Филологические
науки/6. Актуальные проблемы перевода
Behla
Yuliya Mychailivna,Voinarovs'ka Natalia Victorivna
Vinnitsia Institute of Trade and Econcmics of
Kyiv National University of Trade and Econcmics,
Ukraine
PROBLEMS IN TRANSLATING POETRY
Translation is
very difficult sometime and we have some problems with this prosses. It involves taking
a text in one language and producing a version of it in another language.
Basically, poetry translation should be
semantic translation for a poem is typically rich with aesthetic and expressive
values. The translator may face the linguistic, literary and aesthetic, and
socio-cultural problems in translating it. The linguistic problems include the
collocation and obscured syntactic structure. The aesthetic and literary
problems are related with poetic structure, metaphorical expressions, and
sounds. While the socio-cultural problems arise when the translator translates
expressions containing the four major cultural categories: ideas, ecology,
behavior, and products. This article shows some basic considerations on how to
solve them.
Translating literary works is, perhaps,
always more difficult than translating other types of text because literary
works have specific values called the aesthetic and expressive values. The
aesthetic function of the work shall emphasize the beauty of the words
(diction), figurative language, metaphors, etc. While the expressive functions
shall put forwards the writer's thought (or process of thought), emotion, etc.
And the translator should try, at his best, to transfer these specific values
into the target language (TL). As one genre of literature, poetry has something
special compared to the others. In a poem, the beauty is not only achieved with
the choice of words and figurative language like in novels and short stories,
but also with the creation of rhythm, rhyme, meter, and specific expressions
and structures that may not conform to the ones of the daily language. In
short, the translation of poetry needs 'something more' than translating other
genres of literature. This simple writing will present in brief some considerations
in translating poetry [1,67 ].
Linguistic problems.
In
term of linguistic factors, according to the writer, at least there are two
points to consider: collocation and obscured (non-standard) syntactical
structures. The word "collocation' used here refers to words or word
groups with which a word or words may typically combine. The combination may by
syntagmatic or horizontal, like make a speech (not say a speech), run a meeting
(not do a meeting), etc. Something to remember is in different languages the
collocates tend to be different. The Indonesian phrase for run a meeting is not
melarikan rapat but mengadakan rapat.
The other class of collocation is
pragmatic or vertical. This consists of words belonging to the same semantic
field or be semantic opposite. Different from the first class, the collocates
in this class may be the same for several languages. Land, sea, air are exactly
the same as tanah, laut, udara.
Whatever the reason is, where there is an
accepted collocation in the SL, the translator must find and use its equivalent
in the TL if it exists. But a closer attention should also be paid to the
collocation with similar form in the SL and TL, but different meaning. See this
line, for example:
I find you in every woods and gardens.
The words woods and garden are
collocates, and the Indonesian equivalents are very similar, hutan and kebun.
Even the form is very much similar, the translator must examine first whether
the meaning is the same. As it is known, the word woods in US is not exactly
the same as hutan in Indonesia in term of the characteristics, area, location,
etc. In addition, garden is not always the same as kebun. It may mean taman. The
clear examination can only be done if the translator understands the contextual
meaning.
Literary or Aesthetic Problems. Aesthetic values or
poetic truth in a poem are conveyed in word order and sounds, as well as in
cognitive sense (logic). And these aesthetic values have no independent
meaning, but they are correlative with the various types of meaning in the
text. Hence, if the translator destroys the word choice, word order, and the
sounds, he impairs and distorts the beauty of the original poem. Delicacy and
gentleness, for instance, will be ruined if the translator provides crude
alliterations for the original carefully-composed alliterations. So, the
problems in translating a poem is how to retain the aesthetic values in the TL
text.
The aesthetic values, according to
Newmark are dependent on the structure (or poetic structure), metaphor, and
sound. Poetic structure includes the plan of the original poem as a whole, the
shape and the balance of individual sentences in each line. Metaphor is related
to visual images created with combinations of words, which may also evoke
sound, touch, smell, and taste. While sound is anything connected with sound
cultivation including rhyme, rhythm, assonance, onomatopoeia, etc. A translator
cannot ignore any of them although he may order them depending on the nature of
the poem translated [3,39].
Socio- cultural Problems.
Words
or expressions that contain culturally-bound word(s) create certain problems.
The socio-cultural problems exist in the phrases, clauses, or sentences
containing word(s) related to the four major cultural categories, namely:
ideas, behavior, product, and ecology [3,89
].
The "ideas" includes belief, values, and institution;
"behavior" includes customs or habits, "products" includes
art, music, and artifacts, and "ecology" includes flora, fauna,
plains, winds, and weather.
In translating culturally-bound
expressions, like in other expressions, a translator may apply one or some of
the procedures: Literal translation, transference, naturalization, cultural
equivalent, functional equivalent, description equivalent, classifier,
componential analysis, deletion, couplets, note, addition, glosses, reduction,
and synonymy. In literal translation, a translator does unit-to-unit
translation. The translation unit may range from word to larger units such as
phrase or clause.
He applies 'transference procedure' if he
converts the SL word directly into TL word by adjusting the alphabets (writing
system) only. The result is 'loan word'. When he does not only adjust the
alphabets, but also adjust it into the normal pronunciation of TL word, he
applies naturalization. The current example is the Indonesian word
"mal" as the naturalization of the English word "mall".
In addition, the translator may find the
cultural equivalent word of the SL or, if he cannot find one, neutralize or
generalize the SL word to result 'functional equivalents'. When he modifies the
SL word with description of form in the TL, the result is description
equivalent. Sometimes a translator provides a generic or general or
superordinate term for a TL word and the result in the TL is called classifier.
And when he just supplies the near TL equivalent for the SL word, he uses
synonymy.
In the above case the translator does not
have any choice; he has to supply the cultural equivalent in the TL. Let the
reader learn and understand what a certain word means for others in the other
part of the globe. "Summer's day" is a day when the sun shines
brightly and the flowers, especially the sweet-scented roses, are blossoming
everywhere in England. Meanwhile, the Indonesian "musim panas" means
agony of life where irrigation channels are dry, the rice fields crack all
over, and the dust scatters everywhere. Later, however, the reader will learn
the beauty pictured with "summer"
or "musim panas" when he notices that the poem was written by an
Englishman.
References:
1) Kasihani K., Linguistics and
Literature: a Translation Analysis of "Senja di Pelabuhan Kecil.
Unpublished paper. 1990., - 167 p.
2) Newmark P., Approaches to
Translation. Oxford: Pergamon Press., 1981. – 150 p.
3) Wolfram W., The Science of Translation. Gunter
Narr Verlag Tubingen., 1982.-240 p.