WHAT IS TRANSLATION?

            The word ‘translation’ is derived from the latin word ‘translatum’. In it ‘trans’means ‘across’ and ‘latum’ means ‘to carry’. So ‘translatum’ means the art of carrying across the matters of Source Language (SL) into a Target Language(TL). In other words, it is an act of rendering a text from one language into another.

            In translation the language we translate is called Source Language. It is called shortly as SL.  The language into which we translate is called Target Language. It is called TL. The original text is called Source Language Text (SLT). The translated text is called Target Language Text (TLT). Eugene Nida calls the Target language as Receptor Language and the Target Language Text as Receptor Language Text (RLT).

            To attempt an exact definition of translation is not an easy task.  It has been defined differently by different scholars in different places at different point of time.

            In the words of Nida, “Translation is a process by which a person who knows both the Source Language and the Receptor Language decodes the message of the Source Language and encodes it in the most appropriate form in the Receptor Language.”

            According to Sussan Bassnett, “Translation involves the rendering of a Source Language Text into the Target Language so as to ensure that the surface meaning of te two will be approximately similar and the structures of the Source Language will be preserved as closely as possible.

            J.C.Catford defines translation as “the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent material in another language(TL).”

            In the past, there were few books on translation. Today there are countless theories and hundreds of books on translation. With the explosion of communication technology and with the increasing interaction between languages, translation plays a very crucial role in our culture. Today translation is considered not as a secondary to original literature but as an independent existence. It is not reproduction but recreation. It has now become ‘Literature Three’.

KINDS OF TRANSLATION

Dryden’s Methods of Translation.

Dryden was a great translator.  In his Preface to Fables and in his Preface to Ovid’s

Epistles, Dryden identifies three types of translation.

i.                    Metaphrase : Word for word translation

ii.                  Paraphrase:   Sense for sense translation

iii.                Imitation   :    Abandoning the original text wherever necessary

Metaphrase

            This is the faithful rendering of the original.  The equivalent of each word finds a place in translation.  All the words are translated.  It is a word for word translation.

            Eg. Ben Jonson’s translation of Horace’s The Art of Poesie

Paraphrase

            This is not faithful to the original.  The translator does not bother about the equivalence of words.  All the words are not translated. The translator is concerned only with the sense. He tries to bring the sense of the original text into the translated text. It is a sense for sense translation.

            Eg. Waller’s translation of Virgil’s Aeneid

Imitation

            This is not faithful to the original.  The translator is not bothered about the equivalence of words.  Here, the translator takes a lot of liberty with the original.  The translator takes the liberty to vary the form, the words and the sense.

            Eg. Cowley’s rendering of the Odes of Pindar.

Roman Jakobson’s Methods of Translation

            In his essay “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation” Roman Jakobson distinguishes three types of translation.

i.                    Intra-lingual translation

ii.                  Inter-lingual translation

iii.                Inter-semiotic translation

Intra-lingual translation

            In this type of translation, the text available in one literary form is interpreted into another form in the same language or conveying the meaning of an ancient text. This is also called Rewording.

            Eg. a. Prose rendering of a poem in the same language

                   b. Rendering Chaucer’s Prologue into contemporary idiom

Inter-lingual translation

            Translating a text found in one language into another language. It is otherwise called as Translation proper.

            Eg. Translating a text in Tamil into English

Inter-semiotic translation

            Translating a text available in one medium into another medium. In other words, interpreting verbal signs by means of non-verbal signs. It is also called as Transmutation.

            Eg. Edmund Spenser’s description of his wife Elizabeth Boyle in Prothalamion

if painted in the form of a picture, then the portrait becomes inter-semiotic translation.

BETTER LATE

                                                                                                            R.K.Narayan

                        R.K.Narayan is a well known Indian writer in English.  He has written many novels like Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The Dark Room.  He has also written a number of essays on general issues and current affairs.  All his essays are strewn with mild humour and pungent satire.  Better Late is a typical essay of R.K.Narayan.

                        Generally, people look down upon delay as a trait which one should avoid in one’s character.  Even in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, procrastination is treated as a tragic flaw that brings  the downfall and death of Prince Hamlet. But R.K.Narayan gives a different approach to delay.  He argues in this essay that delay need not necessarily be regretted as it brings many advantages to man.

                        R.K.Naryan holds the opinion that things in the world can be classified into two- the things that can survive delay and things that cannot tolerate delay.  Meeting a person, getting up from bed, reading a book can be done with a little delay.  Nothing would be lost even if they are done a little late.  Setting right a fracture, catching a train, attending an interview or examination belong to the second category where delay should be avoided.

                        R.K.Narayan humorously says that the Indians are always concerned with eternity and so they do not pay any attention to time.  To them, a wrist watch is a mere ornament and not a guiding factor.  Here, one will be depressed and dejected if one is too time-conscious.  Even the servants and labourers will upset him easily.

                        R.K.Narayan defends delay by saying that if we do a thing hurriedly, very often we will meet failure.  But if we do the same work with a little delay, we can do it with utmost perfection.  The reason is that wisdom comes to us late.  The Indians use many strategies to avoid taking hurried decision. The very common one is that they put the responsibilities of taking the decision either on the eldest of the family or on the partners of their business who are not present there.  In official matters, the government does this by forming committees and commissions.

                        Thus R.K.Narayan interestingly argues that delay is not a quality to be despised of but a welcoming quality in every one of us.