Genre and Song Translation: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Abstract

This thesis will present and test a new additional strategy for song translation based on the pentathlon principle by Peter Low and the multidisciplinary approach by Sebnem Susam-Sarajeva. This strategy combines musicology and translation studies in the translation process, as it will look at the genre of a song. By studying the genre conventions the translator can gain new insights useful for translation such as: rhythm conventions, chord progression rules, or themes and metaphors that are often used within a genre. This theory is applied in three translations of three different genres. These songs are: “Dazed and Confused” by Led Zeppelin, “Henry Lee” by Nick Cave, and “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. This translation process has proven this new strategy to be useful in translating. However, it has also shown that this success is limited to genres that have conventions that are related to the function and content of the lyrics.