In the previous section, we have seen how some works clearly choose one of the possible strategies (adequacy or acceptability). For example, Kovarski (1996)
considers the use of dubbing as conscious manipulation; Capanaga et al. (1996: 228) names dubbing as “betrayal to the original”; Gaiba (1994) and Camiña and Sánchez (2000) opt for adaptation. Nevertheless, other studies are only descriptive, such as Bovinelli and Gallini (1994), Goris (1991, 1993), Izard (1999, 2000), Larrinaga (2000, 2003) and Ferrer (2003).
We also locate ourselves in the line of DTS (Descriptive Translation Stud- ies), analyzing a situation that shows diŸerent degrees of linguistic and cultural adaptation. A broad descriptive analysis in progress (Agost, forthcoming), that here we just show in part, has enabled us to observe that, indeed, regarding the initial norm, the practice of a translator in front of adaptation is located at a greyscale, and not an all-or-nothing black or white choice. In the context of the Spanish State, these shades of grey have many nuances: From the darkest shade of grey of certain adaptation by TVC and Antena 3, due to norms established by the television company, to the lighter shades of translations of products in which only those referents which are intuitively understood as being incom- prehensible to the viewer are adapted.
The ªrst group includes the Catalan dubbing translation of the French series Premiers Baisers (1992) (cf. Agost 1995). This is a production conceived for a teenage public in which the protagonists are a group of young middle- class people. A general adaptation strategy planned by the heads of the Pro- gramming Department of TVC at the time made it possible for the Catalan translations to diŸer notably from other translations from the same original material made for other television companies. In the case of Premiers Baisers, this strategy aŸected both the adaptation of linguistic and cultural elements. With regard to the former, we can see that there is greater colloquialism in the Catalan translation than in the Spanish one, as we illustrate in example 1: Example 1
Premiers baisers
François: Annette, Jerôme drogué… Mais, enªn, c’est c’est impossible… tu
rigoles!
Annette: Moi aussi, ça m’étonne, mais… Justine a l’air de le penser vraiment…
Tu sais, elle le connaît bien… Puis c’est vrai qu’en ce moment il a une
sale tête…Il est bien coiŸé, mais il a une sale tête…
François: Attends, mon meilleur copain serait drogué et je m’en apercevrais même pas?
Annette: Mais écoute, si tous les copains savaient que leurs copains se droguent…
Primeros besos
François: Annette…¡Jerôme drogado! ¡Eso es imposible! ¿Bromeas?
Annette: A mí también me extrañó, pero Justine lo piensa en serio. Ya sabes que
le conoce bien… Y es verdad que tiene una cara horrible. Bien peinado pero con una cara horrible.
François: Espera, ¿qué mi mejor amigo se droga y yo no me he dado cuenta? Annette: Oye, si todos supieran que sus amigos se drogan, los traªcantes
estarían en el paro… De què vas?
Francesc: Anna, el Josep drogat? No veus que és impossible? Al·lucines!
Anna: Jo també he ¶ipat, però, la Justina n’està segura del tot, i ja saps que el
coneix bé… i és veritat, últimament fa mala cara… va ben pentinat, però fa mala cara…
Francesc: Vols dir que el meu millor amic es droga i que jo no me n’he adonat? Anna: Però tio… si aquestes coses fossin tan fàcils de veure, els camells
estarien a l’atur…
The title in Catalan also makes an attempt to capture the attention of the audience to whom the product is directed De què vas? in contrast to the Spanish solution Primeros Besos, the Galician Primeiros bicos and the Basque
Lehenengo muzuak, which are all literal. With regard to cultural elements,
unlike the Spanish version the Catalan version tends to adapt: the cafet be- comes the granja, the lycée becomes the insti the SOS Drogue becomes the
Servei de Desintoxicació, and the original music becomes Catalan rock music.
This is certainly a rather extreme case because the changes aŸect not only the dialogues but the soundtrack, which is nearly always that of the original.
A diŸerent degree of adaptation is that presented by the translation of the British comedy Fawlty Towers (1978), Hotel Fawlty in the Catalan version. The series portrays the daily routine in an English hotel run by Mr and Mrs Fawlty, with the help of a maid, and cook and a waiter from Barcelona who knows very little English and who, through his clumsiness and ignorance, gives the hotel owner a constant string of problems. The translation of the series called for an overall strategy which could become a norm for all the episodes: the waiter from Barcelona in the original English version could not continue to have to same identity in the Catalan version for several reasons. Firstly, Manuel, the immigrant waiter is something of a fool and is often humiliated by his employer. This would have been rejected by viewers from Barcelona and by Catalans in general. Secondly, a person from Barcelona has Catalan as their native tongue, and this would have been incoherent from the
perspective of the diversity and diŸerence of the languages used in the original (English vs Spanish) which is the cause of much humour. The solution is that which appears in Example 2:
Example 2 Fawlty Towers
Manuel: (Singing) (¡Que viva España!)
