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摘 要

由于中国电影市场的飞速发展，中国与西方国家的文化交流越来越频繁，致使越来越多的外国电影涌入中国市场。不可否认，电影的多元化能极大地满足中国人民的精神需求，但同时，这也导致了在一定程度上电影名翻译质量的下降，引起了许多亟待解决的问题。

本文旨在从严复的翻译标准来研究电影名的汉译。本文首先回顾了“信达雅”的发展历程及主要内容，同时综述了学者早前对其的研究和评价。接着本文描述了现代中国电影市场的发展及电影名汉译中仍存在的问题。最后，在“信达雅”的翻译标准的指导下，通过分析中国学者在西方电影名的汉译工作中取得的成就，本文详细说明每一翻译标准的适用条件。

具体来说，“信”的标准在所有翻译里是必须要遵循的；当“信”这一标准已经被应用于电影名翻译，但出来的效果并不能很好地表现电影内容时，我们可以运用“达”来更好地传递原作的信息；而当一个电影名能兼具“信”和“达”时，我们可以运用“雅”来完善它。

通过探讨严复翻译标准的适用条件，本文能在处理翻译问题上给予翻译学者以一定的指导，从而有效改善其译作的质量。因此有益于遏制当今电影市场上存在的拜金行为及其他问题，为英文电影名的汉译在中国电影市场上的规范化做出一定贡献。

关键词：电影名，翻译，严复的翻译标准

• 1. Introduction

In China’s translation history, there appeared many highly influential translation theories, among which Yan Fu’s perspective of translation occupies a quite important position as well as exerts a profound influence on succeeding translation theories. As one of the greatest translators, translation theorists and enlightening thinkers in China, Yan Fu played a vital role in the historical process of Chinese Enlightenment and east-west cultural exchange. But it is commonly believed that the most crucial contribution he has made to the literary circle is the concepts of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” that he proposed in his translation of Evolution and Ethics. Nevertheless, just as Lin Zhang （林璋 2000）said in 2000, “it seems that Yan Fu is not intended to regard the concepts of ‘faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance’ as the principle of translation”, because at that time, these three concepts are raised just to represent the three difficulties in translation. Besides, since the publication of these three concepts, hundreds of scholars have raised doubts about it, among whom there are some well-known scholars.

Although the censure of Yan Fu’s criteria can be heard without end, the practicability and instruction value of it enables it to be regarded as the standard which is accepted by millions of translators to inspect the quality of their translation the moment when it appeared in 1897. As Yu Dafu（郁达夫 1924）once said, “ the three concepts of ‘faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance’ is the golden rule in translation circle, which is known to all.” And He Lin（贺麟1984）said in his book Yan Fu’s Translation that apart from Yan Fu’s translation works, “the second biggest influence he has made to the translation circle is the definition of translation standard.”

• 1. Need for the study

As is known to all, movies, as an important channel to promote cross-cultural communication, have a far-reaching impact not only in their country of origin, but also in countries they are introduced. The reasons why a movie can be a hit are various, such as the actors’ performances are consummate, the lines are impressive or the advance publicity is adequate, above all, an appropriate and profound title is indispensable. A proper title, serves as a signboard, can appeal to audience in the first place; while an unbefitting title will make audiences puzzled and lead the box office earnings to a dismal denouement.

Nowadays, with the cultural exchange between China and western countries being increasingly frequent, more and more foreign movies flood into China. Therefore, the translation of the lines, especially the titles, becomes one of the most crucial topics to scholars who are engaged in the translation work. Since the import of foreign movies, there emerging some excellent Chinese versions of English titles that can perfectly convey the origin meaning of its title, scenario and are fit into its previous style. For example, the movie Ghost’s Chinese name, 《人鬼情未了》is indeed a successful representative. Its title faultlessly reflects the real emphasis of the movie, the unceasing love between a man and a ghost and it leaves the audience enough imaginary space to think before it is shown which mobilizes their interest and thus makes a box-office marvel as well as becomes a legend in the history of Chinese title translation. Nevertheless, sometimes, some translations of title whose aim is to gain a high box-office are so inconsistent with its plot or the main character that can make audience confused and ruin the work’s artistic fascination. For instance, influenced by the success of the translation of The Sting （《刺激》 by Taiwan translators) in 1973, the title of The Shawshank Redemption is translated to《刺激1995》 in order to be eye-catching. Although at that time, its box-office boasted a decent record, its translation was rather a mistranslation. Worse still, as a result of the commercialization of films, some film distributors are bent solely on profit. They would take advantage of some ultra or erotic words to appeal to audience rather than lay emphasis on the quality of titles. Under this circumstance, the quality of title translations becomes worse and worse.

