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Applying Direct and Oblique Strategies When Dealing With A Literal Translation of A Poem
Applying Direct and Oblique Strategies When Dealing With A Literal Translation of A Poem
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Contents
Page
1.c antroduction 3
4.c Conclusions 19
5.c References 21
6.c Appendices i
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1.c antroduction
supported by theoretical framework mostly drawn from Jean -Paul Vinay and
translator, text of which and its back translation are included in the Appendices
the seven proposed methods of translation will be presented and examples will
be provided. a will share some interesting findings and try to investigate some of
made by others will be drawn upon and my personal views and possible
solutions will be presented alongside the theory and examples as well as in the
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A duo of French linguists Vinay and Darbelnet¶s perception of the linguistic
introduces many translation processes and gives guidelines and
theorists from other cultures and national ities. One of the most interesting and
Source Text (ST) with Target Text (TT) in another language is their catalogue
some cases, the discovery of the appropriate Target Language (TL) unit is ve ry
gaps (or lacunae) in the TL which should be filled with corresponding elements
in order to create similar impression between the two languages. This is where
they divided into two groups. First group is Direct Translations (DT) and it
consists of the following techniques: loan, calque and literal translation. Their
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feature is that they are used when structural and conceptual elements of the SL
can be transported into TL µelement by element¶ simply because they are based
(OT) which are used when the elements of the SL cannot be directly translated
techniques had been listed above mirrors the level of difficulty in use, according
to Vinay and Darbelnet the easiest being loan and most difficult adaptation
(Pym, 2010: 13). Such bold statement that µone thing is easy and the other
difficult¶ poses a question of the level of comprehension of the text and perhaps
section of this essay will focus on the actual methods and try to analyze the
techniques visible within the translation of the song lyric µThick as a brick¶.
an order to put the main focus of this essay into context a will present the
techniques and extracts taken from my data and provide either critical
when they are presented alongside carefully selected examples. At the same
time, as the text gets analyzed it becomes c lear that some procedures overlap
and more than one category can be assigned to one rendering, which will be
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2.1 Direct Translation Techniques in context
1982). The translator can the word directly from the source language to
the target without changing its form or even translating it. This technique seems
proper names, branding or when target culture does not have a word for
translated literally. As a result the target language gains a fixed calque, which
after a period of time may become a part of the culture. These may however,
become . A very clear example of such calque is visible in the µThick
as a brick¶ lyric.
of µan organization or group which has the power of control which is not shared
get capitalized unless they are proper nouns, names or branding. an this case
version of µMonopoly¶ the board game is - and has been called for at least
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twenty years - µEurobiznes¶. an poetry, it often happens that not only the
meaning of the text needs to be conveyed but also the rhyme. Here, this could
not have been the case as µMonopole¶ does not rhyme with anything. Also, as
far as equivalent effect is concerned, in this case such play with foreign word
within the text does not do any justice for the reader as µMonopole¶ only brings
need to adapt, borrow or translate product¶s name into target culture will be a
µbalancing act between the need to find appropriate sounds and connotations,
the need to mark the nationality of the product (...) may be seen as cultural
facilitate foreignization and disturb the naturalness of the target text. The main
criticism concerning linguistic strategies for dealing with the unknown is that
calquing and borrowing terms which had already been awarded their
equivalents in the target culture , especially when dealing with poems; disturb
the reader who already devotes most of his/her attention to the aesthetic values
of the composition.
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word by word µliteral translation can be applied without risk¶ (1977:257) which
will result in what he calls µdegree zero of translation¶ (ibid.), some examples
(2) thick as a brick ± tępy jak cegła ± gloss: thick like brick
(4) And the poet sheaths his pen while the soldier lifts his sword - A poeta
chowa pióro, podczas gdy żołnierz podnosi swój miecz ± gloss: Poet sheaths
All of the above idiomatic phrases are typical to the English language and
they do not exist in Polish in the same form. T he translator made a decision to
translate each of them literally even though Polish equivalents could have been
applied. µBrick¶ could have become µoak ¶, µanimal deals¶ is actually µdirty
business¶ and µsoldier pulls his weapon¶ not µsword¶ (Simbrimowicz, 2000).
What happened in those cases was closest literal substitution of SL with TL.
conducted a simple, yet extensive, experiment with the use of Google search
engine and Polish Online Corpora it became apparent that all mentioned options
do appear in Polish texts even though they are not of Polish origin. Surprisingly,
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µthick as a brick¶ saying does actually appear in a 2005 edition of one of the
English ±Polish idiom dictionaries and the entry features a link to, perhaps now
old fashioned µthick as an oak¶ idiom. The 1997 edition of a similar publication
(Radziejewski, 1997) does not feature both entries ± only the µthick as an oak¶
one. Therefore, could it be that the mentioned calques have successfully become
a part Polish language? Or are they simply on their way to becoming µfull
equivalents¶?
