Lecture 7

1. Lecture 7 Theory and practice of translation in the 20th and early 21st century

2. Theory and practice of translation in the 20th and early 21st century 1. James Fitzmaurice-Kelly’s entry on translation in Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911). 2. Ezra Pound and his influence on poetic translation in the 20th century. 3. Translations of Russian classics by Constance Garnett. 4. Walter Benjamin and his essay “The Task of the Translator”. 5. Roman Jakobson and his essay “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation” 6. Jiří Levý’s concept of literary translation. 7. Theodore Savory’s “The Art of Translation”. 8. John Catford’s “A Linguistic Theory of Translation”. 9. Eugene Nida’s theory of “dynamic” or “functional equivalence”. 10. Peter Newmark’s contribution to theory of translation. 11. Vladimir Nabokov’s translation activity. 12. Mary Snell-Hornby’s integrated approach to translation studies. 13. Lawrence Venuti and “translator’s invisibility”. 14. Translation studies in the 20th-century Russia.

3. James Fitzmaurice-Kelly’s entry on translation inEncyclopaedia Britannica (1911). A general entry on translation in the 11th edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1911 was written by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly (1857–1923), Professor of Spanish Language and Literature at the University of Liverpool. (for self-study)

4. Ezra Pound and his influence on poetic translation in the 20th century. Ezra Pound (1885–1972)

5. Ezra Pound and his influence on poetic translation in the 20th century. When he began translating and writing about translation in the 1910s, the translation of older poetry into English was dominated by the use of pseudo-archaic English. Words like ‘hath’ and ‘methinks’ were meant to indicate the age of the source text.

6. Ezra Pound and his influence on poetic translation in the 20th century. In the hands of good poets like Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Charles Swinburne, the method produced glamorously romantic translations. Inferior poets produced translations which made the great poets of the past sound all alike and equally irrelevant to the present.

7. Ezra Pound and his influence on poetic translation in the 20th century. Ezra Pound is remembered as the translator and theorist who broke that tradition. His letters and essays urged translation into fully modern English and advocated free verse as an English equivalent to quantitative or syllabic verse. His influential translations taught translators how to use a neutral modern, semi-formal diction to convey a simultaneous sense of antiquity and timelessness.

8. Ezra Pound and his influence on poetic translation in the 20th century. Pound experimented with using a specific earlier period of English, or with mixing different periods on purpose, to call to mind the world-view of its particular time and convey ideas not available to modern English.

9. Ezra Pound and his influence on poetic translation in the 20th century. In contrast to the anti-translation attitude to poetry (‘Poetry is what is lost in translation’), Pound advocated respect for the English tradition of translation, calling attention particularly to the beauties of Elizabethan translation.

10. Ezra Pound and his influence on poetic translation in the 20th century. He pointed out that Elizabethans saw earlier literature not as a set of words to be faithfully reproduced, but as a set of ideas to be absorbed and refashioned.

11. Ezra Pound and his influence on poetic translation in the 20th century. For Pound, translation is a form of criticism, its purpose for readers is to point out and make accessible works of importance; its purpose for writers is to help them, in their struggle to match the voice of another, to find their own.

12. Translations of Russian classics by Constance Garnett. Constance Garnett (1861–1946) translated a substantial portion of the classical (19th-century) corpus of Russian literature, with the exception of its poetry.

13. Translations of Russian classics by Constance Garnett. Constance Garnett was responsible for the vogue for Russian writing in England. Constance Garnett’s translations made Russian literature accessible to an English language public.

14. Translations of Russian classics by Constance Garnett. Katherine Mansfield wrote to Constance Garnett: ‘My generation (I am 32) and the younger generation owe you more than we ourselves are able to realize. These books have changed our lives, no less. What could it be like to be without them!’

15. Translations of Russian classics by Constance Garnett. In particular, Garnett’s versions of Chekhov revolutionized the art of the short story, producing major influence on K. Mansfield and D. H. Lawrence.

16. Translations of Russian classics by Constance Garnett. Constance Garnett about translation: The qualifications for a translator are to be in sympathy with the author he is translating, and most important of all to be in love with words and interested in all their meanings. The language of a country is the soul of its people, and if you debase the language you debase the people and rob them of their heritage.

