Features of Translation of Literary and Nonliterary Texts - Coursework Example

Translation of Literary and Nonliterary Texts s English Department Introduction A formidable linguist known worldwide, Wilhelm von Humboldt, connected language to mentality of a nation and thus argued it to be the spirit of a people (Humboldt, 1999, p.21). This definition means that language is the phenomenon closely related to spiritual and mental development of the entire humankind and particular peoples, for its original nature is reflection of people’s peculiar perceptions of the world. However, studies have been emphasizing the approach of linguistic relativity relying upon the idea that there is no universal “way of describing the world” (Duranti, 2000, p.220). Instead, each language is believe to create the system of meanings and concepts that is diverse from those of other languages. Therefore, it is natural that people belonging to different nations tend to see the world in different ways, as their cultural, historical or social environments might focus on different realia. For instance, certain northern peoples have a great variety of lexical units to denote different types of snow, as the latter constitutes an important part of their reality, whereas English is free of such peculiarity focusing on some other phenomena instead. This shows that cultural and linguistic diversity are intertwined. Anna Ginter calls translation “culture-specific communication” (2002, p. 27), therefore, in the context of cross-cultural communication, the task of a translator becomes decoding and interpreting texts provided in one language so that their meanings – both explicit and implicit - could be understood by speakers of other languages. A good translator should be able to comprehend the text in the given language and transform the information contained in it with careful consideration of all extralinguistic aspects, which means that knowledge of grammar and vocabulary of the language is not enough. According to Sadiq (2008, p.37), as far as “translation is a process of constant search for the transfer of a message from the Source Language (SL) into the Target Language (TL), it is often beset by many problems and difficulties that may be a result of the differences in both languages or differences in the cultures represented by them”. Numerous linguistic, cultural and stylistic issues may arise because of differences between SL and TL and thus influence fidelity of translation (Ali, 2014, p.88). Translation of nonliterary texts Difference in translation if literary and nonliterary texts derives from the purposes they serve and level of importance each world possesses. Given the division of the word meaning into denotative and connotative, the translator firstly faces the prevalence of one of them in the text. “Denotation […] of a word denotes a core meaning of an object, an act, or a quality that is generally used and understood; while connotation implies the associations that a word may bring to the hearer’s mind according to his cognition and experience that are additional to its literal or dictionary meaning” (Ilyas, 2013, p.249). In nonliterary discourse, i.e. in scientific texts, words are mainly characterized by their denotative meaning and the task the translator faces is narrowed down to preservation of this meaning and general stylistics of the text. In other words, it might be suggested that nonliterary translation presupposes less space for the translator’s creativity, as “the word is seen as a vehicle for the concept it refers to (Lianeri & Zajko, 2008, p.38). Moreover, in nonliterary texts such as those in the fields of medicine or law, the precise interpretation of each word might be of great significance, as such texts carry “heavy responsibility” (Al Aqad, 2014, p.111). Therefore, in translating nonliterary texts, a good translator is required to apply translation methods helping to achieve the most accurate transmission of meaning to the Target Language yet preserving grammatical, lexical and stylistic norms of the latter. One could state that nonliterary texts, especially those requiring accurate transmission of each word’s meaning, convey less historical, cultural and social background information and thus presuppose less extralinguistic challenges. Translation of literary texts Unlike nonliterary texts, literary ones are far more complicated in terms of translation and adequate meaning transmission with the means of Target Language. Working on translation of literature, the translator is granted more freedom for creativity and – at the same time – faces more challenges, as strict dichotomy between the writer and the translator is blurred. Accoridng to Khatibi (2015, p.145), “literary translation is a very challenging activity mainly because creative writing is itself characterized by a very sophisticated, symbolic and figurative language”. A good translator is required to deeply comprehend the text and achieve all-round understanding of it. According to Farsi et al., “the literary text’s dynamics and multidimensionality involve a fuller and more profound appreciation of the source text including all of its inter- and con-textual features” (2014, p.240). This means that literary texts always convey extensive meaning, thus the translator has to literally recreate the text by its inner sense with consideration of all peculiarities of the world’s perception rather than just translate words from one language to another. The good translator must have profound knowledge of both language’s cultural backgrounds and sources of people’s world perception. To bridge cultural gaps, it is necessary to adapt SL’s cultural peculiarities expressed in the source text to those understandable for the target language speakers. For instance, reading a literary texts, Arab reader will easily identify allusions to the Qu’ran, while they may easily go unnoticed with the European reader. Of course, there are allusions that can be universally understood by members of various cultures. Mohammed Albakry provides an example of such allusion in his article: the allusion to the human body possessed by demons is seen as a virtually universal superstition (Albakry, 2004). However, authors of literary texts, seeking to produce a desirable effect on the reader, often refer to cultural knowledge, which they take for granted, - nationally specific knowledge. Such allusions might be difficult to identify and understand by the reader of the Target Language version, as extralinguistic information underlying the elements of language is unfamiliar to him/her. A qualified however, a qualified translator will be able to solve this problem with adding footnotes that explain the allusions or – where possible – replace culturally specific allusions with parallels typical for the Target Language culture. Another aspect of literary translation