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Chapter 3 Appropriateness in Lyrics Translation -- A Case Study of Lana Del Rey's Lyrics Translation in QQ Music

歌词翻译中的适当性——以拉娜·德雷在QQ音乐中的译本为例

易扬帆 Yi Yangfan, Hunan Normal University, China

Abstract

In today's diverse society, the aesthetic demand for foreign music is gradually growing. Among the various genres of music, English pop music is the most widely circulated. However, there is little research on the translation of lyrics in China, and the translation works are of varying quality, which is worthy of further discussion and research. Lana Del Rey is a popular American singer, widely known for her retro lyrical style and cinematic sound. This article uses appropriateness theory as a guide to study the translation of Lana Del Rey's lyrics in QQ Music, in the hope that it will have some reference value for the translation of lyrics.

Key Words

Appropriateness;English Songs;Lyric Translation

摘要

在社会多元化的今天，人们对国外音乐的审美需求逐渐增长。在多种音乐类型中，又以英文流行音乐流传最为广泛。然而国内鲜少有对于歌词翻译的研究，翻译作品更是良莠不齐，值得深入探讨和研究。拉娜·德雷是时下热度很高的美国女歌手，以其复古式的词曲风格和电影质感的声音广为人知。本文以适当性理论为指导，对QQ音乐内拉娜·德雷的歌词翻译进行研究，希望对歌词翻译作品能够具有一定的参考价值。

关键词

适当性；英文歌曲；歌词翻译

Introduction

Due to the rapid development of the Internet and multimedia, many English songs have been translated into various versions upon their release. However, due to several factors, the quality of the translations is generally not high. However, as people's aesthetic standards improve, the translation of lyrics is gradually being taken seriously. This is evident from the fact that Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Lyrics have their origins in poetry, and many lyricists still write words using imagery, rhetoric, and rhyme to create poetry, so many translators unconsciously translate lyrics in the same way they translate poetry. But because the lyrics, when set to an arrangement, are more emotionally focused than poetry that focuses not only on form but also on emotion, the lyrics are sometimes even without a fixed form. This is why translators can experience an emotional discontinuity in the translation process, i.e. some words in the translation are chosen more to fit the form than the emotion, and there is a disconnect between the emotions above and below. This paper examines the translation of the lyrics of Lana Del Rey's song in QQ Music as an example of a word that adequately conveys the singer's lyrical content but neglects the consistency of emotion, and attempts to address this phenomenon using appropriateness theory.

1.Xu Yuanchong's Translation Theory in Lyric Translation

1.1 Three beauties Theory

It is well known that Mr. Xu Yuanchong is an accomplished translator of poetry. He has been engaged in literary translation for more than 60 years, and his translations cover Chinese, English and French languages. In the second half of the 20th century, Mr Xu Yuanchong proposed the "Three Beauties Theory", based on Lu Xun's "A History of Chinese Literature", in which he said that "beauty of meaning touches the heart, beauty of sound the ear, and beauty of form the eye". In other words, poetry should not only be faithful to the original text, but also "beautiful in meaning", "beautiful in sound" and "beautiful in form". He said that the beauty of meaning should reproduce the beauty of the context of the original text, such as symbolic meaning, punning meaning, deeper meaning, meaning beyond words, etc.; the beauty of sound mainly refers to the rhyme, rhythm and double sound of the original text; and the beauty of form requires the translation to maintain the form of the original text as far as possible (e.g. length, counterpoint, etc.). The translation should not only convey the original meaning of the original text, but also the rhythm and charm of the original text. The "Three Beauties" theory plays an important role in guiding the translation of poetry. The three beauties are likeness of meaning, likeness of sound and likeness of form. The pursuit of likeness means conveying the content of the original text, without mistranslation, omission or over-translation. In Mr Xu's view, the translation of poetry must reflect rhyme and meter. "If the original poem uses rhyme but the translation does not, then the imagery, mood and atmosphere of the original poem cannot be transplanted in any way, because the content and form of the poem are inseparable". As for the beauty of form, this refers mainly to the 'length' and 'symmetry' of the poem. "It is best to achieve similarity of form, or at least 'general neatness'." Mr Xu also believes that the three beauties are not juxtaposed, but rather have a priority and order of importance. "Of the three beauties, beauty of meaning is the most important, beauty of sound is secondary, and beauty of form is even less important. We need to achieve all three beauties as much as possible while still conveying a beautiful meaning. If we cannot have all three, then we may not require similarity of form or sound in the first place; but we must convey the beauty of sound and form of the original text as far as possible.(Xu Yuanchong,2006:105)

