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history.” Here absolute universalisation rather than repetition was used as the translation
strategy. Deleting sliced bread and replacing it with “history” will help the audience
understand what Joey intended to say.
Season 2, Episode 14, Scene 3 contains a reference to a well-known American
character, mime artist Marcel Marceau, who became something of an institution in
American culture. In this scene, Chandler is moaning about the bracelet given to him by
Joey. Chandler thinks that the bracelet makes him repellent to women. While Chandler
is talking, Joey comes along and overhears him. Chandler tried to cover up his attitude
after realizing that Joey is present. He says: “We were just doing some impressions over
here. Do your Marcel Marceau.”
The Chinese subtitle reads: “兄弟,我们正在玩…名人模仿秀。表演你的马歇马
修.” The translator has used repetition as the strategy once more, by giving a sound
translation of Marcel Marceau‟s name. It is reliable, but not effective, as Chinese
viewers are probably not familiar with Marcel Marceau. They might even think that
Marcel Marceau is a character in a famous play or a celebrity that is always imitated by
other people.
Therefore my suggested HPTE would be:
“兄弟,我们正在玩…名人模仿秀。你要加入吗?” which translates back as: “We
were just doing some impressions over here. Would you join us?” In this HPTE deletion
was used as the strategy, in view of the fact that it is hard for Chinese viewers to
understand why Chandler mentioned Marcel Marceau here. Even if putting some extra
information (using creation as the strategy) might help them know that Marcel Marceau
is a famous French mime artist, they would not understand why Chandler mentioned
this artist here. This would require Chinese viewers to have profound knowledge of the
US culture before they can understand this pun. Therefore, deletion is the best strategy
here.
6.3 Summary of translation strategies used
Regardless of the type of cultural reference, translators generally opted to use
repetition as a translation strategy. Translators generally did this either by means of a
literal translation or, in the case of names of people and places, by means of a sound
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