17. Translations of Russian classics by Constance Garnett. Constance Garnett about translation: The desire to modernise an author arises from ignorance of the past and from bad taste. I have always tried to translate the Russians into the language of the period in which they wrote, which is of course possible with Russian literature, since it is all relatively modern. It would show grotesque insensibility to produce a translation of Gogol’s Dead Souls, written at the same time as Pickwick, in the language of today’s newspapers. I am particularly proud of having translated Dead Souls into English of the period in which it was written.

18. Translations of Russian classics by Constance Garnett. Constance Garnett about translation: I agree there are obvious limits to this: there would be no advantage in trying to translate ‘The Odyssey’ into the language of Chaucer—on the other hand no one would want to translate it into modern slang. Thus with Dead Souls, one cannot translate the language of Russian serfs before their emancipation into that of the proletariat of today. One’s aim should always be to translate into the language of the corresponding way of life.

19. Walter Benjamin and his essay “The Task of the Translator” Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), German-Jewish essayist and translator, set down his thoughts on translation theory in his pivotal essay “The Task of the Translator” (1923).

20. Walter Benjamin and his essay “The Task of the Translator” W. Benjamin argues that translation which only renders the meaning is bad translation. The question of a work’s ‘translatability’ is two-fold. It can mean: will the work ever find its proper translator among all its possible readers; or—and more to the point—does it, by its nature, permit translation?

21. Walter Benjamin and his essay “The Task of the Translator” W. Benjamin sees the ultimate purpose of translation in expressing the innermost relation between languages. He further argues that this purpose can be realized as languages are related in that which they wish to say.

22. Walter Benjamin and his essay “The Task of the Translator” The task of a translator is to find in the translator’s language that hidden structure which can awake an echo of the original. W. Benjamin emphasizes that fidelity in the rendering of individual words can almost never carry over fully the sense they have in the original, as the sense of individual words acquires significance only in connection with the manner of expression.

23. Walter Benjamin and his essay “The Task of the Translator” In particular, literalness in regard to syntax destroys any rendering of sense whatever and results in unintelligibility.

24. Roman Jakobson and his essay “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation” Roman Jakobson (1896–1982), literary theorist and linguist, in his essay ‘On Linguistic Aspects of Translation’ extends the significance of translation to include intralingual and intersemiotic translation.

25. Roman Jakobson and his essay “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation” Three ways of interpreting a verbal sign: it may be translated into other signs of the same language (intralingual translation), into another language (interlingual translation), or into another, nonverbal system of symbols (intersemiotic translation).

26. Roman Jakobson and his essay “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation” Jakobson’s emphasis on the functional role of linguistic elements in the translated text had a positive effect on the work of poetry translators. Regarding poetry by definition as untranslatable, Jakobson believed in the inevitability of ‘creative transposition’.

27. Jiří Levý’s concept of literary translation. Jiří Levý (1926–1967), a Czech theorist and historian of literature “The Art of Translation”(1963)

28. Jiří Levý’s concept of literary translation. Levý places literary translation within a general communicative theory of translation. As the translator cannot bring everything across, it is important to decide firmly what elements of the work must be preserved in order for it to function as a whole in its new language.

29. Jiří Levý’s concept of literary translation. Translation is a hybrid phenomenon, which involves contradiction between the foreign and the native. The translator’s task is to minimize the conflict, and to put together a textual whole which will function in its new context without calling too much attention to the fact that it is a translation.

30. Jiří Levý’s concept of literary translation. In his book he also talks about the ‘principle of realist translation’. “A good translator must above all be an efficient reader, a reader who refashions the work for another reader who is not to be made conscious of the kind of performance the translator is involved in.”

31. Jiří Levý’s concept of literary translation. Levý compares translation to the performing arts, especially dramatic performance. He sees the Stanislawskian theatre training as the closest analogy to the education of a good translator.

32. Theodore Savory’s “The Art of Translation”. 1952 Theodore Savory published in London “The Art of Translation”

33. Theodore Savory’s “The Art of Translation”. Th. Savory differentiates between four types of translation: 1) perfect translation – translation of purely informative phrases; 2) adequate translation – translation of fiction, where it is the content that is relevant, not the manner of expression; 3) translation of classical works of literature, where the form is as important as the content; 4) translation of scientific and technical materials called for by practical needs.

34. Theodore Savory’s “The Art of Translation”. The essence of translation consists in making a choice. A translator has to answer consecutively three questions: 1) What did the author say? 2) What did he mean by that? 3) How it can be rendered?

