Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Department of English

and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Hana Mekinov

Options and Choices in Musical Film

Lyrics Translation

Masters Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Ing. Mgr. Ji Rambousek

2011

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,

using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

..

Authors signature

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank to Mgr. Simona Javrkov for her comments and suggestions

and to Ing. Mgr. Ji Rambousek for his comments and advice.

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 5

I THE THEORETICAL PART..................................................................... 7

1 Audiovisual Translation............................................................................... 7

1.1 Subtitling ................................................................................... 8

1.2 Film Subtitles............................................................................. 9

2 Research................................................................................................... 11

2.1 Research Strategies................................................................ 13

2.2 Fansubs .................................................................................. 18

2.3 DVD ........................................................................................ 21

3 Translation and Music............................................................................... 22

3.1 Opera translation..................................................................... 24

3.2 Functional approach................................................................ 25

II THE PRACTICAL PART .................................................................... 31

1 Czech musical........................................................................................... 31

1.1 Czech musical films ................................................................ 34

2 Starci na chmelu ....................................................................................... 36

2.1 Subtitles .................................................................................. 39

3 Noc na Karltejn...................................................................................... 54 3.1 Subtitles .................................................................................. 56

CONCLUSION ........................................................................................... 68

APPENDIX ................................................................................................. 71

WORKS CITED.......................................................................................... 86

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INTRODUCTION

The aim of this thesis is to explore a particular section of audiovisual

translation from the functional perspective - musical song lyrics subtitles; taking

into consideration the latest developments in song lyrics translation and

contemporary tendencies in subtitling.

The Theoretical part of this work consists of three sections. The first section

is devoted to the definition of audiovisual translation and its classification,

further focusing on subtitling in general and film subtitling, and its position within

the film industry. The next section explores the research on audiovisual

translation, research strategies and unifying standards for subtitling. Because

the recent research on subtitling includes unofficial translation of subtitles, brief

description of the specifics of fansubbing will be given together with a few

words on Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), because it may offer new opportunities for translators of subtitles. Various approaches to the analysis of the translation

connected to music (opera, song lyrics etc.) are observed in the third section of the thesis.

The Practical part will be introduced by a brief history of the Czech musical,

staged in a theatre and film musical; to provide a context for the analyzed films.

The two musical films I have chosen for analysis are Starci na chmelu and Noc

na Karltejn. English subtitles of these films offer two different approaches to the song lyrics subtitles translation. My analysis is based on an article called

Choices in Song Translation by Johan Franzon published in The translator

(2008), which explores singability in print, subtitles and sung performance. According to him, translation of song lyrics should aim for verbal and musical

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fidelity, every translation achieves different level of fidelity depending on the

purpose of the translation. Three levels of conformity of music and translated

lyrics comprise set of features that may or may not be observed in the lyrics

translation. I will examine, whether the features are present within the

translations, and therefore, whether the choices made by the translator lead to

the conformity of music and translated lyrics.

The Appendix with transcriptions of film songs lyrics in source and target

languages will be provided, songs will be listed chronologically as they are sang

in the films.

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I THE THEORETICAL PART

1 Audiovisual Translation

New fields of translation studies were acknowledged together with the

development of media. Alongside the traditional "written text to written text"

translation and face to face interpreting emerged a field that some theoreticians

call screen translation or media translation, but most often audiovisual

translation.

Technological developments which have changed paper oriented society towards media

oriented society have also made Audiovisual Translation the most dynamic field of Translation

Studies (Benjamin p. viii)

Audiovisual translation stands for multisemiotic transfer - translation that

transfers either what we see or hear in the source language into a text or

utterance in the target language. As far as types of media are concerned,

audiovisual translation includes translation for theatre, radio, television

broadcasting, translation for the death or hard of hearing and visually impaired,

film and recently extensively evolving computer translation (games, amateur subtitling, internet broadcasting and so on).

Opinions on what belongs to this category differ extensively. As far as the

mode of the target language output is concerned, two main methods of

audiovisual translation are distinguished. Textual translation, which includes all

kinds of subtitles (surtitles / supertitles / supratitles for opera, subtitles for films

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that capture spoken utterances, subtitles for the death or hard of hearing), and oral, which includes revoicing, dubbing, voice-over, narration, interpreting,

commentary and so on.

Yves Gambier, who is a head of the Centre for Translation and Interpreting

in Turku, established ten types of audiovisual transfer methods:

a) subtitling, b) simultaneous subtitling, c) dubbing, d) interpreting (pre-recorded and consecutive), e) voice-over, f) narration, g) commentary, h) multilingual broadcast, i) surtitles and supratitles / supertitles and j) simultaneous translation (Karamitroglou p. 4).

Each method has its own specificities, boundaries and problems resulting

from the change of modes, types of audience and technical limitations. I am not

going to describe them individually in detail, but rather focus on the one that is

going to be a subject of my research; subtitling.

1.1 Subtitling

Subtitling can be defined as the translation of the spoken (or written) source text of an audiovisual product into a written target text which is added

onto the images of the original product, usually at the bottom of the screen

(Karamitroglou p.5).

Due to the number of restrictions in subtitling, that limit translators in their

work, some voices support the idea that subtitling is not a translation activity,

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but rather an adaptation of speech. The duality of media comprises equally

important visual and auditory components which cannot be separated in course

of translation. Because of the space and time constrains grammar and lexical

items have to be simplified, most relevant information has to be kept, while

repetitions and other items that may be omitted are left out.

Thanks to the development of media and the transition from analogue

technology to digital subtitling software, the work of a translator has become

much easier1, however, subtitling still remains a team activity, not only with

distributed scope of work, but also with joint responsibility. Evaluating the quality of subtitles can therefore be tricky because it is hard to assign the proposed

deficiencies or compliments to a particular person.

As described above, several types of subtitles are used for various

audiences. I am going to focus on film subtitling and then mainly on the

subtitling of film songs. In the following chapter I am going to describe the

process of subtitling and general standards that were set by theoreticians, and

then I am going to focus on the specificities of subtitling and trends that can be

traced in contemporary subtitling.

1.2 Film Subtitles

As far as I am concerned, subtitles are often not considered an integrated

part of a film. When viewers discuss a film they have seen, they mostly mention

1 Requirements for the computer skills of translators grow together with the development

of technology. Translation tools, digital subtitling, subtitling software make work easier, but at the same time force translators to learn how to use these tools and therefore spend more and more time doing other activities than translating itself.

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the plot, the director, who tends to be acknowledged as a creator of a film,

artists who star as main characters, sometimes the setting. Viewers would

hardly ever say that particular film was bad because of the low quality subtitles.

Neither film creators take subtitles into consideration. For them the film is a

complex unit as it is, no one thinks of subtitles when writing dialogues or timing

the duration of a scene. Subtitles are a kind of "post-product, necessary evil

that needs to be present for the foreign audience. Subtitles are not a part of "the

art" of film; subtitles are hardly ever mentioned in the film reviews, being seen

rather as a material for a linguist or translation theorist. Creators may even

oppose the usage of subtitles, because the letters cover a portion of a screen,

spoil the picture, distract viewers who should be watching the action and not be

bothered by reading. But cannot poor quality subtitles ruin the whole film?

The process of subtitling is limited in space and time as opposed to literary

or technical translation. To succeed means to translate subtitles in a way that

the audience is able to read and understand the text and at the same time pay

attention to the rest of the screen. Meeting these requirements may be highly

challenging. Subtitles have to be short, simple, complex, should rhythmically

correspond with the spoken original, and should contain everything that has

been said, ideally with all the references, jokes and in appropriate register. Number of theoreticians provide categorisation of the codes involved in

subtitling, standards for subtitling; describe various approaches to the

translation. That is why I am going to devote the next section of my thesis to the

research carried out in the field of audiovisual translation and subtitling.

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2 Research

Despite the definition of audiovisual translation as a multidisciplinary field

and multisemiotic blend, the research has been carried out almost exclusively

by linguists. Film studies do not acknowledge audiovisual translation as a part

of the film analysis and therefore images, sounds, gestures and other

extralinguistic features are not generally included into the audiovisual analysis.

