April 2 nd Lingua inglese IV

1. April 2nd Lingua inglese IV Back translation The translation of culture Creative allusions and intertextuality in translation Examples of intertextuality

2. Try to translate the following poem He’s dead. Just as his body, his breathing ended, lay oblivious, immobile, bereft of its great day, so at this news mankind lies thunderstruck and stunned, musing upon the final hour of the man of fate, unsure if a new, mortal footprint will soon or late appear within our midst, treading his sanguine dust.

3. Ei fu. Siccome immobile, Dato il mortal sospiro, Stette la spoglia immemore Orba di tanto spiro, Così percossa, attonita La terra al nunzio sta, Muta pensando all’ultima Ora dell’uom fatale; Ne sa quando una simile Orma di piè mortale La sua cruenta polvere A calpestar verrà.

4. What you tried to do is called BACK TRANSLATION

5. The translation of culture Culture is ‘the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression’. This definition implies that that each language group has its own culturally specific features. Of course many items of all languages are ‘universal’ (die, eat, live, star, table, mirror…) while others are culturally-specific (monsoon, yeoman, steppe, tagliatelle, polenta…) and in these cases translation is more difficult.

6. And when a speech community is ‘specialised’ or ‘famous’ for something, it can have a lot of lexical items belonging to that topic which are not known or understood by other communities. For example, words related to ‘cricket’ in English, words related to wines and cheeses in France, words related to bull-fighting in Spain, or Arabic words for camels and desert, Sami words for snow etc.

7. In translation you have to choose either to retain the same image or to domesticate it by using words which are more acceptable/understandable for the readership. A famous example provided by E. Nida about the Bible, that is the translation of "Lamb of God" into the Eskimo language. “Lamb" symbolizes innocence, especially in the context of sacrifice. As a matter of fact, Eskimo culture does not know "lamb". Thus, the word does not symbolize anything. Instead of "Lamb of God", he prefers "Seal of God" to transfer the message. Here cultural aspects are taken into account.

8. Nida confers equal importance to both linguistic and cultural differences between the SL and the TL and concludes that "differences between cultures may cause more severe complications for the translator than do differences in language structure" .

9. Bassnett (1980: 13-14) states that language is "the heart within the body of culture," the survival of both aspects being interdependent and points out that "the translator must tackle the SL text in such a way that the TL version will correspond to the SL version. To attempt to impose the value system of the SL culture onto the TL culture is dangerous ground" Thus, when translating, it is important to consider not only the lexical impact on the TL reader, but also the manner in which cultural aspects may be perceived and make translating decisions accordingly.

10. Do we have to translate having ‘the ideal reader’ in mind or do we have to translate for a mass audience? “The translator's first and major difficulty ... is the construction of a new ideal reader who, even if he has the same academic, professional and intellectual level as the original reader, will have significantly different textual expectations and cultural knowledge” (Coulthard, 1992). However, many times we translate for a mass audience and, considering the function/intention/genre of the text, we have to decide whether to translate cultural elements into other/different cultural elements which are present in the TC.

11. Besides mastering the source and the target languages traslators must master the source and the target cultures as well in order to catch all the cultural allusions of the source text.

12. Cultural categories Ecology (flora, fauna, winds…) Material culture or artefacts (food, clothes, houses, transports…) Social culture (work and leisure) Organisations, customs, activities, procedures (political and administrative, religious, artistic…) Gestures and habits (gesticulation, proxemics…)

13. Geographical names usually stay the same unless they have an official translation. Problems may arise when a text contains natural phenomena deeply rooted in a culture (bora, dolina, wintry shower (shower of snow, sleet or freezing rain), moor/heath which could be translated by using more general terms or explanations in the TL.

14. Institutions may vary in the different cultures. Serie A, cassa integrazione etc. could be left without changes or translated literally but in so doing we could create a socalled cultural/conceptual gap (something which is not fully understood). For example ‘certificato di residenza’ can be translated with ‘residence certificate’, but in England the concept of ‘residenza’ means something different. The same can be said with Green Card which literally translated would be Carta verde which in Italian means “certificato internazionale di assicurazione che consente ad un veicolo di entrare e circolare in un Paese estero”. In these cases translators should provide notes to explain better.

