Song translation and AVT

Abstract

There is no doubt that music plays an important role in people’s lives and, consequently, in different societies and cultures. Through music, the distinctive features of societies and cultures can be appreciated, while, at the same time, its condition of universal language acts as a means of communication among them. Translation Studies has recently started to pay attention to the relationship between translation and music. The study of the translation of songs, opera and other musical products is a subject that can enrich the field. In addition to this, owing to the peculiar nature of the musical text, the translation of music can be linked to other disciplines within Translation Studies, as is the case with AVT. In this work, we will analyse the similarities and differences between AVT and song translation. We will show that some of the translation strategies used in AVT can be applied to other types of multimodal translation, like song translation. We will also consider some cases in which song translation becomes part of AVT, as happens in the translation of TV series or films in which there are songs.

The Translation and Interpretation of Tujia Love Songs “Six Sips of Tea” and “Tangerine Tree”

“…Song lyrics translation is different from literary translation or other types of translation due to some innate limitations. "When translating musical production, the translator is going to be faced with a series of restrictions related to music (melodies, instrumentation), text (rhyme, rhythm, literary figures of speech) or even interpretation (stage directions)" [8] (p. 202). Song lyrics translation can actually be divided into two types: translating for comprehension and translating for singing.…”