Another question that comes to one¶s mind is why the translator did not opt
for the slightly freer methods and applied the pre-existing Polish versions of the
above examples since the meaning would have remained the same and it would
have only been the form at a word level that would have been changed. Perhaps,
Vázquez-Ayora¶s dire warning that µthe translator should not alter this process
(of literal translation) out of an itch to change things or out of simple fear of
criticism that the translation is literal in the pejorative sense of the term¶
However, not being able to go into translator¶s thoughts or guess his motivation
(which is not the purpose of this essay anyway) it will be even more interesting
to investigate more examples that are almost complete opposites of the ones
already mentioned or are the same utterances but looked at from a different
angle.
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2.2c Oblique Translation Techniques in context
Pym (2010:14) suggested a model for translation, which is possible when the
translator can first try the Direct Techniques when, neither of those bring
can move on to the Oblique methods, which involve the procedures of real
The technique of is how Vinay and Darbelnet deal with
demonstrating how parts of speech change their sequence within the text when
position of the verb in the sentence. Any changes of such nature require the
target language without altering the meaning . anterestingly, however, in the case
of the poem the translator kept the Polish sentence structure very closely to the
original without even creating any gaps in the flow of the passage. The only
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(5) Really don¶t mind if you sit this one out ± Możesz to sobie odpuścić, to
naprawdę nie ma znaczenia. ± gloss: You can let it go, it really doesn¶t matter.
Here, we can observe how the sentence structure changed and for the sake of
stylistic values the utterance got converted into a compound sentence. The
English first states the abstract feeling/emotion (result) and then the means. Had
it been translated literally without what Malone (1988) refers to as µreo rdering¶
proper grammar of the Polish language that dictates the position of action single
sentence against the result sentence. On the other hand, it must be underlined
that µobscure¶ in this case does not mean µincorrect¶. The reason this needs to be
and . The latter one is also considered to be µvariation of the form of
the message, obtained by a change in the point of view. This change can be
between the two definitions is the point of view of a translator on the subject of
correctness of the utterance. an the case of the example numbe r five above, it
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that defines its status of either having undergone transposition or modulation.
This is where Malone¶s view concerning the division of Vinay and Darbelnet¶s
becomes valid. According to his own new taxonomy from 1988 transposition,
words) and as an example provides a simplified formula µin which the translator
introduces what is called a co-reference chain¶ (Fawcett, 1997:41) and all the
changes are down to substituting parts of sentences (AB ĺBA). Different and
what Vinay and Darbelnet first proposed in 1958, that is literal vs free (or OT vs
DT).
brick¶ case (example 2), which does, to a certain extent, fit in what Vinay and
Darbelnet include in their further definition of fixed and free modulation. They
claim that :
which as far as we know from my research had not yet been fixed into the
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modulation criteria. Aware of its appearance in one of the dictionaries and
having acquainted ourselves with the rest of Vinay and Darbelnet¶s renderings
we choose a must stress that the way the phrase made it to the dictionary
had not yet been confirmed and the situation remains hypothetical.
Meanwhile, Wilss (1982:102) who also talks about problems with classifying
gives an advice to his readers and suggests that many of the difficulties with
away from the linear arrangement used in the taxonomy and choosing instead a
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achieved no matter which strategy is used. When it comes to he also
rejects the term as it µdenotes a general state of affairs guiding every non-literal
actually is. Vinay and Darbelnet point out that * (French spelling)
occurs when the same situation can be rendered b y two texts using different
stylistic methods in order to produce equivalent text. The focus mainly falls on
cannot be achieved by calque. The term itself, even though kept in its French
form seems to be the biggest bone of contention for the critics and other
linguists as it now has a much wider meaning in translation. While Vinay and
taxonomy and considered it to be the more free technique, where the translator
applies µthe method of creating equivalences ¶ (1958:38) they still refer it back to
more direct techniques (e.g. claque). They give examples of translating idioms
and culture specific phraseology and then they conclude with advice that µin
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always be present when translator attempts to introduce a new calque¶
(1958:39). This is where, critics voice their opinions on the fact that equivalence
is rendered as the µfreer¶ method. Being such a wide and flexible concept it
would be advisable to break the équivalence down to different types, just like
Nida (1969) did when he introduced his +
definitions. Where the formal one would probably take its place on the very top
of Vinay and Darbelnet¶s table (somewhere between calque and borrowing) and
a linguistic strategy. This is exactly what Wilss suggests (1982: 101, 134)
At the same time, Pym (2010) puts the last two techniques of équivalence
and adaptation together and concludes that at the end of the day, the two
procedures are all about cultural adjustments. The very famous example given
very clearly. Yet, adaptation remains the one most open to controversy. At the
lexical level Vinay and Darbelnet propose some unusual and risky translations,
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for example one of the most striking ones is how they translated what for French
is µcyclisme¶ (cycling) to the British is µcricket¶. First of all, why cricket not
football or polo? The initial critical reaction was perhaps justified when finding
out this particular case, however, when dealing with a different example from
strategy it did make me think twice about the reasons for turning cycling to
cricket.
