SONGS FROM ENGLISH-LANGUAGE CARTOONS AND THEIR TRANSLATIONS INTO UKRAINIAN AND GERMAN
Authors: Вотінцева М. , Бандолько К. 
Published: January 2024

Background. Songs in the field of film publishing play an important role in the understanding of the main characters’ emotions and thoughts, conveying a specific atmosphere, or even serving as a substitute for dialogues and words. But in most cases, songs are not translated into other languages during the release of the film, forgetting that the song lyrics can play a key role or even carry the inherent opinion of the producer. Due to the great need for film art now, its development in society and further prospects, there is a problem with the appropriate translation of songs and with insufficient research and materials on this topic.

The purpose of the article is to identify difficulties in translating songs and analyze translation transformations using the example of the lyrics of the song «How Far I'll Go» from the cartoon «Moana».

Methods. Classification and comparative method for determining difficulties in translation; generalization of the received information; practical analysis of translation methods on the example of a song from the cartoon «Moana»; synthesis of translation difficulties with translation methods and classification of ways to translate a song in films and cartoons.

Results. The most common difficulties in translating songs are lexical difficulties: correctly understand the latest words in the original language, choose a synonymous word or meaning from the translation language, and determine the correct interpretation of texts with abbreviations. It is also important to preserve the main meaning of the text, its rhyming, and take into account cultural features when translating a song. The translator also needs to have knowledge in the field of poetics and music to accurately translate the song text while preserving the opinion of the author of the original song and the musical drawing. Insufficient theoretical base forces translators not to translate the original song and leave it in the original, which leaves the viewer without understanding the song and its role in the film, which also causes the loss of emphasizing the feelings of the scenes and the main idea of the author.

Discussion. Studying this topic of translating songs from cartoons allows us to conclude that songs are an important part of cinema, which studios in most cases neglect when translating films into other languages. Only knowledge of the theory of Translation Studies is not enough for translators for professional and adequate translation, so there is a problem of insufficient number of professional and qualified translators. The study also found that lexical constructions are used by translators quite often when translating songs and are the main translation tool. The need for knowledge of ways and methods of correct translation of song texts in the film industry requires scientists and researchers to draw attention to this problem and engage in active research in the direction of song translation, which means a great prospect for creating a new direction in the field of translation studies due to the demand and necessity of song translations in the film industry.