Ly “Qua v Professor Hasan Ghazala TRANSLATION AS PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS A Textbook for University Students and Trainee Translators Special Edition DAR EL-ILM LILMALAYINSpecial Edition 1429H/2008 (First published 1995) All rights reserved to the Author Bl pall BE gine Fpl! quae Heol age Yeoh gale/ stl eis teat ouallell olelll. GAN A) ven al GOAN) PERE cn SEB THe AT ogee ke ge internet site: woww.malayin.com, e-mail; nfo@malayin.comi. Transtation as Problems and Solutions CONTENTS Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION 1Lntroduction: This Work on Translation 2.What is Translation? 3.What Do We Translate? 4.How Do We Translation? 4.1. Methods of Translation 4.1. L.Literal Trenstation 4,1.1.1,One-to-one Literal Translation of Words: Word-for-word Translation 4.1.1.2.Onesto-one Literal Translation 4.1.1.3 Literal Translation of Meaning:Direct Translation 4,1.2.Free Translation 4.1.2.1.Bound Free Translation 4.1.2.1, Loose Free Transtation 4.2.The Prooess of Translation 42.1.The Unit of Translation ‘:Translation Problems 5.1.Grammatical Problems(Chapter One) 5.2.Lexical Problems(Chapter Two) 5.3, Stylistic Problems(Chapter Taree) 5.4.Phonological Problems(Chapter Four) 6.Comments on Translation Problems 7.Solutions to Transiation Problems 8.Translation as Problems and Solutions : A Practical Approach CHAPTER ONE : GRAMMATICAL PROBLEMS. Introduction: 1.1, Translation of Verb “Be” 1.2. Translation of Verb “Do” 13, Translation of Verb “Have” 1.4. Translation of Modals 1.5. Translation of Questions 1.6, Translation of Negation 1.7. Nominal Sentences vs. Verbai Sentences 1.8. Wotd Order 1.9. Translation of Personal Pronouns 1.10 Translation of Present Participle vs . Gerund 1.11 Translation of Past Participlefi Translation as Problems and Solutions 1.12.Translation of Adjectives 1.13 Translation of Tenses 1,14 Translation of Conditional Sentences 1,15 Translation and Word Classes 1,16.Translation of Articles 1.17-Translation of Sentence Connectors ‘Conelusions Exercises CHAPTER TWO: LEXICAL PROBLEMS Introduction: 2.1 Literal Translation 2.2.Translation of Synonymy . 2.3.Translation of Polysemy and Monosemy 2.4.Translation of Collocations 2.8.Translation of Special Fixed Phrases 2.5.1. Translation of Idioms 2.5.2 Translation of Proverbs 2.6 Figurative Language: Translation of Metaphors 2.6.1. Translation of Metaphors 2.7:Yechnical Translation: Arabization 2.8.Translation of Proper Names, Titles, Geographical Terms, (Political) Institutional “Terms and UN Acronyms 2.8.1, Proper Names 2.8.2. Titles 2.8.3. Geographical Terms 2.84, Political Institutional Terms 2.85. UN Acronyms 2.9:Translation and Culture Conclustons Exercises CHAPTER THREE: STYLISTIC PROBLEMS Introduction: The Importance of Style 3.1. Style of Formality vs. Informatity 32. Siyle of Fronting 3.3. Style of Parallelism 3.4. Style of Ambiguity 3.5. Complex vs. Simple Style 3.6. Style of Short Sentences 3.7. Style of Long Sentences 8 3 89 106 128 128 138 145 156 172 176 181 184 186 193 210 21 21 233 235 237 242iii Translation as Problems and Solutions 3.8, Passive vs. Active Style 3.9. Style of Repetition end Variation 3.10.Style of Redundancy 3.11 Expressivty , Context and Readership: Style of The Show of Muscles 3.12.Style of Nominalization vs. Verbalization 3.13.Style of Irony 3.14.Translation of Punctuation Marks Conclusions Exercises CHAPTER FOUR: PHONOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. Imroduction 4.1. Miscellaneous Examples 4.2. Advertisements 43. Poetry 43.1. 8 Toke 432. Lucy (Wordsworth) 4.33. Song V.