May
2006
Baker, Mona. 2006. Translation and Conflict. A
Narrative Account.
* This
book sets out to demonstrate that translation is
part of the institution of war and that translators
and interpreters participate in circulating as well as resisting the narratives
that create the intellectual and moral environment for violent conflict.
Drawing on narrative theory and using numerous examples from historical as well
as contemporary conflicts, the author provides an analysis of micro and macro
aspects of the circulation of narratives in translation, of translation and
interpreting, and of questions of dominance and resistance.
* * *
Hermans, Theo (ed). 2006. Translating
others 1 & 2.
Volume 1
Reconceptualizing Western Translation Theory: Integrating Non-Western
Thought about Translation, Maria Tymoczko, pp 13-32
*
In Eurocentric tradition most statements about translation that date before the
demise of positivism are relatively useless for current theorizing,because most
encode the dominant perspectives of Western imperialism or respond to
particular Western historical circumstances. Some of the limitations of
Eurocentric thinking about translation are patently obvious. Most statements
have been formulated with reference to sacred texts, for example, including
religious scripture and canonical literary works. Similarly, Eurocentric
theorizing has been marked by its concentration on the written word and by the
vocabulary in many languages that links it with the notion of conveying sacred
relics intact from place to place. Translation studies must strive for more
flexible perspectives, and the thinking of non-Western peoples is essential in
achieving broader and more applicable theories about translation.This
contribution explores the implications of several non-Western concepts of
translation, as well as marginal Western ones that fall outside the dominant
domain of Western theory. In addition the concept of translation is related to
three adjacent concepts about intercultural interface, namely, transmission,
representation and transculturation. These three concepts relate to particular,
though not always separable, aspects of translation: communication of content,
exhibition of content and performance. One way to enlarge thinking about
translation is to move beyond Eurocentric tradition, opening translation
studies to other cultures´ views of transmission, representation and
transculturation.
*
Translation between cultures can be considered a central practice and aim of
cultural anthropology. But are the meanings of cultural translation confined to
`cultural understanding´? A hermeneutic position seems to imply a commitment to
a traditional `single-sited´ anthropology and does not correspond to the
challenges of globalization. A `multi-sited,´
transnational anthropology is developing an alternative type of translation.
Following a brief account of the different meanings of translation in the
history of cultural anthropology, my essay locates the emergence of a
postcolonial challenge to this new anthropological translation concept in an
epistemological break: the crisis of representation and the questioning of a
unilateral Western translation authority. Translation of and between cultures
is no longer the central concept, but culture itself is now being
conceptualized as a process of translation. As a result, translation can be
defined as a dynamic term of cultural encounter, as a negotiation of
differences as well as a difficult process of transformation. In this respect,
the novels of Salman Rushdie are eye-openers for a new metaphor of migration as
translation, which renders translation into a medium of displacement and hybrid
self-translation. The category of translation for anthropology thus offers not
only an important alternative to dichotomous concepts like `the clash of
civilizations´, but it is also a seismographic indicator for a changing
anthropology under the conditions of a globalization of cultures.
Misquoted Others:
Locating Newness and Authority in Cultural Translation, Ovidi Carbonell Cortés,
pp. 43-63
* We may wonder to what degree it is legitimate to convey the sense of newness and/or cultural distance that is always experienced in the act of reaching out to a foreign text. To what extent is newness necessary? When does newness become exoticism? Current debates on translation and the representation of foreign cultures, translation ethics, postcolonial translation and the reception of the translated text cannot avoid the issue of exoticism, yet difference remains a thorny issue that is easily oversimplified. There are two opposing trends in contemporary translation regarding difference. One, mostly theoretical, aims to highlight difference and go beyond the devouring, allegedly ethnocentric attitude that naturalizes or domesticates the foreign text. At the other end, texts from so-called `exotic´ cultures, such as specimens from Arabic literature, are translated in such a way that exoticizing practices and expectations are consciously avoided or counteracted. Both attitudes can be highly controversial once they go beyond university debates and enter the jungle of real-world readership. Beyond the dichotomy of estrangement versus familiarity, the investigation of the intricacies of cultural representation requires an eclectic approach. Self and Other are just the surface of many mechanisms at work in the act of reading a text - all texts, and not only those that are foreign and exotic, although I shall focus on these as they are particularly illustrative. Using interdisciplinary tools, especially cognitive, semiotic and critical linguistics, this essay explores the intertextual qualities of difference and how they help create identity and authority in texts and its receptors.