1.2 Triple Transformation Theory

The "Triple Transformation Theory" (lightening, equating and deepening) is a theory of translation further summarized by Mr. Xu Yuanchong based on the "Theory of Three Beauties".(Han Xintao,2021:145-147)In literary translation, especially poetry translation, the "Three Beauties Theory" has been accepted by the public as a kind of translation aim theory. The "Triple Transformation" is the method to achieve the "Three Beauties". "Beauty" is easy to understand, but what is "transformation"? Qian Zhongshu once proposed that the highest level of translation is to "transform the realm", and the so-called "transforming the realm" means "not only not to involve the traces of rigid and far-fetched because of language habits, but also to completely ensure the rhythm of the original work ", Xu Yuanchong believes that the "three transformations" include equivalence, but not reciprocity, but creation. The so-called "lightening" means abstracting some specific nouns, generalizing special nouns or proper nouns, or cutting out some words that are redundant to the translation, in order to convey the "beauty of meaning" of the original. By "equating", he means that adjusting the syntax and syntactic structure of the translation to make it more uniform in style and to make it read more naturally and fluently, provided that its meaning and context are basically the same as the original. The so-called deepening, as opposed to lightening, is to make abstract nouns concrete and general nouns special, using allusions and special imagery when necessary, to evoke deeper emotional resonance in the reader.（Han Xintao,2021:145-147）[Please add citation info here]Corrected by--Yin Meida (talk) 13:33, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

1.3 Triple Transformation Theory in Lyric Translation

Lyrics are a literary form similar to poetry, and in ancient times poetry and lyrics were originally one and the same, only later to become different literary genres due to different tracks of development. A good lyric is no less than a good poem, and therefore the form of translation of lyrics can be very open. The essence of a lyric translation is no different from that of a normal translation. It is characterized by the need to match the tune and to express the emotions that the song itself is intended to convey in its phrasing. In the case of tunes, the translation of lyrics should not be confined to a rigid translation between languages, but should reflect more of the rhythm and spirit of the music. Music, as an art to be appreciated, needs to pay special attention to the beauty of the lyrics themselves, to discover as much as possible the beauty of the original words, and to sublimate the beauty of the song as a whole. Mr Xu Yuanchong's 'Three Transformations' can effectively guide the practice of translating lyrics, through which translators can flexibly translate lyrics in order to bring out the beauty of the lyrics to the fullest.(Hou Weixia,2019:166-167)

2.The Specific Application of Xu Yuanchong's Translation Theory in Lyric Translation

2.1 Case Study

Lana Del Rey is popular for her retro and cinematic music, especially her song young and beautiful for The Great Gatsby, the lyrics of which have been translated again and again in China, in various versions, but all with great beauty. Lana Del Rey's use of imagery is extremely skilful, similar to Chinese poetry, and the translator is able to borrow the techniques used in translating poetry to convey the beauty the original author intended. In this section, the translations of Lana Del Rey's ride in QQ Music are excerpted to analyse how the translator uses the triple transformation theory to convey the beauty of the original work.