15. The English word ‘barrister’ can’t simply be translated with ‘avvocato’ because ‘barristers’ have different tasks in England (barrister, solicitor, advocate, lawyer are usually translated with ‘avvocato’, but the meanings are different). When literal translation or borrowing are not enough or unfit translators must turn to something else: 1. Paraphrase2. Explanation and also 3. Deletion when the term is not so important for the overall comprehension.

16. Paraphrase, explanation, deletion • The boyswere out playingconkers I ragazzi erano fuori a giocare con le castagne d’India 2. The boyswere out playingconkers I ragazzi erano fuori a giocare a ‘conkers’ (un gioco inglese nel quale i bambini stanno uno con una castagna d’India a penzoloni da un filo, mentre l’altro cerca di rompere la castagna dell’avversario con la propria facendola roteare nell’aria) 3. The boyswere out playingconkers I ragazzi erano fuori a giocare

17. Creative allusions An allusion is a tacit reference to another literary work, to another art, to history, to contemporary figures, or the like . A reader who recognizes a creative allusion achieves a deeper understanding of a passage or text, which means that he or she is somehow participating in the creation of a text […] on the same wave-length as the author . INTERTEXTUALITYThis is the nose that launched a thousand battlesThis is the smell that launched a thousand barbecues

18. Both examples refer to Doctor Faustus (“Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?”). The former is taken from a cinematic version (for an English audience) of Cyrano de Bergerac while the latter is a slogan for a cheese brand. CAN TRANSLATORS RETAIN THE SAME IMAGE AND GET THE SAME RESULT? This allusion may be transparent for an Anglo-Saxon audience, but what about an Italian audience?

19. Possible translations: Literal translation (without considering the contextual and intertextual factors) Translator’s explanation in the text Footnotes or introductory notes Substitution with elements known in the TC Paraphrase Omission

20. What matters is that THE ELEMENT MUST REPRESENT TO THE TC READER WHAT REPRESENTED TO THE SC READER. The effect should be the same. This means that the allusion should be respected by using the same allusion or another which could be more familiar (in particular in the case of advertising) to the target audience.

21. The other way round… Some years ago an Italian brand of vinegar used a revisited version of ‘La pioggia nel pineto’ by D’Annunzio. This vinegar rained on sedani, peperoni and funghi porcini and not on ‘tamerici, ginestre’ etc. In an English translation would the effect be the same?

22. Intertextuality and allusions in translation Intertextuality is the mechanism through which textual elements convey meaning by virtue of their dependence on other texts. Intertextuality and allusion are similar concepts, but intertextuality is more specific.

23. Intertextual references can be horizontal and vertical (Kristeva, Bakhtinetc.) H. I. is the concrete, real reference or quotation from other texts. V. I. is not a real quotation but allusion. Allusion means an ‘echo’ effect, when we read / listen to something and we think of other texts (biblical style, Shakesperean tone etc.) NO REAL QUOTATION SOMETHING IN THE TEXT REMINDS US OF SOMETHING ELSE (RECALLS)

24. For example, film adaptations, that is retellings of famous stories taking only some aspects and not the real words, are examples of V. I. Many contemporary retellings of Shakespeare’s plays through films - such as 10 Things I Hate About You, loosely based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and She's the Man, based on his play Twelfth Night. The film Last Action Hero which also features an action retake on Hamlet uses intertextuality throughout.

25. Newspaper headlines are full of V.I. Silence of the damned (from Silence of the Lambs) (headline about a humanitarian crisis in West Africa) Blame in Spain (from Rain in Spain) (headline about a friction between Britain and Spain) The first headline could be easily translated in Italian with………..? Il silenziodeidannati(the Italian version of the movie is Il silenziodegliinnocenti, there’s only the replacement of one word). Here the reference is quite clear And the second? Here the reference is more obscure Blame in Spain – the rain in Spain (easy allusion - assonance) Blame in Spain – la rana in Spagna (the allusion for Italians is far more difficult to catch, having only the element ‘Spain’ which in not enough to see intertextuality)

26. The following is an example of allusion Holiday high jinks (baldoria) at 5am land Euan in more trouble (Daily Telegraph) You don’t probably catch the allusion here, but many British people would. In this newspaper headline referring to Euan Blair, Tony’s son, the word “Euan”, especially when used in conjunction with “trouble”, for many British people in the summer of 2000 would have recalled images of a fun-loving teenager constantly causing embarrassment to his famous father. This means that also a simple first name makes people think of other related facts.

