Exploring And Translating The Cultural Elements Of Rock Music Based On The Perspective Of Susan Bassnett's Cultural Translation Theory

This paper takes the rock music lyrics as the research object,exploring the cultural information behind the lyrics and the translation process.This paper aims to answer the following questions:If rock music lyrics contain lots of cultural information,should the translator take the cultural elements into account when translating?If so,what kind of translation strategies should be adopted?This paper first clarifies the significance of rock music,and believes that rock music promotes artistic development,social fairness and justice,and has a positive impact on both society and individuals.More importantly,rock music is a cultural phenomenon,and there is a lot of cultural information behind it.This paper selects three cultural elements contained in rock music,i.e.love,personal experience or life attitude,the reflection of social conditions,and gives some famous rock music lyrics as examples.Next,under the guidance of Susan Bassnett's cultural translation theory,this paper summarizes three translation strategies,namely direct translation,decoding and compensation.To some extent,these strategies can help the translator to correctly understand the lyrics.Through analysis and research,this paper draws the following conclusions:By expounding the meaning of rock music,this paper holds that rock music is a cultural phenomenon,and the lyrics contain certain cultural information.In this case,when translating rock music lyrics,the translator should take the cultural elements into account.Through the use of translation strategies of direct translation,decoding and compensation,the translator can better understand the cultural information behind the lyrics,and can translate the lyrics correctly.In addition,this paper also hopes to further enrich the study of lyric translation,and provide some reference and academic support for the research related to rock lyrics.However,this paper also has certain limitations.First of all,the lyrics translated through the translation methods above are more suitable for music websites or MV subtitles,but not completely suitable for singing.Secondly,due to the limited research on the translation of rock music lyrics and the fact that rock music is not widely spread in China,the official translated version of rock music lyrics are rare.Some songs even have not had their lyrics translated.Therefore,the translations cited in this paper are either from the Internet,or from the author herself,which makes this paper a more subjective one.