Lana Del Rey is popular for her retro and cinematic music, especially her song Young and Beautiful for the movie The Great Gatsby, the lyrics of which have been translated over and over again in China, in various versions, all with great beauty. Lana Del Rey's use of imagery is extremely skilful, similar to Chinese poetry, so the translator is able to borrow the techniques used in translating poetry to convey the beauty the original author intended to. In this section, the translations of Lana Del Rey's ride in QQ Music are excerpted to analyse how the translator uses the triple transformation theory to convey the beauty of the original work.Corrected by--Yin Meida (talk) 13:10, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

Ride

I’ve been out on that open road 我流浪已久 You can be my full-time daddy white and gold 你就是我的全部 或苍白或绚烂

The translation of these two lines uses a lightening translation strategy. In the first line, the word 'out' means exposed, which is a good expression in the original, but a direct translation would lose the original meaning of the song, and it would be better to use the word wandering than to use an exposed translation, which would be more in keeping with the mood of the original song. In the second sentence, "white and gold" also creates a sense of old and yellowed vintage film, but if translated directly as two colors, not only will the reader be confused, but the beauty of the original will also be lost. Instead, the word 'gorgeous' is used to obscure the specific colour of gold, and at the same time, to create a sense of living a luxury and dissipation life

I’ve been traveling too long 我已经厌倦漂泊不定的生活

The translation of this lyric uses a deepening translation strategy. To say that I've been travelling for too long is to convey what the singer wants to say, but in the context of the song it seems abrupt and pale, so the translator chooses to make 'travelling' figurative, pointing out that it is a life of wandering that makes her bored.

I hear the birds on the summer breeze 夏日的微风拂过我的脸颊 我听见鸟儿悦耳的声音

The translation of this lyric employs the equating strategy. Equating is not merely an equivalence in form or meaning; it favors a flexible form of reciprocity. While the original is translated directly as I hear the birds singing in the summer breeze, the translation separates the imagery of summer, breeze and birds and focuses on the breeze, creating a sense of being in the same car as the author, enjoying the breeze and listening to the birds singing. This is an equivocation of meaning, and such an adaptation not only does not detract from the beauty of the original words, but also sublimates them.

2.2 Remaining Deficiencies

In the song Ride, the overall translation is generally in line with Mr. Xu Yuanchong's theory of triple transformation, splitting up the imagery rather than confusing the reader by merely sticking to formal equivalence, turning the erratic wandering into a way of life that is easy for the reader to understand, and blurring some Western expressions and using some flamboyant adjectives to lighten the sense of cultural difference. The song as a whole expresses the singer's constant state of wandering, being lost or tired on the road, feeling hopeless and lonely about the rest of his wandering, and is a rather sad and confused song. However, the translation of the song's chorus turns the singer's emotions upside down：

Been trying hard not to get into trouble 尽一切努力不让自己落入深渊 but I’ve got a war in my mind 可内心还在交战不休 I just ride just ride 所以我不停漂泊 无畏艰难 放荡不羁

It can be seen that the tone of the song before is one of confusion and helplessness, and the singer is tired and weary of this wandering life, but here the translation is suddenly used without fear of hardship and debauchery, which seems to express a positive feeling of still wanting to continue wandering, considering the confusion and helplessness of the present moment to be worthless difficulties, hoping to continue wandering like this tomorrow, and still having hope for tomorrow, which is in contrast to the previous This is the opposite of the tiredness and torment of the previous stanza, which makes the translation of this stanza appear to be emotionally disconnected from the previous one.

And this phenomenon is not only present in this one song. It also occurs in Lana Del Rey's California:

Cause this crazy love I’ll catch you on the flipside 我疯狂地迷恋你 我会再次俘获你的心

California is one of the most frequent images in Lana Del Rey's songs, often with an unspoken meaning of a flower in a mirror. This song was written by Lana Del Rey for her ex-boyfriend, expressing the sentiment that even after parting, I still miss the unattainable beauty of you. The songwriter expresses the lightness of letting go and hoping to meet him again as a friend, but if not, it's okay to wish him all the best. The translation here, on the other hand, expresses a nagging attitude that I want to catch your heart again, which is different from what the song was trying to convey, and there is also an emotional disconnect.

