Module 3: Central Issues in Translation
  Lecture 8: Translatability of Languages
 

Translation of prose

The style of prose fiction and non-fiction does not have the complexity or density of poetic styles and is more malleable as far as the translator is concerned. All the problems outlined in translation apply here also, but these are relatively fewer as the genre allows greater flexibility. Translators can to a certain extent focus on the content rather than the form when they are translating a novel. But here also the translator has to be alive to the currents and counter-currents of language that eddy and churn to yield meaning. Which aspect has to be fore grounded–the content or form or both – is ultimately the translator's discretionary choice. This in turn depends on the aim and audience of the translation. If the purpose is to introduce a classic in a foreign language to the reader, the translator can make exercise his/her freedom in translating it. But if it is meant to highlight the stylistic and semantic aspects of the text, domestication is not the method.

It is quite clear that there is no universal criterion to determine whether a language has translatability or not. It will depend on the nature of languages that are translated, the genre, the purpose and the readership to which it caters. This does not mean however, that there is complete correlation between two languages.

Assignments

  1. What are the problems encountered in translation between two languages?
  2. Select a play in one language and try to translate it into another language. What are the challenges that you face in this?

References

Bassnett, Susan. Translation Studies. 1980. Revised edition 1991. London: Routledge.

Brisset, Annie. “The Search for a Native Language: Translation and Cultural Identity”. The Translation Studies Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. London: Routledge, 2000:343 – 376.

Venuti, Lawrence. “Language, Community, Utopia”. The Translation Studies Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. London: Routledge, 2000:468 – 489.

Spivak, Gayatri. “The Politics of Translation”. The Translation Studies Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. London: Routledge, 2000:397 – 417.