(Auden) 4.34. Calm (Tennyson) 43.5, Burial of the Dead (T.S.Bliot) 4.3.6, Macbeth( Shakespeare) Conelusions Exercises CONCLUSIONS. BIBLIOGRAPHY SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY GLOSSARY SUBJECT INDEX 294 298 300 301 302 313 316 38 320 325 327 334 343 362iv Translation as Problems and Solutions ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author and publisher wish to” thank-all sources and writers , especially Professor Walter Nash, the author's Ph.D. Supervisor, whose material has - with his ‘personal permission - been used either partly or in full for translation and discussion, Special thanks are due to all my close friends, colleagues and referees, for their scholarly notes and revision of some parts of the book. I am exceptionally grateful to my British colleague, Dr. Pauline Ghenghesh, University of Liverpool, for her precious editorial remarks on the first three editions of the book. ‘Also, I express my gratitude for my students in four major Arab Universities: Aleppo, Oran, Tripoli and Unum Al-Qura, who were either directly or indirectly behind some modifications and extensfons of the book, My heartfelt gratitude should go to Professor Peter Newmark, University of Surrey, UK, upon whose comments and advice in a personal leter (29 March, 1996) 1 added, among other things, the sections on punctuation, irony and institutfonal terms, ‘and who supported the book and commented invaluably on its first edition( 1995). Lam also indebted to my MA Teacher and Supervisor, Professor Peter Emery, for his highly appreciated opinion on the book, his encouragement and support, ‘My thanks must be registered over and again to my wife, my special typist, for her ‘unremitting help , encouragement and enduring patience and perseverance. Finally, I appreciate Umm Al-Qura University (Makkah A-Mukarramab, Saudi Arabia) for recommending this work officially as a Textbook for the Translation Courses of Levels (1) and @) at the English Department, by the University Scientific Couneil's academic decision Ne (4) dated $.1.1428H / 241.2007, having ‘subjected the Book to strictly confidential academic refereeing of high standards by specialists in the field of transtation, Accordingly, a number of minor ‘modifications and extensions have been made throughout. My appreciation is also due to all Saudi and other Arab universities, colleges and institutes which teach the book as a Textbook for their students of English and Translation,INTRODUCTION 1. Introduction: This Work on Translation This Textbook on translation (English-Arabic) is written for Arab and Arabic speaking university students of translation at the undergraduate level It is also useful to trainee translators. It adopts a practical approach 10 translation and considers the ‘whole subject in terms of problems and solutions, rather than in terms of general theory and epplication. In this sense, translation is viewed as a subject that creates problems of different types (grammatical, lexical, stylistic and phonological) which demand suitable, practical and possible solutions. When we translate, we come across these problems, so that we stop translating, to think and rethink and perhaps use a reference, or a dictionary of some kind, monolingual (English-English’ Arabic-Arabic), bilingual (English-Arabic! Arabic-English) or trilingual (e.g. English-French-Arabic) These problems require acceptable and possible solutions, based on practical, solid grounds. Problems of translation are caused by grammar, words, style and sounds of the Source Language (SL) (ie. English here) when translated into the Target Language (TL) (i.e. Arabic) which has different grammar and sometimes different words, sounds and style. Solutions to these problems are suggested on the bases of the types of text, context, readership, grammatical differences, etc. (More discussion of translation ions will be given later on in this introduction). Thus, this approach is completely practical, composed of problems and solutions of translating possible, real and natural texts of different types. But, first, what is translation? 2. What is Translation? AAs a subject, translation generally refers to all the processes and methods used to tender and/or transfer the meaning of the source language text into the target language as closely, completely and accurately as possible, using: (1) words/phrases which already have a direct equivalent in Arabic language; (2) new words or terms for which no ready-made equivalents are available in Arabic; (3) foreign words or terms written in Arabic letters as pronounced in their native origin; and (4) foreign words or terms ‘made to fit Arabic pronunciation, spelling and grammar. Here are examples to illustrate these four types respectively: 1. ‘speak? ay 2, ‘satellite’ Gertleet pi) 3. ‘aspirin’ arly 4.tdemocracy’ bl ats)2 Introduction (More examples and illustrations are given throughout the forthooming chapters). ‘Now, when we translate, what do we translate? Grammar, words, style or/and sounds, or something else? The following point answers this question. 