Consequently, because the research is done by linguists, it focuses on

language, and even though the multidisciplinarity should be reflected in the

research, it could be accomplished only if done by researchers who are familiar

with both linguistics and film studies (at least). For the abovementioned reasons I am going to dedicate this section to the linguistic research of audiovisual

translation.

Jorge Daz Cintas from the University of Surrey focused in one of the

sections of his article called Subtitling: the long journey to academic acknowledgement on the history of the research done in the field of subtitling.

He points out that even though the first academic works on audiovisual

translation were published in the late 1950s and early 1960s (first work on subtitling was written by Larks in 1957) and it was not until 1987 when the first conference on Dubbing and Subtitling was held in Stockholm. "One of the major achievements was a proposal of non-binding guidelines to facilitate the

exchange, purchase and sales of television programmes to be subtitled2. Two

articles on subtitling discourse were published in 1989 (Delabastita, Lambert), but the real golden age began in the 1990s. Luyken et al. provided the fist

2 http://www.jostrans.org/issue01/art_diaz_cintas.php

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systematic analysis and statistics of audiovisual translations. First book written

solely on subtitling Subtitling for the Media by Jan Ivarsson was published in

1991 (second extended edition Subtitling 1998). Other notable theoreticians working in the field in the 90s were Gambier, Tomaszkiewitz, Dries, Gottlieb,

Daz Cintas etc. European Association for Studies in Screen Translation

(ESIST) established in 1995 joined together people involved in research, teachers and professionals for AVT3.

Yves Gambier4 also mentions the dramatic increase of interest in

audiovisual translation in the 1990s; conferences, workshops and sessions on

audiovisual translation take place every year since 1999 (Forli conferences, biennial Berlin conferences, Hong Kong 2001, London 2004 and many more). Gambier further points out the increasing number of dissertations and M.A.

thesis exploring audiovisual translation as well as the number of universities

offering training in audiovisual translation. As far as journals are concerned, many issues dedicated to audiovisual translation were published e.g. Babel

1960, Circuit 1991, The Translator 2003, 2008, Meta 2004). Although back in the 1960s the language of translation research was

French, English replaced it fully in 1990s. Recently, Spain has become the

country where a lot of attention is paid to the research of audiovisual translation

and many publications are released every year5 (Avila, Lorenzo, Duro, Daz Cintas, Chaume). Audiovisual translation (and subtitling as its component) has in recent years established its individual position within translation studies and

hopefully more and more will be done for the research of its specificities.

3 http://www.esist.org/Index.htm

4 Between text and image - Recent developments and challenges in audiovisual

translation research p. 11 5 Research focused mainly on dubbing, AVT introductory materials

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2.1 Research Strategies

Prescriptive Approach

The 1990s were the golden era of the research in the field of audiovisual

translation and, of course, of subtitling as well. Number of theoreticians6

involved in prescribing guidelines (rules) for subtitling. Although on one hand it is of course beneficial for the viewers in Europe to get used to only one visage

of subtitles, on the other hand setting one norm on more than just the formal appearance limits subtitling even more. By forbidding experiments and

adaptation of the natural language developments, these norms restrain

translators rather than guide them.

In the late 1990s there were no common standards for subtitling, no

guidance in terms of colour, lay-out or length of display. Although the

differences across Europe were not essential, several theoreticians reflected on

the situation and published concise guidelines for subtitlers. Even though the

following standards tend to be kept, I did include tendencies that may desire

revision of these standards in the future.

Layout

Due to the various typefaces around the world (e.g. Chinese characters traditionally written in columns or Arabic script written from right to left)

6 Code of Good Subtitling Practice by Ivarsson and Caroll, A Proposed Set of Subtitling

Standards in Europe by Fotios Karamitroglou

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standardized version of subtitles worldwide will probably never be

accomplished. Nevertheless guidelines published by Fotios Karamitroglou and

Jan Ivarsson and Mary Carroll share several common recommendations that

are mainly results of scientific observations and their observance improves

viewer's experience.

The general practice of the production and layout of TV subtitles should be

guided by the aim to provide maximum appreciation and comprehension of the

target film as a whole by maximising the legibility and readability of the inserted

subtitled text (Karamitroglou7). According to Fotios Karamitroglou, subtitles should be located at the bottom of the screen centre justified in the maximum of two lines. Nevertheless, the number of lines varies, as far as dialogues are

concerned, when several people speak, utterance of each of them is usually

placed on individual line introduced by a dash, however, the number of lines

cannot exceed four, because subtitles would otherwise cover a great portion of

the image and viewers may not have enough time to read them all.

Although dialogue translations are placed at the bottom, notes and glosses

explaining culture specific terms may appear at the top of the screen8. Usage of

glosses may be disturbing and viewers may not read quick enough to read both

sets of subtitles, but when watching a film that is highly culturally specific,

viewers are likely to be interested in explanations of the specific terms.

Duration

The average time of appearance for one set of subtitles is 6 seconds for two

lined subtitles (should be 14 to 16 words long) and 3.5 seconds for single line of

7 A Proposed Set of Subtitling Standards in Europe

8 Diaz Cintas suggests the terms headnotes or topnotes

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subtitles (7 to 8 words long). One set should always appear for more than one second and not more then 2 seconds after the utterance is spoken, and should

disappear before the cut. A gap between individual sets of subtitles should be

1/4 of a second.

Colour

For strictly practical reasons the colour of subtitles should be either yellow

or white, because the two colours are easy to spot. At the same time the

colours should not be extremely bright so that they are not uncomfortable for

the eye.

Even though only the two colours are used for European films subtitling,

Diaz Cintas in his paper called Back to the Future in Subtitling points out some

interesting facts about the trends in subtitling for the deaf and the hard-of-

hearing and subtitling of Japanese films. Colours are used to help speaker

identification and to inform deaf viewers about sound effects and particular

tones of voice to which they do not have access auditorily. Given that hearing

viewers can retrieve all these details effortlessly from the original soundtrack,

the use of colours has been deemed to be irrelevant in interlingual subtitling, in

which historically just one colour has been used throughout the entire program: white or yellow (Daz Cintas).

Surprisingly the colouring scheme of subtitles for the deaf and the hard-of-

hearing has downgraded to one on DVDs. Moreover, while the subtitles for the

death and the hard-of-hearing on DVDs are becoming monochromatic, English

subtitles for Japanese films for hearing audience contain up to four colours.

Although the colours are used unsystematically, introduction of colours into

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subtitles for hearing viewers from countries culturally distant from the ones in

the movie adds a new artistic aspect; however, whether it would be seen with

pleasure by the director is questionable. Another exception from monochromatic

European subtitles would be the usage of different colour for the subtitles for

lyrics.

Ivarsson and Carrol also propose a set of requirements for a translator.

According to their Code, the translation should be of a high quality with

grammatically correct language, coherent, translator should use corresponding

register. In addition, simple syntactic units are preferred and redundant

repetitions do not need to be subtitled at all. "Songs must be subtitled when

relevant" and finally "the main subtitler should be acknowledged at the end of

the film or () close to the credit for the script writer9.

Descriptive (Compound) Approach

Frederic Chaume brings in a merger of translation studies and film studies;

he combines the visual and the auditorial, emphasizing that when analysing the

subtitles, we have to take into consideration mainly issues specific to

audiovisual translation. He identifies ten codes of 'cinematografic language;

four relating to the acoustic channel (the linguistic code, the paralinguistic code, the musical and special effects code, the sound arrangement code) and six relating to the visual channel (the iconographic code, photographic codes, the planning code, the mobility code, graphic codes, syntactic codes).

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http://www.esist.org/ESIST%20Subtitling%20code_files/Code%20of%20Good%20Subtitling%20Practice_en.pdf

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Dirk Delabastita says that "film establishes a multi-channel and multi-code

type of communication" (Munday, 183). He further categorises these codes as:

- the verbal (with various stylistic and dialectal features) - the literary and theatrical (plot, dialogue, etc., appropriate to the genre) - the proxemic and kinetic (relating to a multitude of non-verbal behaviour) - the cinematic (techniques, genres, and so on)

The first two codes are not "subtitle specific", the features are shared in all

fields of translation, however, translation of these codes, due to the mentioned

space and time constrains, becomes challenging in specific aspects and

sometimes the "correct" solution cannot be found.

