Problems in Translation

1. Problems in Translation Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

2. General Problems in Translation • Language and Culture • Types of Translation • Decoding and Recoding • Equivalence • Loss and Gain • Untranslatability • Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

3. Specific Problems in Translation • Anne Cluysenaar – says that the translator should not work on the general pretext, but on each individual structure and linguistic feature. • This forms a structuralist approach to translation. • Each text is made up of a complex set of systems related to each other. • The problems that arise when each structure is seen separately have been listed by Lotman – • Reader focuses only on content. • Reader understands each structure and the complexity of connections. • Reader focuses on one level of the work for a specific purpose. • Reader uses elements that are not native to the text and uses it for his own purpose. • Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

4. Specific Problems in Translation • 20th century translation theory studies the reader not only as a reader but as producer of the text. • The problem of what Julia Kristeva calls intertextuality – the connection between the text and all other texts surrounding it. • The translator first translates the SL into a way in which he understands which is later translated into the TL which the reader then translates in his mind according to his context. • Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

5. Prose Translation : Problems • Less discussed than poetic translation, due to the lower status of prose? • Content is considered separate from form – translated in parts rather than as a whole. • Finding terms in the TL with high level of faithfulness to the SL. • Must be skilled to translate feelings and other nuances – Wolfgang Iser talks about ‘intentional sentence correlatives’ stating that each sentence aims at something beyond what it actually says. • Translation of regional linguistic devices is impossible. • Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

6. Prose Translation : Problems 5) When translating prose these ‘negative shifts’ as Catford calls them might apply – • mistranslation of information • Subinterpretation of text • Superficial interpretation of connections 6) Hilaire Belloc lays down six rules for the translator of prose texts (refer text). • Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

7. Dramatic Translation : Problems • Most neglected area when it comes to discussions on translation. • Different from prose translation, because prose is meant only to be read. • Dramatic translation is always incomplete as plays are incomplete in written form , they are meant to be performed. 1)Should drama be translated as a literary text? Or as an element which is part of a more complex system? • Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

8. Dramatic Translation : Problems 2) Linguistic system is only one element. The focus has to shift to spectacle and performance. 3) Anne Ubersfeld – points out that it is near impossible to separate text from performance and any such separation leads to distorted translation 4) Most writers translating drama focus on literary elements, thereby discounting the freedom that comes with performance. 5) The function of the play is also neglected. 6) A dramatic text is characterised by rhythm, intonation and rhyme which is not oobvious only from the written text. • Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

9. Dramatic Translation : Problems 7) Robert Corrigan states that the translator and actor must ‘hear’ the voice of the character and focus on the innate gestures that are inbuilt into the text. 8) The translator also has to take into consideration the playability of the text. 9) Playability and performability change according to context and age. Eg. Shakespesre’s Shylock. 10) Bassnett introduces the concept of ‘gestural patterning’ which is based upon a comprehension of the understructures of the text. • Gaps occur between a performance –oriented translation and a reader-oriented translation. • Focus should be given to what ThadeusKowzan calls auditive and visual signs with equal importance to paralinguistic structures. • Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

10. Poetic Translation: Problems • Andre Lefevere distinguishes seen strategies of translating poetry: • Phonemic • Literal • Metrical • Poetry into prose • Rhymed • Blank Verse • Interpretation • Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

11. Poetic Translation: Problems • Translating texts that are remote in time – with structures that no longer exist. • The significance of the poem in its particular text is lost. • With poetry, another issue is the translation from a vertical to horizontal level, i.e. from a high status language t one of lower status. • Ludskanov’s ‘semiotic transformation’ or Jakobson’s ‘creative transposition’ indicate that a poem is worked outwards to suit the context for which it is written rather than which it was written in. • Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

12. Poetic Translation: Problems 5) Intertextuality between versions. If it is not taken into consideration, it loses meaning. 6) Michael Riffaterre in Semiotics of Poetry talks about a process of ‘continual recommencing’ and ‘indecisiveness’ which is alternatively lost and found on each separate reading leading to a ‘revealed significance’ each time. 7) Layers of meaning emerge with each reading which is near impossible to translate. 8) Poetic translation is based on the interpretation of the original, thereby ensuring different versions. 9) Impossible to translate figurative language. 10) Confusion arises between interpretation and translation. • Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS

13. THANK YOU Ms. Rakhi L. Lalwani, Assistant Professor of English, SNMV CAS