ELTWeekly Vol. 3 Issue#100 | October 3 | ISSN 0975-3036
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Dr. Sitaram Bhargava works with the Department of English, Government College, Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan).
Translating from one language to another is essentially a problem of translating from one ethos to another , of drawing attention for difference in order to assert similarity and of realizing the context, the systems and social organization of another culture.Translation is both art and craft and the translator as reader and interpretor is in danger of intervening in order to edit and censor. The art of translator negotiates with the target language without allowing the language to dictate the text.
Translation involves a complex process of under standing and analyzing the message in the source language as received by him.This is followed by decodification of the codified message. Then he recodifies it in target linguistic system. The whole process of understanding ,codification,decodification-redecodification can be put as reception of the source text, its transplantation and origin of a new text.
Aims of translation-
Translation primarily aims at the transference of meaning from one set of patterned symbols into another set of patterned symbols.Empathy on the part of the translator would ensure stylistic reconstruction.Translators are cultural bridge builders and their significance has got to be realized in scientific,legal,literary and other domains. translation is very much similar to creative exercise as they have almost similar process.
Translation is a way of reading ,interpreting and criticizing a text. It needs the same process that is required to create an original text.Translation is meant for those who have no access to literature in an alien language-system.It is reaching into a new reader’s realm. Translation is not merely an imitation of a text in another linguistic system but communication of a message to his prospective target readers whose culture and language differ from the culture as used in original massage and so hinders direct com-munication of message between the received message and its recipient. The translation involves ‘ the inherent nature of language and the character of the communication process itself.’’
The process of translation is mainly a process communication between different languages.A.H.Smith (1958)maintains that ‘ to translate is to change into another language ,retaining as much of the sense as one can ’.1
As Peter Newmark (1976) says , “Each act of translation involves some loss of original meaning and this ‘ basic loss of meaning is on a continuum between over translation and under translation.2
A faithful , literal translation often fails to convey the original author’s mind.Interested translators take too many liberties, vastly deviate from the original so much so the culture embedded in the original work is totally obliterated in their transcreation.After all , a translation is neither done nor read for the sake of plot and story of the source alone.The purpose behind is reader’s thirst for knowledge and no individual can remain in ivory tower.
translation is the only means of reaching out to those who do not have direct access to literature and knowledge in an alien language system.Translation becomes an indis-pensable link. Along with serving as a kind of bridge in a multi-lingual situation tran-slation helps in preserving ancient literary and cultural heritage. Further it crystallizing various Indian literatures at national and international level.Human sensibility is en-riched by translation which further adds to the target language system into it. It can further assist in re-vitalizing and renewing individual energies. It would be unfair to consider translation as a simple task. It is a complex task which demands hard work. A translator has to work with greater restrictions than the writer who enjoys greater freedom. Translation is like serving two masters’. It is a demanding task as the translator is in continuous search for suitable diction.Translator’s dilemma is manifold, it is doubly complex as he has to fight a duel with words of two languages”.
Translation plays a very vital role in one’s life. It takes place when one communicates with a foreigner or stranger who is not acquainted with him so far as his own language is concerned. Translation is a complicated or complex business as one can easily not understand its inner content. To interpret the meaning, word to word is not a good translation but it must have an emotional touch with the source of the meaning.
Translation is a difficult object. It is shifting of one language into another language. It is true that. Science and Technology have lessened the distance between people and nations. Translation is becoming more and more significant especially in India which has a multilingual diversity. In English Language Teaching, Translation method has been playing a very remarkable role for a long time. There are countries where education is being given or imparted through mother tongue, Translations are needed to bring home the advancements in various fields of Knowledge made in other countries and languages. Translation has been interpreted. In many ways but it means the rendering of a literary work from one language into another. It is the finding out of linguistic equivalents between the source language (SL) and the target language.
An ideal translation is the matching of phonological , morphological,syntactic and semantic equivalents. During 1960s the two theories of translation were propounded So far as the process of translation is concerned. These two scholars were J.C.Catford And E.A.Nida.who made systematic analysis of the translation process. They suggested Scientific or linguistic procedures for actual translation and testing accuracy and adequacy of that translation.
According to J.C.Catford(1965), ‘Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL).’3
He says that textual equivalentsshould be related to contextual equivalents keeping in view the lexical and grammatical equivalents.
E.A.Nida (1981)points out , ’ The Translation is basically not a process of matching surface forms or rules of correspondence but rather a more complex procedure consisting of analysis ,transformation and restructuring.’4
The analysis involves the grammatical relationship between constituent parts:-The refrential meaning of the semantic units and the connotative values of grammatical structures.
