Ex. 1
ST TV DVD ShinY Fix Vision. YYeTs
Qyburn: She has a keen sense of poetic justice.
In the second episode, Qyburn approaches Bron as he is enjoying himself in a brothel.
Qyburn comes with an urgent request from Queen Cersei. Bron decides to forego the
pleasures of the flesh and sends the prostitutes away. Qyburn passes on the queen’s message that she wants her brothers murdered and hands him the crossbow that Tyrion used to kill his father. Clearly, the queen wants justice for her father and death by the crossbow would seem like an appropriate punishment. Qyburn says, “She has a keen sense of poetic justice,” which essentially means “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” The TV subtitles and the unknown fansubs group translated the sentence similarly as, 「她有強烈富詩意的正義感」and 「女 王心中有強烈且詩意的正義」 . These two translations made the mistake of sticking too close to the ST and resulted in translationese. The DVD subtitles were translated as,「她堅信 他們的惡行必有惡報」. This strategy is much clearer and will not leave the audience confused about Qyburn’s meaning. FIX translated the sentence as,「她特別相信善有善報 惡有惡報」, which is essentially the same translation strategy as the DVD; however, the words 「特別相信」don’t sound as nice nor are they as concise as 「堅信」 . ShinY translated the sentence as「她自有明智裁決」. This translation makes sense but essentially means that the Queen punishes wisely, which doesn’t really emphasize the karma that will be bestowed upon the brothers. YYeTs translated the sentence as,「女王要他們受到應有的懲 罰. This translation essentially means that the queen wants her brothers to get the punishment
they deserve but doesn’t have the same ring as 「惡行必有惡報」. I would recommend
「她喜歡以牙還牙」as the best translation because the source text essentially means “a tooth for a tooth.”
Ex. 2
ST TV DVD ShinY Fix Vision. YYeTs
Arya: Not
today. 不是今
天
不是今天 時辰未到 死期未至 時候未到 時辰未到
In the third episode when all seems doomed, Arya runs into the Red Woman. She reminds Arya of a prophecy that she would kill many people of different eye color and asks her a mantra that her fencing teacher asked her, “what do we say to the God of Death.” Arya responds with the mantra, “Not today.” The prosubbers both decided to translate the sentence as 「不是今天」. This translation is possibly understandable by the audience but sounds a bit awkward in Chinese. All the fansubs chose something more or less the same. ShinY and YYeTs translated the sentence as「時辰未到」, and Visionary Sub as,「時候未到」, which all essentially means the time has not yet come. FIX translated it the most clearly as, 「死期 未至」. It means that it is not time to die yet, but this translation could be criticized for removing some of the mystery that the indirect quote implies.
Ex. 3
ST TV DVD ShinY Fix Vision. YYeTs
Daenerys:
Swear your brother and Samwell Tarly to secrecy, and tell no one
The word “no one” is frequently used in English, but can be omitted in clever ways in Chinese. In the fourth episode after Daenerys leaves the feast to find John in his chambers, she requests that John tell no one about his true identity as it would give him the most legitimate claim to the throne. She tells him, “Swear your brother and Samwell Tarly to secrecy, and tell no one else.” The TV subs, ShinY, FIX and YYeTs all translated the sentence respectively as 「讓你弟和山姆威爾塔利發誓／不告訴任何人」，「讓你的弟 弟和山姆威爾塔利發誓保密／不能告訴任何人」，「要你弟弟和山姆威爾誓守秘密／
不告訴任何其他人」，and 「讓你弟弟和山姆威爾·塔利發誓保密，不許告訴其他人」.
All of these translations were faithful to the ST but were too literal in their translations, which resulted in awkward Chinese. The DVD subs and Visionary Sub translated the sentence respectively as, 「要你弟弟和山姆威爾塔利發誓/絕不說出去」and 「也讓你弟弟和山姆 威爾·塔利發誓/永遠保守秘密」. These two translations were both faithful to the ST but also conveyed its meaning in more acceptable Chinese. Both sentences imply that the secret is not to be told to anyone and state it in a more sophisticated way. This is an instance where neither camp performed better than the other as at least one group from both camps made superior subtitles and other groups made subpar subtitles.
Ex. 4
ST TV DVD ShinY Fix Vision. YYeTs
Varys: I have known more kings and queens than any man living.