3. What Do We Translate? We translate neither grammar, words, style nor sounds. What do we translate ‘then? We always translate one thing only: MEANING, What is meaning? It is a big question that is difficult to answer easily, directly, exhaustively and decisively. However, a general, satisfactory and simple answer can be given here, Meaning is a complicated network of language componen's comprised of: Syntax (grammer), Vocabulary (words), Style, and Phonology (sounds), Each of these components includes several points, shown in Figure 1: GRAMMAR VOCABULARY STYLE PHONOLOGY 1 sentences I synonymy {formality vs. L.thyme 2clauses 2.polysemy informality rhythm B.vord order 3aantonymy 2.fronting alliteration 4.tenses 4.connotations Siparaiclism 4.consonance S.modals ‘S.collocations ambiguity S.assonance 6.questions 6.idioms Surepetition Gmetre “Tanegation ‘proverbs Gredandaney S.imperatives Simetaphors 7 shorviong adjectives 9.technical terms: sentencing. 1.adverbs ‘Arabization Biirony Laatticles 10.proper names S.punctuation —11one I2sentence institutional terms 10.nominalization ete. connectors, vs. verbalization etc, etc, (Fig. 1) ‘Thus, meaning is the product of the different components of language taken together, occurring in a certain type of text and context, and directed to a certain kind of readership. Te translation, although we do not translate, say, English grammar into Arabic, we account for its role in shaping meaning, making it either casier or more difficult to3 Introduction understand and, hence, translate, The same-can be said of other language components. We are always interested in how they combine, produce, influence, reflect and ‘erystallize meaning, Hence, with few exceptions, we translate meaning, nothing else but meaning, This means that anything not relevant to meaning is usually disregarded in translation (except for certain texts like poetry where sound/prosodic features are sometimes more important than meaning). On the other hand, meaning is not the product of words only a5 many would wrongly think ~ but also of grammar, style and sounds. Figure 2 illustrates the relationship between meaning, language, language components and ‘translation {it can be read both ways, top-bottom and bottom-up): LANGUAGE GRAMMAR = WORDS. STYLE SOUNDS MEANING I TRANSLATION ig.2) ied what we translate, the next point is to consider the way we ttanslate (or how we translate). 4. How Do We Translate? ‘This question implies two major points: (1) Methods of Translation and (2) The Process of Translation. 4.1. Methods of Translation ‘A. method of translation can be defined as ‘the way we translate’, whether we translate literally or freely, the words or the meaning, the form or the content, the letter ‘or the spirit, the manner ot the matter, the form or the message, the direct meaning or the implied meaning, in context or out of context, and $0 on (sec also Newmark, 1988: 45), Writers on translation have suggested different methods based on the two major cld-new methods of wanslation, LITERAL and FREE, Among these are:4 Introduction Literal vs. free translation (Newmark, 1981 & 1988) Semantic ¥s. communicative translation (Newmatk, op. cit.) Formal correspondence vs. textual equivatence (Catford, 1965) Formal equivalence vs. dynamic translation (Nida, 1964, Nida &Taber, 1969) Non-pragmatic vs. pragmatic translation (Bell, 1991; Hatimé&Mason, 1990 &1997, Baker, 1998; Snell-Hornby. 