(6) Where the hell was Biggles? ± Gdzie do cholery był Biggles? ± gloss:
Biggles? To a Polish reader of that text Biggles will not probably ring any bells
at all. After looking Biggles up it becomes clear that the character is very much
connected with British culture (he is a fictional character, a pilot and adventurer
in a youth oriented adventure book series) . Any English reader will recognize
Biggles straight away as the book series dates back to mid-twentieth century but
has also been referred to in the media, comedy and TV shows on numerous
occasions throughout the years. The translator of µThick as brick¶ chose to leave
borrowed the name and its function (which in this case was a hint of sarcasm
and humour when the author asks Biggles for help). When reading the poem in
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Polish, the reader will have to do what a did when a Biggles and that is look
it up. One could say that a bit of owns research and getting to know other culture
cannot hurt anyone and a agree. However, to my understanding of the poem and
that particular verse the possible solution of using the name Pirxie would be a
perfect example of adaptation. The similarities between the two characters are
very striking, Pirxie is a fictional character, a pilot and adventurer in a very well
known youth oriented adventure book series by a Polish author Stanisław Lem ,
which was first published in 1968. Referring to Pirxie rather than Biggles in the
translated version would most definitely have the equivalent effect of humour
and sarcasm on the Polish reader without making him/her go through the
background of British literature. Just like when Vinay and Darbelnet changed
cycling to cricket and yet managed to remain within the topic of sport , here the
change would have been seemingly large in terms of form but , in my opinion,
much more rewarding in terms of comprehension of the text. The exact same
chance that the reader would guess the meaning of the board game f rom the
context. As far as Biggles is concerned, the unfamiliarity with the character does
not denote anything. Yes, we can guess he is a human being and a hero but not
more than that, moreover from the context the reader could wrongly take him for
a celebrity sportsman. an this case the thought that bothers me the most is
whether translators decision to keep Biggles name was a n intended one or not.
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Vinay and Darbelnet do admit that adaptation carries some risks of
different concepts within the text. At the same time, they suggestively warn that
because it affects not only the syntactic structure, but also the development of
examples a can now sum up most frequently expressed criticisms which have
not yet been mentioned. Kelly (1979:133) and Pym (2010: 165) state that some
of the strategies like e.g. borrowing and calque cannot be called translation
techniques at all as they are on the verge of mistakes and attempted tones.
they are µjust fancy names for what translators already do (or think they do)
examples, the literal methods could become very successful and enrich the TL.
Also from the linguistic point of view, such simple techniques are a good
factor in favour of loans and calques is that in their work translators sometimes
do come across terminology that simply cannot be translated in such cases they
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need not be afraid to foreignaize their text a bit. After all, on many occasions
completely new term that no one will be able to comprehend. Whether we call
The one feature of the taxonomies a disagree with is the classification of the
techniques as going from the easy to difficult linear diagram. at all depends on
something. af not and the dictionary does not come to the rescue then no amount
attempted µeasy¶ calques, which (at least in my view) failed and on the other
4.c Conclusions
at is clear to me that the translation of µTh ick as a brick¶ sways towards the
literal approach. When comparing the original version with the gloss it is
striking how literally the translator approached the text. Almost word-for-word
As a native Polish speaker a know that the criticised examples are not right
or wrong and they simply have other alternatives to them. Linguistic methods of
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However, what happens in the mind of a translator w hen dealing with literature,
poetry and other creative texts can only be explained by him. a must say that
theories onto what had already been done does teach viewing what at a first
glance does not appear to have much to do with theoretical framework and
finding out how interestingly relevant methods proposed over fifty years ago are
today.
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References:
c Fawcett, P. (1997) -+ -
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+
c Nida, E. And C. Taber (1969) &
Leiden: Brill.
c Pym, A. (2010) + Routledge: London and
New York.
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c Vinay, J.P. , and J. Darbelnet (1958) ¢
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