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My suggested HPTE would be:
“我不会自己坐在家里,看着电视上的人大声喊倒数。” which can be translated as:
“I would not sit at home watching people on TV count down aloud.” In my translation
approach, limited universalisation is used as an alternative. Chinese viewers do not
know who Dick Clark is, but they do know that American people have a tradition of
counting down at Time Square. Therefore, they will surely understand Chandler‟s
frustration if he stays home alone and cannot join the cheering crowd. It also respects
the original line, because Dick Clark is the man who is reporting countdown every year
in New York.
Season 1, Episode 4, Scene 12 also contains a reference to an American institution in
the form of well-known novelist Danielle Steel. In this scene, Monica, Phoebe and
Rachel are talking about Polo, Rachel‟s Italian boyfriend. It seems that Rachel is really
in love with her boyfriend, when she says: Rachel: I mean, we are way past the fling
thing, I mean, I am feeling things that I‟ve only read about in Danielle Steel‟s books,
you know? The Chinese subtitle reads: “我想,我们已经远远超出玩的范围了,我现
在的感觉只有在 Danielle Steel.的书里才会找到。” Here, the translator has used
repetition as the strategy, by translating the name Danielle Steel directly. It is not
effective. Danielle Steel is nameless in China. Few Chinese readers have the knowledge
that Danielle Steel wrote many popular fiction novels about love, especially how people
display love when their relationship is under threat. It is impossible to explain this to the
audience with a single line, but repetition is not the most appropriate strategy to help the
audience understand the scene.
My own suggested HPTE would be:
“我想,我们已经远远超出玩的范围了,我现在的感觉只有在最棒的爱情故事里
才能找到,你知道吗?” which can be back translated as: “I mean, we are way past the
fling thing, I mean, I am feeling things that I‟ve only read in the best books about love,
you know?” to achieve this HPTE, deletion was used as the strategy. It is impossible to
inform the audience of who Danielle Steel is and what books she wrote. In other words,
repeating her name will not evoke the same association in the Chinese audience as it did
in the US audience. Viewers would only understand Rachel‟s feelings after reading
some books written by Danielle Steel. For this reason, the best strategy is to delete the
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