1 TRANSLATION

WHAT IS TRANSLATION?
Translation Involves replacing a text In the source language with.
equivalent text in the target language. Such a process is, of course, a fiM
, art and requires, not least, a first-class knowledge of the two lang11ages Irl
question on the part of the translator, plus an ay!'areness of and
. to the cultural background against which the source language text Is set IPI
order for Its content to be rendered accurately In the target language. The
competent translator will strive to achieve DYNAMIC EQUIVALENC"
whereby the form of the original is appropriately restructured by skill""
Ipulatlon of the different syntax and lexis of the target language so ttwI
Jis little of the meaning of the original as possible Is altered. Prea.
transference of meaning is crucial to good translation. If the meaning is 1<*
or distorted through an attempt to preserve intact the original form (synt.
words), or if the message, which reveals the aim of the translator, ..
Skewed through addition of material or omission of facts and Ideas, then the
resultant translation will be bad. The<iUaiiiVl of a translation will be reflect..
'. In both its to the orlQiilarand in the extent to which it ..
CQ!!lprehens le 0 e reader. A successful prOduct Will not read or SOUM
like a translation; it will not give thejmpresslon of belnJJ some kind 01
: 'nterianguage- or "third language-, but will produce in the reader or hear.
an effect similar to the one produced by the original text In Its readers
This Is the essence of dynamic equivalence, which aims ..
pragmatic parallelism over and above formal parallelism.
1.2 TRANSLATION AND TRANSLATION THEORY

CDr1 SCA: u:t.>vJ oLt 'cA-.;f) 'V1. 0.. ") i"t.H.a. V'cA..

Just how proficient the translator will become In achieving dynamic
equivalence will depend principally on practice, reinforced by conscientious
dictionary researctl and observant reading} I.e. reading not merely to extract
information from a text, but paying careful attention to the language the text
is couched in, the linguistic medium through which the Information Is
expressed. This way one will come across unfamllar words and new turns
of expression to add to one's lexicon, and the translator or language student
will often encounter translations for words and phrases that they have
hitherto been unable to find an eqUivalent for.
Just as by writing you learn to write, by translating you learn to translate
and, as we all know, practice makes perfect. It Is Important to make this
point since many people who are required to learn to translate for some
reason or other - perhaps they are following a course in translation as part
of their foreign language degree at a university - are under the Impression
that some kind of translation theory will assist them In the acquisition of this
skill. Certainly, theoretical knowledge is Important background material and
provides a deeper understanding of practical tasks, but there Is no hard-
and-fast set of rules that the translator can learn and apply in every
situation. So much de,pends on acquiring Iing\,Jistlc sensitivity until what Is
right actually sounds right. There Is no law of translation because laws
admit of no exceptions, and language is full of exceptions.
e. "'Itr have a non-eontextual, dictionary meaning, context is the overriding,
determining factor in all decisions involving translation. Context has primacy
over any rule or theory, and will take precedence over the primary or
dictionary meaning of a word since It Is the meaning which derives from the
relationship between words that Is more problematic than the individual
words themselves.
Too much theory can in fact be more of a hindrance than a help. It is
the centipede problem. If you could tell a centipede to watch Its feet, would
it he ever walk again? Similarly, if a juggler were conscious of his every flick
of the wrist, would he be able to juggle? A metacognltive awareness of the
general principles governing translation, or any other skill for that matter,
can do no harm and may be useful, but these principles will eventually need
t 7 1 lRANSLAliON
RESPONSIBIUTY OF THE TRANSLATOR
'_ Because It Is such a difficult task and requires great skill, translati,. a
'text Is a considerable responsibility for a translator. It Is so easy 10
Isconstrue the facts and, without wanting to gloat over the enom-IB
'!CIuantltles of bad translation that have been done (often because of
working condltlons and meagre remuneration), I would like to quote just_
'.er two well-known cases In which incorrect translation has had far-reachMg
. ffeets, or has even changed the course of history.