Recent technical developments have shifted the focus of the audiovisual

translation researchers also beyond the established scope. Increasing interest

in amateur fan subtitling draw attention of several audiovisual theoreticians as

well as the immense popularity of DVD as a storage device for audiovisual

material that changes slightly the conditions of perception of this material (in particular the ability to rewind and replay or pause the projection). That is why I have decided to describe these two phenomena in more detail.

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2.2 Fansubs

The original idea of fans subtitling for fans emerged in the 1980s, when

American fans of Japanese animated films10 translated subtitles for anime that

were not accessible via official media (television, cinema) in USA. At the beginning of 21st century fansubbing has become a social phenomenon of

worldwide significance. Technical development allows practically everyone with

a computer, internet connection and the right programme to create his/her own

subtitles. What began as a hobby of a few enthusiasts for a few enthusiasts

turned into a very specific activity that although still being done for free, is by

some people seen as unethical and even illegal.

Watching movies, series and reality shows became one of the most

favourite past time activity. That is why mainly series fans want to see new

episodes when they are released and not several months or even years later,

when they are broadcasted on the national television. Premiers of popular

Hollywood movies in the Czech Republic are also several months delayed from

the original in the English speaking world.

Pablo Muoz Snchez and Jorge Daz Cintas describe the process of

fansubbing11 in detail in their article for the Journal of Specialised Translation.

According to their experience, it is an activity performed by several people (raw providers, translators, timers, timesetters, editors and proof-readers, encoders)

10 called anime or mango

11 amateur translators tend to use the word subbing instead of subtitling to distance

themselves from the official translators

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but can also be done by an individual. Fansubbing is mostly done by amateurs

and for free. However, since there is a vast demand for subtitles, some groups

of fansubbers try to make profit and sell them. The whole activity is considered

unlawful by some companies, but since it is a worldwide phenomenon there is

no international law that would forbid fansubbing.

Specifics

Set of specific features can be spotted in subtitles created and translated by

amateur translators and fans of series or films.

The most significant one is the exposure of identity. Although only relative,

because fansubbers sign their work with nicknames, it is still surprising that

subbers proudly present their nicknames at the beginning of the film or episode

of series, while names of official translators appear at the very end; if they

appear at all (to find a name of the translator of subtitles on a DVD can be strikingly complicated).

Highly discussed feature of fansubs is their quality. As the fansubbers are

usually rather IT enthusiasts than linguists, their translations are often incorrect

and stylistically poor. On the other hand, fansubbers are not bounded by the

official conventions that claim that the best subtitles are those that are not

noticed therefore are free to experiment within the scope of both form and

content.

As far as series are concerned, due to the enclosed group of viewers who

are familiar with characters, previous episodes and are usually eager to

understand every joke or hint, even when it concerns culture specific terms,

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subbers tend to insert notes and glosses, either to explain technical issues that

they think viewers may not understand (e.g. references to scientific theories and scientists in The Big Bang Theory), or to explain the culture specific terms (references to names, shows, food etc.). Glosses are usually incorporated in the text of the subtitles enclosed in brackets.

Immense popularity and demand for fansubs all over the world and

therefore creation of new field of translation with its own specificities desires a

comprehensive research, because as the usage of fansubs grows, the

tendencies observed may in the future influence the practices in the area of

official subtitling.

Fansubbing in the Czech Republic

Fansubbing is very popular in the Czech Republic, because there is always

a time gap between the release of films and series episodes in United States or

Great Britain and premiers in Czech theatres, DVD releases or broadcasts on

national television. Fansubbers use notes and glosses and the quality of the

subs is usually quite low. Nevertheless there is a major demand for Czech fansubs translated from English and there are many websites with fansubs for

virtually all famous English speaking films, however, no one seems to be

making English subs for Czech movies. The reason probably is the fact that

official English subtitles for Czech films are available soon after the film

premiere, because DVDs are on the market right after the screening already

with English subtitles, and are then being ripped and made available on the

internet. Although over 30 Czech movies are shot every year, just a few

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manage to draw attention of foreign audience at the international film festivals

and since older famous Czech films (e.g. 60s New Wave films) are being released on DVDs, there is hardly a film that would lack official English subtitles,

and therefore would need to be fansubbed.

2.3 DVD

DVD became the most successful consumer electronics product of all time

in less than three years of its introduction. In 2003, six years after introduction,

there were over 250 million DVD playback devices worldwide (Daz Cintas12)

Subtitling industry changed dramatically after the introduction of DVD

(optical disc storage media format). Suddenly hundreds of films are released every year with subtitles and dubbed versions in tens of languages. Traditions

of subtitling or dubbing in individual national cinematographies (e.g. dubbing - Spain, Germany, France; subtitling Scandinavian countries) are gradually altered, because both types of film translating are now available on DVDs.

Therefore amount of people working in the industry is rising exponentially.

According to Jose Diaz Cintas, DVDs make viewers more active as they get

to choose how they want to see the movie. Moreover, they offer bonus

materials about shooting, interviews with actors and in the future maybe also

translator's commentary. Diaz Cintas sees it as an opportunity for the translator

to explain his approach to the translation and issues he dealt with. Another

12 Back to the Future in Subtitling

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suggestion how the future of film subtitles could look like is the usage of two

sets of subtitles, regular subtitles, as they are common in present, and

secondary set that would offer glosses and commentaries for enthusiasts, other

translators and theoreticians. Viewer would then be able to choose which set

he/she wants to display.

Whether the future of subtitles leads to multilevel subtitles or not, DVD as an

interactive medium created new jobs for hundreds of translators worldwide, even in languages which did have a long tradition of dubbing, and enabled

viewers to be more active, to create their own "version" of a film.

3 Translation and Music

Any piece of music that contains a text is a result of cooperation of a

composer and lyricist; it is a compromise between the intentions of the two

parties that leads to a harmony of music and lyrics. Therefore any translator

faces the same dilemma, whether to be, in the course of his/her translation,

faithful to the lyrics or music. The number of choices to be made varies

according to the particular piece of music and the purpose of the translation.

Apart from the translation of canonized forms, opera in particular, not much

attention had been paid to the translation and music up to recent years when it

was finally acknowledged as at least a peripheral branch of translation studies

and gradually more theoreticians devote their time to research in this field. Not

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only academics are interested in song translation, but amateur translation has

become a significant phenomenon on the internet.13

Special issue of The Translator was dedicated to the translation and music

in 2008, depicting the recent developments, tendencies and research options in

the future research in the area of translation and music.

ebnem Susam-Sarajeva in her introductory article emphasises how complex the field is, without precise borders, merging number of disciplines

together, sometimes leaving the branch of translation altogether. "Sometimes

boundaries become irrelevant (...) one cannot establish that translation has been involved at all (Susam-Sarajeva p. 189). Therefore, she suggests, researchers preferred the safer grounds of canonized genres. Although

according to her

"Audiovisual translation (AVT) may appear as the obvious branch of translation studies where translation and music should be researched (). After all, music goes hand in hand with evocative associations, settings and visual imagery, not to mention dance and ubiquitous video-

clips (Susam-Sarajeva p. 190).

She points out that not many people find themselves eligible for this kind of

research, since research in translation has prevailingly been carried out by

13 Translation of song lyrics by amateurs is mainly driven by the urge to understand what

the song is about. Therefore no "rules" apply for those translations, or rather transcriptions into the target language. As well as fansubbing, amateur lyrics translation has become very popular on the internet where people share their translations with others for free (http://www.jazyky.com/content/view/440/54/).

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linguists and translators, not many have sufficient knowledge in musicology14,

media studies, cultural studies, semiotics and ideally also in film studies, for the

purposes of translating film musicals. Besides, a method employed in some

countries and generally not available for other types of translation is the option

of non-translation, supported by the opinion of some researchers that

enjoyments of a non-translated and translated song by the audience are equal. In that case, no linguistic research would be needed.

Following the implied chronology I will briefly mention the main aspects of

canonical music translation (opera) and continue by describing other types of musical translation, pointing out the options a translator has when translating a

musical/subtitling a musical, options he/she has and thus establishing the

terms, purpose and approach applied in my upcoming analysis.