Translation and the Language(s) of Historiography: Understanding Ancient
Greek and Chinese Ideas of History, Alexandra Lianeri, pp. 67-86
* How have modern concepts of history mediated our understanding of the
ancient Greek and Chinese ideas of the historical? What is the role of
translation in defining the vocabulary through which we approach ancient
traditions? This essay develops a comparative study of English translations of
the Greek term historia and the Chinese terms Shiji and Taishi
to examine the problems involved in approaching ancient concepts through the historicist
dilemma between identity and difference. It explores how these translations
were fundamentally shaped by a Eurocentric discourse that legitimised the
paradigmatic status of the Greek tradition and excluded Chinese concepts from
the dominant vocabulary of modern historiography. Subsequently it investigates
how Eurocentric historiography was sustained by metaphors of translation and
categories of translatability deployed by Western philosophy to designate a
historiographic metalanguage founded on the opposition between tradition and
otherness. In conclusion, it reflects on how translation can also act to
interrogate this metalanguage by pointing to disjunctions within the European
heritage and forming a trans-cultural and trans-temporal historiography
modelled upon the borderline language of translation.
From `Theory´ to
`Discourse´: The Making of a Translation Anthology, Martha Cheung, pp. 87-101
* How translatable across cultures are concepts? How do translated concepts interact with the receiving culture´s repertoire of concepts and influence its prevailing mode of thinking? How do translated concepts, specifically concepts of categories of knowledge such as `science´, `philosophy´ or `religion´, produce an impact on the receiving culture´s already existent body of knowledge? This paper explores the above questions with reference to an anthology the author is compiling. It is an anthology, in English translation, of texts on Chinese thinking about translation. The initial title was An Anthology of Chinese Translation Theories: from Ancient Times to the Revolution of 1911; this was changed to An Anthology of Chinese Thought on Translation before the present title, An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Translation. By analyzing, in a self-reflective manner, the decisions involved in the movement from `theory´ to `thought´ to `discourse´, I hope to throw some light on the epistemological impact produced by translated concepts in the receiving culture. The impact is analyzed in terms of the disciplining of knowledge that could be effected by translated concepts - disciplining in the sense of organizing, ordering, hierarchizing, including/excluding, centering/decentering, aligning and re-aligning material deemed to constitute knowledge in the receiving culture, for the purpose of mono-cultural cross-cultural, or intercultural study. As the use of translated concepts (e.g. `science´, `philosophy´, `religion´) to name bodies of knowledge in ancient China is a common, though not uncontroversial practice, the issue of the disciplining of knowledge dealt with in this paper should have relevance, not only to translation scholars, but also for Sinologists and Chinese scholars the world over.
