功能對等理論下Someone Like You兩中譯本對比

李夢　褚楊楊

Abstract：With the speeding up of the process of "global village"， people are showing great curiosity to English songs. How to translate English songs properly and how to lead the listeners into the world of true feelings are two significant subjects translators need to discuss. This thesis chooses Someone Like You as the example， under the guidance of Functional Equivalence Theory， to compare the two Chinese versions in three chapters.

Key words：Functional Equivalence Theory； song； version

Introduction

Song， as a kind of artistic performance， has a long story in China. Thus how to spread Chinese splendid culture and absorb helpful cultural resources has become the primary problem. Translation， as the only way， has been a tough task for people since the ancient time. The author will choose one popular song as example to briefly analyze the practical application of song translation.

1. Nidas Functional Equivalence theory

In 1969， the famous American translation theorist Eugene A. Nida put forward functional equivalence theory. Unlike the traditional translation theories that mainly stress the correspondence between the source language and target language， Nidas functional equivalence theory reader?s response. Nida points out that in order to reach the ideal translation， it is necessary to find the closet natural equivalence. Nida's functional equivalence theory open up a new perspective to translation studies.

2. Features of English Songs

“Sound is one of the basic means to load the aesthetic information of language.”（Liu Miqing， 2005：90） Different from translation of other areas， song translation is more difficult and special since except the lyric translation， people must pay attention to the rhythm to make the song easy to sing.

So far as the features are concerned， English song has features as follows： refined and simple language； succinct， regular sentence patterns with regular rhymes and rhythms； polysyllabic， with one syllable fitting one musical note； simple structure and repeated sentences.

3. Comparison of the Two Chinese Versions

After the research of the Functional Equivalence Theory and the basic knowledge of English songs， the author will choose a popular song Someone Like You as example to compare the two Chinese versions.

（1） Comparison of the Title

The English title of the song is Someone Like You， which focuses “someone” who likes “you”. The author finds two versions-- one is the vernacular version and the other is the classical version.

In the V version， the title has been translated into “愛人如你”， which contains the key word “你”. Besides the translator specific “someone” to “愛人”， enduing “someone” clear meaning. However， in the C version， the title has been translated into “另尋滄海”， which has thrown the imaginary “you” and use the word “滄海” to replace “someone”. In Chinese dictionary， “滄海” has three meanings--1） sea； 2） another name of the East China Sea in ancient China； 3） the name of the sea island in the fairy tale. Its clear that these three meanings are not fitted to the context. The complicated implication of the imaginary “滄海” is too hard and obscure to understand to some uneducated people. Since the primary purpose of song translation is helping readers understand the feeling of the singer， the understanding of the readers is convincing.

（2） Comparison of the Lyrics

The classical version of the sentence “Never mind I will find someone like you” is “毋須煩惱，終有弱水替滄海.拋卻糾纏，再把相思寄巫山”. Before the appreciation of the classical version， the author would like to introduce a famous poetry of the Tang Dynasty-- <離思> from Yuan Zhen. 曾經滄海難為水，除卻巫山不是云.取次花叢懶回顧，半緣修道半緣君.

Lots of people are familiar with the first two sentences， which are quite famous and popular to express the feeling of yearning. Yuan Zhen used these two metaphors to express his love and yearning to his only wife， his only lover--Wei Cong. So the later generation use “滄海” and “巫山” to express the feeling of miss and yearning. When people come back to the classical version， people can pick out the two main imageries-- “滄海” and “巫山”. As the author explained before， these two imageries are constructed to convey the girls dismay and yearn of the past between she and her ex boyfriend. Since the classical Chinese is more implicit， the use of the classical imageries is appropriate and peculiar， expressing the shy and hesitate of the girl. However， because the classical Chinese is complicated and hard-understood， without related knowledge of the imageries “滄海” and “巫山”， target readers maybe confused of the impression. If the target reader is an uneducated man， perhaps hell treat it a joke. Thus， it is obvious that the vernacular version is better.

Conclusion

Under the guidance of the Equivalence theory， the author compares the two Chinese versions of the song and comes to the conclusion that in modern time the vernacular version is more acceptable. And during the research and comparison， the author finds that the classical version is not absolutely wrong. The use of classical Chinese imagery can make the translation graceful and afford much food for though. As a beginner in translation， the author would like to make contribution to the development of song translation.

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