MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY -oOo M.A THESIS TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN TRINH CONG SON’S SONGS FROM VIETNAMESE INTO ENGLISH (CHIẾN LƯỢC DỊCH THUẬT CÁC NHẠC PHẨM TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN TỪ TIẾNG VIỆT SANG TIẾNG ANH) HO THI BICH DAO Field: English Linguistics Code: 8.22.02.01 Hanoi, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY -oOo M.A THESIS TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN TRINH CONG SON’S SONGS FROM VIETNAMESE INTO ENGLISH (CHIẾN LƯỢC DỊCH THUẬT CÁC NHẠC PHẨM TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN TỪ TIẾNG VIỆT SANG TIẾNG ANH) HO THI BICH DAO Field: English Linguistics Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Dang Suu Hanoi, 2019 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN TRINH CONG SON’S SONGS FROM VIETNAMESE INTO ENGLISH submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except for the indicated reference, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2019 Ho Thi Bich Dao Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date: …………………… Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the assistance of many people First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation and thanks to my thesis supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Dang Suu This thesis could have probably not completed without his patient, enthusiastic and instructive supervision and encouragement, whose constructive ideas and feedback have been invaluable during the process of revision I also would like to show my profound gratitude to all of the lecturers in the Faculty of Graduate Studies Department of Hanoi Open University for tirelessly devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and deepen my knowledge in the two years I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation and thanks to my Master, Bikkhuni Thich Nu Hue Thu, and Sr Teresa Mai Thi Thu Trang who accompanied and shared the joy of life with me during my time of live and study since I have become a nun I look up to her as a model of self-confidence and motivation for study Of course, nobody has been more important to me in the pursuit of this project than the members of my pagoda and my family I would like to thank all my Brothers and Sisters for their prayers and support To my parents and siblings, I am so thankful for their love and encouragement which are always with me in whatever I pursue Finally, I cannot fully express my gratitude to allthe people whose direct and indirect support assisted me to accomplish my thesis in time Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English ABSTRACT The thesis is designed to investigate into the translation strategies in Trinh Cong Son’s songs from Vietnamese into English The fourteen songs studied are: Origin unknown (Biết đâu nguồn cội), Dusty sand (Cát bụi), Life has called you many times (Đời gọi em lần), You’ve come a long time (Em đến từ nghìn xưa), Something like despair (Gần niềm tuyệt vọng), Sad Sunday Eve (Lời buồn Thánh), The quiet world of mine (Lặng lẽ nơi này), My own lonely world (Một cõi về), Hear all sounds around (Nghe tiếng muôn trùng), Like a flying heron (Như cánh vạc bay), A little rose, a little love (Quỳnh hương), In too large life (Tuổi đời mênh mơng), The other eye (Con mắt lại), I paid my debt (Xin trả nợ người) These songs are used because they contain many human philosophies We find in these song a key to open the door of the soul, to be loved and given love This paper is conducted through the documentary analysis and descriptive method The writer uses mainly on descriptive method to describe the translation strategies in Trinh Cong Son’s songs Besides, some methods are used as the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods which contributes to this study The results show that the semantic features of lexicon and the syntactic features of phrases and sentences in Trinh Cong son’s songs when being translated from Vietnamese into English The research also puts forward some suggesting English translational versions to set the implications after studying those songs The study hopefully provides insights into the practice of translating Vietnamese songs into English, especially the strategies in handling the intricacies of semantic and syntactic features of great works such as those written by Trinh Cong Son Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Adj Adjective AP Adjective phrase Adv Adverb Adv.P Adverb phrase Conj Conjunction Link Linking N Noun NP Pro Noun phrase Pronoun Prep Preposition Prep.P Prepositional phrase QW Question word SL Source language ST Source text TL TT Target language Target text V VP Verb Verb phrase Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 2.1: Baker’s taxonomy of non-equivalence at word level (1992) 20 Table 2.2 Strategies of non-equivalence at word level 21 Table 2.3 Problems and strategies of non-equivalence above word level 24 Table 4.1: The density and percentage of translation equivalence strategies in English and Vietnamese based on Trinh Cong Son’s collection of songs 48 Chart 4.1: The percentage of Translation Equivalence strategies in English and Vietnamese based on Trinh Cong Son’s collection of songs 49 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1:INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.2.1 Aims of the study .9 1.2.2 Objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions .10 