There is also a similar phenomenon with the track white dress included in the recent new album：

When I was a waitress 当我还是位服务生的时候

Wearing a white dress 穿着一袭白色连衣裙

Like look how I do it 来看看我是如何功成名就

Look how I got this 看看我是如何功成名就

In this song, as the title suggests, white dress is a very important image throughout almost the entire song. She continues to refer to being 19 years old, as she did in Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman like Me to Have - but I Have It, and it is clear that the white dress is a symbol of innocence, just like a 19-year-old girl, innocent and untainted by the world. Even Lana Del Rey herself says that the song will sound grotesque, but at the same time she calls it the saddest song of her songwriting career. What she shows in this song is a nostalgia for her past, a pity for the young girl who didn't know any better, a fondness for a time when things were free and uninhibited, revealing a sense of loss and bitterness that past thing cannot be traced. She really loves the innocent and unaware self that had the most genuine happiness, so she is disappointed that the self that has everything now is no longer able to be happy. When the singer is nostalgic, she is nostalgic for the happiness she had in the past, and that happiness is everything, not the word "功成名就" as used in the translation. “功成名就” means both have fame and fortune, but what fame and fortune did the singer have when she was young? The translation here is therefore inappropriate and makes a big difference to the nostalgic feeling the singer is trying to convey, and there is an emotional disconnect, too.

3.Additional Translation of the Appropriateness Theory

3.1 The Reason of the Deficiencies

The emotional disconnect mentioned above is very common, but why does it occur? This section explores in detail the reasons why this phenomenon occurs.

Firstly, there is the competition between players. With the widespread spread of Western culture and the development of technology in China, more and more music players are appearing on the scene, each with a large number of songs in English, and with Chinese translations so that listeners who do not know English well can grasp the general meaning of the lyrics. However, there are currently many players on the market with their own translations, which are not uniform and of varying quality. This article is based on QQ Music, which has a larger market share than any other player in China, but the translation does not stand up to careful analysis and contains many errors. This is partly due to the fact that the players focus too much on the first release of a song, and once they have the exclusive rights to a song, they are eager to upload it, hoping to attract more listeners and increase the number of plays, without paying much attention to the quality of the lyrics, and sometimes there are even mistakes and omissions, not to mention the quality of the translation.

Secondly, because the player does not require a high level of translation, the translation of songs is often not done by professional translators, but by amateurs who are very fond of the artists and are eventually adopted by the player. This has led to a certain degree of unevenness in the quality of the translations. The translators do not have the benefit or expertise in translation, but rather take it as a hobby, which results in the translators not having high expectations of themselves when translating and not being able to grasp the quality of their own translations, but rather translating according to their own feelings, with predictable results.

Thirdly, the first thing that translators feel about the lyrics, because of their own culture, is the beauty of the form and diction that is expressed in them. For example, Lana Del Rey's lyrics are extremely beautiful, using a lot of imagery such as summer, breezes, wine, sunshine, gems, luxury cars, bustling fairs and old-fashioned blues to create a sense of luxury as if one were in America in the last century, enjoying a life of glamour and luxury. So translators have mostly focused on bringing out this beauty in her lyrics, often ignoring the real emotions she was trying to convey behind them. As a Chinese translator, it is true that there are many instances in Chinese poetry where the emotion is not expressed directly but is all piled up with imagery, but the lyrics, as mentioned above, are different from poetry and are more emotionally focused. The song is more about the empathy of the listener and the singer than about creating a beautiful picture of the scene you are in, and whether the listener would understand the emotion the singer is trying to express if they were in that situation.

After all this analysis, translators often ignore the third aspect of emotion when translating the original text, thus creating an emotional gap. Perhaps listeners do not pay attention to the lyrics of a song when they listen to it, but when they want to savour the lyrics, they will adopt the same approach as in poetry, analyzing the form and context and then start to explore the emotions that the original text is trying to express, and emotions are what listeners pay more attention to, so it is necessary to analyse and correct the translation of the lyrics appropriately.

