May
2007
From
* A few issues of Translation Watch Quarterly (Chief
Editor: Ali Darwish) were just received, and the
contents of two of them are listed below. There will be more in the next
updates of the Recent Publications section.
Translation
Watch Quarterly, Volume 2, Issue
1, March 2006.
* This issue is devoted to translation of the
news. It starts with an editorial by Dorothy
Kelly.
Hatim, Basil.
* A text-linguistic analysis of the evolution
of discourse patterns in Arab media.
Abusalem, Ali. 2006.
Standards of Reporting Translated Scripts in News Media. 25-35.
* A discussion of semantic differences in the
English translation of scripts of excerpts from a speech by Osama Bin Laden’s presented by CNN and by Aljazeera
respectively.
Ali, Kadim. 2006. Is Translation Halal? Are Translators Traitors? A Study
of the Narratives of Iraqi Interpreters and Translators. 37-51.
* Personal statements about living and working
conditions of Iraqi interpreters and translators in recent years.
Darwish, Ali. 2006.
Translating the News. 52-77.
* A discussion of the ‘reframing’ effect of
translation of current events in the media.
Translation
Watch Quarterly, Volume 3, Issue
1, March 2007.
Al-Khufaishi,
Adil.
* Communication and linguistics-based. Perhaps a bit too abstract for trainees?
Al Shatter, Ghassan, Khalifa Ali Al Suwaidi and
Anil Sharma. 2007. Implementation and Evaluation
of a New Learning Approach in Arabic: Implications for Translator Training. 94-118.
* Implications for Translator Training are not
really addressed.
Ali, Kadhim. 2007. Scaling Untranslatability:
Evaluating Poetic Translation from the Reader’s Perspective. 49-64.
* An intriguting
attempt to construct a scale for the assessment of poetic translation.
Twenty-five responses to three translations of As-Sayyab’s
poem The Song of Rain were analyzed for that purpose and a set of 10 items,
each divided into two or three sub-items, is presented in an assessment table
where marks go from 1 to 100. Unfortunately, there is little information on the
empirical procedure followed, on tests etc. These can perhaps be found in the
author’s doctoral dissertation as listed below:
Ali, Kadhim. 2006. Reader Response and Translation Quality assessment: A Study of the
Responses of Fluent non-Arab Readers to Translations of Modern Arabic Poetry.
Unpublished PhD Dissertation,
Bell, Roger. 2007. The Turney
Letters: Linguistic Evidence of Fraudulent Authorship. 66-80.
* The author points to idiosyncratic usage of
English in three letters from Faye Turney (who was
captured by the Iranian army in the Perisan Gulf
along with other British soldiers earlier this year) to show that it is
unlikely she was the author of the words she wrote.
Ko, Leong. 2007. Quality Control vs
Quantity Control in Training NAATI Translators and Interpreters. 81-92.
* Practical issues around the training of
translators and interpreters for qualification by the Australian National
Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.
Shi Aiwei. 2007. Acculturation and
Translation. Chinese Translation History as a Case Study.
10-19.
* On the historical development of the Chinese
translation tradition, divided into four ‘tides’: The translation of Buddhist
scriptures, the translation of the Bible and Christian doctrines, the
translation of Western philosophical thoughts and science, and the recent
translation scene, from 1949 onwards.
*
* *
From
Delisle, Jean. 2007.
* Premier ouvrage du genre,
Delisle, Jean. 2007.
Les Traducteurs dans l’histoire (dir.), 2e éd., Ottawa, Les Presses
de l’Université d’Ottawa, publié sous les auspices de
*Au cours des âges,
les traducteurs ont inventé des alphabets et contribué à bâtir des langues et à
façonner des littératures nationales. Ils ont aussi participé à la diffusion
des connaissances et à la propagation des religions, importé et exporté des
valeurs culturelles, rédigé des dictionnaires...