35. Theodore Savory’s “The Art of Translation”.

36. Theodore Savory’s “The Art of Translation”. A translator should steer the middle course between literal and free translation, so that on the one hand, the translation reads like an original text, and on the other hand, it preserves fidelity to the source text. Th. Savory believes that a translator has the right to borrow successful findings of his predecessors.

37. John Catford’s “A Linguistic Theory of Translation”. John Catford “A Linguistic Theory of Translation: an Essay on Applied Linguistics” (1965).

38. John Catford’s “A Linguistic Theory of Translation”. Catford proposed very broad types of translation in terms of three criteria: 1. The extent of translation (full translation vs partial translation); 2. The grammatical rank at which the translation equivalence is established (rank-bound translation vs. unbounded translation); 3. The levels of language involved in translation (total translation vs. restricted translation).

39. John Catford’s “A Linguistic Theory of Translation”. Catford raises the issue of untranslatability with a new perspective. linguistic untranslatability cultural untranslatability

40. John Catford’s “A Linguistic Theory of Translation”. John Catford was very much criticized for his linguistic theory of translation. One of the strongest criticisms came from Mary Snell-Hornby (1988), who considers that the concept of equivalence in translation is an illusion. She asserts that the translation process cannot simply be reduced to a linguistic exercise, as claimed by Catford, since there are also other factors, such as textual, cultural and situational aspects, which should be taken into consideration when translating.

41. John Catford’s “A Linguistic Theory of Translation”. In other words, Mary Snell-Hornby does not believe that linguistics is the only discipline which enables people to carry out a translation, since translating involves different cultures and different situations at the same time and they do not always match from one language to another.

42. Eugene Nida’s theory of “dynamic” or “functional equivalence”. In 1964 Eugene Nida, American pioneer in development of theory and practice of Bible translation, first formulated the concept of “dynamic” or “functional equivalence” in translation, which was developed in numerous books and articles over the past decades.

43. Eugene Nida’s theory of “dynamic” or “functional equivalence”. “A translation of dynamic equivalence aims at complete naturalness of expression and tries to relate the receptor to modes of behavior relevant within the context of his own culture” Eugene Nida

44. Eugene Nida’s theory of “dynamic” or “functional equivalence”. “The translator must be a person who can draw aside the curtains of linguistic and cultural differences so that people may see clearly the relevance of the original message” Eugene Nida

45. Eugene Nida’s theory of “dynamic” or “functional equivalence”. “An easy and natural style in translating, despite the extreme difficulty of producing it […] is nevertheless essential to producing in the ultimate receptors a response similar to that of the original receptors” Eugene Nida

46. Eugene Nida’s theory of “dynamic” or “functional equivalence”. SOURCE LANGUAGE RECEPTOR LANGUAGE TEXT TRANSLATION ANALYSIS RESTRUCTURING TRANSFER Nida’s model of the translation process

47. Eugene Nida’s theory of “dynamic” or “functional equivalence”. Typical of other theorists in the Anglo-American tradition, Nida has argued that dynamic equivalence is consistent with a notion of accuracy. The dynamically equivalent translation does not indiscriminately use “anything which might have special impact and appeal for receptors”; it rather “means thoroughly understanding not only the meaning of the source text but also the manner in which the intended receptors of a text are likely to understand it in the receptor language”.

48. Eugene Nida’s theory of “dynamic” or “functional equivalence”. For Nida, accuracy in translation depends on generating an equivalent effect in the target-language culture: “the receptors of a translation should comprehend the translated text to such an extent that they can understand how the original receptors must have understood the original text”

49. Eugene Nida’s theory of “dynamic” or “functional equivalence”. The dynamically equivalent translation is “interlingual communication” which overcomes the linguistic and cultural differences that impede it. Yet the understanding of the foreign text and culture is initiated and controlled by the target language culture, it is in fact an interested interpretation, and therefore it seems less an exchange of information than an appropriation of a foreign text for domestic purposes.

50. Eugene Nida’s theory of “dynamic” or “functional equivalence”. Nida’s advocacy of domesticating translation is grounded on a transcendental concept of humanity as an essence that remains unchanged over time and space. “As linguists and anthropologists have discovered, that which unites mankind is much greater than that which divides, and hence there is, even in cases of very disparate languages and cultures, a basis for communication”