Prof. Verma points out, ‘Translation is a difficult process .The translator has to face many problems .The main problem is that of grasping the right mood ,tone ,inten- tion , feeling and sense of the original writer .Translating poetry is much more difficult than the prose. 5’
The relevant problems occur when one faces the following levels:-
(1.) Linguistic,
(2.) Grammatical,
(3.) Socio-cultural,and
(4.) Idioms and proverbs
The first problem is that of finding appropriate equivalents at all linguistic levels.In fact, it is impossible to find in target language ( TL) exact equivalents of a text in the source language even though there may be a lot of cultural similarit-ies .For example , ‘ The English expressions such as ‘Good morning, ‘Good after noon ‘, and ‘Good evening’ have no exact equivalents in Hindi. One Hindi word
‘Namaste’ serves the purpose very well. The Hindi word ‘KAL’ has no English equivalents because it is used for both ‘ yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’.The Hindi word ‘chacha’ , tau’, Mama’, foofa’ Mausa’ have only one equivalent ‘Uncle’
English and so is the case with the word ‘Aunt’ that serves the purpose of ‘chachi’, ’Bhua’, Mami’ etc.
Noam Chomsky has also discussed in his ‘Transformation –Generative Grammar’ that a translator has to face the problems of ‘Deep and Surface Structures’.6.
In understanding the interpretation of the statement, one should keep in mind the both types of structures, otherwise he would hardly distinguish literal
Translation from literary translation .Literal translation may be harmful in knowing the interpretations,because idioms and proverbs are the product of a particular culture.In such a critical situation , a translator should always try to establish only semantic equivalents . For example, the following sentences are remarkable examples of literal translation .These examples can be explained with the help of two types of translation. First is Literal and second is literary.
(a) Literal translation:-
1. ‘Mera sir chakkar kha raha hai’
My head is eating circles’
- ‘Use dekh mera dil baag bag hogaya’
My heart became garden garden when I saw her.
The above-mentioned examples will be just a mockery .These two sentences can translated as literally in the following manner:–
(b) Literary translation:–
1. ‘ I am feeling giddy .’
In the same manner ,the second sentence will be interpreted in the following manner .
- My joy knew no bounds when I saw her.
Therefore, it can be said that word to word translation is not only harmful but useless also .
Another example in English
‘ It is raining cats and dogs’
‘ Kutte billi baras rahe hain’.
If translated into hindi as the above, will be down graded (i.e word to word, Clause to clause) translation.
Varshney also says that
the target language (TL) has a number of synonymous to express the sense of a source language word, the translator should choose the word he considers stylistically more suitable than the word that most obviously translates the source language (SL)words.’7
We have some other examples or the words such as – ‘Tavern’, inn,public house’ for ‘Musafir khana ; Requests ’ for ‘ invoking , ‘Pray’for Pukar’, ‘Groaning’, Moaning’,Wailing’ for vilaap.
We should choose the closest word for them suitable in the context.While translating headings and titles , the translator must be very careful .If he does not find the appropriate word in target language he should write the same in the script as in source language (SL). The wrong translation of the title destroys the spirit of the text.
Translation is not an easy job. The whole process of translating from source language into target language is an unusually complex one.
I.A.Richards feels that
‘ translation may very probably be the most complex type of event yet produced in the sevolution of the cosmos’.8 The job of the translator is further complicated by host of restrictions imposed upon him by both the subject and the audience.The translator has to bear in mind that there are no exact synonymous even in the same language and its dialects and that a language is not merely a medium through which experience is communicated but is some thing inseparable from the experience it communicates.
To conclude, translation is a difficult and complex process.That is why it is advisable to touch it at advance levels.There is a proverb –‘ A translator is a traitor’. This indicates at the insufficiencies and in adequacies of translators.The translator has to face many problems. The two theories of translation propounded by J.C.Catford and E.A.Nida have
contributed to the translators in achieving better and useful literary translation.
Therefore it can be said that translation remains a craft requiring a trained skill ,continually renewed linguistic and non- linguistic knowledge and deals with imagination, intelligence and above all common sense.
References
Smith A.H. ( ed), Aspects of Translation,London : Seeker & Warburg,1958,p. (vii).
Newmark Peter, ‘The Theory and Practice of Translation’, Language Teaching and Linguistic Abstracts, London: Cambridge University Press,1976.
Catford J.C. ‘A Linguistic Theory of Translation’,London: Oxford University Press. 1965.
Nida E.A. ‘Science of Translation’Language, vol.45 Oxford university press 1969.
Verma S.K. ‘An introduction to Linguistics and Phonetics’ Student store,civil lines,Barelly 1977.
Chomsky Noam ‘A Transformational-Generative Grammar’ ‘ Aspects of The Theory of Syntax’ Oxford university press 1965.
Richards I.A. ‘Towards A Theory of Translating’, A.E. Wright(ed) ,Studied in Chinese Thought,Chicago: Chicago university press,1953
A very useful article on the issues, translators face in the process of tranlsation.