ARS - 2009

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Translation of humour for screen
(Research Symposium 2009 - Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2009) Boralugoda, A.
Due to its’ culture bound nature translation of humour is certainly one of the most demanding tasks for any translator. Plays on words, puns, double meaning, cultural references and the linguistic idiocyncassies of any language can prove to be a serious obstacle for the successful transfer not only of message but also of the effect and impact intended by the original. The translation of humour involves transporting the unique structure of joke into another language. Generally translation among languages that are culturally and structurally different pose a challenge and the translator is forced to adopt different techniques. When it comes to humour, the amount of humour present in the translated joke plays an important role. In other words if a well translated joke was bad in terms of level of humour present, it is evaluated as bad, while a badly translated joke with high content of humor it will be evaluated as excellent. Besides all these constraints imposed by the language and culture, when translating for cinema the task becomes really daunting. Here I intend to take a look at the limitations under which the translator in this type of specialized fields has to work and the different strategies implemented by screen translators when transferring humor.