3.2 Additional Translation Guided by Appropriateness Theory

3.2.1 Appropraiteness Theory

Having explored the reasons for this phenomenon in the previous section, this section uses appropriateness theory to examine how translations of lyrics can be adapted to improve their quality. It can be seen that Xu Yuanchong's translation theory is no longer fully applicable to the translation of lyrics, so we need to find some other guiding theory to guide the translation of lyrics. Here I would like to refer to the theory of appropriateness. Appropriateness theory is a new theory that has been proposed to guide translations, and it is based on all the previous theories. The question of appropriateness may be answered differently in different times, in different roles, from different perspectives, in different disciplines, etc. The evaluation of translation appropriateness can only be relative, not absolute. It is therefore necessary to establish a system of evaluation that assesses different aspects such as the function of the text, fidelity to the author, the concept of direct translation/translation and the extent to which the translation 'works' in the language into which it is translated. The principle of appropriateness has been discussed and used more often in relation to ethical, moral and ideological translations, for example, Should you report things you overheard from the foreign negotiation team to your own team to enhance your own team’s chances? Is it appropriate to tell a standard joke in the target language when the country’s leader has told a racist joke? What implications does it have about the foreign country’s leader, when he laughs at your standard joke? The country’s leader may think he laughed at his (racist) joke. Is it appropriate to take over the role of a negotiation participant when you are hired for interpreting? (See the contribution in this volume.) When you are a wartime interpreter: Is it appropriate to translate propaganda and to interpret for a dictator? Is it appropriate to translate the German order “Feuer!” [Shoot!] by the German commander into French if the collaborating French soldiers would commit a crime against humanity when they understood and executed the order? （Martin Woesler&Ricardo Moratto，2020：15）However, the author believes that since this theory is a development of all translation theories, it should be biased towards the shortcomings of all translation theories in practical guidance, rather than just a few aspects. Therefore, when the translation of lyrics can no longer be guided only by Xu Yuanchong's theory, a new theoretical system should be sought to guide and correct the translation of lyrics.

3.2.2 The Ways to Adapt Translations through Appropriateness Theory

And how to embellish is the next specific question that the author explores. The author believes that the processing and treatment in embellishment can be referred to some techniques of expressing emotions when writing. Although we are in different times, have different identities and perspectives, and speak different languages, we all feel the joy of getting a high score in an exam, the anger when something we like is maliciously damaged by someone else, and the sadness when a loved one dies. There are many different ways of expressing our feelings, but we all end up describing them in much the same way. So here we need to take into account both the cultural differences between the two countries when translating, and the similarities and differences in the way emotions are received. For example, white is a symbol of purity and innocence in the West, and is often used at weddings to express the purity and innocence of the bride, or the sincerity and purity of the feelings, but in the East, especially China, white is often a symbol of sadness, and is often used at funerals to express the grief and sorrow for the passing of the ancients, and all the glories of the past are eventually left as a pale sadness.(Bai Changshan, Wu Yuntu, WuJInlian,2004:107-109)

So when making a translation, it is important to consider what kind of expression will be more acceptable to the reader of the translated text. It is best to translate poetry into a poem, and poetry is often a literary language, which is unfamiliar to the reader, so even if the emotion is expressed, the reader will feel the strangeness of the emotion. Therefore, I think that we can use some more approachable and everyday language to express the emotion. Because if you want to evoke empathy in the reader, you should use descriptions of things or scenes that are familiar to the reader to evoke a sense of empathy. For example, the translation of the song white dress, mentioned above, uses the word '功成名就', which is obviously rarely used in everyday language and is a literary term. Here we can use more common language and change it to "看我如何得到这一切", which reduces the abrupt complacency about fame and fortune brought about by the word "achievement" and also reflects the singer's confidence in the past years that everything in the world was inevitable. It is also an allusion to the innocence that she misses most when she looks back on her time, when she had nothing but joy.

Alternatively, the language may be more 'naturalized', i.e. expressed in a way that is more acceptable to the culture of the reader of the translation. For example, in the translation of the interception of the song California mentioned above, the phrase "I'll capture your heart again" is a very obvious Western expression. In Eastern cultures, the expression of one's love for one's favourite person is often subtle, hidden and not so much known to others. A very famous example of this is when Natsume Soseki said to one of his students in a lecture, "How would a Japanese person express that I like you? He would not say outright that I love you, but rather that the moon is so beautiful tonight." (Natsume Soseki,1977:4-5)Haruki Murakami also said in his prose, "If I love you and you happen to love me, when your hair is messed up, I will smile and ruffle it for you, and then I will leave my hand on your hair for a few seconds. But if I love you and you don't happen to love me. If your hair is messy, I will only tell you gently that your hair is messy."(Haruki Murakami,1987)So here I think we can use a more subtle oriental language and change it to "我会与你在故事的另一面相遇", which changes the original translation from expressing the reluctance of wanting to dwell on the ex, to expressing a sense of helplessness that the relationship has passed away, and a sense that if there is a chance we might only meet by some kind of chance. This is in keeping with the emotional tone of the song.[Please add the citation info here]Corrected by--Yin Meida (talk) 13:26, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

