Eng.

4104 + 4112

1. Untranslatability

There is a grain of truth to the proverb ‘Traduttore, traditore’. No matter how good the translation,
something always seems to be lost. It is that ‘untranslatable’ residue of meaning that cannot be thought out
in the target language which leads some linguists to proclaim that in a theoretical sense translation is
‘impossible’. However, it will help the translator or interpreter to recall that ‘untranslatability’ is chiefly due to
the inherent features of cultures and languages, not to the individual abilities of the translator or the
limitations of the craft.

The problem of ‘untranslatability’ arises from the fact that different cultures divide up the universe in
different ways, and that their languages therefore contain ideas, words and expressions to describe those
different concepts and culture-specific features.

Make a list of the most ‘untranslatable’ words or expressions you have heard or read, and try to
translate them with the approach outlined above. Bring copies of the list to class with you for discussion.
Exchange these ‘problem lists’ with other students and see whether a fresh perspective on the problem by
someone else can create solutions. Always consider the possibility that an ‘untranslatable’ word may simply
be word which you have not heard before. Try asking a native speaker of the language or a specialist in the
field to which the word pertains.

Read the following classification or the main figures of speech often used by writers and speakers,
and make a list of some examples of each figure of speech in each language you know:

• Idiom: an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either grammatically
(as “no it wasn’t me”) or in having a meaning that cannot be deduced from the combined
meanings of its elements, for example: “Monday week” for “the Monday a week from next
Monday”.

2. Figures of Speech

Words are often used to form units of meaning in ways that convey more than what the rules of
grammar dictate. Such combinations or clusters of words are used deliberately because they are “more than
the sum of their parts” and thus serve as a kind of shorthand, which makes them especially useful to
interpreters. Translators and interpreters must be alert to figurative language and remember that a figure of
speech in one language can often by rendered by a different figure of speech in another language, e.g. a
metaphor by a proverb, or by non-figurative language.

• Simile: a figure of speech comparing two things, often introduced “as” or “like”, for example:
“Bureaucracies, like plants, need pruning from time to time, lest they become all branches
and no blossoms” (statement by US ambassador).
• Parody: a mocking or humorous imitation of another person’s speech or manner of speaking.
 • Hyperbole: extravagant exaggeration used as a figure of speech.
• Proverb: a brief popular epigram or maxim; an adage (in Spanish: un refrán), for example:
“Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched”. Many common proverbs exist in several
languages in similar versions. Some use the same image to convey a given idea, for example:
“Absent le chat, les sour is dansant.” = “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” Others may
convey a given idea through different images, for example: “Don’t put the cart before the
horse.” = “No hay que comenzar la casa por el tejado.”
• Motto, slogan, byword: a concise saying, usually used as a guide for conduct or as a rallying
cry for a movement (in Spanish: lema), for example: “In God we trust.” / “Save Rakhine.”
• Metaphor: “figure of speech in which a word of phrase literally denoting one kind of object or
idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness between them, for example, “The ship
plows the seam.”/ Thine eyes are those doves”.
• Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as in “50 sails” for “50
ships”), or the whole for a part (as in “the smiling year”.)
• Metonymy: use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute, for
example: “lands of the crown” to mean royal lands.
• Apostrophe: an incidental remark addressed to an imaginary person or to a personified
inanimate object, for example: “Oh, cruel fate!”.
• Oxymoron: “ a contradiction in terms, for example: “late and soon”.

3. Varieties of Close Translation

It may be useful to distinguish literal from word-for-word and one-to-one translation. Word-for-word
translation transfers SL grammar and word order, as well as the primary meanings of all the SL words, into
the translation, and it is normally effective only for brief simple neutral sentences. In one-to-one translation,
a broader form of translation, each SL word has a corresponding TL word, but their primary (isolated)
meanings may differ. Thus, the two verb couplets can be said to correspond with each other, but, out of
context, they are not semantic equivalents. Since one-to-one translation normally respects collocational
meanings, it is more common than word-for-word translation. Literal translation goes beyond one-to-one
translation.

4. Transference

Transference is the process of transferring a SL word into a TL text as a translation procedure. It is

the same as Catford’s transference and includes transliteration which relates to the conversion of different
alphabets; e.g. Russian, Greek, Arabic, Chinese etc. into English. The word then becomes a loan word.
However, when the translator has to decide whether or not to transfer a word unfamiliar in the TL, he usually
complements it with a second translation procedure. Generally, only cultural objects or concepts related to a
small group should be transferred. The vogue for transferring so called national characteristics should be
abandoned. In principle, the names of SL objects, inventions, devices, processes to be imported into TL
community should be creatively translated if they are neologisms although brand names have to be
transferred.

In regional novels and essays, cultural words are often transferred to give local color, to attract the
reader, to give a sense of intimacy between the text and the reader. These same words have to be translated
in non-literary texts if they are likely to remain in the TL culture or the TL.

There are often problems with translation of semi-cultural words which are associated with a
particular period, country or individual. For example, maximalism, enlightenment, nothingness (neam) etc.

In principle, such words should be first translated word and the functional equivalent added in brackets until
you are confident that your readership recognizes and understands the word. The translator’s role is to make
readers understand ideas not to mystify by using vogue words.