Converging Texts: Process, Challenges and Results of Subtitling Raymund Red's "Sakay"

Abstract

This presentation will examine the challenges encountered in translating and subtitling Filipino director Raymond Red’s Sakay in an effort to make it accessible to Filipino heritage language learners and non-Filipino language students in a classroom environment. In translating and subtitling Sakay, Dr. Arboleda will try to “[reproduce] in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.” The major challenge in translation is that many language equivalents are available because of variations of possible meaning in the dialogue. In a number of cases, the equivalents may be accurate in meaning, but unnatural in colloquial delivery. In this regard, certain choices are made in order to ensure that the subtitles produce the same understanding for non-Filipino viewers as they would for native speakers. Sakay is set in the early 1900s in the Philippines, when the Philippines changed colonial masters from the Spanish to the Americans. It was necessary to consider the historical and cultural context of the period, and include these important contextual elements in the final English subtitles.