Film song translation: Verbal, vocal, and visual dimensions

Abstract

As films are distributed across the globe, film song translation has become a subject of study, which entails considering multi-modal factors. This paper aims to explore the major dimensions and parameters involved in film song translation. Based on previous research on music and translation, this paper proposes a framework for studying film song translation from verbal, vocal, and visual dimensions. The verbal dimension involves semantic meaning, metaphors, images, mood, and emotion. The vocal dimension includes the number of syllables and musical notes, the length of musical notes, rhyme and parallelism, the rise and fall of the melody, and the segmentation of a line. The visual dimension covers the plot, characters, and background pictures. This paper uses this framework to analyze the Chinese translation of Amazing Grace in the film Forever Young to demonstrate how film song translation can be flexible in tackling verbal, vocal, and visual restrictions and possibilities.