Engaging Subtitles

The translation of the dialogues and verbal cues of Red Hulk is both straightforward and challenging in equal measures. Even though the translator is only dealing with colloquial language and not burdened by asynchronicity issues, s/he aims to engage the audience and introduce it to the cultural identity and character of everyday Athenians, convey their anger, fear, cynicism, hopelessness and frustration, as well as their pride, conceit and sentimentality, without trivialising their emotions and behaviours.

To achieve this, s/he has had to find a new linguistic code in order to transfer the experience of one culture onto another and bring the semantic and language codes over to another verbal tradition, as discussed under Translating Cultures, section 1.3.4. Instead of the often-touted idea that a translation should read as if it had been originally written in the target language, an effective translation should actually bear the characteristics of the original language, in order to establish a link with this ‘other’ culture and introduce the audience to its foreignness. “Having the idea of an original

text in the new language is not simply erroneous but also an illusion.” (Karalis 2003,

136)

As previously noted, Red Hulk is a laconic, non-verbose film. The number of Greek words spoken comes to a total of only 785, translated into 888 English words in the official subtitles. Despite the requirement for subtitles to be succinct, this actual increase in the target text wordcount is consistent with, and within the boundaries of, the admittedly anecdotal ‘expansion ratio’ of approximately 15%150 between target and source wordcount, depending on language pair and type of text. This is largely due to translators’ efforts to convey the most accurate overall meaning when faced with

150 _{As gleaned from my professional translating experience, and from other unofficial sources, such as}

untranslatable words or phrases, as indicated when discussing paraphrasing, in sections 1.3.3 and 1.4.3.

The English subtitles in Red Hulk are in keeping with the style and register of the original, and generally manage to effectively retain its literal or metaphoric nature when this does not interfere with the clarity of the concepts and nuances of the text, and the space limitations inherent in subtitling. They bear the hallmarks of bilingual translators (see section 1.2.4) and work equally well for an English audience as for a Greek one, which is not meant to imply that there is a single appropriate translation for each phrase, as there is, in fact, a multiplicity of ways to successfully translate and convey the meaning of a source text.

Trivial matters of omissions, additions, typos, or inconsequential differences between source and target texts, are not discussed here. Analysis is generally focused on a few relevant points which are considered noteworthy indicators of cultural significance and difference in the film, for the role they play in mirroring and emphasising the visuals, such as the use of metaphors, diminutives and euphemisms, and the reverse polarity of expression between Greek and English.

In linguistics, polarity is the grammatical category associated with an affirmative or a negative style of expression. Apart from its primary usage in expressing opposite utterances, polarity is employed for stylistic purposes, such as when ‘multiple negatives’ appear in a clause to emphasise a point. This is exemplified by ‘litotes’, a figure of speech where the device of understatement, created by using a direct negative (words such as ‘non’, ‘not’, ‘never’, etc.), or indirect negative (words such as ‘barely’, hardly’, ‘doubt’, etc.), is used to emphasise a positive observation, or soften a harsh one.151

151 _{In some languages, including Ancient Greek, double negatives cancel each other out and produce a}

positive, while in other languages double negatives intensify each other, as is the case with English. Languages in which multiple negatives intensify each other are defined as having negative concord. Languages without negative concord can use negative polarity indirectly with negating words instead of additional negatives which could have rendered their meaning confusing.

In Modern Greek, double negation tends to add impact, succinctness, and produce a more flowing expression, as in Christo’s statement “έχασες που δεν ήρθες”, translated as “you should have come” instead of the literal “you missed out by not coming”, which is also considerably longer. Other instances of polarity inversion (with the relevant points marked in bold) include: Σας πληρώνω να κωλοβαράτε (I’m not paying you to

sit on your asses), Καλά, μην ξοδεύεσαι (Go easy on the money, man), Σώπα, ρε! (You’re the one to talk!), Στάθη, έχεις και οικογένεια, ε; (Stathi, don’t you have a family, too?), εγώ σε υπερασπίζομαι κι εσύ μούγκα; (I stand up for you and you don’t say a word?), Καλώς τα Es-Es (Well, if it isn’t the Es-Es).

The language of fear and intimidation, peppered with verbal abuse or sarcasm throughout the short film, is an instrument of choice when it comes to enforcing repression. References are masked, where it suits the utterer, by using metaphors (as discussed in sections 2.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.3), diminutives (numerous occurrences, including τυροπιτούλα, discussed in section 3.3.2) and euphemisms, that is, positive- sounding, indirect and vague expressions to skirt around unpleasant, offensive or taboo subjects, a widespread and universal mechanism to camouflage any perceived offence in literal language.

There are a number of examples of euphemisms in the minutiae of the dialogues, most notably in a conversation among the members of the racist mob, intended to mock and mask the intimidation they have planned for later on in the day, the true meaning of which would not be lost on any type of audience. “Πού πάμε; -Λιοσίων, πάμε να δούμε

αν ο Hassan έκανε καλό φαλάφελ απόψε” (“Where are we off to? -Liossion street, let’s see if Hassan cooks a good falafel tonight”). Other occurrences include: “θα καθαρίσουν τα φιλαράκια σου” (“your new mates are gonna take care of it”), and “Είσαι θηρίο, ρε.” (“You’re a beast, man.”)