In Our Own Time, On Our
Own Terms: `Translation´ in
* Despite the presence of many
languages, there was in
Translation into Arabic in the `Classical Age´: When the Pandora´s Box
of Transmission Opens ..., Myriam Salama-Carr, pp. 120-131
* The essay
reports on a research project concerned with the translation movement of ninth
and tenth-century
Gained in Translation: Tibetan Science between Dharamsala and
* The essay focuses on the contemporary
practice of traditional Tibetan medicine and biomedical care in the exile
communities of
`And the Translator Is - ´: Translators in Chinese History, Eva Hung,
pp. 145-160
*
Spurred by Leila Aboulela´s novel The Translator, I have been studying
other fiction in which the experiences of translators and writer-translators
are explored. By probing the often unsettling effect of translation on translators,
fiction writers might offer a contribution to translation theory that has been
overlooked in translation studies. In addition, I wonder if that contribution
may not exemplify Gideon Toury´s understanding of translation theory as the
study of potential or of `what translation can or might do´. Andrea Wilson
Nightingale´s `On Wandering and Wondering´ seems to confirm this in her
discussion of the theorist as originally one who travels, observes and
contemplates, glimpses possibilities and learns about other people and their
customs, but also risks becoming estranged, rejected, ridiculed. In addition to
being the traveller, a theorist or theorôs, whether Platonic or
Aristotelian, is an ambassador, witness or reporter but not a pontificator of
universals, norms, rules or arguments. Nor does the theorist mandate a
particular practice. Rather, theory is associated with contemplation and
wonder, is a precondition of practice. I pursue the connection I sense between theôria,
as discussed by Nightingale and others, and several fictional representations
of translators as theorists. I test or contrast those representations with
nonfictional discussions by translators of their work. I find increasingly that
it is fiction and, at times, autobiography, rather than translation theory per
se that probes the wondering as well as the wandering of translation. In
order to focus on the specific translation tradition of a particular language
or ethnic group and compare it with others, I believe it would be helpful to have
a fuller understanding of translation theory as a contemplative and possibly
transformative activity that will give rise to a wide range of practices. My
reading of fiction and of translators' autobiographies leads me to suggest
that, in the work of translators and creative writers, translation theorists
will find insights into the relation between theory and practice that embrace
both the methods translators use in their attempt to convey the unsettling
knowledge to which translation gives rise and also the nature of that knowledge
itself.
Pseudotranslations, Authorship and Novelists in Eighteenth-Century
* Pseudotranslations are
usually ascribed a range of different functions, such as: to bypass censorship,
to endow a new work with the authority of an alleged source, to stimulate
readers into interpretative cooperation by passing original authors off as
second-degree writers, and to introduce innovation into the literary system. In
fact, the practice of pseudotranslation appeals not only to the standard
relationship between source and target texts, but also that between the
respective literary systems as such. For example, it enables the writers of the
target system to act as the authors they pretend to translate, appropriating
their techniques as well as their social profile. This was particularly evident
in eighteenth-century
To Be or Not to Be a Gutter Flea: Writing from Beyond the Edge, Christi
Ann Merrill, pp. 211-218
*
How to describe what makes a translated text come to life? The answer depends
on what you consider life to be. Take the story `Matha´ (`The Limit´)
written in Rajasthani by Vijay Dan Detha: the wealthy protagonist worries about
what will happen to him in his next birth, after he crosses the matha
between one life and another. He wants to be reborn a wealthy seth, but the brahmins have warned him that instead
he is to become a gutter flea. He is sent into paroxysms of agony imagining
what life would be as such a lowly form. And the translator, too, struggles to
move back and forth across a different, but analogous, matha. For the
very concept of life conveyed in the Rajasthani and Hindi versions of the story
suggests a form that is multiple, temporary, not exactly arbitrary and yet
emphatically physical: the word `joon´ in Rajasthani, like `yoni´
in Hindi, can be translated into English variously as womb, origin, form, life,
manifestation, birth, reincarnation, source. The story forces the translator to
find a broader way of conceptualizing life in the English language. The story
also asks the reader to rethink the hierarchical values that are placed on
their being one version of the protagonist over another, and challenges the
translator to render a (singular) life in the plural. To do so effectively she
must imagine not just the protagonist being in two places at once, but the
story itself that she writes. For the (singular) text she creates in English
can best come to life if it is understood as yet another joon of the
story that had a joon in Hindi, and before that, a joon in Rajasthani.
This essay explores the implications of reading a translated text as multiply
original by theorizing the practice of rendering `Matha´ in English.