Les traducteurs ont joué un rôle déterminant dans toutes les sociétés et
contribué à l’évolution des sciences et de la vie intellectuelle sous toutes
ses formes. Ce collectif rappelle les principaux secteurs d’activité où ils se
sont particulièrement illustrés.
Une
cinquantaine d’historiens de la traduction d’une vingtaine de pays ont
collaboré à la réalisation de ce panorama qui nous transporte en Europe, dans
les Amériques, en Afrique, en Inde et en Chine.
L’ouvrage est publié sous les auspices de l’unesco et de
Table des
matières :
Chapitre premier – Les traducteurs, inventeurs
d’alphabets
Wulfila, évangélisateur des Goths
Mesrop Machtots, figure dominante de l’Arménie
Cyrille et Méthode, missionnaires auprès des
Slaves
James Evans chez les Indiens cris du Canada
Chapitre 2 – Les traducteurs, bâtisseurs de
langues nationales
Une langue pour l’Angleterre
L’émancipation du français
L’émergence du suédois
Martin Luther : catalyseur de la langue
allemande
L’évolution du gbaya au Cameroun
L’hébreu, langue moderne en Israël
Chapitre 3 – Les traducteurs, artisans de
littératures nationales
Joost van den Vondel, ouvrier de
Les premiers traducteurs de Shakespeare en
Europe
Briser la dépendance : le cas de l’Irlande
Des traductions qui vont « droit au cœur des
Écossais »
Jorge Luis Borges et la naissance de la
littérature argentine
Traduction et transmission : le cas des
littératures africaines
Chapitre 4 – Les traducteurs, diffuseurs des
connaissances
Les importations chinoises de l’Inde et de
l’Occident
L’Inde, foyer de la traduction au cours des
âges
Bagdad, centre de traduction au Moyen Âge
Tolède, carrefour d’échanges culturels et de
renouveau intellectuel
Rompre l’isolement des pays nordiques
Chapitre 5 – Les traducteurs, acteurs sur la
scène du pouvoir
La « déclaration Balfour » : un « foyer » ou
une « patrie »?
Entreprises médiévales de traduction : de
Bagdad à l’Europe de l’Ouest
La multiplication des centres de pouvoir en
France
La traduction subversive en Italie et en
ex-URSS
Conquérants et colonisateurs du Nouveau
Monde
Des traductrices en Angleterre, en Europe,
en Amérique du Nord
L’exercice du pouvoir par des traducteurs
Chapitre 6 – Les traducteurs, propagateurs des
religions
Le judaïsme : la transmission du Verbe
d’hier à aujourd’hui
Le christianisme : sa dissémination dans
toutes les langues de la terre
L’islam : le Coran, intraduisible et
pourtant abondamment traduit
L’hindouisme : la tradition de
Le bouddhisme : sa diffusion en
Extrême-Orient
Chapitre 7 – Les traducteurs, importateurs de
valeurs culturelles
Les voyages du traducteur : un double sens
L’Orient coranique et le pluralisme
religieux
L’Angleterre élisabéthaine : pour qui et
pourquoi traduire?
Un huguenot en Angleterre : l’émergence de
la conscience européenne
Les nécessités d’une cause :
La vogue du roman noir en France
Impact d’une pensée traduite en Chine
La science-fiction américaine et la naissance
d’un genre en France
Chapitre 8 – Les traducteurs, consommateurs et
compilateurs de dictionnaires
terminologiques
Les dictionnaires monolingues : des tablettes
d’argile aux dictionnaires de papier
Le
dictionnaire à travers les cultures
Le Moyen Âge ou l’éveil de la lexicographie
organisée
L’essor des dictionnaires en Europe de
Les
dictionnaires bilingues et les dictionnaires multilingues
Les
dictionnaires terminologiques : des glossaires spécialisés aux répertoires
électroniques
Chapitre 9 – Les interprètes, témoins
privilégiés de l’histoire
Évolution des méthodes de travail et
formation
Au service de la religion
Exploration et conquête
Guerre et paix
Interprètes-diplomates,
diplomates-interprètes
* * *
From
Language Matters 35:1.
