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2.1 Literary Translation

Translation process is an artistic communication between the author, the translator and the reader and
the words used by the translator constitutes the major part in the process of communicating ideas or
feelings of the author. “Literature is both the condition and the place of artistic communication between
senders and addressees or the public” (Basnett,2002)

The translator is the first one who must comprehend, read and interpret the source text then to render it
in a different medium.

Literary translation includes fiction,poetry, drama and the language arts must be taken into
consideration by the translator.

The purposes of the translator are to transfer the information but also to create an equivalent form of
art.

The beauty of the translators’ work is that they bring a great contribution to the creative process being
recognized as part of the literary world.

The literary translator must therefore possess a great knowledge of both the TL culture and language
and the SL culture being able to command tone, style to glean meaning for ambiguity and to identify
with the author’s style and imagination.

Literary texts are characterized by rhetorical and aesthetic value. There is a strong connection between
form and content within literary text while the non literary text the content is separated from the
structure.
Translation problems and solutions

2.1.1 Basic concepts

First of all it is clear that every book is different and it presents its own problems.For this reason the
translator of literary fiction is the one who makes most of the critical decisions when it comes to produce
the best translation.It is thought that sometimes it is more important to create a translation that can
evoque the spirit and particular energy of the original rather than making a translation faithful to the
original.

Usually this is the main concern of a translator because one may think that taking these liberties may be
seen as unprofessional.The new work, the new translation is actually an interpretation of the original
therefore it is not mandatory to preserve literal words and phrases in order to be faithfull to the ST.On
contrary,, translators are encouraged to use their creative abilities to adapt the original text.

Translators maust take risks when it comes to render a good translation in order for the readers to
understand the writer ‘s message.This could not be achieved by following “word for word” translation
because it would not stimulate the interest of the readership.

A literary translator must have the skills to transmit feelings, culture, nuances, humour and other
elements of the masterpiece.

According to Sachin Ketkar in the field of Literary Translation, the “central problem is to find the TL
equivalence for features of the original as style, genre, figurative language and historical stylistic
dimensions, polyvalence, connotations as well as denotations,cultural items and culture specific
concepts and values”

2.1.2 Titles

Title of a book, an article, or a newspaper is the element which captures the attention of the public.
The title is nowadays a commercial decision and sometimes a complete change is required in a
translator’s activity in order to attract the world of consumers, readers. The decision of changing or
adapting a title must be made tough based on the content of the specific text.

One of the cases where the title was kept in the translated text as original is the case of Sandra Smith-
the one who translated the book “la suite Francaise”- who decided to keep the title in French despite the
fact that she was skeptical about the acceptance of her translation in the American narket.However the
book was a great success in UK AND US.in 2007.

The Italian Levi Primo did not agree to change the title of his books. The title of one of his books “If this
is a man” was an integral part of the book, but it was changed in the American edition into “Escape from
Auschwitz” a title which he considered inappropriate and vulgar.

“La chiave a stella” another book of the Italian writer was published in US under a new title “The
Monkey’s wrench” which was not suitable because the title refered to a certain shape and the
apostrophe changed its sense.

Gill Paul in his book states that relying on a literal translation for a title is a common mistake because the
translator may select a misleading title which may affect the readers’ reaction.

Literary translators should be creative when it comes to decide for the best title when translating a book.

2.1.3 Stylized language

Translating a text can be a real challenge when the specific text was written in a particular style a long
time ago.Even contemporary writers may have a style which can pe problematic for a translator.The
problem is if the translator decides to update the text in order to make it accessible, thereby may loose
distinctive use of vocabulary and other characteristics of the original text.

“Nobody would expect to read Shakespeare in Modern English” because it would loose its beauty.
Gill Paul suggests some advice in order to render a proper translation.He states that if the author of a
book is still alive, it would be wise to actually get in touch with the artist in order to obtain a better
understanding of its masterpiece.Unfortunately this option is not always available, therefore translators
must become in other words the artists who can recreate a new style but to have the same effect that
can be percepted by the readership.

Translators must often become their own critics in order to obtain the correct mood, tone and style with
the original.