In 1877 the Italian astronomer Schlapareill carried out an intenllillle
dy of Mars and drew attention to certain straight, regular lines crosaiftg
. e red areas. He observed about a hundred of these and called t"-n
all. Unfortunately, the semasiological field of Italian canal! covers DIiItt
als and channels In English. Now, Schlaparelll was referring 10
nels, which are natural formations, rather than canals, which are 1'1W'-
,e, but canal! was mistranslated as canals, and It was not long It
being suggested that the lines Schlaparelll had seen were IrrlQC*n
ches dug by Inteillgent beings in order to convey water from the sn--v
of the planet to the arid regions near the equator. Thus, this error of
terpretatlon for many years provided the rationale for stories abeut
lans. The lines on Mars are novl known to be illusions caused by -.e
alignment of large craters and other features of the Martlan surf_.
The Importance of translation is also brought home to us by ..
atlon that, In the Japanese telegram sent to Washington Just
Ident Trurnan gave the order for the atomic bomb to be dropped Of'l
hlma In 1945, the word mokasutu was mistranslated as
d of 'considered' (Newmark, 1988:7).
to become automatized, and the translator will not need to be ...."
conscious of them the whole time.
What will be of particular use to the translator are what we .."
TRANSLATION STRATEGIES. A translation strategy Is a CQ!Jslstent!!RI
of tackling a recurrent translation problem, for example, the translatlOf'l ef
tne passive voice In English, or the rendering of Spani,sh quedarse +
. participle (nos qUedamos at6nltos), and some such strategies will be dIIMt
with In chapter 3 of this book.
1 lRANSLAliON 16
rape on the grill (rape a la plancha)
rape on the plank (rape a la plancha)
rape In the Roman fashion (rape a la romana)
rape in the sailor's fashion (rape a la mariners)
ironed hake (meriuza a la plancha)
salad lass (ensalada chlca)
As we have seen. the accountability of the translator is great, for the
of bad translation can be incalculable. Nevertheless,
Incorrect translation can also be very humorous. The most amusing
translations are those produced through translating Into the foreign
(Spanish traduccl6n Inversa) when the translator Is unaware of
precise word usage and Insufficiently familiar with the Idlomat c
expression 0 t e language e s translating into. English translations of
foreign menus are notoriously bad, as we all know from such renderings
of Spanish cuisine as:-
Translation Is not merely a transmitter of information and culture, but
also of the truth! And it can save lives - a fact recognized during the
Falklands War. During the conflict two types of leaflet produced by British
naval translators were dropped by Harrier jets on Port Stanley: one a
letter from the British Task Force commander, Admiral Woodward, to the
Argentinian commander, General Mendez, suggesting that he had no
chance of winning and should withdraw his troops; the other explaining
to the Argentinian soldiers how to give In if they wanted a safe passage
home. The first had to be professional and business-like, the second
friendly and practical. Both letters needed to avoid a threatening tone.
The translator's role might be a crucial contribution to a prompt end to
hostilities with the concomitant preservation of human lives (Newmark.
1991 :39-40).
Every language has its own subtleties and may make fine
distinctions where another language does not. Imagine the effect of
translating the English You're being stupid into Spanish as jQue esttJpldo
eres! In English You're being stupid is not the same as You're stupid. The
former expression Is merely an appeal for another person to be
reasonable and simply Implies that at this particular moment the other
person Is behaving irrationally, that he is not his normal self (Sp. No seas
esttJpldo).
19
We take your bags and send them In aD d1rect1ona.
1 TRANSLATION
Is forbitten to steal hotel towels please. If you are not person to do ....,
thing please not to read notls.
The manager has personally passed all the water served here.
Salad a firm's own make; limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumpli.... In
the form of a finger; roasted duck let loose; beef rashers beaten up in -.e
country people's fashion.
brains muffled oneself up (sesos rebozados)
battered brains (sesos rebozados)
slab chicken (polio a la plancha)
squid to the Roman (calamares a la romans)
revolting eggs (huevos revueltos)
tart of the house (tarts de la casa)
On the menu of a Polish hotel restaurant the follOWing was found..
1) In a Tokyo hotel:-
3) On the door of a Moscow hotel room:-

If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it.
. On your travels round the the world you may also come across
. Ike these:-
, 4) In a Copenhagen aJrtlne ticket offlce:-
, 2) In an Acapulco hotel:-
1 TRANSLATION 18
8) In an Austrian ski resort:-
7) Outside a Hong Kong tallor's:-
6) In a laundry In Rome:-
21
1 TRANSLATION
1 Pot mace of the above si&ns I am iodcbud to the article "Si&ns of Our Tames-. .....,.
1989. pp. SS-59. by C. Baroum aod N. WoIoiaosky.
t the 10 signs in 1.3 (Is forbmen to steal .... etc.) Into
Ilsh.