English-Chinese, Chinese-Chinese: On
*
In this essay I offer a theoretical assessment of the process of translating and
propose a formula to represent this process. I also sketch a method to study
literature through translation, with the aim of challenging dichotomous views
on translation and elaborating a working hypothesis consonant with the mutual
articulation and cross-production that I regard as inherent in translation. I
argue that translation provides a heuristic means to study literature, to the
extent that it re-activates possibilities resident in the source text, thus
enhancing aspects of the literary text which enrich the act of reading. In
discussing this approach to literature, I shall draw attention to the case of
translating contemporary Chinese poetry, with reference to the recent debate on
the subject and examples taken from the work of the contemporary Chinese poet
Yang Lian.
Translation,
Transcreation and Culture: Theories of Translation in Indian Languages, G.
Gopinathan, pp. 236-246
*
In the ancient period in
*
This essay focuses on two models or ideals of translation: the 'creative',
whereby the translator assumes an independent identity and projects an
independently valid work, and the 'mediatory', where translators see themselves
as providing an entry to the original work for readers who do not know the
source language. Perhaps no translation conforms entirely to one norm or the
other, but locates itself somewhere along a spectrum between these
notional opposites. I look at the interaction - or rather, the absence of
interaction - of these two models in the context of Indian, particularly
Bengali literature. Modern Bengali literature has extensively employed the
mode of creative absorption of texts from other languages, along
a trajectory ranging from direct translation to adaptation to
'imitation' to memorial traces to general inspiration. At the same time, the Bengali
reading community demands an exceptionally high fidelity to the original in
formal translations out of its own literature, above all as regards the works
of Rabindranath Tagore. I look at the coexistence of these two diverging modes
of rendering, and try to identify their root cause in certain features of
colonial and postcolonial cultural relations.
Translation Choices across Five Thousand Years: Egyptian, Greek and
Arabic Libraries in a
*
The encyclopaedic and multilinguistic embrace of the newly launched Biblioteca
Alexandrina presents a radical contrast to its Greek-dominated predecessors in
Hellenistic and Roman Period Alexandria. These in turn belong to a five
thousand year history of book collections in
Invisible Translation: Reading Chinese Texts in Ancient
*
The ancient Japanese did not have their own script.
Their intellectual development began when eleven volumes of Chinese writings
were presented to the emperor's court around the end of the fourth century.
Chinese classics continued to be the foundation of education in
Vulgar Eloquence? Cultural Models and
Practices of Translation in Late Medieval
*
I introduce some of the major historical differences in attitudes towards
translation and in actual translation practices of the longue durée
known as the Middle Ages. My focus is largely on
Translation and the Creation of Genre: The Theatre in Nineteenth-Century
*
The introduction of European (mainly French) drama into Arabic, and the growing
interest in European culture, which is one of the aspects of the nahdDah,
or Arab Renaissance of the nineteenth century, took various forms, ranging from
direct importation to adaptation, where `foreign´ models could be appropriated
and subverted by drawing on traditional forms such as folk drama and shadow theatre
in order to create a genre. The translation of plays into Arabic and the work
of playwrights and translators such as James
Sanua and cUthman Jalal raised the issue of the use of the
vernacular, engaging with the wider literary debate on whether more flexible,
non-canonized forms of Arabic could be sought.
