CULTURAL AND PERCEPTUAL CHALLENGES IN FILM TRANSLATION: KURMANJAN DATKA

ABSTRACT

In the modern world of globalization, many cinematic works require an audio-visual translation, also known as subtitling. Many companies require AVT to make their production reachable to the world. However, due to many factors like cultural or perceptual differences, semantic errors may emerge in the result of translation. The historical Kyrgyz movie ‘Kurmanjan Datka’ became one of the few films that had a foreign audience and was translated into English. Nevertheless, from a closer look, the translation has notable differences from the original. Therefore, this research is dedicated to the analysis of meaning-based mistakes in the translation of the movie.

Keywords: Audio-visual translation, cultural differences, semantic errors, comparative analysis, Kyrgyz movie.

Queen of the Mountains (Kyrgyz: Курманжан Датка—Kurmanjan Datka) is a 2014 epic drama film that received a record-breaking number of awards, as well as various reviews from both domestic and foreign critics [2; 3].

While the movie achieved an international recognition, this study turns its focus to a translation analysis of mistakes found in the film's English subtitles, and their potential impact on viewer comprehension. Following that, comparative tables are presented to illustrate the differences between the original text, semantic translation and subtitles.

Table 1.

Differences between the original text, semantic translation and subtitles.

In the table above, we can see how the meaning is noticeably changed in the subtitles. In the original text, a person is worried about the well-being of his children, while in the subtitles he seems to be more worried about livestock and crops. Moreover, crops are not even mentioned in the original scene.

Table 2.

Humorous dialogue 1

Table 2 demonstrates a dialogue with a humorous tone, which is ended by laughter. However, the translators have omitted the notion of the husband complaining against his wife that he embraces. Perhaps, it was omitted because effective jokes usually rely on language and cultural references. Recipients must know about the culture to understand and appreciate the humor [1]. However, other additions could be suggested to highlight the humor and reaction (e.g., ‘against his precious wife’).

Table 3.

Humorous dialogue 2

In the given dialogue, the first speaker’s words were translated fully by sense, which is quite acceptable. However, the original reaction and intention of the second speaker have been changed significantly. The warning speech was turned to a sort of a desperate rhetoric question.

According to Nida and Taber, translation is a rephrasing of messages from one language into another with the closest and fair equivalents in terms of meaning and style [4]. Nevertheless, in all the given examples, both the meaning and style seem to have undergone undeniable changes.

The analysis of subtitles from the historical movie 'Kurmanjan Datka' revealed significant differences from the original text, emphasizing the importance of accurate audio-visual translation. This study highlights the challenges occurring in cross-cultural film translation and shows the necessity for precise practices in order to share ideas with the world.

References:

1. Chiaro, Delia. Humor and translation. In: The Routledge handbook of language and humor. Routledge, 2017. - p. 414
2. Manasova, B. K. (2015, April 21). Kurmanjan Datka film - winner of two major awards of International Film Festival in USA. 24.kg. https://24.kg/archive/en/culture/175420-news24.html/
3. Manasova, B. K. (2015, May 18). Фильм «Курманджан датка» завоевал больше всех наград в национальной кинопремии «Ак илбирс-2015». 24.kg.
4. Nida, E.A. and Taber, C.R. (1969) The Theory and Practice of Translation. E. J. Brill, Leiden. - p. 12