THE TRANSLATION OF THE COMEDY «QU'EST-CE QU'ON A FAIT AU BON DIEU?»: A SOURCE TEXT OR TARGET TEXT BASED TRANSLATION?
Angela GRĂDINARU Université d’État de Moldova
Abstract
As object of our research article - audiovisual translation - involves not only the transfer of the message, of the text, but also the transfer of its communication function. All papers on audio-visual translation show that this type of translation consists of producing a functional target text, and the link between the source text and the target text is to make the communication act possible. Translation is a process of analyzing a source communication situation and a source text being transferred to a target language and culture. The process is complete if the purpose of the target text coincides with that of the source text i.e. if the first has the same communication function in an equivalent cultural context. Some translations are based on the source text in the translation process, while others rely on the target text as the translated text cannot be isolated from the extra-linguistic context, a particular situation. It is also necessary to adapt the translation to the target audience and its cultural and intercultural references. Subtitling should be performed considering its function. The subtitler is to find a translation method assuring quality, one that aims at analyzing the source text and target text in order to find functional equivalents to obtain an audiovisual text with the same communication function in the target culture. The translator is expected to possess not only linguistic knowledge but also extra-linguistic and encyclopedic knowledge in order to detect the intention of the speaker. Our analysis is focused on the identification of translation difficulties and translation techniques in the comedy «Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu?» and its Romanian subtitles. Keywords: translation difficulty, borrowing, equivalence, cultural reference, subtitling, subtitler, translation audiovisual, translation technique, source text, target text.
