Abby Murphy
In the world of cartoons, the American series Steven Universe stands out for its groundbreaking and award-winning content. Steven Universe is currently being broadcast on Cartoon Network, following the adventures of its titular protagonist. The show also introduces kids to themes such as abuse and consent as well as being an LGBTQ-inclusive series. The show has earned many accolades for its content, including three Emmy nominations. Beyond its impact in the United States, Steven Universe also has an international audience, and fans of the show around the world are dedicated to sharing the show’s message of love and acceptance.
One such group of fans is Steven Universe Fantasy (SUF), a French non-profit organization devoted to promoting the show and making it accessible to the francophone world (“Notre Statut”). The group doesn’t just make the original English series available to francophone audiences but has a team of unpaid fans who work together to create French subtitles (VOSTF). While an official French dub of the series does exist, it is not without its problems, as the dubbed version can drastically differ from the original’s content. As such, SUF makes the original more accessible to a francophone audience, while appealing to fans who prefer to experience the show “closer” to its original through subtitles with the English audio.
But especially in a series like Steven Universe that is full of LGBTQ themes, dubbing choices sometimes go beyond adapting and censor the material, what University of Michigan Professor of Asian Cinema Abé Mark Nornes calls an “extreme manifestation” of “corruption” in translating (19). France is far from the only country with this issue, but has a history especially with song adaptations gone wrong. One infamous example is the season one finale, in which a lesbian romantic relationship was depicted as a “friendship.” But French fans, aware of the original, complained to Cartoon Network France (CNF), and a few weeks later, a new version was dubbed, one that recognized the two characters’ romantic relationship.
Overall, the French series continued to adapt the many songs in the show but, just over a year later, when faced with the musical episode “Mr. Greg,” CNF made the choice to not to dub the songs at all. The unsung parts of the episode were dubbed as usual in French, but all the songs were kept in the original English, with loosely translated French subtitles. While this choice is understandable when faced with such a daunting and costly dubbing challenge, the problem rests not so much in the decision not to dub, but in how they did translate the songs. This episode is an especially acclaimed one, earning a GLAAD nomination in 2017, and focuses on the character Pearl’s past relationship with Steven’s deceased mother, Rose Quartz, and Steven’s father, Greg. In one of the show’s most well-known songs, a Broadway-inspired ballad, “It’s Over, Isn’t It,” Pearl reflects on her past relationship with Rose and her inability to move past it and accept its end many years later.
“It’s Over, Isn’t It” Original English Song
I was fine with the men
Who would come into her life now and again
I was fine, ‘cause I knew
That they didn’t really matter until youI was fine when you came
And we fought like it was all some silly game
Over her, who she’d choose
After all those years, I never thought I’d loseIt’s over, isn’t it?
Isn’t it?
Isn’t it over?
It’s over, isn’t it?Isn’t it?
Isn’t it over?
You won, and she chose you
And she loved you
And she’s gone
It’s over, isn’t it?
Why can’t I move on?War and glory, reinvention
Fusion, freedom, her attention
Out in daylight, my potential
Bold, precise, experimentalWho am I now in this world without her?
Petty and dull, with the nerve to doubt her
What does it matter? It’s already done
Now I’ve got to be there for her sonIt’s over, isn’t it?
Isn’t it?
Isn’t it over?
It’s over, isn’t it?
Isn’t it?
Isn’t it over?You won, and she chose you
And she loved you
And she’s gone
It’s over, isn’t it?
Why can’t I move on?It’s over, isn’t it?
Why can’t I move on?
But beyond simply disappointing Francophone fans who had hoped to hear the song in their own language, the translation of “It’s Over Isn’t It” is an example of Nornes’ idea of corrupt subtitling.
« C’est fini » Cartoon Network France Translation
J’admettais tous les hommes
Qui arrivaient dans sa vie de temps en temps
Je l’admettais, je l’avoue
Car avant toi ils ne comptaient pas vraimentJ’admettais ta présence
Et on entrait en transe
Pour elle, mais son cœur t’a élu
Je n’ai jamais accepté d’avoir perduDis-moi que c’est fini
C’est fini, dis-le-moi maintenant
Dis-moi que c’est fini
C’est fini, dis-le-moi maintenant
Tu as gagné, elle t’a élu,
Elle t’aimait et elle n’est plus
Dis-moi que c’est fini
Elle me manque tantGuerre, victoire et réinvention
Fusion, liberté, son attention
Sous le soleil, mon potentiel
Audacieux, précis, expérimentalMais qui suis-je dans ce monde sans elle
Triste et rageuse d’avoir douté d’elle
Mais c’est fini maintenant
Et je dois protéger son enfantDis-moi que c’est fini
C’est fini, dis-le-moi maintenant
Dis-moi que c’est fini
C’est fini, dis-le-moi maintenant
Tu as gagné, elle t’a élu
Elle t’aimait et elle n’est plus
Dis-moi que c’est fini
Elle me manque tantDis-moi que c’est fini
Elle me manque tant
Despite not having to worry about the dubbing process, the translators created a version that mischaracterizes Pearl and misrepresents her relationships. In the original, Pearl expresses the fact that she wants to move on and is frustrated with herself for her inability to do so, but in the CNF translation, Pearl doesn’t ask anything, she demands an answer, literally singing “Tell me it’s over, / It’s over, tell me so now.” CNF’s Pearl is more demanding, and while just as bogged down in the past as the English original, her moving on hinges on validation from others, erasing Pearl’s self-reflexivity. And where in the final line of the chorus she sings “It’s over isn’t it, / Why can’t I move on?” in English, CNF translates “Dis-moi que c’est fini / Elle me manque tant” (“Tell me it’s over / I miss her so”). While poetic, this final line simply isn’t what the original says, or more importantly, asks. Instead of having Pearl question why she cannot move on, CNF has her say how much she still misses Rose, a point the whole song implies. And while this mischaracterization may be a result of subpar translation, the stakes are high when translating a song about a lesbian singing of her past love in a show that is known for its inclusive programming and nuanced LGBTQ representation.