Special issue on Corpus-based TS: Research and Application, edited by Alet Kruger
Kruger, Alet. 2002. Corpus-based translation
research: its development and implications for general, literary and Bible
translation. Acta theologica 2002 Supplementum 2 (edited by J.A. Naudé
and C.H.J. van der Merwe, Contemporary Translation Studies and Bible
Translation). 70-106
* A general introduction to corpus-based TS,
interestingly presented in a Bible translation context.
Kruger, Alet. 2004. Shakespeare in Afrikaans: A
corpus-based study of involvement in different registrer
of drama translation. Language Matters
35:1. 275-294.
* An application of corpus-based TS for the comparison
of page translations (drama translation to be read) and stage translation
(drama translation to be performed on stage) with respect to involvement
(linguistic features associated with the fact that persons interact with each
other face to face).
Kruger, Alet.
2004. The Role of Discourse Markers in an Afrikaans Stage Translation of The Merchant of
* In drama texts the written and
the spoken modes work together to communicate multiple and complex messages
simultaneously. Consequently, the dramatic text has a dual role in both the
literary and the theatrical systems of a particular culture. This duality has
also influenced the translation of drama. If the drama is intended to appear in
print only, the translator is likely to approach the translation as a literary
text and will then produce a page translation. In contrast, if the main aim is
staging the drama, the translator will create a stage translation that will
appeal to contemporary theatre-goers. Both page and stage translations of drama
texts are written for spoken delivery. In other words, the dialogue in such
texts is usually designed to simulate real-life, face-to-face communication.
This is also the case in Shakespeare dramas and their translations. When a
recent stage translation of The
Merchant of
Kruger, Alet. 2006. From the Ivory Tower to the
Market Place and Back: Completing the Circle. Muratho (South African
Translators’ Institute) December 2006 41-46.
* A short paper interestingly aimed at
providing insight into the activities of a small translation and interpreting
agency (co-owned by the author and by Kim Wallmach,
also from the
Moropa, K.
Moropa, C. K.
2006. An investigation of translation
universals in a parallel corpus of English Xhosa texts. Unpublished DLitt.
et Phil. thesis,
Wallmach, Kim. 2004.
Good translation practice: Asking the right questions. Muratho.
*
* *
Special issue of
Social Semiotics 17:2 (2007), Routledge,
guest-edited by Myriam Salama-Carr.
Baines,
Roger & Fred Dalmasso. A Text on
Trial: The Translation and Adaptation of Adel Hakim's Exécuteur
14. 229-257.
* This
paper deals with the problem of translation for the stage, of
translation-adaptation and its subsequent production. It evidences the
complexity of this type of practice, given the complex interplay of signs
involved not only in translating the text for the stage, but also at the level
of performance. The implications for translation theory and practice are
discussed through discussion of the translation and performance of a text that
is politically engaged, Adel Hakim's Exécuteur 14.
This paper also problematizes the relation among
different languages within the same text, the role of foreign terms, of syntax,
and rhythm in the construction of discourse, and implications for translation.
In particular the focus is on the problem of the relation between intertextuality, translation, performance, communication,
and value systems.
Baker, Mona.
Reframing Conflict in Translation.151-169.
* This
article draws on narrative theory and the notion of framing, the latter as
developed in the literature on social movements, to explore various ways in
which translators and interpreters accentuate, undermine or modify contested
aspects of the narrative(s) encoded in the source text or utterance. Starting
with an outline of the assumptions and strengths of a narrative framework
compared with existing theories of translation, the article goes on to define
the concept of framing in the context of activist discourse. It then outlines
some of the sites - or points in and around the text - at which (re)framing may
be achieved, and offers various examples of framing strategies used in written
and screen translation. The examples are drawn from translations between
English and Arabic in the context of the
Bennett,
Karen. Galileo's Revenge: Ways of Construing Knowledge and Translation
Strategies in the Era of Globalization. 171-193.
