Audiovisual Translation: The Dubbing of Rhymes
By: Mirjam Wernerus
Tags: Translation, Rhymes, Dubbing, Audiovisual Translation, Linguistics

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

In Der Schuh des Manitu — Extra Large (2001), there are several rhymes which create moments of laughter, consequently making rhymes another humorous device in the German blockbuster which had to be considered in the English dubbing of the film. Therefore, the challenges of and strategies for translating rhymes will be outlined in the present article. In doing so, the characteristics of the English language when it comes to rhymes will also be briefly outlined.

Translating rhymes is a challenging task ‒ especially “into language with a different vowel and consonant distribution” (Lefevere 70). However, as Pratama points out, it is not only the language barrier that hinders the translation process, but also the interplay of form and meaning in rhymes (1). That is, the translator’s aim is “to convey the meaning of the source language to the target language” (ibid. 2) as accurate as possible, i.e. equivalence in meaning. Form plays an equally important role in rhymes as they include words “that have the same sound, especially at the ends of lines” (“Rhyme Noun”). An accuracy of sound values conveyed from source language into target language, i.e. equivalence in form, also ought to be achieved.

The question arises whether both equivalence in meaning and equivalence in form can be considered equally during the translation of rhymes. In an examination of nursery rhyme translation, Pratama concludes “that most nursery rhyme translators put the equivalence of meaning as their priority rather than the equivalence of the form” (10). Of course, depending on the context of the rhyme being translated, i.e. whether occurring in a poem, political speech or song, the translator’s priority might change. This is supported by Lefevere who stresses that within poetry translation “[t]ranslators who translate with rhyme and meter as their first priority often find themselves neglecting other features of the original” (71) such as “the information content [which] is almost inevitably supplemented or altered in none too subtle ways” (ibid.). That is to say, before translating a rhyme, the goal translators want to achieve with the ultimate translation needs to be set. Depending on the translators’ purpose, which ought to be influenced by the rhyme’s context, they will prioritise either equivalence in meaning or equivalence in form.

With equivalence in form, the translator tries to transpose the rhyme’s “synergic aural effects out of the source language sound system … to a target language with a different phonetic matrix and prosodic system” (Kwong 190). This attempt can be more or less complicated depending on the language pair involved in the translation process. In English, and also other languages like German, rhyme “consists of the repetition, in the rhyming words, of the last stressed vowel and of all the speech sounds following that vowel: láte–fáte; fóllow–hóllow” (Abrams and Harpham 316).

As Leech points out, the majority of rhymes in English are monosyllabic (e.g. great|bait), however, two-syllable (e.g. butter|splutter) or even polysyllabic rhymes (e.g. civility|mobility or stationary|inflationary) are also possible (“A Linguistic Guide” 91). Nevertheless, as Kwong emphasises, most scholars agree that the English language contains far fewer rhyming possibilities than other languages (192; Fraser 61). To illustrate this, Fraser mentions that meaningful English words such as love or God provide only two ‘undignified’ rhymes each (love|glove|shove; God|odd|sod) even though they are monosyllabic words (61). Of course, this complicates the translation of foreign-language rhymes into English. Kwong summarises this restriction in English as follows:

Once a poet or translator has settled on a key rhyming word, the choice of final words for the rhyming lines is confined to a small group of rhyming mates. The verbal artist directs his/her thoughts and their expression towards a fitting (and hopefully natural) use of these words, working within self-defined limits that at once inspire and constrain the creative imagination. (192f.)

These restrictions originally defined for rhyme translation within poetry translation can also be applied to rhymes occurring, for example, in films or series and are translated for audiences speaking other languages. This transfer of rhyming effects to another language can cause the same difficulties as in poetry translation. Still, it should be noted here that rhymes in audiovisual media such as series, films or advertisements have a different use than in poetry. In the latter “rhyme is closely bound up with lineation and layout; and can be regarded as another form of punctuation, helping to organize and display the relations of words” (Lennard 85), whereas in advertisements or other audiovisual media like films or series rhymes can be “ear-catchingly useful” (ibid.) or have a humorous effect. Since rhymes in audiovisual media thus have no formal function as in poetry, there are more translation possibilities as equivalence in form is not strictly necessary.

Works Cited:

Abrams, M. H., and Geoffrey Galt Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 9th ed., Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009.

Fraser, G. S. Metre, Rhyme and Free Verse. Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1970.

Herbig, Michael, director. Der Schuh des Manitu — Extra Large. Constantin Film, 2001.

Kwong, Charles. “Translating Classical Chinese Poetry into Rhymed English: A Linguistic-Aesthetic View.” TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction, vol. 22, no. 1, 2009, pp. 189–220.

Leech, Geoffrey N. A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry. 10th ed., Longman, 1984.

Lefevere, André. Translating Literature: Practice and Theory in a Comparative Literature Context. The Modern Language Association of America, 1992.

Lennard, John. The Poetry Handbook: A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism. Oxford University Press, 1996.

Pratama, Ikke Dewi. “Meaning and Form in Nursery Rhymes Translation.” Humanus: Jurnal ilmiah Ilmu-ilmu Humaniora, vol. 16, no. 1, 2017, pp. 1–12.

“Rhyme Noun.” Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, Oxford University Press, 2020, www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/rhyme_1?q=rhyme. Accessed 12 Dec. 2020.