Polly: (España)
Fawlty: It’s alright! He’s from Barcelona.
Hotel Fawlty
Manuel: (Canta) ¡Oh! ¡Jalisco no te rajes! Polly: ¡No te rajes!
Fawlty: No li facin cas. És de Jalisco.
Manuel becomes a Mexican waiter who has di¹culties in understanding and speaking Catalan. In other television channels, we have found that his native land was also changed. In Basque television, for example, he was from Madrid. This strategy of adaptation should be maintained throughout the whole series so that a coherent product can be oŸered from the point of view of contents. Going back to the Catalan version, then, the techniques most used by the translator were those of use of hyperonyms, paraphrasing, substitutions and cultural equivalents. As we shall see in the following examples, any reference to Manuel’s origins should be adapted: in example 3 the references to his Spanish origin and to the Spanish Armada disappear through the techniques of use of hyperonyms and paraphrasing. In example 4 the references to the dictator Franco are eliminated through the technique of suppression.
Example 3 Fawlty Towers
Fawlty: Pronto, pronto, pronto! That Stupid Spanish ape, sorry — person — has gone and bungled it again. Dego bird brain! God knows how they ever got an armada together! So, I’ll clear all this up. If you’d like to go back to your rooms…
Fawlty: Pronto, pronto, pronto! Disculpin! El mico aquest, la persona, aquest
foraster és un desastre! Cervell de mosca! No sé per què vénen a treballar aquí! Bé, això ja ho netejarem i ara si us plau, cadascú a casa
seva! Gràcies. Example 4
Fawlty Towers
Manuel: It’s my hamster. Fawlty: It’s a rat.
Manuel: No, it’s a hamster.
Fawlty: Well, of course it’s a rat. You have rats in Spain, don’t you? Or did
Franco have them all shot? Hotel Fawlty
Fawlty: Què és allò?
Manuel: Es mi hamster. Colom. Fawlty: Hamster?
Manuel: Sí, sí! No, no! Colom. Fawlty: És una rata! És una rata! Manuel: No, no, hamster!
Fawlty: Què m’has de dir? Si és una rata! Una rata mexicana! Es pot saber d’on l’has treta?
La Polla’s analysis (1994: 51–60) sheds some light onto the matter in allowing us to understand the adaptation of Fawlty Towers. For La Polla, the decision to sacriªce the original cultural context and substitute it for another that was closer to the viewer in the target culture is a response to the aim, the function of the translation and any translation strategy should be accepted. In the case of the translation of Fawlty Towers one of the norms carrying most weight was that of making the translation acceptable to the Catalan viewer. In the case of Antena 3, a state-wide private channel, we have observed how, in some series destined for teenagers, the receptor factor and the aim of oŸering a product based on humour conditions the translator’s strategy with respect to the degree of cultural and linguistic adaptation. For example, in the series The Fresh Prince
of Bel-Air (1990–96), Family Matters (1992) and The Teenage Witch (since
1998), all the speciªcally North American references (actors, singers, television presenters, etc.) are substituted with Spanish cultural references. This is the case of some of the references that appear in the episode of The Teenage Witch broadcast on May 25th 2000: magdalenas and mojicones, typical sweet deserts, and manzanilla, which is an Andalucian sherry wine, José Luis Perales’ songs, who is a popular middle of the road singer, and lastly a reference to Rappel, a famous fortune teller and well-known personality from the popular press.
In the adaptations which are in the sliding greyscale we ªnd The Beakman’s
world (1995), an educational programme destined for teenagers in which
science is taught in a very humorous manner. The children who write in to the programme are not, in the Catalan version, from the United States, but from places in Catalonia. Adaptation through substitution is also frequently used in
The Teletubbies (since 1996), which is a programme conceived for children in
which whole reports have been substituted for others in which matters of Catalan culture are explored. For example, reports have been broadcast about
castellers (tiered human towers which require great strength and ability on the
part of the members) or the Christmas tradition known as the tió (a log children hit to get their presents).