1.4 Methods of the study 10 1.5 Scope of the study 10 1.6 Sifnificance of the study 10 1.7 Structure of the study 11 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 12 2.1 Previous studies 12 2.2 Theoretical background 14 2.2.1 Translation theory 14 2.2.1.1 Translation definition .14 2.2.1.2 Translation procedures 14 2.2.2 Overview on Equivalence 17 2.2.2.1 The concept of Equivalence .17 2.2.2.2 Types of equivalence 18 2.2.2.3 Equivalence and non-equivalence at word level .19 2.2.2.4 Equivalence and non-equivalence above word level 24 2.3 Summary 25 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 26 3.1 Research approach .26 3.2 Methods of the study 26 3.4 Research procedures 27 3.5 Summary 27 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 4.1 The strategies in translation of Trinh Cong Son’s songs from Vietnamese into English 29 4.1.1 Translation by using omission 29 4.1.1.1 Full omission 30 4.1.1.2 Partial omission 34 4.1.2 Translation by using a more neutral/less expressive word 37 4.1.3 Translation by using a more general word 40 4.1.4 Translation by using expansion 43 4.1.5 Translation by using co-hyponym 44 4.1.6 Translation by paraphrase using unrelated word 46 4.1.7 Translation by using metonymy 47 4.2 Frequency of Translation Equivalence strategies in English and Vietnamese based on Trinh Cong Son’s collection of songs 47 4.3 Summary 49 Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS 52 5.1 Concluding remarks 52 5.2 Limitation of the research 53 5.3 Suggestions for further study .53 REFERENCES 54 APPENDIX A: List of Songs Cited with Dates They Were Composed 58 APPENDIX B: Words and music by Trịnh Công Sơn Translated by Ton That Lan and Nguyen Quang Thanh 59 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Trịnh Công Sơn (1939 - 2001) was a song writer, musician, poet and painter He wrote over 600 songs He often wrote about the ephemeral nature of life, as in the classic "Cát bụi" ["Sand and Dust"] The singer most associated with him is Khánh Ly, whose husky, mournful voice helped to popularize his music They often performed together on South Vietnamese university campuses Trinh Cong Son’s songs are so strange, which were written by intellectual language In another way, they are ‘weaved’ by the most beautiful words in the treasure of Vietnamese language It takes years to understand some words or sentences in Trinh Cong Son’ songs, but not all of us can catch Son’s ideas, and some seem to be so different Son himself created his own unique school of music which is not only very sublime but also very sweet with simple melodies Son’s songs will be immortal in people’s hearts not only in Vietnam but also in many countries like: France, Japan and America, etc People love to sing his songs Many of those songs have been translated into many languages, most of them are in English, French and Japanese with different versions As a Buddhist nun and a fan of Trinh Cong Son’s music, I find it very interesting to study the English translations of Son’s songs which are various with more than 70 English translated works by many people Up to now, just a few researches on the lyrics of the English translational versions have been found For examples: Một Cõi Đi Về (My own lonely world), Cát bụi (Dusty sand / Sand and Dust) It is clear that translating Trinh Cong Son's songs seems not an easy task since his music does not belong to any school of music and his new approach to lyrics is also different He employed the same techniques used by many modern poets; e.g., purposeful incoherence, unusual grammar, fresh diction, images, metaphors, startling word locations, and rhyme Those make his music sound new and hard for us to catch his ideas, but it still very sweet and easy to touch the hearts of millions of people Hence, there must be loss and gain in meaning in the English translations, which need investigating thoroughly However, researches on translation equivalence of English versus Vietnamese versions of Trinh have not been carried out Therefore, it is necessary to Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 81 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 82 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 83 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 84 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 85 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 86 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 87 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 88 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 89 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 90 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 91 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 92 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 93 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 94 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 95 ... 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29 Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English 4.1 The strategies in translation of Trinh Cong Son’s songs from Vietnamese into. .. thesis in time Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English ABSTRACT The thesis is designed to investigate into the translation strategies in Trinh Cong Son’s songs. .. necessary to Translation Strategies In Trinh Cong Son’s Songs From Vietnamese Into English a research on this matter to have a total view about translating Trinh Cong Son’s songs into English Practically,