3.1 Opera translation

Translation for opera is brought about by means of two channels (acoustic and visual) either to be heard by the audience and sang by the artist or read by the audience in the form of surtitles projected above the stage. Although the duality of channels is shared by both film musicals and opera in theatres, there

is a set of aspects specific for the individual types of translation.

14 To be able to deal with meaning derived from () melody, pitch,

duration, loudness, timbre, dynamics, rhythm, tempo, expression, harmony,

pause, stress or articulation in music (Susam-Sarajeva p. 190).

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Josef Vymtal points out two sets of requirements that need to be satisfied;

musical and literary aspects, that blend together in opera as well as in musical,

and musical film translation. Failure to fulfil the musical requirements may be

overlooked, because translations tend to be analyzed and assessed by literary

critics and theoreticians. Moreover, Vymtal argues that because a translator

may not be able to conform to the literary requirements, the theoretician should

focus on assessing mainly the musical level of the translation.

Non-recurrence is probably the most significant aspect that does apply only

to productions performed live. The performance cannot be stopped, surtitles re-

read or singing re-heard, in cinema the film cannot be stopped, although being

recorded, however, it can be replayed in the exact same way; DVDs offer the

option of pausing and rewinding.

Opera also lacks transitions between dialogues and singing, because the

whole performance in sung.

3.2 Functional approach

When the attention of the researchers shifted from the canonized genres to

noncanonized, the research consisted mainly of criticism. Translators were

assessing the work of other translators. Gradually the research was enriched by

broader context (macro-level analysis), which included other aspects engaged in the musical translation. As mentioned earlier, audiovisual translation is a

group activity, more people are responsible for the final version of translation,

furthermore, distribution companies, audience and competition influence the

success of the translation, therefore contribute to the decision, whether the

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translation has accomplished its goal. Both micro and macro-level analyses

were being done, incorporating methods from above mentioned disciplines of

social studies, media studies, film studies and musicology. Recently,

researchers introduced a functional approach into the musical translation that

allows them to depict functions applied in the translation, from the various

disciplines, to accomplish its purpose. The method obviously draws on Skopos

theory introduced to translation studies by Hans J. Vermeer in the 1970s and is

based on investigation of options a translator had in the course of translating

and commenting on the solutions he/she made, taking into consideration the

purpose of the translation.

To illustrate the methods of the functional approach and therefore set forth

the course of my analysis I am going to describe two research projects carried out by Elena Di Giovanni and Johan Franzon, published in the special issue of

The Translator (Translation and Music 2008). Both projects focus on the options translator has and summarize the choices made, pointing out presumable

reasons for such choices.

Translation vs. Non-translation

Elena Di Giovanni wrote an article on the translation of American film

musicals in Italy. She used fifteen Hollywood film musicals for her research and

observed the translation strategies employed in translation of these musicals in

Italy. First, she focuses on the musical language and its components. Musicals,

more than many other film genres, are made of complex expressive

components. The verbal component is very difficult to isolate from the non-

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verbal ones and, therefore, is only translatable in relation to the other complex

components (Di Giovanni p. 298). Despite the complexity of the musical language, Di Giovanni establishes 3

basic components: musical number - can be further divided into dance

numbers, duets, songs etc., star persona usually a couple of popular actors,

who star repetitively in musicals (typical almost exclusively of Hollywood musicals15), duality significant aspect of clashing sides, man and a woman, good and bad, two different attitudes or differences in social status.

After drafting the basic components of musical language, Di Giovanni

continues by analysis, dividing the fifteen films into four groups according to the

translation strategy employed (combination of dubbing, subtitling or non-translation).

Partial translation dubbing of dialogues, non-translation of songs

surprisingly it is the most common translation strategy in Italy, musicals were

presented as films with songs that were not integrated into the storyline, films

with gaps and non-connected dialogues, as many dialogues continue in lyrics.

Di Giovanni claims that one of the reasons for non-translation of songs in

musicals may be the intention of distribution companies to release soundtracks.

The companies wanted the audience to be familiar with the original versions of

the songs. Another reason may be economic, because rerecording of all songs

would be costly.

Mixed translation dialogues dubbed, songs subtitled a cheaper version,

compared to the rerecording of songs, however, the information gaps are filled

and the original song is preserved for the audience.

15 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Judi Garland and Mickey Rooney and so on.

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Full translation I all dubbed translation, the most costly solution, but still

applied in some cases in Italy, Di Giovanni claims that fully dubbed musicals

were highly popular in Italy, however, due to the language specificities many

compromises had to be made, sometimes the music or the meaning of lyrics

altered.

Full translation II all subtitled translation as in other European countries,

including the Czech Republic, subtitling is used mainly in cinemas, art

programmes on television and DVDs, mainstream television programmes prefer

dubbed versions, therefore subtitled strategy for musicals is not very famous in

Italy.

Elena Di Giovanni has in her research shown four strategies used for the

translation of Hollywood musicals in Italy and put together groups of films,

where individual strategies were employed. She notes, that the choice of the

strategy is not in translators hands, but rather distributors, because distributors

decide how much money they are willing to invest and therefore which option is

the most suitable.

Choices in Song Translation

Finnish academic Johan Franzon published an article exploring singability in

print, subtitles and sung performance. He provides a functional organization of

choices within song translation, applying the notion of the Skopos theory:

"Fidelity follows function" (Franzon p. 3). The purpose of the translation influences the choices that have to be made. If the translated work is going to

29

be performed, different requirements apply than if it is going to be printed.

Franzon defines three properties of a song music, lyrics and prospective

performance. The prospective performance determines the level of singability

(in a broad sense, singable meaning performable). Singability is the attainment of musico-verbal unity between the text and the composition. This is what

makes the lyrics sing, so to speak, what makes them carry their meaning

across and deliver their message in cooperation with the music" (Franzon p. 375).

As far as musicals are concerned, for example the content of a translation of

lyrics in a musical that is to be performed (has to be singable) may have to be altered or omitted to fulfil the requirements for singability. In case of a book

musical the translated lyrics have to fit in the context of dialogues. A translation

for dubbing has to respect the music, which cannot be altered, as well as the

visual performance (synchronization of the lip movement). Spatial and temporal constrains apply to the translation of subtitles, however, requirements for

subtitles are not as strict as for the translations that are intended for dubbing,

the target text does not have to be synchronizes with the lip movement.

As far as the approaches to song translation are concerned, Franzon lists

five options:

1. Leaving the song untranslated;

2. Translating the lyrics but not taking the music into account;

3. Writing new lyrics to the original music with no overt relation to the

original lyrics;

30

4. Translating the lyrics and adapting the music accordingly sometimes to

the extent that a brand new composition is deemed necessary;

5. Adapting the translation to the original music.16

Various combinations of these options may occur, depending on the

purpose of the translation.

Three layers constitute the musico-verbal unity, and therefore a singable

translation - prosodic, poetic and semantic-reflexive. In other words, these three

properties have to coordinate with the music, if the translations goal is

singability. Each layer comprises of a set of components:

Prosodic rhythm, stress, intonation (important for opera translation), segmentation of phrases

Poetic rhyme, location of key words, segmentation of phrases

Semantic-reflexive mood, metaphor, the story told, characters expressed17

Not all of the layers have to be engaged, and a combination of any is

possible, however, the prosodic match is the basic requirement for singability.

What determines the combination, is the function of the song; within the musical

each song may have different function - poetic (a dream), informative (dialogue, narrator setting forward the plot) and so on.

Johan Franzon described in his article a functional method of a song

translation inspired by Skopos theory. By defining a purpose of a translation,

16 Franzon p. 376

17 Franzon p. 390

31

choosing from the pre-defined options and fulfilling the related functions, a

successful translation may be achieved.

Analysis

Drawing on the methods described above I would like to analyze English

lyrics subtitles of two Czech film musicals made in the 1960s and 1970s using

functional categorisation provided by Johan Franzon. I will observe the choices

made by the two translators and explore the achieved level of singability within

the prosodic, poetic and semantic-reflexive layer.

Although I may refer to the translator as a person I will bear in mind that

subtitling is a team activity and therefore the final outcome may not correspond

to the original translation done by the translator.