Consequently, the normalization and improvement of the translation quality becomes a problem that brooks no delay. Given that Yan Fu’s concepts of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” can offer us valuable references and translation guidelines, it can be regarded as a translation standard in future title translation market to avoid random translation or even mistranslation.

1.2 Research purpose

The aim of this paper is to analyze and comment on some well-known Chinese versions of English movie titles from the perspective of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” so as to review the accomplishments that have been achieved by Chinese translators and the deficiencies that should be covered up. Therefore, to some extent, it can help scholars to learn from others’ strong points to offset their weakness when translating and will be conducive to curb such kind of money-oriented practices that emphasis more on attracting audience than translating titles on basis of Yan Fu’s criteria of translation so as to promote the standardization of movie title translation.

1.3 Structure of this thesis

This thesis begins with an introduction of Yan Fu’s criteria and a general overview of previous studies on Yan Fu’s t criteria. The body of this thesis is divided into two parts, an introduction to current situation in China’s movie title translation and the application of the three principles. In the first part, the development of today’s movie market and its problems are discussed respectively. The second part is mainly about the practical application of the three principles, that is to say, in what circumstances should they be used. And finally, a conclusion is drawn by pointing out the significance of following Yan Fu’s criteria when deals with foreign movie title translation.

• 1. Literature review

2.1 An introduction to Yan Fu’s criteria

2.1.1 The development of Yan Fu’s criteria

Having been studying in England for almost three years, Yan Fu was greatly influenced by western natural science knowledge and enlightenment thought. While after returning home and seeing China’s inability to defend against enemies, he realized that only relying on technical innovation cannot enhance China’s overall national strength, thus he was determined to make a contribution to China's revitalization through bringing in advanced western social, economic, political and cultural thoughts, especially Darwin’s “natural selection” to China. With such a purpose, he began to translate a series of books that introduce western ideological and cultural system, including Evolution and Ethics（《天演论》）, On Liberty（《群己权界论》）, and A System of Logic（《穆勒名学》） and so on. It was during the time when he undertook such translation practices that he felt his incompetence in translation, thus put forward the concept of three kinds of difficulties in translation, that is, to be “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance”.

Yan Fu’s criteria originally appeared in the preface of Yan Fu’s translation of Evolution and Ethics in 1897, reads "There are three difficulties in translation: faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance. To ensure faithfulness is a hard enough work. If the version is just faithful without expressiveness, it is equal to untranslated ones. Therefore, expressiveness is prior.” Since the concepts of "faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance" incisively and vividly generalized the translation ideas and presented a brand new translation standard, it caused nationwide repercussions and triggered out different comments as soon as it was published.

There’s no denying that Yan Fu’s translation criteria couldn’t cover or represent all translation norms and it sometimes was misused and criticized by scholars at that time and later, however, it played a significant role in laying a solid foundation for theorization and systematization of translation theories and criteria in future as well as prompting the China’s translation theory up to a new stage.

2.1.2 The main content of Yan Fu’s criteria

To have a better understanding of Yan Fu’s criteria, we need to make out what the three concepts of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” are.

Faithfulness means the full and complete conveying or translation of the original content or thought. It first requires translators to comprehend the meaning of the source text and get hold of what the author what to express or convey. If not, it means that there are some deviations in the purpose of translation, for translation is not like innovation, it doesn’t need any creative ideas. In fact, faithfulness signifies to fully restore the source text to targeted readers with the use of the targeted language.

