Translations of Literary Expressions in Advertisements Between English and Chinese
Advertisements play an important role in recommending products to the market. Being colloquial, they also emphasize the beauty of languages and employ various means to appear literary in order to be evocative. The usage of literary expressions in advertisements is very effective in arousing readers literary associations. But it is also a challenge to handle such expressions in translation.
This paper focuses on the translations of literary expressions in advertisements between English and Chinese. It holds that there are generally three types of conditions in translating literary expressions in advertisements:
(1) Incomplete conveyance/loss of literary expressions in translation
For example,
We take no pride in prejudice.
我们不以偏见为荣。(women bu yi pianjian wei rong.)
Pride and prejudice in this English advertisement are clear reminders of the classic Pride and Prejudice by the British female writer Jane Austen. Readers are thus rather impressed. The alliteration achieved by the two words adds to the effect. But this skillful employment of literary allusion is partly lost in the Chinese version because pride here means pleasure or satisfaction (taken in an achievement, a possession, or an association) rather than arrogant or disdainful conduct or treatment (or haughtiness) as it does in the title Pride and Prejudice. So here荣(rong, pleasure or satisfaction) should be the Chinese equivalent of pride instead of 偏见(pianjian, arrogance) which is the rendition of pride in Aoman yu Pianjian, the Chinese title of Pride and Prejudice. Without the word偏见(pianjian), this Chinese advertisement fails to associate the audience with the famous novel.
(2) Addition of literary expressions in translation
(3) Keeping of literary expressions in translation
Many more examples from Chinese mainland and Hong Kong will be presented for discussion and unsuccessful translations will also be analyzed followed by proposed alternative versions. In the end, tips for translating advertisements with literary expressions between English and Chinese will be put forward.
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