4.Conclusion

As the arts have diversified, so have the forms of literature. In the past, lyrics were always considered to be too straightforward and superficial to have much literary value. But as songwriters have increasingly focused on their lyrics, hoping to convey some value to the public, they have become more and more profound and aesthetically analysable. Since 2016, when the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan, lyrics have been increasingly studied as a form of literary expression. However, no specific research has been carried out in this direction in China, and the quality of translations of lyrics on the market is mixed, so further research into the direction of lyrics translation is worthwhile. Although the translation of Lana Del Rey's lyrics is one of the best among the English songs in China, and the translator has already restored to the greatest extent the beauty that the original author wanted to convey to us in the lyrics, there are still many shortcomings that need to be improved after a thorough study, one reason being the limited ability of the translator and the need for further development of translation theory. The translators are heavily influenced by past translation theories, resulting in translations that sometimes do not meet the current requirements of the people of today. Translation theory is not co-eval, but should be ephemeral. Translation theories should not be static in different times and in different capacities and perspectives. Therefore, the principle of appropriateness proposed by the author here is ephemeral, which is based on the existing translation theories in the past and can be constantly updated over time, receiving and absorbing more translation techniques derived from the progress of the times. This article only lists one of them, and on the basis of Mr Xu Yuanchong's theory of trivialization, which was used in the past to translate poetry, further modifications and adjustments have been made to the translation of lyrics, so that the translation of lyrics can go further from the original and be more in line with the aesthetic needs of people in the current era. Appropriateness theory is still an emerging theory, not very mature, and there are still many areas that need to be corrected and adjusted, but as the times develop, it will also mature and help people to solve more difficulties and challenges encountered in translation.

5.References

  • Bai Changshan, Wu Yuntu, Wu JInlian 白常山,乌云图,吴金莲(2004).从比喻修辞格的异同看英汉文化差异[J] Cultural differences between English and Chinese from the similarities and differences of metaphorical rhetoric.内蒙古民族大学学报(社会科学版)Journal of Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities(Social Sciences Edition),4:107-109.
  • Han Xintao 韩欣桃(2021). 许渊冲“三化论”在英文歌词翻译中的应用——以泰勒·斯威夫特的作品为例[J] The Application of Xu Yuanchong's "Theory of Trivialization" in the Translation of English Lyrics--Taylor Swift's Works as an Example.中国民族博览,China Ethnic Expo,16:145-147.
  • Hou Weixia 侯卫霞(2019).试论基于翻译美学视域下的英文歌词翻译策略 [J] An Experimental Translation Strategy for English Lyrics Based on the Aesthetic Perspective of Translation.佳木斯职业学院学报 Journal of Jiamusi Vocational College,11:166-167.
  • Mark Shuttleworth&Moira Cowie(2004).Dictionary of Translation Stud-jes(M).Shanghai:Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press,61
  • Martin Woesler&Ricardo Moratto(2020).Diverse Voices in Chinses Translation and Interpreting: Theory and Practice(M).Berlin:Springer,15
  • Woesler, Martin. (2021). Ending the "100‐schools" dispute between translation theories by integrating them and measuring the "appropriateness". International Symposium on Translation Communication 2021. Hunan: Hunan Normal University.
  • Xu Yuanchong 许渊冲(2006).翻译的艺术[M] The Art of Translation.北京：五洲传播出版社.Beijing: Five Continents Communication Press,105.



written by --Yi Yangfan (talk) 06:23, 12 December 2021 (UTC)Yi Yangfan

Corrected by--Yin Meida (talk) 13:27, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

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