However, the official CNF translation is not the only one French subtitle option, and this option allows for a look into how subtitling can be far from corrupt, instead promoting the original and bringing its themes to a larger audience.
“C’est fini, n’est-ce pas?” Steven Universe Fantasy Fan Translation
Ça m’allait
Quand un homme
Entrait dans sa vie de temps à autre.
Ça m’allait
Parce que je savais
Qu’ils n’avaient pas vraiment d’importance
Jusqu’à ce que tu arrives…Ça m’allait
Quand tu es arrivé
Et que l’on se chamaillait
Juste pour elle…
La personne qu’elle a choisie
Après toutes ces années
Je n’aurais jamais pensé
Que je perdrais…C’est fini, n’est-ce pas ?
N’est-ce pas ?
N’est-ce pas la fin ?
C’est fini, n’est-ce pas ?
N’est-ce pas ?
N’est-ce pas la fin ?Tu as gagné,
Et elle t’a choisi,
Et elle t’a aimé,
Et elle n’est plus là…
C’est la fin, n’est-ce pas ?
Pourquoi ne puis-je aller de l’avant ?Guerre et gloire !
Réinvention !
Fusion, liberté, son attention.
À la lumière du jour, mon potentiel
Un éclair, précis, expérimental.Qui suis-je dans ce monde sans elle ?
Mesquine et insipide,
Qui a osé douter d’elle.
Quelle importance ? C’est du passé.
Maintenant, je dois être là pour son fils…C’est…Fini, n’est-ce pas ?
N’est-ce pas ?
N’est-ce pas la fin ?
C’est fini, n’est-ce pas ?
N’est-ce pas ?
N’est-ce pas la fin ?Tu as gagné
Et elle t’a choisi
Et elle t’a aimée [sic]
Et elle n’est plus là !
C’est fini, n’est-ce pas ?
Pourquoi ne puis-je aller de l’avant ?C’est fini, n’est-ce pas ?
Pourquoi ne puis-je aller de l’avant…
Instead of avoiding translating Pearl’s variations on the titular question, SUF uses the French “N’est-ce pas” addition, which like the English, “Isn’t it” turns the statement “C’est fini” (“It’s finished”), into a question. And instead of freely adapting “Why can’t I move on?” like the CNF translation, the SUF translation uses a more literal “Pourquoi ne puis-je aller de l’avant ?” (“Why can’t I move forward?”). Unlike the backwards-looking stasis of the CNF translation, the SUF translation adds an even more literal reference to the “moving on” that Pearl can’t bring herself to do: here, Pearl seems frozen, but she questions why she isn’t able to move on, instead of how in the CNF translation she is frozen and is waiting for someone to tell her she can move on. Additionally, the fansub does what the original doesn’t even attempt to do in keeping formal qualities like meter and rhyme intact. SUF thus successfully creates a translation that maintains the original’s formal qualities without sacrificing meaning, while that the official CNF translation fails to do either.
In the case of the Steven Universe song “It’s Over, Isn’t It,” the French translations of the song show the violence that subtitles can do: manipulating and corrupting the original’s meaning. While this violence may be unintentional, it may reflect unconscious biases of translators, especially as Cartoon Network France has had a history of censoring Steven Universe, and of producing self-professed “maladroite” translations. But while the network may have avoided incurring additional costs for having to re-dub a poorly done translation, in subtitling “It’s Over Isn’t It,” they perhaps did even more violence to the original. CNF’s subtitles are less excusable and more insidious than a subpar dub, as the subtitles present a translation that fails to be in-tune with either the original song’s meaning or meter, especially when presented alongside the original English audio. However, fansites like Steven Universe Fantasy allow for an alternative: subtitles that remain in tune with how characters, representing the LGBTQ community, are originally portrayed. While their translations may be unofficial, their translations truly have heart, and as each fansubbed episode ends, are truly “Sous-titré avec amour.”
The end of “Mr. Greg” featuring the credit “Subtitled with love by Steven Universe Fantasy.”
Works Cited
“Mr. Greg.” Steven Universe: Volume 4. Written by Joe Johnson and Jeff Liu, Cartoon Network, 2016.
Nornes, Abé Mark. “For an Abusive Subtitling.” Film Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 3, Spring 1999, pp. 17–34. JStor, www.jstor.org/stable/1213822. Accessed 11 April 2018.
“Notre Statut.” Steven Universe Fantasy. www.steven-universe-fantasy.net/credo. Accessed 16 April 2018.
“Steven Universe.” Television Academy, www.emmys.com/shows/steven-universe. Accessed 16 April 2018.
Sugar, Rebecca. “It’s Over Isn’t It.” Performed by Deedee Magno Hall. Steven Universe Soundtrack Volume 1, Cartoon Network Music, 2017.
Languages in Conflict 