. and sentence meaning in the foreign language and a deficient knowleile
'.. f Idiom can lead to gross distortion and have hilarious resultst.
1 TRANSLATION
Not to perambulate In the corridors in the hours of repose In the boots of
ascension.
Ladles may have a fit upstairs.
Ladles, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good
time.
Please forgive the inconvenience caused by the building of this cafeteria.
(Por reformas en la cafeteria rogamos dlsculpen /as molestlas.)
It Is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner If dressed as a man.
9) Outside a church in Salzburg:-
No shoulders! (Nicht $chulter frelf)
5) In a Buddhist temple In Bangkok:-
These notices all reveal that. even If the grammatical construction of a
translation is more or less correct. Inadequate command of word, phrase
10) At Barcelona Airport:-
20
2 TRANSLATION THEORY
't COMMUNICATIVE AND SEMANTIC TRANSLATION
There are two principal kinds of translation: communicative transl-.n
semantic translation.'
Communicative translation (Cn, which has also been referred t. ea
translation (Spanish traducelon Ilbre), is the best, most profess'-J
d of product. It is an attempt to communicate the author's attitudes -.d
Ings to the reader by putting them Into equivalent terms and
the target language; that Is to say, the ultimate aim Is to produce in ...
t language such a piece of writing as will have an effect on Its rea..
alent to that produced by the source language on Its readership. As CT
an attempt to cross cultural boundaries, it may involve transposing ..
tltutions of one society into the equlvaient ones of another, so that.....
. pie, the Spanish COU (Curso de Orientac/on Unlversltaria) might M
, dered In English as GCE (General Certificate of Education) I...
. ther procedure might be to use a vivid target language metaphor.
e appropriate context the English verb to handle (e.g. a bothers_
on) might become Spanish torr. Likewise, the Spanish
tempestad en un vaso de agua finds an almost perfect cul-.-I
1 "I"bew terms ubn from the work of Peter Newmark <Oft bibliography>.
Communicative translation
Semantic translation
2 Perbapo a variation ofa metaphor used by Ciceto, EXCITABATFWCTUS INSIMPUW,lir.eraUy
'He whipped up waves in a ladle' (FlaveU, 1992: 179).
25 2 TRANSLATION THEORY
(vi) does not undertake correction of the original (the word SIC may be to
disown responsibility)
(vii) takes the word, collocation or phrase as its unit.
Most translation is CT since one usually translates to meet the re......s
ands: to Inform him, persuade him, give him advice. As we saw'" the
us section, signs and notices certainly require CT to be effective The
an Blsslger Hund could be rendered literally in English as Ihat
or BIting dog, but this will never have the Impact of Beware of the *fI!,
',Ich has a warning, mandatory effect In English. Similarly, a __al
ment of fact like Recently painted would not have the Imperative ....e
et paint! for the English-speaking public and, whereas Do not trBell on
,. grass might be taken as a request from any quarter, the words KlMII off
grass! put the seal of officialdom on the message and give It the '-ce
uthorlty.
\ On a recent metro poster in Paris there were the words Et si .. se
. honalt ... (Duff, 1981:90). This would have little meaning in If
;tered as And If people telephoned each other ..., but would be r...ly
erstood If translated as something like Why not keep In touch?w. do
:t use the word If In English with the idiomatic force of French si. IfI l'Ie
ve context, si has something like the Idiomatic effect of the article in "hIs
ihe life (= 'This Is the sort of life for me'), which could be used to
Catalan Sltges, alxo es vlda!, or the force of the adverb in z-.py
resslons like Warm colours are In this summer; It's not on, Is It? ,.. =
ht, fair'); That's definitely out (out = 'out of the question, not fit to be
Idered').