II THE PRACTICAL PART

The Practical part is comprised of introductory section on Czech musical

and musical film, followed by brief description of the plot of each film and

general examination of dialogue subtitles. Then, after sufficient context is

provided, song lyrics of each film will be analysed from the functional

perspective.

1 Czech musical

Music and songs have always played an important role in the Czech

cinematography, and many songs from musical films have become a part of

basic cultural knowledge within the Czech republic. In this chapter I will briefly

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describe the history of musicals staged in the Czech republic and Czech film

musicals.

Common definition of a musical is:

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The

emotional content of the piece humor, pathos, love, anger as well as the story itself, is

communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment

as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms such as

opera, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the

dialogue, movement and other elements of the works. Since the early 20th century, musical

theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. (Musical theatre Wikipedia) musical (noun): a film or theatrical production typically of a sentimental or humorous

nature that consists of musical numbers and dialogue based on a unifying plot (musical Merriam-Webster).

Definitions of the genre are miscellaneous. Many dictionaries describe

musicals as performances, mainly comedies, that involve a musical element,

omitting dance altogether. Therefore, despite the fact that dancing is not a

common feature of Czech musical films, they still meet requirements of the

genre. Song lyrics may or may not be incorporated as librettos and convey

information that is important within the narrative18. The most frequent form of a

Czech film musical contains songs that do not bear information relevant to the

plot, and therefore, omission of those songs would not create an informational

gap.

Staged musicals have gained enormous success over the last decades of

artistic freedom and some of the authors participated on the creation of both,

stage musicals and musical films.

18 So called book musical "a musical play where the songs and dances are fully

integrated into a well-made story, with serious dramatic goals, that is able to evoke genuine emotions other than laughter ("Book musical Wikipedia).

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Genres similar to musical may be traced back to the beginning of the 20th

century, when operetta was popular and later individual small theatres offered

revues with songs and sketches.

Small theatre groups have been very popular in Czech lands since 192019

(erven sedma offered a cabaret already in 1909). Osvobozen divadlo (West pocket revue), Semafor (Kytice) and later in 1969 Studio Ypsilon (Veery pod lampou), Divadlo Husa na provzku (Balada pro banditu, the musical film based on this stage play was made in 1978), Sklep (Besdka, Chemikl a stage musical also transferred into a film in 1986). All these theatres offered plays with songs, but not Broadway style musicals, because that would be expensive and

demanding in terms of staging and trained actors, who would be professional

singers and dancers. Moreover, the Communist regime would not allow any

western influences, although, as Helena Kalbov states in her M.A. thesis,

some Broadway musicals were staged in Karln theatre (My Fair Lady in 1964, Hello, Dolly in 1966 and West Side Story in 1970).

After 1989 more translated versions of foreign musicals were staged (Les Misrables - Bdnci 1992, Jesus Christ Superstar 1994, Hair 1996) and gradually a number of original Czech musicals were created and became more

and more popular among Czech audience. Four major contemporary musical authors are Karel Svoboda20 (Dracula 1995, Monte Cristo 2000, Golem 2006), Janek Ledeck (Hamlet 1999, Galileo 2003), Ondej Soukup and Gabriela Osvaldov (Johanka z Arku 2000, Robin Hood 2010) and Michal David (Kleopatra 2002, Ti muketi 2004, Kat Mydl 2011) etc.

19 In Czech "divadla malch forem"

20 Died in 2007, but his musicals are still staged and very popular

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1.1 Czech musical films

Music played very important role from the very beginnings of the Czech

sound film, mainly in 1930s and 40s when every premiere of a comedy was

accompanied by a release of a song composed for the movie, played

repeatedly in the movie and usually sung by one of the actors. A number of

famous movie stars were also singers21, and vice versa, famous musicians and

singers were given roles of conductors and bar singers22.

The fact that virtually all Czech films with songs are either comedies or fairy-

tales is not at all surprising. It is common for the genre, as described in the

definitions above, and during the Second World War and then 40 years of

communism conditions for film making were restricted, and censorship would

allow certain amount of freedom to the film makers only within these genres,

because they were not supposed to be politically engaged. However, due to the

Communist prohibition of western films and music, the book musical can hardly

be found in the Czech cinematography, except for a few rarities. First genuine

and probably most famous musical Starci na Chmelu (Green Gold) was directed by Ladislav Rychman in 1964, and combines all the major aspects of the genre acting, singing and dancing. Most of the songs became hits and are sung by

the fire even by people who havent seen the movie. First Czech western

musical Limondov Joe had a premiere the same year. Although music plays an important role in the film, it lacks dancing. Other musical films made in the

21 e.g. Hana Vtov, Frantiek Kritof Vesel, Oldich Nov and so on

22 e.g. R.A. Dvorsk, Inka Zemnkov

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same decade were Kdyby tisc klarinet 1964, Dma na kolejch 1966, and Fantom Morrisvillu 1966.

The 1970s and 80s were fruitful mainly in the sphere of fairy-tales and films

(often primarily television films) for children (len smutn princezna 1968, Pijela k nm pou 1973, Zlatovlska 1973, A ij duchov 1977, Princov jsou na draka 1980, Co takhle svatba, princi? 1985, A pilet p, krlovno! 1987). Number of comedies with songs and musical films were shot during the same

period as well (Drah tety a j 1974, Jen ho nechte, a se boj 1977, Balada pro banditu 1978, Trhk 1980, Andl s blem v tle 1983, Andl svd bla

1987). Most popular film musical of that time that is still often to be seen on television was directed by Zdenk Podskalsk and is called Noc na Karltejn (Night at Karlstejn, 1973). Film is based on a stage play by Jaroslav Vrchlick and accompanied by exceptionally famous music composed by Karel Svoboda.

The film also lacks dancing.

Late 1980s and 1990s musical films (Discopbh 1987, Discopbh 2 1991, Lska z pase 1984) were accompanied by "disco songs popular at that time.

Situation has changed dramatically after the velvet revolution in 1989.

Cinemas were flooded with foreign films, creators were not limited by the

censorship, and whole industry was undergoing a massive change23. For

example Kou (1991) is an exceptional attempt to joint specific humour of the Sklep theatre and underground music, and depict the atmosphere of an

authoritative regime. Though it contains several humorous scenes it can hardly

23 Mainly in the area of financing, dealing with the foreign competition (especially

Hollywood movies) and the loss of cinema goers thanks to the increasing selection of films and series on television.

36

be described as a comedy. akal lta (1993) and Rebelov (2001) are both very successful retro musicals, however, songs in Rebelov are actually famous

period songs that were not originally composed for the movie. Most recent

Czech film musical Kvaska was directed by Miriam Landa in 2007 and maps the

environment in a theatre during musical rehearsals.

All in all, there can be no doubt that music is a very important aspect of

Czech films, mainly comedies, fairy-tales and films for children, however, the

book musical does not have a strong tradition due to the isolation of the country

and censorship during the Communist era. The situation is different in theatres,

where book musicals are very popular. Dancing as means of expression can be

found only in Starci na chmelu, akal lta and Rebelov; although only in Starci na chmelu is the dancing equal to singing and acting. Despite the

exponential increase of Czech musicals in theatres in recent years24 (even original film musicals are staged in theatres Noc na Karltejn, Starci na chmelu), film creators do not seem to be very interested in the genre.

2 Starci na chmelu Green Gold25

Starci na Chmelu is supposedly the first and most popular Czech film

musical. It was made in 1964, based on a script written by Vratislav Blaek26

and directed by Ladislav Rychman. It was the first film to be supported by vast

24 Johanka z Arku, Ti muketi, Baron Pril, Kat mydl, Tajemstv, Dti rje, Robin

Hood and many more. 25

Green Gold is actually a DVD English title, otherwise the film is known under a title Hop Pickers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladislav_Rychman#Starci_na_chmelu_.28The_Hop_Pickers.29).

