Problems and Solutions.” In Between Text and Image: Updating Research in Screen Translation, edited by Delia Chiaro, Christine Heiss, and Chiara Bucaria, 241–256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
3. Chiaro, Delia. 2009. “Issues in Audiovisual Translation.” In The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies, edited by Jeremy Munday, 141–165. New York: Routledge.
4. Davies, Eirlys E. 2003. “A Goblin or a Dirty Nose? The Treatment of Culture-Specific References in Translations of the Harry Potter Books.” The Translator 9 (1): 65–100. doi:10.1080/13556509.2003.10799146.
5. Díaz Cintas, Jorge, and Pilar Orero. 2006. “Screen Translation: Voice-over.” In Encyclopedia of Languages, edited by Keith Brown, 473. London: Elsevier.
6. Díaz Cintas, Jorge, and Aline Remael. 2014. Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. London: Routledge.
7. Franco, Eliana, Anna Matamala, and Pilar Orero. 2013. Voice-over Translation: An Overview. Bern: Peter Lang.
8. Gambier, Yves. 2018. “Translation Studies, Audiovisual Translation and Reception.” In Reception Studies and Audiovisual Translation, edited by Elena Di Giovanni and Yves Gambier, 43–66. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

9. González-Vera, Pilar. 2015. “Food for Thought: The Translation of Culinary References in Animation.” Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura 20 (2): 247–264. doi:10.17533/udea.ikala.v20n2a07.
10. Harrington, John. 1973. The Rhetoric of Film. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
11. Horbačauskienė, Jolita, Ramunė Kasperavičienė, and Saulė Petronienė. 2016. “Issues of Culture Specific Item Translation in Subtitling.” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 231:223–228. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.09.095.
12. House, Juliane. 1977. A Model for Translation Quality Assessment. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
13. House, Juliane. 2013. “Quality in Translation Studies.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies, edited by Carmen Millán and Francesca Bartrina, 534–547. New York: Routledge.
14. Huber, Loreta, and Airidas Kairys. 2021. “Culture Specific Items in Audiovisual Translation: Issues of Synchrony and Cultural Equivalence in the Lithuanian Dub of ‘Shrek the Third.’” Studies about Languages / Kalbų studijos, no. 38, 5–16. doi:10.5755/j01.sal.1.38.24743.
15. Luyken, Georg Michael, Thomas Herbst, Jo Langham-Brown, Helen Reid, and Hermann Spinhof. 1991. Overcoming Language Barriers in Television: Dubbing and Subtitling for the European Audience. Manchester: The European Institute for the Media.
16. Matamala, Anna. 2019. “Voice-Over: Practice, Research and Future Prospects.” In The Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual Translation, edited by Luis Pérez-González, 64–81. New York: Routledge.
17. Memoirs of a Geisha. 2005. Directed by Rob Marshall. Columbia Pictures, Dreamworks Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment, Amblin Entertainment, Red Wagon Entertainment, United Performers’ Studio. Motion picture. Lithuanian voice-over translation.
18. Munday, Jeremy, ed. 2009. The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies. New York: Routledge.
19. Nida, Eugene. 1964. Toward a Science of Translating. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
20. Pagrandytė, Rozalija, and Jurgita Astrauskienė. 2021. “Translation of Culture-Specific Items in Lithuanian-Dubbed Animated Films: A Case Study of Hotel Transylvania and Its Sequels.” Transletters International Journal of Translation and Interpreting, no. 5, 139–162. https://www.uco.es/ucopress/ojs/index.php/tl/article/view/13331.
21. Pérez-González, Luis. 2014. Audiovisual Translation: Theories, Methods and Issues. New York: Routledge.
22. Pym, Anthony. 1995. “European Translation Studies, Une science qui dérange, and Why Equivalence Needn’t Be a Dirty Word.” TTR 8 (1): 153–176. doi:10.7202/037200ar.
23. Vandeweghe, Willy. 2005. Duoteksten: Inleiding tot vertaling en vertaalstudie [Duo texts: Introduction to translation and translation studies]. Gent: Academia Press.
24. Wozniak, Monika. 2012. “Voice-over or Voice-in-between? Some Considerations about the Voice-over Translation of Feature Films on Polish Television.” In Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility at the Crossroads, edited by Aline Remael, Pilar Orero, and Mary Carroll, 209–228. New York: Brill.