Is there an accepted (or 'correct') way to write translations/subtitles for different materials (videos, articles, books, etc)?

Question

There are many ways to go about translating various materials. For example, while subtitling videos from a different language into english, is it better to (or more acceptable) to do a literal translation of what is said, or to change it and write it in a way that is more appropriate for english? Or is this usually subjective to the person writing the translation?

Answer 1

There are two special issues regarding subtitles:

1. space limitations, i.e. you cannot put enough letters in a row (or two) to cover everything that's said;
2. time limitations, i.e. you cannot translate everything literally as you have to expect that viewers can't read fast enough to read all those words, especially not when someone is talking fast.

Most of the times, you'll have to summarize a bit when writing subtitles, without losing the meaning and emotion of what's been said.

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There's a classic example of a Dutch subtitle that went wrong: in an episode of The Bold and the Beautiful someone said over the phone:

After all he put you through.

In Dutch, this was translated as

Hij heeft je tenslotte doorverbonden.

That is, someone connects someone to somebody else on the phone. Of course, it was about an emotional affair (don't know what) and someone helped her to cope with it.

Answer 2

I would always go the way of changing it and writing it in a way that is more appropriate for English. Literal translation could confuse the viewer.

And a clever translation of a saying or an idiom will delight viewer who understands both languages (spoken and subtitled).

Answer 3

I believe that what was done for Princess Mononoke is what should be done more, hire a author (Neil Gaiman in that case) to re-interpret the story rather than a translator to translate the text. Having an interpreted version as the primary and a secondary literal translation version of subtitles and an would satisfy both the purist and the average viewer.