26 He is also the author of song lyrics.

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advertising campaign27; it was extremely popular and controversial at the same

time. While shooting the film creators came to know famous American musical

West Side Story, therefore some critics claim the film is in some aspects

inspired by the musical, it was even called East Side Story or Hop Side Story in

the 1960s. Even though the musical was never banned, because it was

considered apolitical and the official aim was to address young people who

experience similar situations, references to the first Czechoslovak democratic

president Masaryk, democratic philosophers and questioning of atheism were

found controversial by the Communist party, and therefore the film was not

frequently screened after 1968, despite its enormous popularity. Thus, even

though the primary function of musical is to entertain, Starci na chmelu is a film

with social and political outreach.

The plot of the musical is a love story of two high school students at a hop

picking brigade28. Hanka (Ivana Pavlov) and Filip (Vladimr Pucholt) are both outsiders in their own different ways. Hanka is a young lady who feels

humiliated by the conditions at the brigade where all girls and boys sleep on the

floor in a primary school gymnasium, and she demonstrates her attitude by

distinguished and decent language and behavior. Filip is a young intellectual

who disapproves with degrading housing conditions and therefore secretly

sleeps alone in the attic of the primary school surrounded by furniture he found

or borrowed. Hanka accidentally finds Filips hiding place and moves in with

him. Although classmates find out about Hanka and Filip, they respect their

27 Interviews with actors and creators of the film were published, songs were released,

even a book was published before the premiere, hop picking hats were sold and so on. Jan Konen in his BA thesis on the perception of the film claims that Starci na chmelu was an attempt to gain European level of film musicals.

28 Brigade compulsory work; students had to help the workers, most common were hop

picking brigades and potato picking brigades.

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relationship, except for Honza (Milo Zavadil) and his friends, who try to get hold of the attic apartment but do not succeed. Consequently, a farmer who is

supervising the students, the owner of some of the borrowed items, receives an

anonymous letter saying, that he shall find what he is missing in the attic. The

relationship of Hanka and Filip is revealed. Hanka and Filip are expelled from

the brigade and school after a teachers meeting and have to leave

immediately.

Although at the beginning the film seems to have all aspects of a socialist

film with the typical setting (manually working people organized by the Communist party who pick on a girl and a boy who in a way prefer bourgeois

values), viewers very soon realize that these anti/heroes are actually the main characters and the character of the hard working and ambitious Honza stands

for immorality, hypocrisy and insincerity. As the storyline unfolds, nave and

romantic Filip and Hanka are forced to face the adult world; they are falsely

accused of having an affair and officially expelled from the society. However,

because the society represents the beliefs and behavior they disapprove of,

they are not sad to leave.

Despite the above mentioned, the film describes the differences in

perception of reality by different generations rather than politics.

The word musical was used for the first time in connection with a Czech

film after the premiere of Starci na chmelu, consequently a discussion

concerning the definition of the genre took place in newspaper and magazines.

As far as musical numbers are concerned, since most of the actors were

actually students of theatre faculties and dancers, songs are not sung by the

actors but by well known singers popular at that time. The film is musically very

39

colorful because it combines both Czech and foreign (western) music popular in the 1960s. Diverse dance numbers join together popular twist with fragile and poetic ballet and simple collective choreography. Among other primacies, the

film is also one of the few where dancing is equal to singing.

2.1 Subtitles

Distributors have decided that only English an Czech subtitles will be

provided on the DVD released in 2003, within the range of Czech films called

Zlat fond esk kinematografie29. Subtitles are provided to all songs, the strategy of non-translation is not employed, and song lyrics subtitles are not

marked by different color or font. The version released in 2003 by Filmexport

Home Video30 is probably the only version containing any form of English

translation. Even though Czech DVDs are occasionally made available at the

foreign market via international internet retailers (e.g. Amazon) and exceptionally distributed by foreign companies abroad31, they are primarily

intended for the Czech market. Therefore the Czech distributors have decided

to provide only English subtitles for foreign audience and Czech subtitles for the

hard of hearing32. Due to the huge time gap between the release of the film and

creation of subtitles, no reviews reflecting on the quality of subtitles were

published.

29 Golden resources of Czech cinematography

30 The translator is not named in the subtitles or the DVD, the distribution company did

not reply to my request about the name either. 31

Musical film Limondov Joe (Lemonade Joe) was distributed by Allied Artists Pictures Corporation in USA.

32 Another reason may be the low price of the product.

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Dialogues

Various ways of expression are employed in Starci na chmelu. Some do not

need translation (dancing, music, rhythmical sequences), some may have been already translated (poem quoting or book reading), and some translations do not bear the same meaning thanks to different cultural and political background.

Non-equivalence may be observed at the level of lexis and style.

Lexis

As far as the word level is concerned, dialogues contain many cultural and

political references that are difficult to translate, however, some do not bear

information that is vital for the viewer and may therefore be replaced or omitted.

Mona Baker33 names various strategies used by translators in case of culture-

specific concepts; three of them are applied within these subtitles - translation

by superordinate word, translation by cultural substitution and omission.

Names of villages or towns are translated either by general word village

(Prosm vs, kudy se dostanu do ivic Excuse me, how can I get to the village?), by cultural substitution (Jenkov Rio) or transferred (To mus zptky na sttn a potom na atec Go back to the main road and then to Zatec). Two arbitrary names are translated by the name of a fictional comic book character, suggesting that it could be any name that sounds ridiculous,

because Hanka uses the names to point out the pointlessness of Filip's

33 Baker, Mona. In Other Words. NY:Routlege,1992.

41

questions (Havelka z Hloubtna, Divek z Libn jack-a-dandy). Names of contemporary products are translated by subordinate words (mionka, stadionka, tatranka - biscuits and cookies). References to writers, philosophers and their works are frequent in the film. Filip quotes poems and

reads passages from books to Hanka (Vtzslav Nezval Manon Lescaut, Seneca). When he recites Manon Lescaut at night, when he goes for a walk, the farmer with Honza overhear him and the farmer asks Honza about Manon,

because he thinks it is a girl he may know. Even though no official English

translation of Manon Lescaut could not have been provided (and the translation does not rhyme), the rhythm of Filips speech and tone of his voice suggest that he is reciting. Foreign viewer is slightly mislead when Filip reads a book to

Hanka, who is trying to get to him through the wooden attic door, and the cover

of the book says Seneca - Utitel, but the text Filip is quoting is actually a text

of a song Kdyby sis oi vyplakala (interpreted by Karel Gott). Of course Czech viewers not familiar with the song may be equally confused. Tiny reference,

commonly used among Czech speakers, is the title of Nezval's poem Sbohem a

teek, often translated as Waving farewell, but in subtitles translated as

farewell and goodbye. The translation probably is refering to the poem,

because otherwise the word teek scarf would be present as a reference

to the one Honza gives to his friends; the translator just does not use the common English title. The nickname of a teacher Jana mosa refers to the Czech teacher, educator and writer Jan mos Komensk. The name is not used in the subtitles; it is replaced by general "teacher".

Political hints are mostly translated by general words that do not explain the

meaning contained in the source word. Communist era vocabulary was specific

42

by using common words that were given extra meaning, e.g. comrade, building,

worker34 etc. Other words describe events or actions that were specific for that

era e.g. chmelov brigda hop-picking summer job. Translator's choice to supply "neutral" target words is understandable, because musical is a genre

that is supposed to entertain, words like cooperative association (drustvo) would sound unnatural and would have to be explained within the subtitles for

foreign viewers who are not familiar with the contemporary conditions, thus the

translator uses the word "farm". Similar approach may be observed in terms of

addressing. General Mr. / Mrs. was replaced with comrade and was used

either before name, title or position; the translator uses common general words

miss for a teacher and sir for the farm worker. Another concept unknown

abroad is Tuzex a chain of shops that offered goods from abroad, mainly

western countries, in exchange for hard currency or special vouchers. "z

Tuzexu is translated as from abroad to preserve the meaning.

Style

Apart from the lexical level, the translator had to make decisions in stylistics

because some characters use specific registers. Hanka and Filip are not

different from the other characters only in terms of their behavior and opinions,

but also in the way they speak. Hanka uses very distinctive and formal

vocabulary; however, this fact is not reflected in the translation (e.g. prosila

34 Word comrade was used to address a friend before the second world war, members of

the Communist party started to use it instead of common Mr./Mrs./Ms. Communist ideology is based on a strong position of the working class, therefore when Filip says: This lad knows that the workers pay for his studies he refers to the contemporary belief that workers work so that students could study.