Film titles are another obvious area where communicative
essential. The film title Slugs could have been rendered Iiter. in
nlsh as Babosas, but this would have conveyed little more to l'Ie
Ish public than the Idea of some rather unpleasant little organisms The
topela In the Spanish word babosa baba 'saliva') Is nowhere ..-er
,strong as In the English word slug with its highly evocative INIal
onant cluster, si, which recaHf:l other words such as slimy, sll,..ry,
,.,'8r, slobber, etc. Spanish baba also conjures up associations of b-..s
bllng or lovers drooling, or pleasurable sensations in general (no-.
resslon Se le cae la baba). The inherent terror In the film anf
. ndlng danger from these nasty creatures was put across to
", nlards by the use of the more periphrastic title Muerte vlscosa. IMt
2 TRANSLATION THEORY
(I) is reader-centred (or target-oriented)
(ii) is more faithful to the author's intention but, at the same time, it is freer
(iii) places greater emphasis on effect
(ivy flows mote smoothly
(v) biased
(vi) is open to correction and clarification by the translator
(vii) takes the sentence or paragraph as its unit.
(I) is author-centred (or source-oriented) .. .
(ii) follows the author's thought processes more closely; thus, it IS faithful but more
.
(iii) places greater emphasis on conveying information or transfemng form
(iv) may be clumsier
(v) is source-language biased
equivalent in the English idiom a storm In a tea-cu,l, which could be
rendered rather more loosely as a lot of fuss about nothing.
CT emphasizes the force of the message rather than the content, while
semantic translation (ST) Is more literal and one-to-one and bound by the
original culture. ST can be used in the translation of some scientific texts,
in which the author's words are more important than perfect Idlomatlclty In
the target language. It Is also appropriate In the translation of legal
documents for the same reason, or in glossing a poem, where the aim Is to
provide close lexical equivalents rather than transfer the atmosphere of the
SL poem. However, good translation of poetry, of course, will always be
handled by CT.
In ST the original expression of the speaker or writer Is as Important as
the content, and any kind of Inaccuracy In the form of discreet
embellishment Is wrong. However, because of the Importance attached to
the original, the target-language product will be Inferior.
We might list some of the differences between CT and ST as follows:-
24
(C. J. Cela, La romerfa)
Sometimes different bits of text need to be handled in different ways,
so CT and ST often overlap. However, despite this overlap, the two methods
are nevertheless different because concentration on rendering the exact
Similarly, consider the following sentence:-
r
Acabada de preparar la cesta con Ias vituallas de la merienda, nada justificaba
ya esperar una hora larga sin hacer nada, mano sobre mano como unos
tontos.
27
2 TRANSLATION THEORY
Tienes las manos frias.
Your hands feel cold on my back.
The Idea embodied in this simple sentence might be expresSell in
nlsh in the following way:-
-1JNIVERSAlISTS AND RELATIVISTS
This form of expression sounds natural in Spanish, but somethinl ilke
,slento las manos frias en mi espalda or Nota tus manos frias .. rnl
, Ida does not, even though it Is closer to the original form and a t t ~ s
elude the concept shoulders.
CT and ST find their parallels in the unlversalist and relallwilst
. theses. The universalists say that CT (or "real- translation) is p o ~
use all languages are cast very much in the same mould. The unlv-.a.l
hypothesis in generative linguistics states that all languages eat' be
rated by using the same set of basic rules. The deep structure is the
; only the surface structure is different. Chomsky is a universalist. ~ t
:. doxically comes to the conclusion that real translation is not pos.-.e
cts of Syntactic Theory, 1965).
'. The relativists say that CT is 4fn ossible. Accordin to them, ~ ~
.ts an ee n s are redetermlne s ks ..e
'. I functions of human beings are wholly determined by language. or,
ther words, language determines the way people think. No reol
lation is possible from one language to another as any two diff....t
gas are separate entities residing in different cultures. However -.e
ists' ideas are very easy to refute. It is probably true to say that m..-al
emantic value of words will always detract from transferring the g ~ a l
ellng of a text in its cultural context. To have a suitable impaot In the
18iceptor language, the translation must aim at EQUIVALENCE rather an
ENTITY. Formal fidelity will result in translationese, I.e. language t is
nnatural and sounds as If It Is the result of direct translation. The
NAMIC EQUIVALENCE, which we insisted on right from the start (il"l ' 1)
st have priority over formal correspondence. Consider the followi
2 TRANSLATION THEORY
The expression mano sobre mano, if translated literally into English as
hand on hand, or something of the kind, would have no meaning. To convey
the impression of inactivity, we need to resort to something like twiddling
their thumbs, which uses a slightly different image, but has the same
communicative power as the Spanish idiom.
