Reviewing of Taboo Terminology Translation Strategies in Farsi

Translation of R-Rated Scripts

Sepehr Golmakani
(BA Student, Khayyam University, Mashhad, Islamic Republic of Iran)
sepehrgolmakani@gmail.com

1. Introduction
A Screenplay is a blueprint for the movie. (Maras, 1999; Staiger, 2012;
Kretschmer, 2014). The publication of any screenplay often raises the question of
whether we are dealing with a literary text, or whether we have begun to study a
master plan for the rotation and production of industrial work. Once upon a time,
screenplays based on the final script were written. But the screenplays that are
being released around the world today owe their appeal to their differences with
the film, with their literary style and context. This is why some of them align with
the great stories of the world of literature in the strength of their rich and poetic
structure and prose (Mashayekhi, 1999). Fortunately, it has been several years
since the translation of the script became one of the favourite texts of tasteful
translators. Krestchmer (2014) found the reasons for the translation of the
screenplay, the first reason being that the screenwriter intends to submit his/her
screenplay in an international market or put in international contests. Other reasons
for translating screenplays may be to seek permission for filming in other
countries, to translate screenplays of well-known films for publication in book
form, or to facilitate the work of creative contributors who are not fluent in the
language which the project is filmed.
 Many of the screenplays that are written contain bad words or so-called Taboo
language. Since 1968, The Motion Picture Association of America, which is
responsible for controlling the content and film rating system, usually places this
category of screenplays in the R-Rated category (Britannica, 2019). Hence, the
translation of taboo terminology has always been the most challenging and
controversial topic. Some viewers are shocked by the use or nature of taboo words
in subtitles, while some are critical of translators who tone them down and
complement translators who faithfully render the force and style of the original
expressions. The task of translating swearwords is a balancing act: translators
interpret the original style and message, make assumptions of reception by the
target audience, and choose the translations accordingly (Hjort, 2009). José Javier
Ávila-Cabrera (2014) concluded that although taboo words are not socially
acceptable in certain contexts, offensive and taboo language is a tool that depicts
characters’ linguistic idiosyncratic feelings and emotions. The softening or
omission of these terms risks jeopardizing the intended function that they have in a
given dialogue and on a given speaker.

In Iran, the translation of taboo terminology in various formats is associated with

different approaches; Translators who work in the field of subtitling movies and
TV Series have more freedom in translating explicit taboo words. Because they
usually do not need to pass the surveillance organization's filters and their subtitles
are easily accessible on unofficial and illegal networks. Of course, it should be
noted that due to the lack of such a supervisory space on them, common and
conventional Western terminology such as "fuck", "shit" and "lesbian swear word"
have entered Iranian culture and society. Even some translators, in order to justify
their actions by translating word for word of taboo words of English films and TV
shows, admit that they do so to maintain loyalty to English subtitles. In dubbing,
the approach is a bit more conservative, because the dubbing must go through the
filter of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) before being placed on a
film or television work. Severe restrictions and censorship in dubbing movies and
television have caused great damage to the audience's understanding of the story,
the concept and characters. In recent years, however, private dubbing production
companies and dedicated film download websites have been set up that have
removed some of the limitations and tried to use the closest equivalent of cultural
vocabulary and taboos in speech. The third approach is translating screenplays of
well-known films for publication in book form which is harder than the previous
two. It can be seen that in recent years, the publication of books has been severely
restricted The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, making it much more
difficult for translators to do translate. Many translators are forced to use omission
strategy for taboo terminology in this situation so that they can go beyond the filter
of the ministry or write them all with the same equivalent, which, of course, harms
the sense of dialogues.

According to the above passages and importance of this issue in Iran, the purpose
of the present study is to look at the R-Rated translated screenplay from English to
Persian, how to translators deal with taboo terminology and review the strategies
used to convey these messages. Three main questions are of concern in the present
study: They include (a) What Strategies have translators used in Translating
English language Screenplay into Persian? (b) Does relying on these strategies in
script translation reduce the originality of the script's source language? (c) Could
we get a consistent pattern among the strategies adopted?