免费英语论文范文(17)
In the above advertisement of whiskey, the word “spirit” refers to two different things: “essential nature of a person or group” and “alcoholic beverage, especially distilled liquor” . In Chinese, it generally refers to “精神” or “灵魂.” For the translator, his/her first attempt is always to reproduce the pun with a word containing the two meanings. Yet, considering the language difference, we know the translator can’t preserve both of them in one word in Chinese. However, he/she has to keep it in mind that the advertiser intends to communicate both of these two interpretations, for the first implies the beverage’s unique quality or flavor, while the second serves as a compliment to the beverage, suggesting that it represents the characteristic of Canada, and hence its superiority over others. Here, explication comes to play: to explicate the two meanings separately. In Chinese, “unique” means “唯一的” , “独一无二”, etc.. We can see that through repetition of “独一无二的” and “加拿大” , the uniqueness of the beverage is highly emphasized, giving the reader an impression that the beverage is indeed “unique and superb”. Accordingly, though unable to preserve the original pun, the translator has successfully reproduced the strength of the original advertisement.
3. 5 Omission
The translator’s last resort is perhaps omission, or called deletion, which can be adopted if explication of pun may lead to redundancy or for some other reasons(e.g. stylistic reason). Nevertheless,it should be emphasized that generally speaking before the translator tries to omit the original, he/she has to be careful as to whether by doing so he/she will deviate from the advertiser’s intention. In some cases the pun in the source text, if possible, had better be represented in the target text, otherwise the effect of the advertisement being “playful” or “witty” conveyed by such vehicles may get lost. Eg. Coke refreshes you like no other can.
