A literary translation must reflect the imaginative, intellectual and intuitive writing of the author. The unification of human emotion can be exacted through translated literature as it familiarizes people with the. Cultural nuances of the language constitute the congenital merits of any literary work. In arabic verbal sentences, the verb comes first but in english sentences, the verb comes after a noun or noun equivalent in a sentence. As rene wellek and her coauthor feel, literary language is highly connotative.
Literary translation is the translation of creative and dramatic prose and poetry into other languages. What are the difficulties of translating a foreign. Literary creativeness is, therefore, needed not only during the writing of the original work, but also during the translation of it. Pdf literary translation difficulties researchgate. One of the major challenges confronted by a literary translator is the issue of style that varies from composition to composition and genre to genre. Literary translation is a type of translation which is distinguished from translation in general. Translation is an activity of enormous importance in the modern world and has become an established area in.
That is why literary translation is a subject of disagreement among scholars and translators. The purpose of this paper is to analyze translation from three perspectives. So it is no wonder that literary translation has many features and, of course, certain difficulties. Translating harry potter challenges in translating. Cultural difficulties in translations from english into arabic roxana s mares. Indeed, the oxford history of literary translation in english runs to five whole volumes, such is the depth and complexity of the subject. The making of a literary translation translating difficulties and the making of the translator. So, the above english wordforword translation is faulty.
On top of these, new difficulties and challenges arise with every literary piece that is translated. The author provides an exhaustive discussion of spanish translations from english texts, including nonstandard registers. Culture in arabic to english literary translation by in. The disagreement voiced by translation theorists as regards the problems that are involved in the process of literary translation stems from the confusion between a literary text and a literary translation. Certain challenges and certain themes recur in translation, whatever the language pair. This is due to the fact that it is a special use of language that is deviant from ordinary, everyday, nonliterary language. Presently, the teachers and students of translation are confused at the mounting impenetrability of the books and articles that flood the market. Literary translation from arabic into english in the united kingdom and ireland, 19902010 a report prepared by alexandra buchler and alice guthrie with research assistants barbora cerna and michal karas december 2011 making literature travel series of reports on literary exchange, translation and publishing series editor. Difficulties of literary translation translating between. To begin with, in literary translation, the language is an end in and of itself, and its function transcends mere communication.
The aim of research the main objectives of this research are to find out what is the concept of translation, the significance of translation and the problems which the. What are the difficulties of translating a foreign language. Translating literary texts, however, is not an easy task because it certainly poses many problems for the translator who should be bilingual and. Dionye durisin argues that the translator of a literary text should not be concerned with establishing equivalence of natural language, but of artistic procedures. So it is no wonder that literary translation has many features, and, of course, certain difficulties. Get an answer for what are the difficulties of translating a foreign language. Other aspects studied include how translation has been perceived over the centuries, the differences and the similarities between a writer and a translator, plus a detailed examination of translation as process, all of which bring the problems of literary translation into perspective. Literary texts display many linguistic features, as well as social and cultural aspects of human lives, and thus literary translation could be one of the main ways of communication across cultures.
It analyzes university students translations of english literary texts in an attempt to identify the basic problems jordanian translation students encounter, strategies and processes students follow to account for these problems. Equivalence across languages, that most elusive of terms in. The examples and difficulties mentioned here are by no means an exhaustive list. The difficulties of publishing a translation the bart. In fact, literature is distinguished by its aesthetics. Among the lexical problems offered are the absence of direct tl counterparts, the different function of the tl counterpart, words with.
They are 1 communicative translation, in which the attempts is to produce the same effect on the target language readers, and 2 semantic translation, in which the translation attempts within the bare syntactic and semantic constraints of the target language, to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the author. An example from the opening pages of kafkas amerika is used to illustrate how literary texts may be translated differently from nonliterary ones. Translation problems and difficulties in applied translation processes article pdf available september 2016 with 21,769 reads how we measure reads. For one, the literary use of language implies that ambiguities will inadvertently creep in. What are some linguistic and cultural aspects to this difficulty. In order to provide high quality translation services you need to have and further develop the following translation skills and abilities. The challenges of translating literature k international. Sanchez graduated in english language and literature from the university of granada. An entire history of literary translation is far too big for the scope of a single article.
Rhythmical, alliterative and onomatopoeic aspects have been hurdles at the lexical level. Difficulties of literary translation all translations require excellent knowledge of the target and source languages, as well as an understanding of the cultural. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. There are about 7000 living languages currently listed in the world, not to mention the number of dialects existing. The findings demonstrated important issues about difficulties in understanding and interpreting literary texts such as, understanding the relationship between the writerpoet, period of the text, and the themes of the literary piece.
