Abstract:
This thematic paper is a study of translating the film script of The Producers
into Thai subtitles. The objectives were to apply translation theories, to practice
translation skills, and to analyze problems in and solutions to the translating process.
With regard to translation problems, the problems can be divided into two
categories: 1) Linguistic and cultural problems including translation of pronouns,
addition of final particles, translation of exclamations, translation of onomatopoeia,
use of puns, translation of technical terms, translation of songs, translation of proper
names, translation of idioms, translation of jokes, and 2) The technical problem caused
by limitations of screen space.
The researcher used various translation techniques to solve the aforesaid
problems. The translation of pronouns and addition of particles relied on status,
relationship and emotion of the characters. Other linguistic and cultural problems were
solved by transliteration, transliteration and additional explanation, Thai equivalents,
generic terms, literal translation, and free translation. Besides these, free translation,
abbreviations, use of punctuations, and omissions were used to solve the technical
problem.