我認識的
At the beginning of episode five, John arrives in Dragonstone after Daenerys dragon
into port, Varys greets John on the beach and walks with him toward the castle. Varys reveals that Daenerys has secluded herself and is refusing to eat. He starts making inferences to John’s rightful claim to the throne and begs John to consider taking up the mantle of
kingship. He tells John he would make an excellent king. He says, “I have known more kings and queens than any man living.” Both prosubs translated the sentence as,「我認識的國王王 后比誰都多」. This translation is appropriate to the situation, concise and sounds like natural Chinese. Fix, however, managed to make it sound very bizarre with the translation,
「我是活著的人里/見過最多國王和女王的」. This translation almost makes it seem like there are dead people who have seen kings and queens. Also translating “known” as 「見 過」is also not entirely accurate as Varys not only saw these kings and queens but also knew them intimately. He witnessed them in private rooms discussing their true intentions and then witnessed them in public view lying. YYeTs translated it as,「我見過的國王和女王比 世上任何人都多」. This translation approximately captures the meaning of the original but was influenced too much by the ST.” Translating “more than anyone” as 「比任何人」 is not as natural to Chinese as 「比誰都多」. And again using the word 「見過」 to mean
“known” isn’t exactly accurate. ShinY and Visionary Sub translated it respectively as, 「我
輔佐過的國王和女王比任何人都要多」 and「我輔佐過的國王和王后比任何人都多」.
These two translations offer an interesting approach as it turns the word “known” into
“served/assisted,” which probably is what Varys is truly saying. They also omit translating the redundant “than any man living.” It is unfortunate, however, that both fansubs felt obligated to translate “anyone” as 「任何人」instead of 「誰」.
Ex. 5
ST TV DVD ShinY Fix Vision. YYeTs
Tyrion: I suppose there's a crude kind of
In the sixth episode, right after Tyrion has resigned from the position of Hand of the Queen, he is taken away to be imprisoned. John visits him in his jail cell and Tyrion reflects on his predicament—his impending execution. In the fifth episode, he had informed the Queen that his co-advisor Varys had plotted to see John on the Throne. Ultimately, Tyrion’s decision to nark on his friend results in Varys execution by dragon fire. He remarks that if he had never betrayed his friend, he would never be put in this position because John, the man of extreme honor Varys wanted to put on the throne, would never have slaughtered the people of King’s Landing. In a Buddhist state of mind, he says, “I suppose there’s a crude kind of justice.” When we refer to “crude justice” in English, it means that a prisoner was denied an impartial trial and summarily executed. Tyrion, however, means that he is getting the punishment that he deserves. He is living in Westeros where the Buddhist notion of Karma may not have a specific name for it. Therefore, he uses the expression “crude justice” to express the notion of “karma.” Not knowing what Tyrion was trying to say, both prosubs, Fix, Visionary Sub all literally translated the utterance as 「一種粗暴的正義」. This translation would stand out as something unique and pique the interest of the audience to muse on the meaning of the phrase, but it ultimately leaves the audience confused. ShinY translated it as, 「我想正義是殘酷的」. This translation expresses the same notion. YYeTs produced the most accurate translation with the rendering, 「我想這是一種報應」. This is precisely what Tyrion is saying as “getting what one deserves” or “karma” is best
translated into Chinese as 「報應」.
Ex. 6
ST TV DVD ShinY Fix Vision. YYeTs
Edmure: I stand before you as one of the senior lords in the country.
我在諸
During the council meeting at the end of episode six, the attendees begin to discuss who might be a viable candidate for king. No one seems to be willing to volunteer an
individual, so edmure stands up and volunteers himself much to the embarrassment of Sansa and Arya Stark, who regard him as a bit of an imbecile. As he stands up he says, “I stand before you as one of the senior lords in the country.” Both prosubs rendered the translation as, 「我在諸位面前是一位老城主」, which is a sentence that sounds very natural in Chinese and avoids the 「之一」trap。ShinY, Fix, Visionary Sub and YYeTs translated the sentence respectively as, 「我在此作為這個國家/最尊貴的領主之一」, 「全國高級領主 之一」, 「我作為維斯特洛的大貴族之一」and「這個國家的大領主之一」. The word
「之一」 is inherently wrong but rather should be avoided. This is an instance where all fansubs produced inferior translations and all fell into the 「之一」trap.