Just as Yan Fu stated, “If the version is just faithful without expressiveness, it is equal to untranslated ones”. Expressiveness demands that the translation must be clear and fluent without any grammatical mistake and the targeted reader can understand the translation easily and completely. If the text is translated word by word, it would possibly result in ungrammatical, incoherent, mechanical or obscure translation works. In short, with the purpose to make translations accepted by targeted readers, translators need to make proper adjustments to fit it into the local cultural environment.

Among the three concepts, elegance is always the most controversial one. At that time, Yan Fu held the idea that only the classic Chinese can be considered as elegant and objected the use of popular language. Hence, it at first meant the translation must be in the classic Chinese. However, with time going on, its meaning gradually changed and now it implies that translation should be esthetically favorable, that is to say, on basis of faithfulness and expressiveness, the style of writing should be elegant and delicate.

2.2 An overview of previous studies on Yan Fu’s criteria

Since the publication of Yan Fu’s translation of Evolution and Ethics, the phrase "faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance" has given rise to numerous debates and researches. The majority claim that the biggest contribution Yan Fu has made to Chinese literary circles or translation circles is the raise of "faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance", which has been regarded as a standard for good translation and has exerted considerable influence on the further development of China’s translation undertakings. Nevertheless, there were some scholars who suspected its authority and made harsh criticisms towards it.

2.2.1 Some doubts and criticisms on Yan Fu’s criteria

Chang Xiefeng (常谢枫1981) once wrote an article named “Faithfulness”, or “Faithfulness, Expressiveness, and Elegance”? to criticize Yan Fu’s criteria. It reads “‘faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance’ have been regarded as a basic principle for literature translation for over eighty years since its emergence. However, it is a pitiful mistake that needs to be corrected for a long time. It’s no exaggeration to say that the defect of itself and people’s worship of it have made great harm to China’s literary translation career.” And that it “is a principle that is chaotic in formulation and is harmful in practice.”

In the book of On Translation Criteria which was published in 1995, He Kuang (何匡1995) expressed his feelings about Yan Fu’s criteria, “Yan Fu’s explanation of ‘faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance’ is unscientific, because as for him, there is no scientific basis for these criteria. Due to this reason, although he has made contributions to translation undertakings in China, the translation standards he put forward are defective.” Instead of following Yan Fu’s criteria blindly, He brought new meanings to the term “faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance”. As far as he is concerned, “faithfulness” means there is no change or misrepresentation in what the author wants to convey to readers in original texts; “expressiveness” requires the translation must conform to the native language; and “elegance” implies the translation should maintain the style of the original one.

Shen Suru (沈苏儒1998), a well-known translator, once authored a book researching Yan Fu’s translation theory. He stated in this book On Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance---Study on Yan Fu’s Criteria that “‘faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance’ are a summary and essence of Yan Fu’s previous experiences on translation. They reflect the objective law of translation instead of indicating it. And the lacking of indicating function makes they are short of accuracy, profundity and standardization that are needed in science.” That is, Shen felt pity for these criteria’s not hinting the objective law of translation and lacking scientific spirit on one hand.

Among all the critical speeches on Yan Fu’s criteria, except for those that doubt it is whether scientific or not, all the others direct the spearhead of their attack at the concept of “elegance”.

As a famous liberal and educator, Cai Yuanpei (蔡元培1924) also enjoyed a high reputation in literary circles for his attainments in literature. In an article commenting on Yan Fu's criteria, he wrote “it (Yan Fu’s translation) seemed to be old-fashioned and too elegant and abstruse for scholars at that time to read, let alone ordinary people.” In other words, he thought Yan Fu’s literary style was difficult to comprehend and the standard of “elegance” needed to change over time.

In 1929, Chen Xiying (陈西滢 1929) wrote a book, On Translation, to air his opinion which was directed against the concept of “elegance”. He pointed out that as regards translators, the concept of “elegance” was not only superfluous, but also a taboo neither in translating literary works nor in non-literary works. Besides, he said, “there is only one standard in translation, which is faithfulness.”