Sometimes, literal translation simply does not work and, in fact, often
conveys the wrong message. The order Please fill In this form In Ink is
crystal clear to a native English speaker, but it could not be rendered in
Spanish as Rellenese este impreso con tfnta, which would be interpreted as
an invitation to smother the form in ink. A more natural Spanish rendering
would be Rellenese este impreso con bolfgrafo. As a further example of how
translation which is too literal can go badly wrong, Imagine rendering the
Italian Qui si tocca as Spanish Aqu{ se toca instead of the correct Aqu{ se
hace pie.
adjective vlscosa providing a much more graphic idea of what slugs are like
than the word babosa itself.
Translation of film titles often involves modifying an image (White Heat
> AI raja vivo). Use may also be made of metonymy (Three Men and a Baby
> Tres solteros y un blber6n); on the other hand, the synecdochic English
title Jaws was rendered more explicitly In Spanish as Tibur6n.
One particularly successful instance of where translation crosses the
cultural barrier Is to be found in the English translation of Herge's books
about the adventures of Tintin, in which the characters Dupont et Dupond
are rendered as Thompson and Thomson. This particular CULTURAL
TRANSPLANTATION anglicizes the characters, retains the connotation of
the commonness of the names, and reproduces the play on spelling.
26
3 Unfortunately. our labels can be so broad-based that they make us prejudiced. Black and whu.
applied to the colour of the skin are blatantly inaccurate and are extremely misleading terms to use because
they lead us right down the wrong path and onto some very dangerous value judgments: black has
predominantly negative connotations (black magic. Black Death. to blademaill, to blacklist, ritknt black lPD'.
widMII Ipider, to IDmeone'I name, to denigrate, etc.), while white a of
connotations (most of all, it symbolizes cleanliness. puriry and innocence: whlte-<eo/Jar whIte "",-gIC, Ilut.
white lie. etc.), lis Christopher Small 0987:9) says, ..... those who are labelled 'white' may be anythlOg from
greyish pink to mid brown in skin tone, while those labelled 'black' may be anything from pale brown
dark brown; not only is literal blackness of skin colour rare but also many of those who are labelled black
many be lighter in complexion than many who are labelled 'white'. , ,
4 'The hypothesis associated with tbe Americans &Iwacd Sapic (1884-1939) and BenJam,n Lee Whorf
(1897.194\), especially with the latter.
5 For details the reader is referred to Alien & Pit Corder, 1973,1, 101-144, and Sampson, 1980: 81-
102,
processes are Independent of language, I.e. that language Is only a system
for "voicing ideas, although we could perhaps salvage this theory of
LINGUISTIC DETERMINISM by saying that, language may not determine
the way we think, but It does Influence the way we perceive and remember
by prOViding labels for objects and concepts
3
.
The relativists lean a great deal on what came to be known In this
century as THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS4, which originates In the
view of linguistic determinism expounded by the German ethnologist
"'l!.lhelm von HumbolQ! (1767-1835). Language is seen as an actual "shaper
of Ideas". The principle of LjNGUISTIC RELATIVIIY follows from that of
linguistic determinism, and it states that the distinctions encoded In one
la!!S-uage are not found in any other.
s
Whorf said Hopi verbs do not have tenses like European verbs, so, as
there is no concept of time, there can be no concept of speed, speed being
the ratio of distance to time, and so Hopl has no word for 'fast'. The nearest
equivalent of He runs fast would be something like He very runs in English,
which is an expression of intensity rather than velocity. We can Immediately
object to this that the Hopi must have much the same concept of time as we
have, but either do not express it In language or express it in a different
way. He very runs Is just their way of saying He runs fast.
As regards individual lexical items, Hopi uses only one word to cover
English Insect, aeroplane and pilot, but surely we cannot say that a
of perception is involved? Presumably both Hopi and English
speakers see these different objects as they are, but there is a difference
of LEXICALlZATION in their respective languages. Hopl has just one word
29 2 TRANSLATION THEORY
-,.
'_ . 110ia is not to say that pan/q sbould necessarily be rendered in this way in the uanslation nf. 'ne.
.. :..... more natural in the Eas\iab wnion to limply ..... the adjective brvcvrr. See ..,
ADd bypoay..... 3.13.
'; .r lan ua e rovldes an arbitra set of labels or I eon-holea ..
