Case study in Taiwan (1): Jumanji (2008)

In Taiwan, a large amount of research on the verbal-visual relationship in picture storybooks has been conducted from pedagogical, artistic, and literary perspectives.

However, research on the verbal-visual relationship in the Chinese translation of picture storybooks is relatively sparse. Most studies of the word-picture interplay in the Chinese translated picture storybooks to date have narrowly discussed whether the verbal translation corresponds to the information presented in the pictures (Lu, 2000;

Chen, 2003; Ku, 2008; Liu, 2012), but didn’t further touch upon the change in the word-picture relationship in the Chinese translation. Yet, there are two studies noticed the change in the word-picture relationship in the translation process.

A case study concerns the two Chinese translations of Chris Van Allsburg’s Jumanji. Yang (2008) noticed that pictures are integral to a picture storybook as a greater whole, and wondered whether translators should “translate” the visual into the verbal, and how it can be done. She compared two Chinese translations of Jumanji:

the earlier version Tian Ling Ling (天靈靈), published in 1995, and the later version in 2007, Ye Man You Xi (野蠻遊戲). Among her several conclusions on the differences between the two translations, there is only one finding related to the word-picture relationship. She thinks that the later version attempts to present the atmosphere of the pictures through more vivid description in the words, while the earlier version does not.

However, the author of the present thesis does not consider her analysis and conclusion reasonable or convincing. She only uses two examples to illustrate her finding.

In the story, when Peter and Judy, the protagonists, started to play Jumanji, Peter tossed a 7 and faced a lion attack. The picture on the recto shows that the boy is

shocked, with his mouth wide open, on one side of the bed, while the lion, with its head under the bed, is on the other side of the bed. The words on the verso page describe how the scene in the picture happened: Peter was chased by the lion from the living room to the bedroom, and the lion got stuck under the bed when it tried to catch Peter under the bed. The translation of the earlier version Tian Ling Ling (天靈靈) reads:

那隻獅子大吼一聲，震得彼德從椅子上頭摔了下來。獅子跳到地上，彼德 站起來就跑。獅子緊緊地跟在後面，眼看就快追上他了。彼德跑上樓，鑽 到了床底下，獅子也想鑽進去，可是，他的頭被床卡住了。彼德趕緊爬了 出來，跑出臥房，「砰！」的一聲關上了門。他跟裘娣站在門外，直喘 氣。

By contrast, the translation of the later version Ye Man You Xi (野蠻遊戲) reads:

獅子突然大吼一聲，彼得嚇得從椅子上跌下來。接著獅子一躍而下，彼得 拔腿就跑，獅子咻咻的呼吸聲好像就在耳邊。他跑上樓，躲到床底下，獅 子也跟著爬進去，可是被自己的大頭卡在床邊。彼得趁機逃出臥房，將門 砰的一聲關上。他在走道上撞到茱蒂，兩人都嚇壞了。

Yang thinks that the later version uses more concrete and vivid words to describe that Peter was frighten by the lion’s roar and fell from the chair (嚇得), Peter and Judy were terribly frightened (嚇壞), and Peter ran as fast as he could (拔腿就跑) as the lion was chasing behind, and she concludes that by doing so, the translation shows an attempt to express the bizarre atmosphere in the picture (p. 42). The conclusion does not seem tenable. First of all, the connection between vivid description in words and the atmosphere of the picture is not clearly explained.

Secondly, the fundamental problem of the conclusion is that Yang does not consider the possibility that the vivid description can also be inferred from the verbal text itself.

Just as Yang points out, the pictures in Jumanji are like snapshots of certain scenes of the story, and it is mainly the verbal that carries the narrative, unfolds the story and depicts the change in characters’ emotions. The vivid description may result from the translator’s interpretation and understanding of the words. In addition to the first example that loosely supports the finding, the other example in the paper is not logical or clearly explained. Yang chose a paragraph that describes Peter’s reaction after he knew that they had no other alternatives but to continue the board game. The

translation of the earlier version reads:

彼德看看棋盤，要是裘娣也擲一個七點，會怎麼樣呢？那家裡就會有兩隻 獅子！彼德想著，都快哭了。他坐下來，坐定之後，說：「我們來玩 吧！」

while the translation of the later version Ye Man You Xi goes as follows:

彼得低頭看著遊戲板，心想如果茱蒂也擲出了七點，那該怎麼辦？到時家 裡就會有兩隻獅子！彼得光是想到這裡就快哭出來了。但是他鎮定下來，

在椅子上坐好，對茱蒂說：「我們繼續玩。」

The words above do not have a corresponding picture. Instead, what accompanies this paragraph on the recto page is a picture illustrating what happened after Peter decided to keep on playing: Judy tossed an 8, which resulted in monkeys breaking things in the kitchen. The picture depicts monkeys destroying the kitchen with Judy standing at the door witnessing the event. Yang thinks that the earlier version does not consider the picture’s information, and does not pay more attention to describe Peter’s emotion. On the other hand, she thinks that in the later version the translator obviously notices the picture on the recto, and intends to express the change in Peter’s emotion. She does not further explain why the picture affects how the

translator deals with Peter’s emotion, and it does not make sense either. In conclusion, the finding is poorly drawn with insufficient supporting evidence and analysis.