ETHICS AND THE SOCIAL ROLE OF TRANSLATION

Mona ARHIRE, Transilvania University, Brasov

Abstract: The paper is intended to be an account of the social purpose of translation in terms of its relationship with the issue of ethics, which is a professional concern as much as the deontology of translation is. The translators responsibility and reliability are also dealt with, relying on observations that reveal a considerable amount of non-professional translators within Romanian communities. Key words: translation, ethics, deontology, responsibility, social role

1. Introduction: The concern of this paper has been the craft of translation, rather the art of it. The challenge for considering this topic lies in the deficient attention generally paid by translation theory to translation as profession, related to the problem of ever-complaining voices against poor translation work. Engaging this aspect of translation, we have not ignored that much has been said about untranslatability, the utopian goal of recovering endless nuances, subtleties and intrincacies, dealing with difficulties in translation, improvement in the target version or neutrality, professional detachment a.s.o., But all this addresses mainly such translators whose work require an immense amount of talent, skill, knowledge, experience and training. Undoubtedly, the translators responsibility in the translation of literary texts has been toughly compared to terrorism in the attempt to reconstitute and cheapen foreign texts (Lawrence Venuti, 1991); or, even more radically, poor translation has been called a crime (Gilbert Highet). Nevertheless, not so much have translation scholars dealt with the professional translator, who does not perceive the translation process as an art, not having thus to confront subtleties, nuances, ambiguity a.s.o., who does not do it for sheer pleasure, but takes it in a more pragmatic way, making a living of it. In a social and political context that claims for high and noble responsibility on the translators part, now when there is already a history of the translation studies, it might be unbelievable that there are translators who would be very surprised to hear that knowing a second or foreign language is a valuable asset, but by far not good enough to make a translator. This idea makes the key-word ethics set in, an issue that has also been of concern for translation scholars indeed, however without comprising much emphasis on the problems of interest for the craft of translation. Instead, much has been said about ethics in terms of faithfulness, loyalty to a source text, but also to the receiving language and culture, all summarized in the tired repetition of traduttore traditore, which is by all means true. The question that arises in this very context refers to the terms in which we define the concept of ethics when it comes to the worldwide intrusion of fake translators, i.e. the massive offer of translation coming from people lacking the training and thus the complex knowledge of what this craft is all about. It is, however, true that they are not solely the ones to blame, since, not only in our country, the system has been so generous in creating certified translators. Moreover, such translators enter the market and some of them perform successfully, which could be an explanation to the discrepancy between what translation scholars consider this activity to be like, and what happens in real life. The core of this gap seems to be made up of the heavily ignored issue of ethics.

2. Ethics and deontology In discussing the issues of the ethics and deontology of translation, it is first necessary to establish the relationship between the two concepts, by referring to the extent to which they overlap. Namely, ethics focuses on the practice of the translation, more precisely on the dialogue with the Other, on social accountability and intercultural co-operation. As said, traditionally, it has been faithfulness that has been used to assess the quality of the translators work as much as the social value of translation. But that ethics is a matter of faithfulness towards the original text is a quite narrow consideration since one of the faces of faithfulness concerns translation as a profession and the rules that govern it. This brings forth ethical questions on two levels: on the one hand, it presupposes some kind of loyalty to a source text, author and sender where the translator remains invisible. On the other hand, it regards the control of translation as a profession, mentioned in codes of ethics meant to regulate the translators relations with clients and confidentiality here the translator is a juridical and fiscal entity, who, according to most contemporary ethical codes, should have paratextual and extra-textual presence as being at least partly responsible for the target language text. Historically, the two distinct levels have little by little interfered in that translators have transformed their anonymity into a professional entity, having therefore developed professional ethics. As for the deontology of the profession, it seems not right for professional translators not to care about it as ignorance in this matter brings about the impossibility of preventing negative results. Anthony Pym considers that there is a clear demarcation between deontology and the ethics of the translator. He also affirms that the translators ethics concerns first and foremost the way in which the translator establishes the social and intercultural relationships that determine his/ her practice. Thus, the translator is a responsible professional, whose duty is to carry out an intercultural mission of co-operation. Deontology is indeed different from ethics but strictly related to it, in that the translator, while achieving his/ her intercultural duty, is normally confronted with the deontological sets of rules, with a code of professional conduct. Only that normality does not always apply. We argue whether there is a point in asking for ethical and deontological behaviour in translators who lack grammatical and stylistic competence in the target language they seem comfortable in. Is it not a matter of taking advantage of the clients lack of knowledge and hence a problem of morality, irrespective of whether the translator is certified or not? In this context, certified translators are more dangerous because their certification enables them to look more trustworthy in the eyes of the audience. In the Romanian filed of translation, the ethical and deontological norms have not been well established yet, since the Romanian Translators Association (ATR) is a young organization. So, it becomes at least doubtful whether it can be assumed that all individual translators have become equally professional and have developed their own ethical conduct. This doubtful attitude is not meant to assert that all the Romanian translators act outside the area of ethics, but it is grounded on the international view (translators associations in Canada, USA, France etc.), according to which the starting point for translational ethics should be the professional group, not the lone hand. 3. The translators social role: This section attempts at answering the question whether ethics and social duty are compatible, looking at various considerations on translation purposes. First of all, if we were to socially integrate the translators, they should be perceived as a collectivity, a social group, since the translators role as agents of social change cannot be ignored. The social purpose of translation is strictly dependant on its content, but irrespective of its nature, we have to acknowledge that translation has the power to influence or to affect the social and even the political life of a smaller or larger community.