Ottoman Conception of
Translation and its Practice: The 1897 `Classics Debate´ as a Focus for
Examining Change, Saliha Paker, pp. 325-348
* The `classics debate´ (Klasikler
Tartismasi) of 1897 was sparked by Ahmed Midhat´s article in the Istanbul
daily press calling on the talented writers of his time to translate the
European classics. It took a polemical turn when Kemalpasazade Said published
eighteen `Notebooks´ called Galatat-i-Terceme (Erroneous Usage in
Translation/s). The `classics debate´ highlights the linguistic and
literary-cultural interest in translations from the European languages and
their significance for Ottoman society. It marks a moment of reckoning with
three decades of translational contact with French literature (and other
European literatures, mostly via French) since the beginnings of the Tanzimat
period. For the Ottoman literati, it was also a moment (perhaps the
first) of collective confrontation, with the problems of translating a
`foreign´ literature and culture on the one hand and, on the other, with the
problems of generating a comparable literature `of their own´. The debate
forced a comparison between what was `totally foreign´, i.e. French, and what
was `not so foreign´, i.e. Arabic and Persian. The European classics, it was
generally agreed, should be translated but not imitated. My essay offers a
critical discussion of the `classics debate´ as it was presented by Ramazan
Kaplan under the same title in 1998. It also covers Agah Sirri Levend´s
discussion of the debate in 1972, and draws on Mehmed Fuat Köprülü´s research
on the late nineteenth century. The central point of my discussion concerns the
concepts of imitation (taklid/tanzir) and translation (terceme) as they
come up in the debate. I shall also address late Ottoman perceptions and
criticism of the hybrid or tri-lingual nature of the language named Osmanlica
(Ottoman Turkish). This topic too has implications for our understanding of
Ottoman translation practices and is discussed with reference to questions both
of non-translation and of appropriation from Arabic and Persian.
African Europhone Literature
and Writing as Translation: Some Ethical Issues, Paul Bandia, pp. 349-361
* The essay explores
the interface between orality and writing in African literature in European
languages. It examines the linguistic status of European-language texts in
African literature, highlighting issues of hybridity/métissage and
intertextuality. Questions related to acculturation and linguistic
experimentation are discussed from a diachronic point of view, tracing the
evolution of the status of European-language texts. I assess the significance
of factors such as exile, migration, education, globalization and editorial
policy in defining African European-language discourse. The essay also deals
with the interface between creative writing and translating in the postcolonial
context, focusing on the concepts of writing as translation and translating
from an `imaginary original´. It addresses the issue of translating from one
`colonial´ European language into another in the context of African literature.
This is viewed against the backdrop of the linguistic colonial divide and the
problem of the dissemination of knowledge across borders in Africa as well as
in the diaspora. This section of the essay, by implication, also addresses the
issue of translating hybrid, linguistically multi-layered texts with the aim of
showing the limitations of Western translation theories based on a
universalizing and homogenizing discourse. Postmodern philosophy has helped in
establishing ethical guidelines for translating postcolonial discourse and has
informed ethical questions dealing with the theory and practice of minority
translations.
* The need for a folkloristic theory of
translation arises from the nature of verbal folklore, which exists in the
memory, suspended between orality and literacy, without fixed form and capable
of multiple realizations, before manifesting itself as a performance that must
be textualized to be translated. A theory of folkloristic translation must
fulfil a number of functions and deal with certain issues brought to the fore
by the nature of the folklore text itself. At the most general level, it must
be a theory for the translation of performance that takes into account the
double oral/literate articulation and its possible effect on translation. Hence
in exploring the notion of the folklore text we will interrogate the place of
textuality in the theory of translation. Given also that the language of oral
performance, particularly in Arabic, belongs to a different variety from the
written language, an analysis of language in translation must also enter the
picture. Further, since all folklore texts, oral or written, are
ethnographically saturated, our theory must also shed light on the question of
culture in translation from the perspectives of cultural anthropology as well
as translation studies. Finally, because of the heightened awareness of
performance in our analysis, our theory has the potential of shedding light on
the question of performance - that is, the relation of the `oral´ to the
`written´ - in all texts, whether they started out as oral performances
or as written documents.
Retranslating Ireland: Orality and Authenticity in French
and German Translations of Blasket Island Autobiography, Carol O´Sullivan, pp.
