On the Translation of English Musical Songs from the Perspective of Skopos Theory

Abstract

With the increased frequency intercultural communication, western musicals have been introduced into China and become a popular entertainment of the Chinese people. Some musicals will be dubbed in Chinese version for performance, so that the audience can enjoy the plots and songs more deeply. However, the different historical origins, social customs and religious cultures have formed specific cultural backgrounds, which in turn have formed different ways of thinking, values and pragmatic rules. All these factors have become obstacles in the translation of English musicals. As the main content of musicals songs, librettos have become an important medium for audience to appreciate musicals. Therefore, the translation of songs in musicals becomes the most important part in the study of musicals translation. Based on the Skopos Theory of functional translation, this thesis takes the Chinese version of a series of western musicals produced by SEVENAGES as the object, and analyzes the Chinese translation of these musicals from the rules of Skopos, coherence and fidelity, with the aim to find out the best techniques of translating musical songs, and improve the quality of the translation.