Lyrics Translation from the Perspective of Skopos Theory A Case Study of Maroon 5’s Lyrics

With the development of Internet technology and the exchanges between eastern and Western cultures, a multitude of English songs have won increasing popularity among Chinese audiences. Music has no national boundaries, thus happy rhythms and beautiful melodies can be enjoyed by people all over the world. However, due to the limited proficiency in English, some listeners cannot learn the essence of the song - the meaning of the lyrics. Therefore, lyrics translation is particularly necessary. The thesis focuses on lyrics translation in order to promote the audience's aesthetic enjoyment of original English songs, help them better understand the feelings of a song that the songwriter intends to convey, and advance the cultural exchange and mutual learning between China and the West. The thesis does this by conducting a case study of the translation of lyrics of Maroon 5, whose songs have prevailed in China. From the perspective of Skopos Theory, the thesis compares the different versions of the translated lyrics of Maroon 5 on NetEase Music and QQ Music, then sums up the main problems in current translations, such as mistranslation, unreadability and lack of aesthetic beauty, and finally puts forward effective translation steps and strategies to improve the quality of lyrics translation.