to be considered by the translator and bearing the deep cultural message is metaphor. Literary texts is a form of art, and thus the translator should be creative enough to recreate this art with the means of the target language. Metaphors cannot be translated verbatim, as they will certainly loos the inner message conveyed in the original text. Again, there are also metaphors common for many languages, but most of them are still nationally specific in their form, though they might express the same quality, phenomenon etc. Therefore, a creative translator should get deeper into the sense of the original metaphor and, having extracted its meaning, wrap it in the form of the TL analogue. Another pitfall of literary translation is humor, which can also be highly peculiar, with certain jokes appreciated by SL speakers and misunderstood by TL text recipients. This is also rather delicate aspect of translation, as certain jokes can be even offensive to the translation recipients. Therefore, a good translator must be aware of cultural peculiarities of both SL and TL speakers and, if humor is nationally specific, transform it or replace it with the analogue understandable for the recipient culture. For all the issues above, the method of communicative translation aimed at translating the entire message without dissecting it into separate lexical units is the most favorable, as described by Ali (2014, p.90), as its essence is to make the whole literary text abundant with metaphorical language understandable for the TL/TC (Target Culture) audience. However, in some cases, other translation methods may be applied in combination with the described one, for instance, sematic or functional equivalence translation. Preserving aesthetic value and style Except their pragmatic value, literary texts are sure to convey aesthetic possessions, the language being rather embellished with help of different means rather than plain. Jahansepas et al. (2012, p.205) speak about aesthetic translation as a means of emphasizing aesthetic properties of the source culture and thus language with the means of the target language. Such aesthetics also implies stylistics of the language. For instance, use of elevated vocabulary should be preserved in the target text. However, choosing appropriate style for translation, the translator should also consider the audience the target text is aimed at. Here, the translator faces social aspects: appropriate stylistics and language are to be chosen depending on the target audience. A few words about poetry Poetry provides the most challenging and interesting texts for the translator’s creativity, and here, the translator gets enormous freedom to alter the form of the poem so that the original sense is preserved in his/her interpretation. However, the translator faces many cultural or historical pitfalls here, too: from allusions to different historical events (which can be very subtle or blurred; and the events themselves can be nationally specific and unfamiliar to the target culture member). A good example is the poem of the Heinrich Heine originally titled “Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam”. In this poem, both the palm and the pine-tree are referred to as ‘she’ and ‘he’, as significance of gender even in inanimate objects is an inherent feature of German-speaking people. Therefore, several analyzed translations preserve the gender for conveying the message created within a foreign culture. Conclusion In the process of translation, one can encounter numerous pitfalls related to cultural, historical or social aspects of the source language and the people speaking it. A good translator should have profound knowledge not only in language, but also in culture and history of both nations, whose languages s/he is working with. Although nonliterary texts pose less challenge as they don’t convey such immense cultural message and thus require different methods of translation, dealing with literary texts requires high level of proficiency and creativity to overcome difficulties. References AL AQAD, M. H. (2014) Translation of Legal Texts between Arabic and English: The Case Study of Marriage Contracts. Arab World English Journal, 5, 2, pp. 110-121. [Online] Available from https://ebscohost.com/ [Accessed April 16, 2015] ALBAKRY, M. (2004) ‘Linguistic and Cultural Issues in Literary Translation’. Translation Journal, Volume 8, No. 3. [Online] Available from http://translationjournal.net/journal/29liter.htm [Accessed April 16, 2015] ALI, E. T. (2014) Optimality of Using Multiple Translation Procedures for Good Translations of Formal Written Texts. Arab World English Journal, 5, 2, pp. 87-102. [Online] Available from https://ebscohost.com/ [Accessed April 16, 2015] DURANTI, A. (2000) ‘Relativity’. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 9 (1-2), pp. 220-222. [Online] Available from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/duranti/reprints/relativity.pdf [Accessed April 16, 2015] FARSI, R., SHARIFABAD, E., & SALMAN AL-DOURI, G. (2014) Literary Translation through the Lens of Poststructuralism. Journal Of Language Teaching & Research, 5, 1, pp. 239-244. [Online] Available from https://ebscohost.com/ [Accessed April 16, 2015] GINTER, A. (2002) ‘Cultural Issues in Translation’. Studies about Languages, 2002. NO. 3, pp. 27-31. [Online] Available from http://www.kalbos.lt/zurnalai/03_numeris/05.pdf [Accessed April 16, 2015] HUMBOLDT, W. (1999) On Language: On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and its Influence on the Mental Development of the Human Species. Ed. Michael Losonsky. Cambridge: CUP, 1988. Rpt. 1999. ILYAS, A. I. (2013) The Important of Connotation in Literary Translation. Arab World English Journal, pp. 248-263. [Online] Available from https://ebscohost.com/ [Accessed April 16, 2015] JAHANSEPAS, S., YOUHANAEE, M., & PIRNAJMUDDIN, H. (2012) Translation of Poetic Diction in Literary Translation: A Case Study of Macbeth and Its Persian Translations. Journal Of Language Teaching & Research, 3, 5, pp. 904-914. [Online] Available from https://ebscohost.com/ [Accessed April 16, 2015] KHATIBI, M. L. (2015) Challenges of Literary Translation: Kahlil Gibrans the Prophet as a case study. Arab World English Journal, 6, 1, pp. 144-158. [Online] Available from https://ebscohost.com/ [Accessed April 16, 2015] LIANERI, A. & ZAJKO, V. (2008) Translation and the Classics. Oxford/ New York: Oxford University Press. SADIQ, S. (2008) ‘Some Semantic, Stylistic and Cultural Problems of Translation: With Special Reference to Translating the Glorious Qurân’. Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), Volume 1, pp. 37-59. [Online] Available from http://www.academia.edu/353549/Some_Semantic_Stylistic_and_Cultural_Problems_of_Translation_with_Special_Reference_to_Translating_the_Glorious_Qur%C3%A2n [Accessed April 16, 2015] Read More