Doctor Who is a science-fiction television programme in the UK. The protagonist of this programme is the Doctor. I believe all of you know that the word “doctor” carries two meanings, one is a person with the highest degree from university, one is a person who has a medical degree and treats ill people. Therefore, you might have imagined how people would be confused by his name. Let’s take a look at one of the scene (s 3 ep 1).
神秘博士（中譯）/超時空博士（台譯）/異世奇人（港譯）是英國廣播公司（BBC）的科幻電視劇，劇中的主人翁名叫“Doctor”。懂得英文的人應該知道“Doctor”有兩種意思，其一為博士，二為醫生。
In the first picture, the Doctor said “I’m the Doctor.” However, Martha (the actress), who was serving her internship, didn't get the right meaning of “the Doctor”. She referred “doctor” as the medical one. English speaker would simply understand that this is a word play/ pun of the programme. However, if we want to translate “doctor” into Chinese, we should use two different vocabularies two express the two meaning separately.
Source:
Doctor Who Season 3 Episode 1 Smith and Jones
Thank you for your sharing! I agree that it could be confusing to those who are unfamiliar with English. Very often, translators should consider needs of audience but should not assume that everyone could understand English. I suggest the translator can add a word 'doctor' in brackets next to 博士 and 醫生 so that the audience can see this is a word pun.
ReplyDeleteBy Sabrina
Adding the word “doctor” in brackets could be the simplest way to explain the pun. Even if one does not know English, it would not be difficult to notice that the two words next to「醫生」and「博士」 are actually the same.
DeleteBy Irene
Thanks for sharing! For me, there are two ways to solve the situation.The first one is explanatory translation, by adding footnote, audience can understand the meaning. Though it is a easy way, we cannot expect audience to read much information within a limited time and it diminishes the instant effect. Another is give a substitution to the pun, this preserves the effect to audience, but changes the meaning. I think there is no perfect way to solve the circumstance, it depends on whether the translator wants to preserve the meaning or effect of pun for audience.
ReplyDeleteI think giving substitution to the pun might not be a good idea because it might interfere with the audience's comprehension of the whole text. Therefore, I prefer to preserve the meaning rather than the effect of pun when we could not find a suitable pun for translation.
DeleteBy Irene
This is a really difficult situation. Cultural differences have always been a big obstacle in translation. On the one hand, we want to introduce different cultures to our country through translation. On the other hand, using foreignazation may hinder the way for the readers to understand the text. Therefore, we need to consider deeply about the purpose of translation before choosing which method to translate.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Yoey's idea. Adding footnote seems not so convenient for the audience. Another way to create the comic effect is to use a similar pun in our language, but it is sure not an easy job. Seems like creativity is needed for being a translator.
By Kourtney