2.2.2 Some compliments and appreciation on Yan Fu’s criteria

Though Cai Yuanpei (蔡元培1924) disapproved the practical significance of “elegance” and doubted Yan Fu’s literary style, he still thought “the standard with which he (Yan Fu) selected books and the way he translated them are very admirable up to now". As Cai stated later in that article, except for Yan Fu’s interpretation and usage of the concept of “elegance”, Yan’s other translation thoughts are something scholars need to learn and follow in their translation work. All in all, although Cai criticized Yan for the concept of “elegance” to some extent, he admired Yan Fu’s accomplishments and the contribution he had made to the China’s translation circles.

When talking about the problem of translation standard, Guo Moruo (郭沫若1954), an outstanding historian, writer and poet in contemporary China, said that the principles of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” are indispensable to a good translation and none of them can be dispensed with if one wants to have a perfect translation. What’s more, he held that idea that “apart from faithfulness and expressiveness, the more elegant the translation is, the better the translation is.”

Guo Hongan (郭宏安1991), a famous Chinese translator once said in his work Commenting on Flowers of Evil: “although there existing various translation theories which are reasonable, few can be as practical as Yan Fu’s criteria from the perspective of their operability.” And he deemed that “‘faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance’ are three kinds of difficulties even in today’s translation.” and that “they are useful standards which can still be followed in literary translation in recent times as long as we can provide them with new explanations and new vitality.”

Wu Chuangun (乌传衮 1992), one of the greatest Chinese translators, once praised Yan Fu for his presenting a set of quite complete translation theory as well as his ideas on attitude towards translation, translator’s quality, principles on naming terms, cultivation of translation talents and so on.

A professor in College of foreign languages of Nankai University, Zhao Xiuming (赵秀明1996), held the view that the principles of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” put forward by Yan Fu are model of translation standards. And he pointed out that these three concepts help to push the aesthetics of rhetoric in translation to the limit.

As stated earlier, Shen Suru (沈苏儒1998) thought it a pity for Yan Fu’s criteria’s lacking of indicating function, but he acknowledged and praised the function of reflecting the objective law of translation. Because of it, the principles of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” have certain theoretical value and realistic directive significance and still have vitality till now.

2.2.3 An objective evaluation on Yan Fu’s criteria

Whether approve Yan Fu’s criteria of translation or not, in the past century, a large number of experts and translators have made a study of it, which implies the important place it occupies as well as the unique significance it has in China’s translation history. And since the publication of it, more and more people with lofty ideals become aware of western learning which helps improve the development of Chinese learning, especially at that time. As mentioned above, the most controversial part of Yan Fu’s criteria is the narrow definition of “elegance” as it is restricted by the environment at that time. So it can be said that Yan Fu’s criteria can be used to its fullest as long as scholars can adjust and optimize the definition of “elegance” as time goes by. In addition, although there are animadversions, the majority acknowledged the unique significance of Yan Fu’s criteria and its dominant position in directing translation work, in this circumstance, in regulating the translation of foreign movie titles.

3. An analysis of current movie title translation from the perspective of Yan Fu’s criteria

3.1 An introduction to current situation in the movie title translation

3.1.1 The development of today’s movie market

Movie, as an artistic and cultural creative product, first appeared in Paris in 1895. In such a short time since its emergence, it changed from just a rudiment to a mature industry which has rapid advancements and great potentials. As time goes on, with its commercialization and systematization, as well as the increasing of people's income, movie has gradually become a kind of mass consumer products that everyone can enjoy whenever or wherever at a low price. And since globalization and cultural integration are inevitable trends, the film markets all over the world are gradually merging together. In year 2012, the total world-wide box office reached up to 34.7 billion dollars, not to mention the box office over the recent years.

Thanks to the burgeoning booming of China’s economy and the high consumption ability because of the rapid development of people’s living standard, China now becomes the second largest film market all over the world. In 2009, China’s box office gross rose sharply to 908 million by 43 percent, after an average growth of 25 percent in preceding five years. According to the statistic of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), China’s box-office revenues added up to 2.7 billion dollars in 2012, accounting for nearly 8 percent of the world-wide grosses. And it is reported that since 2004, US box office earnings have increased by just 6 percent, while China’s have surged fourfold.

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