1988; and others). ‘Non-creative vs. creative translation (Beylard-Ozeroft and others, 1998). Non-idiomatic vs. idiomatic translation (Newmark, 1988). a Perhaps there is no need to elaborate with details about these pairs of methods. Suffice it to point out that the first pair, ‘literal vs. free translation’ explains mote or less the remaining pairs in general terms. AS a matter.of fact, the argument of today ‘about the methods of translation is not very much different in essence from the age-old debate about literal and free translation methods, as Newmark (op. cit.) also declares: "The central problem of translating has always been whether to wanslate literally oF freely". Thus, by discussing these two methods, we may understand the main lines of argument about translation methods from z new angle, I hope. 4.1.1, Literal Translatic Literal translation method is understood and applied in three different ways, which can be summarized and exemplified as follows (see also Newmark, 1988: 69, ‘who distinguishes between three similar methods of literal translation): Wor station of Words: Each English word is translated into an equivalent word in Arabic which is kept the same as, and in line with that of English: ¢.g. a. That child is intelligent 3 si of 3 2S Jub 315) >. Mary wanted to take tea oe eas i bt oe Ge dnb dotig ty from hand rs mouth v “ a ? Ge ad a te 05 29)5 Introduction Please, stay with = me onthe campus dle ot ee gules (MN A le ge Go tla ops) €.Stop beating about the — bush ais ah de Spm Goel Sam pall sigh £This man is a big shot a eK et we Ces ta fo Si hiay &1 know this information ke tt Gap oi Gal tly This method regards translation to be a translation of individual words. All we have to do is find the equivalent word in Arabic for thé English word, regardless of differences in grammar, word order, context of special use. Moreover, the whole ‘concentration is on the source language, whereas the target language should follow, imitate and mirvor it blindly, perfectly and precisely, neither more nor less. Thus, it seems an easy, straightforward way of translation, which makes it common among students in particular. Jn fact, this method is risky as it may disrupt meaning and, hence, translation, for ‘a number of reasons, some of which are: (1) It ignores the Target Language completely, making it subject to the Source Language wholly and entirely, (@) It disregards the grammatical differences between the two languages which belong to two sometimes sharply different language families. That is, English is an Indo- European, West Germanic language, whereas Arabic is Semitic, (3) It tansfers the SL grammar and word order (Newmark, 1988: 69). It does not acknowledge the different word order(s) of the two languages.6 Introduction (4) It has no respect for the context of words in lenguage and allows for words to be understood in isolation, not in combination with other surrounding words. (8) It transfers the primary (or common) meanings of words (Newmark, op.cit: 69). By this, it dismisses the possibility of any polysemous, special, indirect or ‘metaphorical use of words. (6) Tecannot deal with the SL words that have no equivalents in the TL. (7) It views meaning as the product of words only, which is not acceptable (see point 3 above). Accordingly, the Arabic versions above are unacceptable, and have to be corrected as follows (the unacceptable words or grammatical sequences are underlined): os i 3 coerce EES slope i of ge oath 4 co ET le Jam) a tt Ae mm a etl Bt Oger i ella ey © amt Se el ish = a8 oof zilly Gl ge US) fay 5pS OS Jo Hie pari aLal ce Jo Jay (clash ala 3 ly (There will be more discussion of literal translation and the problems of translating ‘examples like these and many others in 1.1 and 2.1). 4.1.1.2, One-to-one Literal Translation: "One-to-one translation" is to Newmark "a broader form of translation, each SL ‘word has a comesponding TL word", [t respects collocational meanings in their powerful context. He also adds, “one-to-one translation is more common than word- for-word translation"(op.ct.} This method of translation means to transtate each SL word or phrase into an identical word or phrase in the TL. with the same number, ‘grammatical class and type of Janguage, That is, a noun is translated into a noun, two ‘nouns into two nouns, one edjective into one adjective, two into two, and so on and so forth. Ina similar way, an idiom should be translated into an idiom, a collocation into a collocation, a proverb into a proverb, a metaphor into a metaphor, etc. All these translations are done in context, not out of context: €