43

bych polvky docela mlo translated as just a little soup, please). Foreign audience may not be able to understand why Hanka talks differently than

others, but her distinctive speech is a part of her character, as well as her

clothing and behavior. Filip is shy and nervous when talking to Hanka, he often

murmurs and repeats words; all these elements may be observed without the

need to understand the source language, therefore they are not reflected in the

translation. Apart from Hanka's speech, there are no specific elements in the

speech of other characters, such as dialect, slang or speech defect.

As opposed to the translation of spoken utterances, written text is not

subtitled. When villagers and students carry banners and slogans (Filip dreams about a new system of young couples living and working together and villagers

sleeping on the floor in a school), the subtitles translate only the lyrics of a song sang in the scene. Banners seem like any other communist slogans that should

motivate people to work, but they actually praise Filip's method and love Lyric

poetry increases productivity, Kiss for every bucket, Filip's method our ideal35.

The translation of banners is not provided because the banners appear during a

song, when subtitles translate lyrics, and provision of translations of two modes

could be confusing. Subtitles for banners would have to appear at the top of the

screen.

Starci na Chmelu is a very complex film which contains many culture

specific references. English subtitles do not offer explanations of the concepts

unknown by the foreign viewer; culture specific expressions are mostly

translated by general words. Translations of dialogues do not reflect the level of

formality in the individual characters speech. Nevertheless, Hanka's formal

35 My translation

44

vocabulary is reflected in song lyrics translation36 which is going to be a subject of the forthcoming analysis.

Conformity of Music and Lyrics

Even though song lyrics subtitles are not intended for singing and therefore

requirements for singability are not strict, the more a translation is singable, the

more convenient it is for the viewers who may easily follow the music. Singable

subtitles improve their experience (once a text is on the screen, splitting their focus among listening to the music, watching the particular scene and reading), because they display prosodic, poetic and semantic-reflexive match to the

music. Since source music cannot be altered, translation has to match the

original music. In the following section, I am going to explore achieved levels of

singability, taking into consideration options the translator had and pointing out

the choices he/she made.

Prosodic match

According to Johan Franzon, the prosodic match can be accomplished by

observing: melody: music as notated, producing lyrics that are comprehensible

and sound natural when sung (Franzon p. 390). This observance can be then noticed in the text as matching: syllable count; rhythm; intonation, stress;

sounds for easy singing (Franzon p. 390). Sounds for easy singing are observed mainly in forms of translation that is intended to be performed. Film

36 e.g. charm, indeed, daresay

45

musical lyrics subtitles are not intended for singing, however, some tendencies

towards prosodic match may be observed, mainly in the glossing songs.

Unusual aspect of the musical are three singers with guitars in black, who

as narrators fill in short intermezzos with songs which resume the previous

storyline or introduce the upcoming events, and at the same time appeal to

viewers by emphasizing that the story could happen to their child and it could be

them dealing with the situation. When the film was released the three singers

with sunglasses were seen as a symbol of western values (reminding some people of The Beatles and other western bands), however, more likely they symbolize the conscience of the older generation represented in the movie by

teachers and workers. All the intermezzos are accompanied by the same music,

each time the three men sing next strophe of the song. The first one at the very

beginning, an introduction of the whole film, three within the storyline and finally

the three men close-up the whole story by singing the last strophe glossing the

passed events.

The glossing songs have a strict rhyming and syllabic structure, the lines

are rather long, consisting of nine and eight syllables, affording the translator

more space for necessary changes in word order, while preserving the original

meaning. "The longer the musical lines, the easier it may be for translators to

accommodate the syntax of their particular language, perhaps allowing a fairly

close translation by moving a few words around (Franzon, 387). As far as subtitles of the opening song are concerned, the translator has decided, from

the options of the prosodic match, to follow the syllabic count of the original

46

lyrics quite closely. This option offers convenient reading to the viewer, the text

may be read fluently and simultaneously with the sung lyrics.

Ten pbh, kter uvidte 9 The story you're about to see now, 9 a co tak divn zan. 8 unwinding strangely from the start, 8 Ten mohlo prot vae dt, 9 could be the story of your own child 9 a chce i nechce rodina. 8 whether you folks like it or not. 8 Ten me prot vae dt 9 It may all happen to your own child 9 a nikoli jen na chmelu 8 not only on a summer job, 8 a kdy se nad nm zamyslte, 9 and should it make you consider, 8 doshl svho elu. 8 then it's purpose has been met. 7 Jsme pece jeden za osmnct, 9 We may seem all widely different, 9 a druh bez dvou za dvacet 8 though all in all we're all the same. 8 a byla by vc nerozumn 9 Thats why it would be all in vain 8 chtti rub na lc obracet. 8 to try to change us inside out 8 Chtti rub na lc obracet 8 to try to change us inside out 8

Although the syllabic count of the other strophes of the glossing song is not

as close to the source lyrics37, the tendency supposedly is to reach at least the

closest possible number of syllables. The maximum deviation from the source

lyrics is two syllables within one line.

The similar choice has been made for other songs in the film, although the

exact syllabic match cannot be found in any of the songs, deviations from the

source lyrics are not significant. With the exception of the song Hodn hoi,

where a distinct rhythm is supported by snapping fingers and dancing of the

singers, and the translator has decided to expand the number of syllables and

consequently made the subtitles harder to follow.

Hodnch hoch bylo vdy a vdycky bude

12 There always was and always will be lots and lots of good guys.

15

Hodnm hochm jen oko pro pl zbude.

11 Good guys will be left all alone to weep into their pillow.

15

Po hodnch hoch se nejlp veze prevt.

12 Good guys are the best ladder for bad guys, who are climbing to the top.

17

37 The syllabic count stays the same within all glossing songs.

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The last line of the subtitles is displayed for approximately 3,5 seconds. If

we take into consideration Karamitroglou's standards that draw on an average

reading speed, which is 5,5 seconds for full length two lined subtitles containing

14-16 words, the line is too long to be read conveniently. That means, that even

if the viewers reading speed was not influenced by the rhythm of the song,

he/she would be forced to adjust the reading speed to the increasing tempo of the music, because the tempo influences the time sequences for the display of

individual sets of subtitles. The translator should take the average reading

speed into consideration and avoid expansions in these cases.

Other tendencies towards prosodic match were not spotted in case of any

other songs in the film; however, I would say that the subtitles of song lyrics in

Starci na chmelu aim to observe the melody of the songs.

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Poetic match

Lyrics achieving poetic match aim to: "() attract the audience attention and achieve poetic effect" (Franzon 390). To put it differently, lyrics that create the same effect at the same spots in a song (for example graduation ending by a word that reveals a secret or repetition of a phrase together with the same

melody) did achieve a poetic match. Textual means of achieving such a match are: rhyme; segmentation of phrases/lines/stanzas; parallelism and contrast;

location of key words (Franzon, 390). Generally no translation of lyrics in the musical employs all the textual

means mentioned above together to achieve poetic effect, however, some of

the means are used at least now and then.

Song Chmel je nae zlato is the first song of the musical (apart from the glossing song) which introduces the setting, individual characters and the mood of the whole film. It starts with a march of working students, smiling and singing

about their devotion to hop picking. This would suggest a beginning of a typical

socialist film of that time; however, the music suddenly changes into a modern

chaotic cheerful dance with corresponding change in lyrics. The rest of the song

consists of these contrasting parts. To distinguish these two parts of the song I

have indicated the "marching" sequences in italics and the cries that signalize

the upcoming change in bold.

Myslme jenom na to, All we ever think about is e chmel je nae zlato. that hop is our gold! Jedin, co nm svato, All that is sacred to us je chmel a jenom chmel! is nothing but green gold! Kecte! Nonsense!

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Protivo, protivo, Indeed, dont sneer, dlme to pro pivo. were doing it for the beer, Pro pivo, protivo, for the beer, dont sneer, ee kad ech! 'cause every Czech loves beer.