The social role of translation is perceived by scholars in the field in two distinct ways: as a positive or a negative role. The former consideration is the traditional one, for which we would recall Goethes words [Lefevre, 1977, 34], who describes the aim of translation as to increase tolerance between nations. It is without doubt true that translation has been helping to remove barriers among peoples, being therefore an important instrument for international co-operation. The idea of translation acting as a bridge between cultures has been insisted upon. Indeed, translation is a matter of intercultural communication, as beneficial as communication itself. However, more recent studies, including Romanian accounts in the field, have started to indirectly question Goethes view on the role of translation to allow for tolerance among nations. Some theorists, recently, even step out of the clich of the translations being a bridge in international affairs, since so many bridges nowadays are blown into the air. Although translation should be a highly objective performance, it is clear as the day that the translators performance and aim are matters of choice and the interpretation he/she adopts in rendering the information in the target language is indeed based on a definite aim, which, nevertheless, can be a destructive one. Here, the art of the translators being covertly subjective can be remarkable, but the reason why he/ she acts subjectively might have little in common with bridging nations in a tolerant way. We particularly refer here to the rather neglected use of translation as a tool in political strategy. In this way, the craft of translation and the translators responsibility reveal themselves of crucial importance in the international social and political affairs. As Mona Baker points out, it has been widely demonstrated in recent years that the activity of translation involves questions of power relations, and of forms of domination, that can be racist or at least offensive. Furthermore, translation is crucially involved in the current struggle for world domination and is overtly used as a political manipulation tool in an increasingly violent and conflicting world. In the Romanian literature, Magda Jeanrenauds recent book on translation [5, 337372] also deals with the social and political role of translation, which she accounts for with numerous examples taken from Romanian newspapers. Examples presented in this latter study reveal translation procedures known in the translation theory (J.-P. Vinay and J. Darbalnet) to consist in shifting the point of view towards a negative one as compared to the original. This consequently produces changes in the semantic intention of the source language text and pragmatic changes in the target language text, affecting thus the target audiences opinion. This means that translation can become a dangerous means of manipulating the public opinion, which provides an answer to the question whether ethics and social duty are compatible. It also offers a clue to the way the translators social duty interferes with the issues of ethics and deontology and it further engages the translators responsibility in his/ her performance as a mediator in international social and political affairs. Here we would call it negative responsibility rather than lack of responsibility, since there is a definite intention in semantically reshaping the source language text. 4. Conclusions: To sum up, since the translator can become the core instrument in communication between cultures, his/ her social role calls for proper preparation. The fact that a good translator is the outcome of practice and experience is irrefutably true. Still, we dont adhere to the opinion that theory is not needed at all; on the contrary, it helps a lot in approaching the process of translation correctly, on condition it doesnt prevail over practice. Moreover, problems like ethics and deontology are first of all matters of theory. Why let freelance translators learn these rules from mistakes that come to affect their prestige, reliability and ultimately their success and job satisfaction? There are plenty of mistakes that do not fail to arise, as error prediction is never far-reaching enough and prevention works within limits. Needles to say, however, that there is unlimited opportunity for learning lessons from mistakes. So why not prevent the least that can be prevented? Ethics and all the other related

issues are an essential part of the theory of translation and should be acknowledged as such first of all by translator trainers. Philip E. Lewis points to the act that: A good translation must always commit abuses. But in spite of the abusive nature of translation [9], there is an entire range of abuses that can be done away with on condition proper training is available, while raising the consciousness of professional ethics. REFERENCES 1. Baker, M., In Other Words A Coursebook on Translation , London and New York, Routledge, 1992 2. Bassnett, S., Translation Studies, England, Clays Ltd. 1996 3. Bell. R., Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice , London, Longman, 1991 4. Bermann, S. & Wood, M., Ed., Nation, Language and the Ethics of Translation, G.B., Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2005 5. Jeanrenaud, M., Universaliile traducerii. Studii de traductologie, Iai, Polirom, 2006 6. Jones, T., Translation and Belief Ascription: Fundamental Barriers , in A. Rosman & P.G. Rubel, Translating Cultures: Perspectives on Translation and Anthropology, New York, Berg, 2003 7. Graham, J. D., Checking, revision and editing, in The Translation Handbook, Ed. Catriona Picken, G.B., Dorset Press, 1983 8. Hajmohammadi, A., Translation Evaluation in News Agency, in Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, Vol. 13, No. 3, 2005 9. Hatim, B. & Mason, I., Discourse and the Translator, New York, Longman, 1993 10. Lewis, P. E., The Measure of Translation Effects. Purifying Abuse, in What is Translation? Centrifugal Theories, Critical Interventions , Ed. Douglas Robinson, Kent State, University Press, 1997 11. Newmark, P., Approaches to Translation, U.K., Macmillan, 1999 12. Ricoeur, P., Despre traducere, Iai, Polirom, 2005 13. Rosman, A. & Rubel, P. G., Translating Cultures: Perspectives on Translation and Anthropology, New York, Berg, 2003 14. Sager, J. C., Quality and Standards in the Evaluation of Translations , in The Translators Handbook, G.B., Dorset Press, 1983 15. Vermeer, H. J., A Skopos Theory of Translation Some Arguments For and Against, Heidelberg, Text Context Verlag, 1996 16. Payne, N., Results of Poor Cross Cultural Awareness , www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/training.html

Etica i rolul social al traducerii

Rezumat: Articolul de fa i propune investigarea rolului social al traducerii n raport cu probleme de etic i deontologie ale profesiei de traductor. Competenele i responsabilitatea traductorului sunt, de asemenea, luate n discuie, inndu-se seama de importana acestuia n medierea comunicrii interculturale, mai ales n domeniile social i politic.

Cuvinte cheie: traducere, etic, deontologie, responsabilitate, rolul social al traducerii Recenzent: Lector univ. dr. OANA TATU Supervizor traducere n limba englez: Lector univ. dr. Mona ARHIRE.