380-391
* This article considers the treatment of elements of oral literature in translations of two well-known Irish autobiographies, Tomás Ó Criomhthain´s An t-Oileánach (The Islandman), first published in Irish in 1929, and Muiris Ó Súilleabháin´s Fiche Blian ag Fás (Twenty Years a-Growing) first published in 1933. Both texts are heavily marked by the oral tradition of Irish narrative, as storytelling was the principal means of literary transmission on the Blasket Islands. The German translation of The Islandman by Heinrich and Annemarie Böll and the French translation of Twenty Years a-Growing by Raymond Queneau were both carried out from the English translations. This article considers how this double translation impacts on the oral features of the texts, concluding that there is a marked parallelism in the treatment of orality in the texts in that the English translations of the books, by Robin Flower (The Islandman) and George Thomson and Moya Llewellyn Davies (Twenty Years a-Growing) show a much greater sensitivity to the oral features of the texts, which manifests itself in a more radical deformation of the conventions of written English, than do either the French and German translators. The article goes on to consider how the different stages of translation of these texts are coloured by notions of authenticity and how these perceptions of authenticity shape the visual presentation of the texts.
The Hoe As We Know It:
Translating a Contemporary Swahili Poet, Annmarie Drury, pp. 392-401
* Mwinyihatibu Mohamed (born 1920), a resident of Tanga on
the Tanzanian coast, is one of many contemporary Swahili poets who continue to
compose in traditional forms, dismissing as un-Swahili, or inauthentic, the
free verse in which some Swahili poets began to write in the latter twentieth
century. Many of his poems, following a strong tradition in Swahili, elaborate
metaphors in order to advise, remonstrate with or encourage an audience. By
writing about a spider, a needle, a puddle or a hoe, Mwinyihatibu makes a point
about relations in the human world. That point is never openly stated; rather,
the poems function like riddles that a savvy listener should solve. These
elegant poems, and the poet himself, challenge the translator into English in
several ways. First, the objects Mwinyihatibu uses as metaphorical vehicles
often have a different identity among English-language readers than among a
Swahili audience. Also, readers in English are generally unaccustomed to the
type of metaphor Mwinyihatibu employs. A translator´s uncertainty about the
poem´s `answer´ may intensify dilemmas about word choice, syntax and the
liberties allowed in translation. Limited knowledge of English on the poet´s
part, and reluctance to solve a riddle for an awkward reader who is not
participating in poetic exchange, complicate translation. Many translations of
Swahili poetry tend towards romanticism or exoticism, taking such imaginative
liberties that the translation bears little resemblance to the original, or
reproducing the original so literally that it is barely comprehensible. In
translating the poems of Mwinyihatibu Mohamed, I have encountered a few tools
that steer one away from these extremes. The first is the idea, elaborated by
the philosopher Ted Cohen, of metaphor as an expression of community. The
second is the search for analogues in English to a Swahili poem. The third is
conversation with the poet, by which the `theory´ most relevant to a poem is
always hinted at, if not elaborated.
On Translating Somali Poetry, Martin Orwin, pp. 402-413
* This essay presents some issues
pertinent to the translation of Somali poetry. It will consider issues relating
to three levels: (a) the translation of Somali poetry; (b) the translation of
specific genres of Somali poetry; (c) the translation of individual poems
within a particular genre. Detailed analysis of my own translation of two poems
for a volume of Modern Poetry in Translation will form the core of the
discussion. Although this will not be a theoretical discussion, it will present
issues which are of wider interest. The translation of oral and/or aurally
experienced poetry, is one such issue. Also, in Somali society, poetry has a
status different from that of poetry in present day Western Europe; how does
the translator negotiate the audience´s differing expectations of poetry?