Jan 01, 2001 in this book, both beginning and experienced translators will find pragmatic techniques for dealing with problems of literary translation, whatever the original language. This volume examines the various linguistic and cultural problems which point towards the practical impossibility of conveying in one language exactly what was originally said in another. This kind of translation is not intended to do literally, word by word. This is due to the fact that it is a special use of language that is deviant from ordinary, everyday, non literary language. This paper deals with some lexical and syntactic problems of translation and offers modest solutions to each. The complex nature of the english language is not simple a problem for language students. This includes the translation of literature from ancient languages and the translation of modern fiction so that it can reach a. The present study investigates the cultural problems involved in literary translation from english into arabic. Some of them have marked our childhood, and those books are available to all thanks to the wonders of translation. Unfortunately, the translators lay more emphasis on the translation of poetry. Many people believe that being fluent in two languages is all you need in order to become a translator.
In this book, both beginning and experienced translators will find pragmatic techniques for dealing with problems of literary translation, whatever the original language. It is useful to think of these problems under two headings. Pdf translating problems and translating difficulties. Literary translation, at least in the englishspeaking world, faces a difficulty that texts originally written in english do not. The difficulties of publishing a translation in my last post, en route to discussing my latest attempt at publishing both a scholarly and a trade book on the same topic, i talked about how i took on the task of doing a new greekenglish edition of the apostolic fathers for the loeb classical library. Pdf translation problems and difficulties in applied. She pointed out that some of the major problems of translation are over translation, under translation, and untranslatability. Businesses also face the unenviable task of getting their meaning across without falling foul of the many grammar gremlins that lay in their path.
Difficulties of literary translation translating between a rock and. Babar, pippi longstocking, emil and the detectives, heidi, the wonderful adventures of nils and even asterix and obelix or tintin comic books meant for adults more than children are works we are familiar with. Learners listening comprehension difficulties in english language learning. Literary translation is the type of the translation which deals with any of the literary genres represented in poetry, drama and prose. An inquiry into the challenges of literary translation to. This paper discusses how the nature of literary translation differs from other forms of translation by looking at practical difficulties and challenges notable in the arabic translation of lahiris novel the namesake 2003.
Learners listening comprehension difficulties in english. Chapter ii the problems of translation the process of translation is often hindered by structural, lexical and contextual constraints. Literary translation is one of the most challenging fields of translation. The percentage of working style preferred by respondents in a translation classroom working style in a translation classroom strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree prefer to work individually 0 14 51. Difficulties of literary translation october 2015 translation journal. Translating harry potter challenges in translating fantasy literature posted by maria diment in translation on august 17, 2018 2 comments lithuanian haris poteris and his dutch best friends hermelien griffel and ron wemel attend a french school for magic called poudlard bacon lice, get in trouble with the dutch severus sneep, and. It suddenly turns out that the translator of literary works is actually a writer who practically rewrites the book and recreates it for the reader. Chapter 6 translation problems university of essex. If an actor did the same thing as a playwright, a dancer did the same thing as a composer, or a singer did the same thing as a songwriter, no one would think much of what they do either. Translation problems and solutions translation problems. First, it is the total lack of literalness in translation. This paper intended to increase teachers consciousness of these difficult areas in listening comprehension so that suitable and effective actions can be adopted.
Translation is an activity of enormous importance in the modern world and has become an established area in language studies, being the main criterion for achieving communication. Mar 12, 2015 the present study investigates the cultural problems involved in literary translation from english into arabic. Difficulties in literary translation literature poetry. Khalid bustani a thesis presented to the faculty of the american university of sharjah college of arts and sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of arts in translation and interpreting englisharabicenglish mati sharjah, united arab emirates january 2014. The translation courses offered at many universities in bangladesh and overseas treat the subject mostly as an outcome of applied linguistics. Cultural problems in literary translation from english into. Indeed, working as a professional in the translation industry is not as simple as it may sound. Here, the correct word order for the translation in english should be najin went to jeddah.
Jul 29, 2018 indeed, working as a professional in the translation industry is not as simple as it may sound. She then came to england, where she taught spanish at bradford grammar school for girls, bradford college and bradford university, where she obtained an m. Literary texts display many linguistic features, as well as social and cultural aspects of human lives, and thus literary translation could be one of the main ways of. The difficulties discussed are cultural differences which have created untranslatable culturalbound words and phrases, as well as specialized vocabulary. The problems of literary translation are still open to confucting debates and individual proposals. Each genre has its own literary style, rules, structure and a literary.
Difficulties of literary translation translating between a. Some problems of translation from english into arabic. Literary translation from arabic into english in the united kingdom and ireland, 19902010 a report prepared by alexandra buchler and alice guthrie with research assistants barbora cerna and michal karas december 2011. Literary translators deal with different genresnovel, poem, play etc. This kind of translation is not intended to do it literally, word by word.
An analytical study of some problems of literary translation. A difficulty in translation work is what assayyd 1995 found when she conducted a study to compare and assess some problems in translating the fair names of allah in the quran. During the session, we will discuss the mindsets underlying the process of literary translation, as well as strategies one can apply to the translation process. Some of them are related to the characteristics of a specific genre, while others are connected with the uniqueness of a particular author. This article deals with the problems in translating literary prose and reveals some pertinent solutions and also concentrates on the need to expand the perimeters of translation studies. Literary translation or the translation of works where the literary use of language has been affected is somewhat more complex than scientific technical translation.
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