In e , and It must be admitted that this to some
the way we think and talk about reality, but It Is going too fw.
as the Saplr-Whorf HypothesJs seems to, that we are In a
et mwhich It is Im $Slble for us to esca e. Most thinking ",.,
to recognize the limitations of language and see that It is so
cover things that fly (excluding birds), where English makes . r
lstlnctlons In this particular case. Flying things may seem an unnatUNllly
ge class to English speakers to be covered by a single lexical Item. t
would the English word snowto an Eskimo. In Eskimo, as Boas po
. t, there are words for 'snow failing, snow on the ground, drifting s,.."
w packed hard like Ice, slush', etc.
The Saplr-Whorf Hypothesis seems to find considerable support in e
- of colour adjectives. What one language calls a shade of blue an r
t call a shade of green. But surely even this just means that langu..-s
e up the spectrum In a different way, so some have more colour t.-..s
others or their divisions between one colour and another are differer\t.
'.. In made two distinctions where English has only one In the case of
" DIDUS 'shiny white' versus ALBUS '(duller) white'; NIGER 'shiny
'C, us ATER '(duller) black', ALBUS and ATER being the
. On the other hand, the Romans had no word for 'grey', which to ..."
a shade of dark-blue or dark-green. A further example Is provid68
Ish pardo, a shade of colour which has not been lexlcallzed in En......
which can only be translated accurately by a combination of words !lie
-grey or grey-browrf. Sometimes, words can have a very
tlon, as In the case of Chinese qlng, which covers a range of sh_
e colour spectrum that are divided among blue and green in En9lW'.
also that I am dark for English people, but rublo for
" gh presumably both groups see me in the same way. It Is a
" tlon of the use and semantic range of terms In the
, ges, not one of perception, as is the use of the single word blffl tn
, where Spanish makes a distinction between pajaro and ave, or "'e
. the single word corner In English where Spanish has both rlnc6n Md
2 TRANSLATION THEORY
28
(1) The plan of text as a whole which will derive fr.om the shape and balance
of the individual sentences.
7 Unfortunately, Santoyo gloats over bad translation, ignoring the conditions in which it was done.
He produces text after text full of ostensibly poor translation without 50 much as suggesting what he would
consider to be an acceptable version.
(2) Apt metaphor - the visual images, which may also evoke sound, touch,
smell and taste.
r
(3) Sound - including alliteration, assonance, rhythm, onomatopeia and, in
poetry, metre and rhythm.
. BGB ( ~ e..-,J &is") is now caUed ~ Pn-w in the new educational reform
2 TRANSLATION THEORY
I am firm, thou art obstinate, he is pig-headed.
I am proud, you are vain, he is an exhibitionist.
I am a traveller, you are a tourist, he is a tripper.
The three versions of the saying, the first of which was pronounced by
ertrand Russell, indicate perfectly well how easily human beings can fall
rey to SUbjectiVity. If we take the first version, what It means is that
rmness can be interpreted in different ways by different people. If I say
firm, that is a good quality; if you say you are firm, I could interpret that
obstinacy; and if another person claims s/he is firm, I could interpret hi
her posture as extreme obduracy. Our vocabulary thus takes account of
speaker's value jUdgments. I reply, but you retort, I warn, but you
reaten, I am eloquent, but my enemies are glib, the public pay a poll taJ<
Mrs Thatcher levies a community charge, and so on. If I open a window
me it may be fresh air, but for somebody else it may be a draught.
. The attribution of different meanings to a word in this manner is, in fact
.e way in which language changes (see 8.2).
'; On the whole it can be said that too much attention has been paid to
translatability at the expense of actually solving translation problems
often, adequate solutions can be found. The Spanish Buen provecho
be rendered as Enjoy your meal in English, even though English people
not accustomed to making remarks of this kind at table as a genera4
Similarly the Spanish word siesta can be translated as afternoon nap.
en left In Its original form, since It has a specialized meaning and most
h people are familiar with the word, anyway. The Spanish EGB'could
dered as primary education and the abbreviation could be explained
footnote, and so on.
Although there are many translation problems, there are also large
of uival ne n ua which belon to th a f .
'One even encounters parallels in cases where the languages are not
. English and Spanish, for examP,Je, which are both Indo-European
,coincide in the expression Touch woocJ:Toca madera and in the
or to be armed to the teeth: estar armado hasta Jos dJentes.