The Uselessness of Translation
in the Bengali Dharma-puja: The Shift from Ritual Texts to Living Cult,
Fabrizio Ferrari, pp. 414-427
*
The essay, which is based on research carried out in the Rarh area of
The Other on Display: Translation in the Ethnographic
Museum, Kate Sturge, pp. 431-440
* The ethnographic museum in the West has a long and troubling history. The display of `exotic peoples´ in travelling exhibitions began as early as the sixteenth century, but it was the mid and late nineteenth century that saw the great expansion of museums as sites to show artefacts collected - under anything but reputable circumstances - from what were considered the `primitive´, `natural´, or `tribal´ peoples of the world. Today the ethnographic museum is still a feature of large European cities, though faced with newly formulated dilemmas in the postcolonial world. For how can the material culture of a non-western people be collected and displayed in the West without its makers being translated into wordless and powerless objects of visual consumption? In national museums the processes of choosing, contextualizing and commentating exhibits help form national identity; in the ethnographic museum, similarly, they shape perceptions of the apparently distant Other. Like written ethnography, the museum is a `translation of culture´, with many of the associated problems traced by Talal Asad (1986). Like the written form, it has to represent the dialogic realities of cultural encounters in a fixed and intelligible form, to propose categories that define and order the material it has gathered. As the public face of academic ethnography, the museum interprets other cultures for the benefit of the general reader, and in that task museum practice, like all ethnography, operates within very specific historical and political parameters. How are museums in western Europe responding to the issues raised by critical ethnographers like James Clifford (1988), with their focus on the politics of representation? Is globalisation increasing the degree of accountability imposed on the ethnographic museum, or merely reinforcing older patterns? What opportunities and problems are raised by the use of more words - more `translation´ in the narrower sense - in ethnographic museums, and how do museums gain from introducing a reflexive and contextualizing concept of "thick translation" (Appiah 1993) into their work of interpretation?
Translating the Bible in
Nineteenth-Century India: Protestant Missionary Translation and the Standard
Tamil Version, Hephzibah Israel, pp. 441-459
* For Western Protestant missionaries,
translating the Bible was translating Christianity. From 1805 onwards, the
British and Foreign Bible Society set itself the aim of transmitting authorised
translations of the Bible across the globe. Through its first auxiliaries
established at Calcutta and Madras in 1811 and 1820 respectively, the Bible
Society organized and institutionalised the task of Bible translation in the
major Indian languages, including Tamil. By the mid-nineteenth century, the
Society had established a network that linked translators and their readers,
translations and responses to them, production and finance more formally than
in earlier centuries when these were left to individual interest and
enterprise. The Bible Society also initiated debate on Bible translations that
later developed into formal rules and guidelines for Bible translators,
revisers and editors. My essay concentrates on the issues regarding Bible
translation that engaged the attention of missionary translators connected to
the Bible Society in the nineteenth century in the Madras Presidency and
Ceylon. I focus on discussions and analyses of the production of a standard
Tamil version of the Bible that contributed to the formulation of nascent
theories of Bible translation in nineteenth-century India. I place in context
the Bible Society´s push for standardization and uniformity of Bibles that led
to an insistence on standardization of translations, of language and religious
vocabulary. This brings me to the question of how far such standardization was
successful and why. I argue that the desire to achieve standard translations is
connected to the objective of creating an abstract, standard Christian subject
who would transcend differences in pre-existing cultural conditions or
religious beliefs.
Christian Tracts in Chinese
Garb: The Missionary Strategies in Translating The Peep of Day, John
Tsz-Pang Lai, pp. 460-482
* For the purpose of evangelization in nineteenth-century
China, the translation of Christian tracts was seen as a high priority by
Protestant missionaries. While freedom was usually given in the processes of
text selection, interpretation and re-presentation, the missionary translators
were largely constrained by their own linguistic competence, the specific needs
of the Chinese audience, and, not least, the stipulated agendas of religious
institutions. In the shadow of the missionary translators, the Chinese
collaborators also had a significant role to play in shaping the final
products. Given an enormous corpus of English Christian literature, The Peep of
Day, an elementary Sunday-school textbook, emerged as one of the most popular
tracts to be translated into Chinese. The present paper attempts to scrutinize
the contextual factors which determine the selection of text, strategies of
translating, and to assess the role of missionaries as manipulators, through
the case study of a Christian tract in Chinese
costume.
Measuring Distance: Tsubouchi
Shoyo and the Myth of Shakespeare Translation in Modern Japan, Daniel
Gallimore, pp. 483-492
Translation and Cultural
Exportation: A Case Study of Huang Chunming´s Short Stories, Kenneth Liu, pp.