There exists another type of series which also imply a global strategy of linguistic and/or cultural adaptation: the translations of The Flintstones (1960– 66) or The Snorks (The Smurfs) (1970’s). In these cases all the Spanish televi- sion companies consulted (ETB, TVC, TVG, TVV and TVE) applied the same translation criteria and all the versions oŸer similar results: the compound lexical creations in English (stone, ¶int, fossil, bronto, smurf, etc.) are substi- tuted with similar creations in the respective languages (Basque, Catalan, Galician, Castilian). However, we have intended to show that in some versions the Spanish language version has set down the guidelines, and as such has functioned as an intermediate version which has had great in¶uence on the ªnal solutions. By way of example, The Smurfs was translated on TVC as Els
Barrufets, while on TVV the title was Els Pitufets, which is much closer to the
Spanish Los Pitufos. Another important case is that of the translation of proper names for some of the main characters of The Flintstones: Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. In the Spanish language version they were Pedro Picapiedra and Pablo Mármol. For years, all Spanish viewers knew them as Pedro and Pablo. When the series was translated into some of the co-o¹cial languages the problems that arose was that of the viewers’ reception, their horizon and expectations. The weight of tradition was so great that in the TVV version they were called Pere Picapedra and Pau Marbre and in ETB they were called Pedro Harriketa and Pablo Atxurdin.
7. Conclusion
For translation, the problems presented by the originals are not the same in all the Spanish television stations, and the way to resolve them is also diŸerent because linguistic and socio-political circumstances are diverse. The diŸerent ways of solving the con¶icts of translation are often interpreted from the point of view of what we could name as perfect translation. We therefore see that many studies on translation of cultural references criticise the adaptation of these elements to the cultural system of the target language because they consider that
these translations betray the original and are, as such, imperfect. It is a very small step from this idea to that of the impossibility of translation. We consider that the discussion of intranslatability can no longer be held as having any validity and that statements like that made by Shochat and Stam, “Perfect translation is in the best of circumstances a virtual impossibility”, (1985: 42), were made in response to an analysis of translation based fundamentally on the linguistic code. Far behind us now are the days when people argued about the limits of translation and adaptation, with the latter seen in a negative light. We agree with Bastin (1997: 18) when he a¹rms that adaptation can contribute to the theory of translation becoming a theory of relativity and that, with regard to adaptation, we can ªnd very diŸerent situations (localised and global adaptations). We believe that an analysis of translation for dubbing that takes as its starting point the intrinsic characteristics of this modality can help us to change the concept of ‘perfection’ in translation, bearing in mind the elements and factors that intervene in the complex process of dubbing translation and understanding translation as one more system within the cultural system.
Whatever the case, focusing on linguistic and cultural adaptation in dub- bing, a descriptive study of translation in this modality permits us to speak of drastic solutions for or against this adaptation. According to Nedergaard- Larsen (1993: 219) we can state that the strategy of adaptation is “a continuum from the complete non-translation at the one end to total adaptation at the other one”. This relativism, to which Bastin (1997) subscribes, is one which we also ªnd in the works of Venuti (1998: 243):
Determining whether a translation project is domesticating or foreignizing clearly depends on a detailed reconstruction of the cultural formation in which the translation is produced and consumed; what is domestic or foreign can be deªned only with reference to the changing hierarchy of values in the target-language culture.
The knowledge and analysis of culture appears to be the key to ªnding the most adequate strategy.
In any case it is true that regarding adaptation, an analysis carried out from the polysystemic concept of the initial norm, allows us to go beyond the false debate on the perfect translation method. Furthermore, it permits to go from a type of research which is mainly prescriptive, with the aim to show a perfect and ideal translation, towards a line of descriptive research, which considers translation as an activity that is aŸected by a series of conditions. These may range from the most objective ones, such as the presence or absence of conven- tions, rules, explicit translation assignments, to the most subjective ones, such
as the idiosyncrasy of each translator. Between the objective and the subjective poles, we have the translation norms, which describe the procedures employed in a regular way by the translator. One of the conclusions we reach at, from the analysis carried out in this paper, is that for dubbing translation in Spain the initial norm — though it presents a wide range of possibilities — tends to give priority to the target language and culture. This is especially the case in bilin- gual communities and in those audiovisual texts addressed to a very particular audience (i.e. children and teenagers). This is due to the fact that in these communities the translation procedure is the result of certain conventions and more deªned translation assignments, and moreover its goal is to serve as linguistic model. All in all, the bigger interest there is to in¶uence somehow in the reception of a text, the bigger is the degree of adaptation in dubbing.
Notes
1. For an introductory analysis of the use of dubbing and subtitling in Spain, from a