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. Pdf translation problems and difficulties in applied. It is useful to think of these problems under two headings. This paper deals with some lexical and syntactic problems of translation and offers modest solutions to each. Pdf translating problems and translating difficulties. In fact, literature is distinguished by its aesthetics. Here, the correct word order for the translation in english should be najin went to jeddah. One of the problems a translator can face arises from the. Initially, the translation of literary works novels, short stories, plays, poems, etc. Difficulties of literary translation translating between. Presently, the teachers and students of translation are confused at the mounting impenetrability of the books and articles that flood the market.
The unification of human emotion can be exacted through translated literature as it familiarizes people with the. 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. Translation of proper names in literature does not have any set rules, although in the majority of cases names are usually left as they are in the original. Chapter 6 translation problems university of essex. Difficulties in literary translation literature poetry.
Some problems of translation from english into arabic. Literary translation is one of the most challenging fields of translation. First, it is the total lack of literalness in translation. According to ziaul haque of sylhet international university, one of the main problems affecting literary translators is that they forget that the various elements work together in a dialectical relationship within a literary work. The author provides an exhaustive discussion of spanish translations from english texts, including nonstandard registers. What are some linguistic and cultural aspects to this difficulty.
An example from the opening pages of kafkas amerika is used to illustrate how literary texts may be translated differently from nonliterary ones. Our translators are trained to understand the literary or marketing context of the text in order to ensure that the translation not only contains what you want, but also how you want to convey your. The problem of cultural translation occurs not only in the translation of folk literature but also in the case of sophisticated literatures. Pdf literary translation difficulties researchgate. Literary translation, at least in the englishspeaking world, faces a difficulty that texts originally written in english do not. 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. The unique trouble with the harry potter series is that many of the place and character names are invested with meaning. A freelance translator should be customer oriented, always communicating with its customers about their needs. A literary translation must reflect the imaginative, intellectual and intuitive writing of the author. This is due to the fact that it is a special use of language that is deviant from ordinary, everyday, nonliterary language. This guide proposes to help the translator navigate through them.
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. Some of them have marked our childhood, and those books are available to all thanks to the wonders of translation. Difficulties of literary translation all translations require excellent knowledge of the target and source languages, as well as an understanding of the cultural. 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. What are the difficulties of translating a foreign. As it is noticeable from our introductory statements, our thesis does not aim to suggest a theory of literary translatior and does not deal with a specific problem of. Cultural difficulties in translations from english into arabic roxana s mares. Translation is an activity of enormous importance in the modern world and has become an established area in. An inquiry into the challenges of literary translation to.
The problems of literary translation are still open to confucting debates and individual proposals. Difficulties of literary translation october 2015 translation journal. Among the lexical problems offered are the absence of direct tl counterparts, the different function of the tl counterpart, words with. Difficulties of literary translation translating between a rock and a hard place. Translating literary texts, however, is not an easy task, since it certainly poses many problems for the translator.
By mohammed basam thalji supervisor professor bader s. The difficulties discussed are cultural differences which have created untranslatable culturalbound words and phrases, as well as specialized vocabulary. Literary translation is the translation of creative and dramatic prose and poetry into other languages. It is not enough to communicate until you get the job, you need to be ready to answer all your clients questions during and after the project. 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.
For example, notable in canadian literature specifically as translators are figures such as sheila fischman, robert dickson and linda gaboriau, and the governor generals awards annually present prizes for the best. Cultural problems in literary translation from english. The purpose of this paper is to analyze translation from three perspectives. In arabic verbal sentences, the verb comes first but in english sentences, the verb comes after a noun or noun equivalent in a sentence. Learners listening comprehension difficulties in english. 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. 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.
Translating literary texts, however, is not an easy task because it certainly poses many problems for the translator who should be bilingual and. Nonliterary in the light of literary translation abstract the purpose of this article is to contrast nonliterary with literary translation. In this book, both beginning and experienced translators will find pragmatic techniques for dealing with problems of literary translation, whatever the original language. The challenges of translating literature k international. 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. Literary translation or the translation of works where the literary use of language has been affected is somewhat more complex than scientific technical translation. Dweik this thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the m.
Literary translation is a type of translation which is distinguished from translation in general. As rene wellek and her coauthor feel, literary language is highly connotative. 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. Equivalence across languages, that most elusive of terms in. Get an answer for what are the difficulties of translating a foreign language. 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. She pointed out that some of the major problems of translation are over translation, under translation, and untranslatability. The present study investigates the cultural problems involved in literary translation from english into arabic. So it is no wonder that literary translation has many features and, of course, certain difficulties. The making of a literary translation translating difficulties and the making of the translator. 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.
The translation of proverbs obstacles and strategies. 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. Literary translation is the type of the translation which deals with any of the literary genres represented in poetry, drama and prose. Translating harry potter challenges in translating. Unfortunately, the translators lay more emphasis on the translation of poetry. Certain challenges and certain themes recur in translation, whatever the language pair. A good literary or marketing translation involves having a feel for the context of the text and being able to match the authors original intent. A translator must be affordable and easily accessible all. Literary texts display many linguistic peculiarities, as well as social and cultural aspects of our lives and, thus, we can assert that literary translation is one of the main ways of communication across cultures.
An analytical study of some problems of literary translation. So, the above english wordforword translation is faulty. For one, the literary use of language implies that ambiguities will inadvertently creep in. That is why literary translation is a subject of disagreement among scholars and translators. A degree in english language and literature faculty of arts and sciences department of english language and literature. 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. 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. Difficulties of literary translation translating between a rock and. This includes the translation of literature from ancient languages and the translation of modern fiction so that it can reach a. 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. This kind of translation is not intended to do literally, word by word.
The difficulties of publishing a translation the bart. 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. Learners listening comprehension difficulties in english language learning. Translation of literary works novels, short stories, plays, poems, etc. Translation problems and difficulties in applied translation processes article pdf available september 2016 with 21,769 reads how we measure reads. 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.