493-510
* Translation has long been seen
as a conduit for cultural communication. For the literature and culture of
minority languages, translation into a majority language, such as English,
introduces this culture into the world literary stage. This is particularly so
when the translations initiate from the source instead of the target culture,
because the very act of translation becomes an act of cultural exportation,
which more or less constructs the literary image of that culture. The
translation of Taiwanese literature is a case in point. This essay examines the
anthologies and collections of English translations of Taiwanese literature
published from the 1960s to the present day, aiming to contexualize these
translations and to map how English translation positions Taiwanese literature
in the system of world literature and thereby creates its image. I focus on
individual texts and, with reference to Huang Chunming´s short stories in these
anthologies, show how the approach to translation (e.g. importation or
exportation) influences the strategies employed by the translators.
* * *
* Bible translators have focused their efforts on
preparing a text that is clear, natural and accurate, with the expectation that
audiences will understand the message if it is in their language. Field research
among the Adioukrou of
Kurz, Ingrid & Kaindl, Klaus (Hrsg.). 2005. Wortklauber, Sinnverdreher, Brückenbauer?
DolmetscherInnen und ÜbersetzerInnen als literarische Geschöpfe. Wien: LIT-Verlag.
* An original
collection of short essays on the image of translators and interpreters in
literary fiction. Each essay takes up one work of fiction in which a central
protagonist is a translator or interpreter, describes the work and the way the
translator/interpreter and his/her inner/outer environment is depicted and
comments on them, most often with a few citations from the literature on
translation and interpreting. Those essays about works in which conference
interpreters take certain stage are listed in the CIRIN Bulletin n°32 (June
2006) on the CIRIN website http://perso.wanadoo.fr/daniel.gile.
Those essays about works where other
types of interpreters or translators occupy central stage are listed below.
Perhaps the most valuable feature of this collection is the wide variety of
works reviewed and reviewing authors.
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Kolb, Waltraud. “I am Alexander Perchov. I am your humble
translator.” Der nicht immer bescheidener Held. Jonathan Safran Foers Everything is illuminated. 59-66.
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Nord, Christiane. Die sibirische Dolmetscherin. Jesús Díaz’ Die Dolmetscherin. 67-76.
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Pöchhacker, Franz. Dolmetscher für Kranke. Jhumpa Lapiris Melancholie des Ankunft. 77-85.
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Salevsky, Bernd & Salesvky, Heidemarie. Dolmetschen – ein
gefährlicher Job. Michael Frayns The Russian
Interpreter. 103-110.
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Kurz,
Ingrid. Einsatz unter
Lebensgefahr. Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Der griechische Dolmetscher.
137-142.
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Prunč,
Erich. Zwischen Welten und Werten. Idenditätskonstruktionen in Ward Justs The Translator. 153-163.
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Beuren,
Daniela. TranslatorIn ermittelt: Vom Übersetzen und Überführen. Bernhard Schlinks
Die gordische Schleife/ Barbara Wilsons Gaudi
Afternoon und Trouble in Transylvania.
165-172.
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Snell-Honrby.
„Small
Smile“: Berühmte Übersetzerin als Liebesobjekt. Annamarie Jagoses In Translation. 173-180.
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Kaindl, Klaus. Der Übersetzer als
Seeräuber. Erik Orsennas Inselsommer.
181-187.
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Markstein, Elisabeth. Midlife-Crisis eines Übersetzers. Jurij
Trifonows Zwischenbilanz. 189-193.
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Ribarich, Vera. Der tödliche Text. Banana Yoshimotos N.P. 195-203.
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Haussteiner, Ingrid. Wenn Sprache töten kann – vom Über-Setzen
und Untreu-Werden. Pablo de Santis’ Die Übersetzung. 205-212.
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Resch, Renate. Das Patchwork Übersetzen. Barbara Frischmuths Die Ferienfamilie. 213-221.
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Kaindl, Klaus. Übersetzer sind keine
Kriechtiere.