Finals of Kant get Marx 2.0 : a general politics quiz
Challenges of Translation
1. Challenges of
TRANSLATIO
N
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అనువాదము μετάφραση
ಅನುವಾದ перевод
अनुवाद Übersetzung
અનુવાદ traduzione
অনুবাদ
översättnin
भाषांतर करणे翻译
ெமாழிெபயரபப 翻訳
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Challenges of Translation
What is Translation?
Why Translation?
What is Good Translation?
Skills of Translation
Kinds of Translation
Challenges of Translation
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What is Translation?
the skilful art of re-creating
an equivalent message
of a work of art
originally created
in one language
in another language.
equivalent, sensitive and natural
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Why Translation?
Living languages in the world - 6,912
Languages spoken in India - about 1,600
Indian languages spoken by more than 10,000 Indians - 211
The 1948 UN Universal Declaration Of Human Rights has
been translated into the most (321) languages and dialects.
Country with the most languages spoken: Papua New
Guinea (841)
Language with the most words: English (approx. 250,000
distinct words)
Language with the fewest words: Taki Taki, also called
Sranan (only 340 words)
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Why Translation?
• To ‘affect’ larger audiences
• Equitable access to information
• Social justice & life-saving needs
• Promoting mother tongues
• Reviving dead/dying languages
• Historical changes in languages
• Greater financial rewards
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A Good Translator
₌ Bilingual, Bicultural Proficiency
₌ Transparency in grammar, syntax and idiom
₌ Thorough Perception of theText/Content
₌ Loyalty to Intention, emotion, style
₌ Artistic Correspondence
₌ Fidelity to Detail and Faithfulness toText
₌ Aesthetics Matching the Original
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If a translation is
beautiful, it is not
faithful; and if it is
faithful, it is not
beautiful. - Russian axiom
Ad verbum vs ad sensum
Metaphrase or paraphrase?
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The Ordeal of Translation
Few foreign masterpieces can have suffered more
than Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin from the English
translator’s failure to convey anything more than–
at best–the literal meaning. It is as if a sound-proof
wall separated Pushkin’s poetic novel from the
English-reading world.There is a whole magic
which goes by default; the touching lyrical beauty,
the cynical wit of the poem; the psychological
insight, the devious narrative skill, the thrilling
compulsive grip of the novel; the tremendous gusto
and swing and panache of the whole performance.
- Samuel Johnson
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Machine Howlers
“Please Don't Make MeToo Happy”
To Spanish and back to English:
I RequestTo Me NotTo GoToo Much Behind Lucky Person
To German and back to English:
PleaseTo Me Do Not Go BackToo Lucky
To Italian and back to English:
I PrayTo Me NotTo Go BehindToo Much Fortunate
To Portuguese and back to English:
I Pray Me NotTo GoToo Much Behind Fortunate
To French and back to English:
Please Not ReturnTo MeToo Happy
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Translation – Some Challenges
Linguistic untranslatability
Cultural untranslatability
Source text
Illegible/unreadable
Misspelled
Unfinished/fragmentary
Unintelligible/incomprehensible
Language
Idioms & coinages
Acronyms & abbreviations
Slang & archaisms
Grammar, syntax, punctuation
Proper nouns
Ambiguities
Time, effort and Expenditure
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Astounding Alternatives
Choice depends on context and topic
Two trucks loaded with thousands of copies of Roget's
Thesaurus collided as they left a New York publishing
house last Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
Witnesses were aghast, amazed, astonished, astounded,
bemused, benumbed, bewildered, confounded,
confused, dazed, dazzled, disconcerted, disoriented,
dumbstruck, electrified, flabbergasted, horrified,
immobilized, incredulous, nonplussed, overwhelmed,
paralyzed, perplexed, scared, shocked, startled, stunned,
stupefied, surprised, taken aback, traumatized,
upset. . . .
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Cultural Challenges
Cultural variation leads to linguistic variation
Terms deeply rooted in culture
No equivalents in target culture/language
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Indian Literature in Translation
multi-lingual nation
diverse social, cultural factors
wide variety of themes, genres
official language
State funded agencies
Sahitya Academy
National Book Trust
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Translation Humor
In a Paris hotel elevator:
Please leave your values at the front desk.
In a Norwegian cocktail lounge:
Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
In an Acapulco hotel:
The manager has personally passed all the water served
here.
In a Bucharest hotel lobby:
The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we
regret that you will be unbearable.
Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop:
Ladies may have a fit upstairs.
In a Copenhagen airline ticket office:
We take your bags and send them in all directions.
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Future Focus
• How are Cyberspace and electronic translation shaping up the
locus of translation production?
• What role should the translator play amidst the increasing
emergence of computer translation software?
• Should translators modify traditional theories or come up with
new theories of translation to meet the new challenges?
• What role do translators play in a global cultures?
• What are the future prerequisites for building a career in
translation?
• How are shifts in technology, international politics and
economics translated in a manner which preserves the cultural
identity of the source and target languages?
• What are the limitations of translation and interpretation
activities on each nation compared to the global scenario?
• What is the role of mass media in advancing proper translations?
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Thank You
Editor's Notes
Knowing how to speak two languages is not the same thing as knowing how to translate. Translation is a special skill that professionals work hard to develop. A secular icon for the art of translation is the Rosetta Stone. This trilingual (hieroglyphic-Egyptian, demotic-Egyptian, ancient-Greek) stele became the translator's key to decryption of Egyptian hieroglyphs by Thomas Young, Jean-François Champollion and others.
Just think of what could happen in cases of serious inadequacy in knowledge areas such as science, medicine, legal matters, or technology.
It will always depend on the context and the topic, but in addition and especially with adjectives and descriptive language it will also be a subjective choice of how a word should be interpreted, which can be difficult and even dangerous when speaking in another language as you never can be really sure if the word you have chosen totally fulfils and conveys the meaning, message and emotion that you want it to portray.