The Translator

as Cultural Mediator (1)

• Translators are referred to with increasing

frequency as cultural mediators or experts in
intercultural communication.

• The translator must take upon himself not only

linguistic mediation, but also the task of cultural
mediation.
 The Translator
as Cultural Mediator (2)
• Cultural mediation contradicts one of the major
ethical requirements for translators, namely
impartiality which means that, as a rule, a
translator is not allowed to give his/her opinion,
or to alter in any way what a speaker expresses
through his/her language:

• "The formulation of the message is the

responsibility of the other parties; the
interpreter’s responsibility is to interpret"
(Gentile, Ozolinis and Vasilakakos 1996: 48).
 The Translator
as Cultural Mediator (3)

• However, Taft (1981: 59) states that "…

mediation between cultures requires the
communication of ideas and information from
one cultural context to the other. This is
analogous to the process involved in linguistic
translation, even though there is more to
mediation than mere translation".
 The Translator
as Cultural Mediator (4)

• Given that literal translation is generally not

considered advisable, it is essential to find out
the extent to which a translator can ‘mediate’
rather than merely ‘translate’ in order to improve
understanding.
 The Translator
as Cultural Mediator (5)

• Since any translation act is an intercultural

encounter in itself, translators translate for
people who – besides speaking different
languages – have a whole set of values, norms
and habits that are specific to their culture and
influence their way of communicating.
 The Translator
as Cultural Mediator (6)

• The communication strategies of both texts –

based on their respective cultures – are
mastered by the translator both passively (so
that s/he can recognize them) and actively (so
that s/he can use them appropriately).
 The Translator
as Cultural Mediator (7)

• As Angelelli (2000: 581) points out, by means of

his/her knowledge of the two cultures involved,
s/he has to "decode and encode the message in
such a way that the meaning and form may
transfer into the language of the second party to
produce the same effect that they would have
produced in an audience who shared the first
party’s language".
 The Translator
as Cultural Mediator (8)
• The communication flow must be the same as if
there were no translation at all.

• And if it is to consider translation as a

communication of ideas and information rather
than simply the mediation between different
linguistic codes, the translator alone has the
responsibility of providing the interlocutor with
the amount of context that is most appropriate in
his/her culture to reach complete understanding.
 Translating Defoe’s
‘The True-Born Englishman’ (1)

• Defoe’s ‘The True-Born Englishman’ (1701) is a

jaundiced swipe at English national identity.

• Defoe savagely mocks what he sees as the

violent indecent yoking-together that created ‘the
mongrel half-bred race’ of English identity.
 Translating Defoe’s
‘The True-Born Englishman’ (2)

• Colley considers such poetry a sign of the

nation’s strength. She describes these lines as a
‘powerful demonstration of English confidence.
Far more than the Welsh and Scots felt able to
do, the English could – occasionally – ridicule
themselves because they had a strong sense of
who they were and of their own importance’
(1992: 15–16).
 The True-Born Englishman
• In eager rapes, and furious lust begot,
Betwixt a painted Briton and a Scot:
Whose gend’ring off spring quickly learnt to bow,
And yoke their heifers to the Roman plough:
From whence a mongrel half-bred race there
came,
With neither name nor nation, speech or fame
In whose hot veins new mixtures quickly ran,
Infus’d betwixt a Saxon and a Dane.
While their rank daughters, to their parents just,
Receiv’d all nations with promiscuous lust.
This nauseous brood directly did contain
The well-extracted blood of Englishmen …
 Englezul autentic
• În năprasnice pofte trupeşti zămisliţi şi-n legături infame,
Între-un pretins britanic şi o scoţiană:
A lor progenituri repede-au învăţat să se-umilească
Şi junca la plugul roman să o-nrobească:
De-aici îşi are obârşia o hibridă şi corcită naţiune
Fără grai şi fără faimă, fără neam şi fără nume
În ale cărei fierbinţi vene curge-o nouă fuziune,
Adusă la viaţă de-o saxonă şi-un danez,
Când ale lor fiice fertile, cu părinţii lor asemănate,
Toate popoarele-au primit cu pofte ne-nfrânate.
Acest scârbavnic neam nemijlocit conţine
Esenţa pură-a sângelui englez...
(Translation mine)
 Cultural background (1)

• The cultural nationalism of the English poetry

rooted in myth and history gave birth to the
concept of national identity which manifests
through natives’ sense of superiority and
despise of the Other.
 Cultural background (2)

• Aberbach sustains that the poetry of the British

Isles seems to reach artistic peaks in moments
of heightened national self-awareness, when
independence is threatened or lost, whether
because of foreign invasion or internal wars or
disasters.
 Translation analysis (1)
• The English poet writes for an initiated readership
while the translator translates for a foreign and
uninitiated one.

• A foreign reader needs a rich cultural background

to decode the real intention of the poetry.

• This cultural background can be explicated in

additional notes, or the translator can choose
those words in the TL that incorporate the
additional meaning in the TL text.
 Translation analysis (2)

• The vocabulary in Defoe’s ‘The True-Born

Englishman’ pertains to two different lexical
fields: one historical which stays for national
identity, the other obscene and stays for the
mock-ironic tone of the poetry.

• In my translation I endowed the neutral words of

the original with historical meaning in order to
provide the historical background.
 Translation analysis (3)
The word in the Neutral My version
original translation
Painted vopsit, colorat pretins

To bow a se apleca, a se a se umili

închina
To yoke a înjuga, a înhăma a înrobi

Race rasă naţiune

There came îşi are obârşia