Myslme jenom na chmel, Hop is all we think about tak se, obane, nachmel. so that you can enjoy your pint, Chmel to je nae zlato, Hop is our most precious crop, chmel nroda je tmel! our peoples bond is hop! Nekecte! It isnt nonsense! It is nonsense theres no doubt, Kecme, kecme, its just a lot of tommyrot, to si vzti nedme. but cant you really see Jenome, obane, that we also sweat a lot. taky makme. Od Tater a po Brdy From the highlands to valleys green bu kad otec hrd, may every father be proud a d si jedno tvrd, when he lifts his pint of beer, e chmel jsem esal j! thats made of hops picked by me. Me! J! J! J!... All we ever think about is that hop is our gold! Myslme jenom na to, All that is sacred to us e chmel je nae zlato. Is nothing but green gold! Jedin, co nm svato,

je chmel, je chmel, je chmel!

The marching rhythm is amplified in the text by exclamation marks; the two

cheerful and rhythmically distinct parts are rhymed. First one by repeating two

expressions sneer/ beer/ sneer/ beer, second one rhymes only two lines

rot/lot. Apart from Chmel je nae zlato a rhyming scheme can be found also in Hopsa Hejsa, other songs contain just random attempts to rhyme which do not match the source rhyme scheme. While for example in Bossa nova the rhyme

scheme of source lyrics is ABAB the scheme of the translation is AABC.

S tou modlitbikou dojde vdycky nejdl

This prayer will take you far,

a doshne s n vechno, cos kdy chtl.

Get you what you want, a bike or a car.

A Karel IV. byl ukrutn feudl, And although Karel IV was a feudal emperor,

tak zaved u ns vno a ne chmel. He brought wine into Bohemia and not beer.

Bossa-nova, bossa-nova, bossa-nova,

Bossa nova, bossa nova

bossa-nova, bossa-nova, bossa-nova.

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Ta modlitba ti vrt zdrav chatr, This prayer will restore your health,

to je zcela mimo diskuzi thats better than wisdom or wealth,

a a Jan mos Komensk byl bratr, and although John Amos Comenius was a Czech Brethren,

nezavrhujeme ho soudruzi. lets not condemn him for that, my dear friends.

Apart from rhyming, the repetitions in music are followed by repetitions of

lines of lyrics, translation mirrors this practice and the repetitions are strictly

obeyed. In the case of repeating phrases, translator obeys the rule of omitting

repetitions that can be heard and do not bring any new information.

Segmentation of subtitles corresponds to the segmentation of the lines of

lyrics; one set of two-line subtitles corresponds to one line of lyrics, that way

same information is accompanied by the same music. Since English language

has a strict word order, unlike Czech, syntactic parallelism can be achieved only

up to a certain point. Closest match is achieved in the case of imperative lines

in Do gala.

Tupruj si dvko vlasy bez ohledu na poas

Back comb your hair regardless of the weather,

tupruj se, neznej bratra, vye es na ti patra.

back comb your hair and raise your chignon three floors up.

Navoskuj si knr, uprav vlas i vous

Wax your moustache, trim your hair and beard,

Another example of syntactic parallelism can be found in a song called Den

je krsn. The song illustrates Filip's dream about Hanka, music is slow and romantic, lyrics very simple without any idioms, hidden meanings or poeticisms,

therefore the syntactic parallelism may be achieved. However, the translation

does not rhyme.

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Den je krsn. Den je krsn. The day is lovely. The day is lovely. Den je krsn. S tebou. The day is lovely. With you! Den je krsn. Den je krsn. The day is lovely. The day is lovely. Kdy dva, se rdi maj When two are in love i v lednu je, jak v mji then winter is like summer, i v lednu je, jak v mji. S tebou. then winter is like summer. With you!

Kdy dva mohou bt spolu u jedinho stolu

When a boy and a girl are sitting at one table,

u jedinho stolu Sitting at the one table S tebou! S tebou! S tebou! S tebou!

With you! With you! With you! With you!

Kdy veer prac zmoen When tired from the days work Ulhm na tv loe. Coe? I lie next to you on our bed. What? Ach na jedin loe On our bed S tebou! S tebou! With you! With you!

Key words that would be accompanied by a distinct music are not common,

yet for example in Chmel je nae zlato translation does end by the pronoun me ("that's made of hops picked by me), because the pronoun is then repeated by other students who profess their tribute, supported by drum beats.

Although poetic match is not achieved uniformly, attempts can be observed

in several instances.

Semantic-reflexive match

Semantic-reflexive match may or may not be achievable. It presupposes

that meaning conveyed by music is reflected in lyrics. Several options are

available; however, if none of them is present, the semantic-reflexive match

cannot be achieved by the translator. The most common instances of meaning

being conveyed by music are: "the story told, mood conveyed, character(s) expressed; description (word-painting); metaphor (Franzon, 390). Although music in Starci na chmelu contains a number of semantic- reflexive features,

they are not always reflected in the lyrics because either only music "tells the

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story" or portrays the individual characters by distinct melody, instrument or

rhythm. For instance anticipation and tension expressed by silence and silent

beating of cymbals, when Honza and his friends are approaching Filip in the

dark wood. Another example is depiction of a character by the absence of

music or voice. Filip sings only when dreaming, but he whispers his first song to

sleeping Hanka and then recites another called ivot je bl dm. Besides these examples, instances of the proper semantic-reflexive match can be found in the

film as well.

In general, contrasts are a typical feature of the film. The clash of

generations, opinions, attitudes, political beliefs and many other aspects is

symbolized by contrasting strophes or other parts of particular songs conveyed

by music, lyrics and dance. Two instances of this approach are the songs

Chmel je nae zlato and Hopsa Hejsa. Both combine the contrast of serious/formal and cheerful/reckless music and lyrics.

Several textual means are used in the translation of Chmel je nae zlato to reflect the mood of the music in the text38. Since subtitles are displayed on a

screen and read and therefore intonation cannot be rendered (although the original can be heard of course), punctuation may be used instead. Exclamation marks are used to reflect the brisk and enthusiastic mood of the music in the

first marching "obedient" part of the song. On the phonetic level sequences of

same vowels are used within the cheerful parts to create the same

38 From the point of view of the person who was not present to the creation of neither

music or lyrics it is actually hard to say whether the mood of the music is reflected in the lyrics or the meaning of lyrics is reflected in the music, however, translation should at least attempt to create the same relationship between the source music and the target lyrics, moreover, because of the change of mode it can employ different means to achieve the same effect.

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onomatopoeic effect as in the source lyrics. While in the source lyrics the vowel

o is repeated several times, the translation uses a sequence diphthong ee.

Protivo! Protivo! Indeed, dont sneer, Dlme to pro pivo! were doing it for the beer, Pro pivo, protivo, for the beer, dont sneer,

On the word level idioms like tommyrot39 and metaphor sweat a lot,

meaning doing hard work, also assist in creating the playful atmosphere preset

by the music.

Hopsa hejsa also consists of two interchanging opposing parts, but this time it is a formal decent and fragile character of Hanka versus her loud and

"mannerless" classmates. Hanka as a ballet dancer, she dances during the

song she sings and her words gently tinkle

No jakpak ne, vdy pvab mj je nevedn a sv.

Indeed, why not? My charm, I can say, is not to be seen everyday.

I kdybys hledal stj co stj, And seek though you may, both far and near

podobn najde st. You wouldnt find a match, I daresay.

while her classmates as her maids sing their parts and every strophe

contains a children's rhyme or other simple phrase that is repeated many times.

Povd j hopsa hejsa, hopsa hejsa, hopsa hejsa,

And he tells her: Hoppity hop, hoppity hop,

pojedeme do brandejsa do brandejsa do brandejsa

come with me straight to the top

39 Meaning utter foolishness, nonsense

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Hankas words - indeed, charm, though and daresay correspond to the

distinct ballet dance, romantic and dreamy music again supported by

onomatopoeic repetitions of in the source lyrics and corresponding the

rhyming ay in the translation.

The part of the song sang by the crowd is translated by a corresponding

rhyme, this time even beginning with the same sound, and rhymed.

Affords to achieve semantic-reflective match can be spotted mainly in the

two songs where the characters and their attitudes are depicted by music,

dancing and verbal elements.

All in all, even though it could be anticipated that due to the small market for

which the subtitles are intended and delayed translation the translator would not

take time and afford to create a translation of subtitles that