2 TRANSLATION THEORY
A major problem of translation is that words often mean what we want
them to mean, so the translator has to reconcile several possible meanrngs,
InclUding the a\J.thor's intended meaning, the dictionary definition, and his
own interpretation of the word or phrase (see Duff,1981 :1717).
The adjectives and nouns In each of the following sentences have the
same factual meanIng but different emotional meanings:-
Good translation Is possible but a translation always loses something
of the original. Note the Italian saying Traduftore, tradltore, 'The translator
Is a traitor', sentiments which are echoed in J. Santoyo's book El dellto de
traduclr.
The fact is that the best kind of translation does not sound like a
translation, and its qUality and aesthetic value will depend on some or all of
the following:-
an Inadequate tool for encoding thoughts and experience. The strongest
argument against the hypothesis is that successful translations between
languages can be made, and indeed are made. One language may use
several words to say what is expressed In a single word In another and, just
because a language lacks a certain word, that is, has failed to lexicalize a
certain concept, this does not mean that the speakers cannot grasp the
concept. AborigInal languages have few words for numbers. They may just
have a word for 'one' and 'two', and a few other general words equivalent to
'all, 'many', 'few', etc. but this is not to say that Aborigines have no ability to
count.
30
EXERCISE. COMMUNICATIVE TRANSLATION. Film titles are a typical case in
which communicative translation is required. Pair off the titles in English in column
A with those in Spanish in column B:-
2 TRANSLATION THEORY
GROUP 1
(1) Conspiraci6n de mujeres
(2) Tibur6n
(3) Juventud audaz
(4) En buses del arca perdida
(5) El mayor robo del siglo
(6) El golpe
(7) Cliente muerto no paga
(8) Memorias de Africa
(9) S610 ante el peligro
(10) Sueiios de un seductor
(11) Alerta maxima
(12) Lo que el viento se lIev6
(13) Trampas del amor
(14) Desayuno con diamantes
(15) Loca
(16) S610 falta el asesino
(17) Armas de mujer
(18) Los gritos del silencio
(19) AI filo de la noticia
(20) Ellas dan el golpe
(21) El juego de Hollywood
(22) Tres soheros y un biber6n
(23) Amor sin fronteras
(24) Sonrisas y Iagrimas
(25) Un par de seductores
GROUP 3
2 TRANSLATION THEORY
(1) Under Siege
(2) A League of their Own
(3) The Player
(4) Working Girl
(5) Broadcast news
(6) Three Men and a Baby
(7) Gone with the Wind
(8) The Killing Fields
(9) Speed Trap
. '(10) Drowning by Numbers
'11) Riding the Edge
12) High Noon
13) The Brinks Job
4) Out of Africa
,:(15) Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
, 16) Jaws
. ,7) West Side Story
.' 8) Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
. 9) One Crime Upon
Nuts
) The Sound of Music
> ) The Sting
", ) Play it Again, Sam
, 'Breakfast at Tiffany's
Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark Luz que agoniza
Corredor sin retomo
Jo, jque nochel
Doce hombres sin piedad
Abrete de orejas
Amistades peligrosas
Amor perseguido
La semilla del diablo
El quinteto de la muerte
Se acab6 el pastel
El soltero y el amor
Laloba
Campatia pomo de un dlputado
Falso culpable
El precio del poder
(1) Calma total
(2) Los temerarios del aire
(3) Una chica angelical
(4) Tres en el divan
(5) De profesi6n, duro
(6) El borracho
(7) La bandeja de plata
(8) Dos hombres y un destino
(9) La ley de la calle
(10) AI rojo vivo
(1 )
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11 )
(12)
(13)
(14)
(15)
GROUP 2
.r
Love at Large
Scarface
Heartbreak
Rosemary's Baby
After hours
The Wrong Man
Prick up your Ears
The Tender Trap
Public Affairs
Shock Corridor
Dangerous Liaisons
Twelve Angry Men
The Little Foxes
Gaslight
The ladykillers
(1 )
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
(13)
(14)
(15)
(1) White Heat
(2) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(3) The Gypsy Moths
(4) The Good Fairy
(5) Bar Fly
(6) Rumblefish
(7) Beyond Therapy
(8) The Fortune Cookie
(9) Roadhouse
(10) Dead Calm
32