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متميزة بكلية الآداب بالدمام
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رد: تجمع {Third year students level five}
· Lecture One
Theory of Translation
Chapter One: Introduction
Translation, by definition, is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way the author intended the text.
The sixth sense : is compounded of intelligence, sensitivity and intuition, as well as knowledge. It tells us when to translate literally, or to break rules of translation, when to be free or direct, etc.
A text may be rendered in different possible ways, observing:
1-The individual style of then author
2-The grammar and lexical usage of the text
3-Content referring to SL or a third language
4-The typical format of the text (newspaper article, document, a book , etc. )
5-The expectations of the readers and their knowledge about the subject
6-All the previously mentioned with reference to TL
7-The views and prejudices of the translator
Translation as a profession: where ?
There is nothing called a perfect translation.
A translator should always work on four levels:
1-Translation is a science
2-It is a skill
3-It is an art
4-It is a matter of taste
A Famous example of ambiguity in translation is in the resolution 242
"The withdrawal from occupied territories"
Translation is important for communication and transmitting of culture, and technology. It is a force for progress.
Translation theory:
Is concerned with the translation method appropriately used for a certain type of text, and it is therefore independent on a functional theory of language. However, in a wider sense, translation theory is the body of knowledge, that we have about translating, extending from general principles to guidelines, suggestions and hints. It is concerned with minute as well as generalities and both may be equally important in the context.
What a translation theory does is to identify and define a problem, second to indicate all the factors that have to be taken into consideration in solving the problem, third, to list all the possible translation procedures, finally to recommend the most suitable translation procedures plus the appropriate translation.
Modern Elements of translation:
1-Readability: naturalness in the TL
2-Expanded topics
3-Increase in variety of text format
4-Standardization of Terminology
5-The formation of translators teams and the recognition of the reviewer role
6-The impact of linguistics and sociolinguistics on Translation theory
7-It is now used to transmit knowledge not only cultures.
Practice One:
The story was told to me by my old tutor, Theo Parmitter, as we sat beside the fire in his college rooms one bitterly cold January night. There were still real fires in those days, the coals brought up by the servant in huge brass scuttles. I had travelled down from London to see my old friend, who was by then well into his eighties, hale and hearty and with a mind as sharp as ever, but crippled by severe arthritis so that he had difficulty leaving his rooms. The college looked after him well. He was one of a dying breed, the old Cambridge bachelor for whom his college was his family. He had lived in this handsome set for over fifty years and he would be content to die here. Meanwhile a number of us, his old pupils from several generations back, made a point of visiting him from time to time, to bring news and a breath of the outside world. For he loved that world. He no longer went out into it much but he loved the gossip – to hear who had got what job, who was succeeding, who was tipped for this or that high office, who was involved in some scandal.
I had done my best to entertain him most of the afternoon and through dinner, which was served to us in his rooms. I would stay the night, see a couple of other people and take a brisk walk round my old stamping grounds, before returning toLondonthe following day.
But I should not like to give the impression that this was a sympathy visit to an old man from whom I gained little in return. On the contrary, Theo was tremendous company, witty, acerbic, shrewd, a fund of stories which were not merely the rambling reminiscences of an old man. He was a wonderful conversationalist – people, even the youngest Fellows, had always vied to sit next to him at dinner in hall.
Now, it was the last week of the vacation and the college was quiet. We had eaten a good dinner, drunk a bottle of good claret, and we were stretched out comfortably in our chairs before a good fire. But the winter wind, coming as always straight off theFens, howled round and occasionally a burst of hail rattled against the glass.
Our talk had been winding down gently for the past hour. I had told all my news, we had set the world to rights between us, and now, with the fire blazing up, the edge of our conversation had blunted. It was delightfully cozy sitting in the pools of light from a couple of lamps and for a few moments I had fancied that Theo was dozing.
But then he said, ‘I wonder if you would care to hear a strange story?’
‘Very much.’
‘Strange and somewhat disturbing.’ He shifted in his chair. He never complained of it but I suspected that the arthritis gave him considerable pain. ‘The right sort of tale for such a night.’
I glanced across at him. His face, caught in the flicker of the firelight, had an expression so serious – I would almost say deathly serious – that I was startled. ‘Make of it what you will, Oliver,’ he said quietly, ‘but I assure you of this, the story is true.’ He leaned forward. ‘Before I begin, could I trouble you to fetch the whisky decanter nearer?’
I got up and went to the shelf of drinks, and as I did so, Theo said, ‘My story concerns the picture to your left. Do you remember it at all?’
He was indicating a narrow strip of wall between two bookcases. It was in heavy shadow. Theo had always been known as something of a shrewd art collector with some quite valuable old master drawings and eighteenth-century watercolours, all picked, he had once told me, for modest sums when he was a young man. I do not know much about paintings, and his taste was not really mine. But I went over to the picture he was pointing out.
‘Switch on the lamp there.’
Although it was a somewhat dark oil painting, I now saw it quite well and looked at it with interest. It was of a Venetian carnival scene. On a landing stage beside the Grand Canal and in the square behind it, a crowd in masks and cloaks milled around among entertainers – jugglers and tumblers and musicians and more people were climbing into gondolas, others already out on the water, the boats bunched together, with the gondoliers clashing poles. The picture was typical of those whose scenes are lit by flares and torches which throw an uncanny glow here and there, illuminating faces and *****es of bright clothing and the silver ripples on the water, leaving other parts in deep shadow. I thought it had an artificial air but it was certainly an accomplished work, at least to my inexpert eye.
I switched off the lamp and the picture, with its slightly sinister revellers, retreated into its corner of darkness again.
‘I don’t think I ever took any notice of it before,’ I said now, pouring myself a whisky. ‘Have you had it long?’
‘Longer than I have had the right to it.’
Theo leaned back into his deep chair so that he too was now in shadow. ‘It will be a relief to tell someone. I have never done so and it has been a burden. Perhaps you would not mind taking a share of the load?’
I had never heard him speak in this way, never known him sound so deathly serious, but of course I did not hesitate to say that I would do anything he wished, never imagining what taking, as he called it, ‘a share of the load’ would cost me.
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