Sometimes, certain feelings can influence the style of a text which it would be a negative part of a
translator;s work.For this reason, translators should always keep an objective attitude towards their
work, sometimes changing the direct speech into indirect speech or sometimes they can leave the
passage out.

Something will have been lost but the important thing is that translation should not call attention to
itself because it can ruin the readers experience of the book” (Gill Paul)

Strong language

I personally find “bad language” very difficult to translate as literal translation.Translators tend to ignore
the strong language because they are not comfortable with it.In some cultures, swearing is a more
common activity than any other thing.In English-speaking countries, bad language is considered less
acceptable. The main problem is that sometimes there is no equivalent which can match the other
culture, language to be translated.

Robert Chandler had encountered bad language when translating the Russian text “The Railways”

“Curses and swearwords present a particular problem for translators…our lexicon of abusive language
is oddly limited and the more flared curses still common in Russian tend to sound laughable if translated
at all literally”
He suggests simplifying the words by having our own perception of the essence of the bad words in the
other culture. Swear words function as vehicles of self expression. There are three ways to translate the
strong language.

The most effective method which cannot always be used is to find the word’s equivalent in the TL, but
swearwords are sometimes culturally derived and they have no perfect equivalence or perfect
translation.

Another way to translate the bad language is to rephrase the term, which means avoiding the word in
question, not always faithful to the original text. Translating “word by word” is another way to translate
the bad language but it does not always match the meaning of the word itself.

Translators must deal with censorship and must choose between translating the text as it is worded or
adjusting it to reflect the speech patterns of the TL.

Translators agree that is not professional to omit specific words based only on ethical or moral
grounds.The text itself is not targeted towards them therefore they should not take it as offence and it is
in their best interest to provide a faithful translation.

Colloquialisms

In this area the, the most important issue with slang is the selection of the appropriate terms.

G.Paull states that in this area “it can be a question of getting exactly the right translator for the job” .He
also describes the profile of the suitable translator for colloquialism:

Translators with a good working knowledge of colloquialism, dialect and slang in the native country, who
can get across the meaning and help to come up with equivalents that are appropriate, do not jar with
the reader and most importantly, do not date.
Translators must be sensitive to the culture and colloquial differences of different countries

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5 TECHNIQUES OF LITERARY TRANSLATION

In her book Translation and Translation Studies: Introduction to Translation (2001), Professor Amparo
Hurtado Albir, a leading translation specialist, defines five literary translation techniques as presented
below:

1. ADAPTATION

Albir describes adaptation as a “technique whereby one cultural element is replaced by another which is
typical of the receiving culture. This technique is very useful when translating advertisements, slogans,
etc., which employ a number of different linguistic processes. In these cases, the most important thing is
the actual meaning of the message rather than the words making it up.”

2. LINGUISTIC AMPLIFICATION

According to Albir, “this translation technique adds new linguistic elements in the target text. It is the
opposite of the linguistic compression technique.” This is usually about using a paraphrase to explain a
word that has no equivalent in the target language.

3. COMPENSATION

Compensation, on the other hand, is a “translation technique whereby a piece of information or stylistic
device is moved to another location in the text, because it does not have the same effect if maintained
in the same place as in the original text”. This process is intended to compensate for the losses that a
text suffers when it is translated. The technique is especially useful when it comes to wordplay: if the
translator cannot directly adapt a pun, for instance, which tends to happen quite often, then they will try
to create another play on words in another part of the text.
4. ELISION

The fourth technique of literary translation described by Albir is elision. Elision is a process that “involves
removing items of information in the original language text so that they do not appear in the target text.
As with the linguistic compression technique, elision is the opposite of the amplification process.” It is
certainly frequently the case that the literary translator is obliged to condense the information contained
in certain passages being translated. To do this, some items which are not considered essential must be
removed as their elision will improve the stylistic quality of the translated work.

5. BORROWING

Borrowing is a technique frequently used in literary translation, but which can also be applied in medical
and business translations, for instance. For Albir, this translation technique involves “using a word or an
expression in the original text and placing it as it is, with no modification, in the target text.” This can be
an expression taken from a third language (e.g., Latin), or a familiar expression by speakers of the target
language, or even an untranslatable expression which is not worth explaining.