On The Translation Of Figures Of Speech In The Subtitles Of Documentaries

As films and television programs have become a bridge for international cultural exchanges,studies on subtitle translation have grown more important.Similarities and differences in history and culture result in corresponding similarities and differences between the rhetorical systems of English and Chinese,making their translatability relative and therefore,flexible.All these characteristics require different methods in subtitle translation in order to enhance its quality.This paper aims to compare the rhetorical devices used in English and Chinese for the study of distinctive techniques of translation from English to Chinese in subtitle translation,taking the English documentary Planet Oil as a case.In order to obtain desirable results,this paper uses two research methods.First,literature review,summarizing studies of the definition,categories and translation of rhetorical devices,as well as studies of domestic subtitle translation and translation of figures of speech.Second,case study,using examples to discuss the figures of speech used in the documentary subtitle text and techniques for their translation.Three categories of rhetoric devices are analyzed,i.e.,semantic rhetoric,structural rhetoric and phonetic rhetoric.It is suggested that translators should adopt flexible translation methods or techniques to convey the original meaning,sometimes at the cost of losing the original image(s).When the translator can find the equivalent or similar rhetoric devices in the target language and the corresponding expression,then the technique of literal translation can be adopted.While the translator cannot find the similar rhetoric devices,like phonetic rhetoric,in the target language,or he cannot find the corresponding expression even for the same rhetoric devices,the translator should adopt the technique of free translation or combine literal translation and free translation.Thus,the translation could have a similar effect on target language readers as the source text has on the source language reader while retaining its original writing style.