* Galileo's
fateful confrontation with the Holy Office in 1633 is often taken to mark the
start of the Scientific Revolution, the moment when a whole new approach to
knowledge began to take over the western world. Among the many repercussions of
this great epistemological shift was the development of a new
"transparent" type of discourse, felt to reflect reality more
directly than the elaborate verbal edifices of the Scholastics. Today, the
"authoritative plain style", as
Bronwlie, Siobhan. Situating
Discourse on Translation and Conflict.135-150.
* This
essay situates discourse on translation and conflict within a broad
perspective, covering research approaches in the discipline of Translation
Studies since the "descriptive approach" was established in the
1970s. It is suggested that the discourse on translation and conflict belongs
in the main to a branch of "committed approaches" in Translation
Studies, which, while not promoting particular methods of translating,
highlights the impossibility of neutrality, and thus the necessity of
recognizing the interventionist role of translators. Notions at the heart of
the work of two leading scholars of translation and conflict, Baker and Tymoczko, are discussed in some detail. Their work is also
critiqued, and a counterpoint is presented: the article on translation and war
by Jones, which introduces the concept of the Derridian
decision. The essay ends with a proposal for combining the perceived strengths
of descriptive and committed approaches in translation research through
recourse to Derridian philosophy.
Inghilleri, Moira. National
Sovereignty versus Universal Rights: Interpreting Justice in a Global Context.
195-212.
* Interpreters/translators serve to both codify and
clarify the cultural and linguistic boundaries used to symbolise and prop up
nationalist agendas within the political asylum system. This paper examines the
nationalist agenda operating within the immigration systems of receiving
countries like the
|
|
Salama-Carr, Myriam.
Negotiating Conflict: Rifā'a
Rāfi' al-TahTāw
and the Translation of the "Other" in Nineteenth-century
* This
paper analyses the role of the translator in the representation of alterity and the construction of national identity, with
reference to the work of a nineteenth-century Egyptian translator, essayist and
educationalist, Rifā'a Rāfi'
al-TahTāw
(1801-1874). The essay takhl
S al-ibrz f talkhS bārs ("The Extraction of Gold in the
Summarizing of Paris") includes numerous examples of constructive
translation and representation, which familiarised and legitimised the
"other" through the identification of parallels, common values and
experience. Al-TahTāw negotiated between conflicting discourses
of modernism and traditionalism, and it is argued that
the issues of representation raised in his work are of particular relevance to
contemporary concerns in the geo-political arena.
* * *
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
Introduction,
Theo Hermans, pp.
9-10
SECTION
1 GROUNDING THEORY
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.
Meanings of Translation in Cultural
Anthropology, Doris Bachmann-Medick, pp 33-42
*
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.
SECTION
2 MAPPING CONCEPTS
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
* This essay first lists the definitions of the terms `translate´ and
`translator´ given in major Chinese dictionaries from the second century to the
present. It then considers cases drawn from various periods of Chinese history
and examines the exact nature of the work in which the persons credited as
translators were engaged. This will reveal a major discrepancy between the
usual definition for the word `translator´ and the actual accreditation of
translation work to individuals, a discrepancy which has been highlighted in
the latest studies from Chinese translation circles. To conclude, it briefly
examines why this situation has arisen and what it signifies.
SECTION
3 REFLEXIVE PRAXIS
The Translator as Theorôs: Thoughts on Cogitation, Figuration and Current
Creative Writing, Carol Maier, pp. 163-180
*
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
Translation, Transcreation,
Travesty: Two Models of Translation in Bengali Literature, Sukanta
Chaudhuri, pp. 247-256
*
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.
Volume
2
SECTION 4 MEMORY AND
EMERGENCE
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
SECTION
5 HEARING VOICES
Towards a Folkloristic Theory of
Translation, Ibrahim Muhawi,
pp. 365-379
* 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
*
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
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 `answe