Translating Something Big Has Been Here: Commentary on the Translation Strategies of Nonsense Verse and the Limits of Bilingual and Illustrated Translations

• Main Authors: Wu, Tien Ling, 吳恬綾
• Other Authors: Lai, Tzu Yun
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/40502563648818503989

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 翻譯研究所 === 99 === The aim of this research is to explore the translation strategies of nonsense verse in terms of equivalence and to examine the limits of bilingual translation under the purpose of language learning. Something Big Has Been Here (1992) is one of American poet Jack Prelutsky’s most well-known nonsense verse collections with stylish wordplays and rhymes. In the research, 30 poems are translated experimentally based on Eugene Nida’s translation theory of dynamic equivalence in order to explore the possibilities of equivalence in wordplays and rhymes. Also, four other translated texts, the English-Chinese bilingual versions One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1992) and It’s Raining Pigs and Noodles (2006), and the all-Chinese version Where the Sidewalk Ends (19995) and Through the Looking Glass “Jabberwocky” (2005) are chosen to compare in terms of adopted strategies. The research concludes that bilingual translation is not suitable under the purpose of language learning but of translation studies, for it doesn’t conform to faithful translation which must be an important element for language learning texts. All-Chinese translated text, on the other hand, can reach equivalence through its freedom of experiment and fulfill the purpose of amusing Chinese readers.