27. Prince takes arms against bad English Can you see intertextuality here? ‘Prince’ here refers to the prince of Wales, but what follows are references to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. To be, or not to be, that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

28. Goodnight sweet prince These words are taken from? Hamlet From Hell’s last line: Goodnight sweet prince. In the film The Big Lebowski Walter says, "Goodnight, sweet prince" at Donny's funeral. "Goodnight, sweet prince" is also said by a gang member after the shooting of Alex Murphy in Robocop. Hamlet is quoted in Neil Jordan’s film, 'Interview With the Vampire'. Claudia, the child-vampire, quotes "Goodnight sweet prince, may flights of devils sing thee to thy rest."

29. What about Dante’s inferno? Dante’s Inferno has as a primary character Virgil, the Augustan-era author of the Aeneid. Similarly, as Dante and Virgil descend through the circles of Hell, they encounter various characters from ancient literature, many of which are represented in Book 4 of the Aeneid, in which Aeneas visits the Underworld. For example, Cerberus, the three-headed dog and Medusa, the snaky-haired gorgon, just to name a few.

30. Eliot’s the Waste Land is rich in intertextuality Eliot refers to Shakespeare, Baudelaire, St. Augustine, Chaucer, Sophocles, ancient mythology etc. The allusions to the work of Baudelaire are clear in the quotation closing the first part of Eliot’s poem: “You hypocrite lecteur! - monsemblable, - mon frère!” which is the last line of Baudelaire’s poem “Au Lecteur”: Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstredélicat, –Hypocrite lecteur,–monsemblable,–mon frère!

31. Chaucer opens his CT with a positive statement about ‘April’: When fair April with his showers sweet,Has pierced the drought of March to the root's feetAnd bathed each vein in liquid of such power,Its strength creates the newly springing flower;Eliot opens his WL with a negative statement about ‘April’ (his intention is to recall Chaucer, but with the opposite effect)April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.

32. Read the following lines from 3 songs and look for intertextual references (at home) KILLING AN ARAB Standing on the beachWith a gun in my handStaring at the seaStaring at the sandStaring down the barrelAt the Arab on the groundI can see his open mouth But I hear no sound I'm alive, I'm dead, I'm the strangerKilling an ArabI can turn and walk awayOr I can fire the gunStaring at the skyStaring at the sunWhichever I choseIt amounts to the sameAbsolutely nothing

33. How beautiful you are You want to know why I hate you?Well I'll try and explain...You remember that day in ParisWhen we wandered through the rainAnd promised to each otherThat we'd always think the same… The three of them were dressed in ragsAnd thinner than the airAnd all six eyes stared fixedly on youThe father's eyes said "Beautiful! How beautiful you are!"The boy's eyes said "How beautiful! She shimmers like a star!"The child’s eyes uttered nothing but a mute and utter joyAnd filled my heart with shame for usAt the way we are

34. At night Sunk deep in the nightI sink in the nightStanding alone underneath the skyI feel the chill of ice on my faceI watch the hours go byThe hours go byYou sleepSleep in a safe bedCurled and protectedProtected from sightUnder a safe roof deep in your houseUnaware of the changes at nightAt nightI hear the darkness breatheI sense the quiet despairListen to the silence at nightSomeone has to be there

35. Intertextuality in popular culture Watch the following Pepsi cola commercial What are the features (visual, auditory, gestural etc.) that make you think of something else? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXDSWhobbfc Further considerations on intertextuality http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6BFeVWb8vc The Simpson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Hmubuvn9k Can you provide other examples? (we’ll discuss this slide and the previous 3 on Wednesday)