The sequel of Chinese Document Translation Information - Sex and the City (1)
(2) Prospective words: The Latin alphabet is more flexible than Chinese. Thousands of new words are created every single day. In the episode titles of Sex and the City, new words were created due to rhetoric requirements. Given the difference between Chinese and English, how are these new phrases translated? e.g., “Ex and the City”, “No ifs, ands or butts”, “Frenemies”, “Coulda, woulda, shoulda”, “Great Sexpectations”.
(3) Prospective formats: Capital letters, lower cases and punctuation are often used to express powerful emotions in literature. Such methods were also used in Sex and the City (e.g., “Escape from New York”, “I Heart NY”, “I Love a Charade”, “An American Girl in Paris.”)
(4) Prospective word meanings:
① Metaphor: “Old dogs, New dicks”
② Synecdoche: “Change of a Dress”, dress meaning female.
③ Ambiguity: “The Big Journey”, Big is the boyfriend of Carrie, the main female character
(5) Prospective grammar: e.g., “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful”, “Games People Play”, and “I Heart NY. “
(6) Colloquial: e.g., “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful”, “I Heart NY”, “The Ick Factor.”
(7) French: e.g.,“La Douleur Exquise!”
(8) Movie quote: The TV series used episode titles from famous movies or literature, such as “Four Women and a Funeral” from the movie “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, “Unoriginal sin,” from “Original Sin,” and “catch-38,” from “catch-22.”
The way to translate the episode titles of the American TV series “Sex and the City” is to show the strength of these episodes. As shown above, screenwriters used different rhetoric to attract the attention of viewers, which is quite challenging to translators. Translators need to have the skills to reproduce the original meaning and style of the title. To present the episode content in Chinese, the meaning should be made close to the original in order to make it intelligible.
If you have other questions, feel free to contact the Chinese Document Translation Club.