2. SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN LITERARY
TRANSLATION
By
Walees fatima
16031517-004
Issues in literary translation
Bs 7th (celts)
To
Dr. Kanwal zara
3. Outline
Introduction
English before there was English
English with a restrictedVocabulary
Working with subtext
IndirectTranslation
Conclusion
4. Introduction
•How often do you read books of foreign writers? And do you read
them in the original version or translated into your native language?
Just think for a minute: how many works of literature would be
unavailable for reading in the absence of translators, who are ready to
open for you the virtual world that is created on the pages of books?
•he translator of literary texts should be in some way the researcher.
It is difficult to translate the text of a different era, a different culture,
if you are not familiar with its features.
5. English before there was
English
A problem unique to literary translation arises when
the SL original dates from, or is set in, a period before
the TL emerged as a discrete linguistic entity.
There was the argument goes in translating a work set
in, say AD, one is justified in using any English
word, modern or archaic, that is aesthetically and
semantically apropos.
There was no modern English words existed in the
old time.
Any translation destined for publication carries with it
the translator’s responsibility to both author and
reader.
6. Cont…
Here are some of the ground rules those are set;
Exclude as much as possible foreign words in any
language.
Obviously, no anachronisms. In an earlier
translation there was occasion to remind a
different author — alas, too late to change the
text — that study cited in the novel had not yet
appeared at the time the story was set.
7. Cont…
Words or phrases that, though perfectly good English, sounded
too modern were also out.
Slang is too linked to time and place to work here. Further, its
lower register is at odds with the desired stateliness of the text.
Use thy, thou, and thee sparingly were used.
The intent governing was to maintain a colloquial but not
overly colloquial tone that would undergird the depiction of
Elijah as man rather than holy man.
A balance had to be struck between an English that was
powerful yet concise and one that did not unduly distance the
reader.
At the time of novel’s setting, English did not exist; the
problems of anachronism can still arise.
8. English with a restricted
Vocabulary
There is a case study about the original text and
its translation of a novel
The characters of the novel representing the
decadent aristocracy of the Empire’s waning
years. The translator establishes the linguistically
strict rules; excluded any word or expression
those are not used in novel setting era.
In some cases the vocabulary in the translation
may strike readers as anachronistic.
The vocabulary and diction was chosen to hew to
a middle ground formal language.
The reader of the English-language edition may
have difficulty distinguishing actual historical
figures from those that sprang from the novelist’s
rich imagination.
9. Cont…
American English, with some minor modifications codified
its spelling with the appearance of Noah Webster’s first
dictionary.
The result is that much of the vocabulary and dialogue in the
translation appears more contemporary than in the original,
An inevitable differing rates of linguistic and orthographic
evolution The limiting of vocabulary to that existing in 1886
obliged it to a pains taking search for the provenance of
word and phrases and a heightened sensitivity to what I
dubbed the CC (chronologically correct).
One would think that a term like ‘gigolo’ was international
and had come into use in various Western languages more or
less simultaneously.
10. Working with subtext
Especially in poetic translation, the translator
must be constantly aware of subtext. This is
defined as the implicit or underlying meaning
of a literary text (the term, only about 60
years old, is a calque from the Russian
podtékst).
11. Cont…
subtext is the underlying message being
conveyed by a piece of dialogue. Some call it the
“lines between the lines” or “the unsaid meaning.”
Writers love to use subtext in scripts because it
adds an extra layer of complexity to scenes and
their characters
The subtext is the unspoken or less obvious
meaning or message in a literary composition,
drama, speech, or conversation.
The subtext comes to be known by the reader or
audience over time, as it is not immediately or
purposefully revealed by the story itself.
12. Cont…
Subtext differs from allegory in that the latter often
makes use of openly symbolic characters (Pilgrim’s
Progress, for one) while a work with a subtext is
normally realistic on the surface. This makes subtext
more difficult to spot than allegory, and the translator
should always be alert to the possible existence of a
subtext.
In a very real sense, subtext in a written work can be
compared to a layered performance by an actor. A
truly fine actor can display simultaneously conflicting
emotional states on his or her face without uttering a
word.
13. Example
Vientre is a difficult word to translate into
English. ‘Belly,’ the translator’s choice,
normally would have the wrong register,
except perhaps in phrases like ‘the belly of the
beast’ or ‘the soft underbelly of Europe.’
‘Stomach’ is too prosaic and ‘abdomen’ too
clinical. “Womb’ is a possibility, but in the
context ‘ran through my womb’ doesn’t sound
quite right.
14. Cont…
Subtext can be subtle enough to escape conscious
detection or obvious enough to demand the
translator’s active participation in the act of re-
creation.
Not all writing has a subtext, and non-fiction is
more likely than fiction to lack it.
But where a discernible subtext is present, the
translator’s obligation is to choose words that
best reproduce it.
15. Indirect Translation
Indirect translation is translation into
Language C based ona translation into
Language B of a source text in Language
A. Tolstoy’s War and Peace was sometimes
translated into various European languages
via French rather than directly from
Russian; the result was an indirect
translation.
On the plus side, it’s safe to say that certain
classic works of world literature would not
have found their way into languages of
limited diffusion Special problems in
literary translation 131 had it not been for
indirect translation; at the very least their
appearance would have been delayed.
16. Cont…
Pitted against this advantage are several negatives. First and most
important, any error or misinterpretation in the first-generation translation
(T1) will inevitably be reproduced in T2 (the second generation) with no
chance of correction through comparison with the SL.
Thus T2 is automatically further removed from denotative fidelity than T1,
even if T2 introduces no further errors into the translation. But because
such second-stage errors are likely to occur, a degrading of meaning sets
in, and something akin to the Xerox effect takes place: a copy of a copy of
a copy loses sharpness and detail with each successive passage through the
process.
17. Cont…
In my view, indirect translations are to be avoided if possible, and an
ethical translator is duty-bound to inform readers, perhaps in a translator’s
introduction, that the text at hand is not a first-generation translation.
This is not to deny that certain excellent and even indispensable
translations have been indirect. At the beginning of the Renaissance, the
‘lost’ works of Greek antiquity (lost to Europe but kept alive in Arab
cultures, more advanced than their counterparts in Christendom) re-
emerged through indirect translations into Western European tongues,
thus reclaiming Plato and Aristotle for new generations.
The ‘Spanish’ classic Calila e Digna wasa fourth- or fifth-generation
translation from Arabic via Old Persian and Sanskrit. But in today’s world
there is little justification for indirect translation, certainly not when two
major languages are involved.
Predicated on what I consider the sound translational principles listed
above, I have never done an indirect translation and have no plans to do
one.
