Introduction to Literary Translation Translation Translation like politics

Introduction to Literary Translation

Translation “Translation, like politics, is an art of the possible; compromise is inevitable and universal. ” John Bester

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Technical vs Literary Translation • Technical translation focuses on information whereas literary translation focuses on the way the information is delivered. (a lively, highly readable translation) VS (a stilted, rigid and artificial rendering that strips the original of its soul)

Technical vs Literary Translation • More than other branches of the translator's art, literary translation entails an unending skein of choices; choices of words, fidelity, emphasis, punctuation, register, even spelling. Therefore, no two translations of the same work would ever be the same.

Types Translation of literary texts includes: • literary translation of books, articles, stories and other types of prose, • literary translation of poetry, • translation of advertising materials, • translation of other texts that requires a creative and flexible approach.

Capabilities of Literary Translator • Translation of literature is fundamentally different from other categories. • Main principle of literary translation is the dominance of poetic communicative function. • Rendering information to the reader AND artistic image created in the particular literary work

Capabilities of a Literary Translator? • • tone, style, flexibility, inventiveness, knowledge of SL culture, ability to glean meaning from ambiguity, an ear for sonority and humility!

Knowledge • Knowledge of the target culture is crucial for successful English-Indonesian-English translation. • Poor comprehension may arise from lack of insight into the target culture. • Culture is the complex whole, which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities or habits acquired by man as a member of society

Prevailing View • A translation should reproduce in the TL reader the same emotional and psychological reaction produced in the original SL reader • not without its hazards? ? ? --- reproduce boredom? Incoherence? Factual errors?

It is said… "A successful translation must sound somewhat alien, strange, not because it is awkward or unaware of the resources of the second language, but because it expresses something new in it. " Murat Nemet Nejat

Transparency • What is transparency? (vs Fidelity? ) • Translator’s invisibility • A view to reappraising the role of the translator as AGENT • A translation should not read like a translation (how far? ) • Such as “what a hero!” “Dia benar-benar pahlawan sejati!”

Resistance • The resistance of SL culture and SL language to being shoehorned into a dissimilar culturallinguistic frame. • Translators who follow “resistance theory” deliberately avoid excluding any elements that betray the "otherness" of the text's origin.

Word-for-word OR Thought-for-thought • One problem is trying to squeeze every last kernel of meaning from the SL text • The result of overly zealous concern for "fidelity" to the original. • Don't go word-for-word!

Word-for-word OR Thought-for-thought • Thought-for-thought should help you render more fluent or transparent translations, especially with highly emotional discourse. • The goal is to translate rather not what the author wrote, what the author meant. • A competent translation will find an equivalent phrase in the TL.

Adaptation • It is not straight translation • When translating for theater (translating or rewriting? ) • When translating for a movie "We must flee at once before the nitroglycerin explodes into a raging inferno, destroying our escape route and leaving this entire building a charred ember!“

Puns and wordplay • No aspect of translation is more frustrating and more rewarding • Most puns are untranslatable. • But the effect can be reproduced (such as humour)

Adaptation & Puns • "Mine is a long and a sad tale!"said the mouse turning to Alice and sighing. "it is a long tail, certainly" said Alice, looking down with wonder to the mouse’s tail " but why do you call it sad? "

Register • • • non-technical/technical, informal/formal, urban/rural, standard/regional, jargon/non-jargon, vulgarity/propriety

Check this out! • Naught have I (archaic) • Nothing have I (poetic) • I have noting (standard or formal, written) • I don't have anything (standard, colloquial, more spoken) • I don't have nothing (substandard, almost always spoken) • I ain't got nothing (substandard, spoken) • I don't got nothing (substandard, dialect)

How about… kidding – joking – jesting – japing – bullshitting-die – kick the bucket – pass away – study the geology of holy ground

Tone • It is the overall feeling conveyed by an utterance, a passage, or an entire work, whether consciously or unconsciously • It can be: humour, irony, sincerity, earnestness, naïveté, or any sentiment. • It can shift mid-paragraph • It helps in dealing with puns, and indirect allusions

Style • It is more than just specific words • It can be the ratio of long sentences to shorter ones, paragraph division, figures of speech, periodic sentences, etc.

Style • In theory, style in a translator is "oxymoron". Remain invisible! Retain the individual idiosyncrasies of the writer. • In practice, the translator consciously or unconsciously displays a characteristic mode of expression. (couch/sofa, curtains/drapes)

Case Study • The author's style is characterized by commas separating half a dozen of run-on sentences! Decision one: the passage into Decision two: usebreak semicolons instead Decision four: The leave it asmight is, hoping discrete sentences. result be a of Decision commas. three: The result might be a use a dash here and for an exotic flavor! stop-and-go effect, which is the opposite bookish, academic look there of the hurry-hurry, out-of-breath pace intended by the author

Cultural Allusions • Sometimes a text makes reference to persons, objects and institutions not really understood by another culture. • If they are familiar to the SL reader, they are often meaningless to the TL reader. • How should this problem be solved?

Allusions • ST: Did you think you were Sir Lancelot to involve in such a big fight? • ST: Your story is similar to that of Romeo and Juliet. •

Bridging Cultural Gap in Translation • The greater the cultural distance between the source culture and the target culture, the more the translator will need to bridge that gap! • Whether to provide sufficient background- a great deal, not much, not at all… • Three Options: footnotes, interpolation, omission

Footnotes • yes, they convey the maximum possible amount of information • Yet! They break the flow, continually drawing the eye away from the text; thus, disrupting the "willing suspension of disbelief" • The book's primary purpose will help you decide!

Interpolation • It is adding parenthetical word or phrase • They should be done carefully and with consideration for the rhythmic flow of language. • Keep them short!

Omission • leaving the reader to his own devises. • e. g. money (type or sum)

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