WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE Discuss possible translation strategies for the depiction of culture-specific elements in postcolonial literature.
INTRODUCTION The translator, in his role of facilitating intercultural communication, is trapped in a perpetual state of “linguistic inbetweenity” as he attempts to achieve the dual goal of preserving the characteristics of the source text (ST) as far as possible, as well as adapting it so that it can be accessible to his intended audience. This duality of purpose is further problematised when the ST contains “any kind of expression...denoting any material, ecological, social, religious, linguistic or emotional manifestation that can be attributed to a particular community...”, whose denotative and connotative meanings must be transmitted to the target readership (González and Scott-Tennent, 2005, p.166). As such, the translation of these expressions has moved beyond linguistic equivalence and has been positioned within the “cultural turn” (Bassnett and Lefevere, 1990) in translation studies. These “culture-specific items” (Baker, 1992, p.21) or “cultureme” (Nord, 1997, p.34) are generally easy to detect because they usually cannot be literally translated. The strategies employed to translate them are determined by the text typology, the readership requirements and their importance in the text (Newmark, 1988, pp. 95-96). In the case of literary translations, in addition to the linguistic challenges posed by culture-specific elements, the translator also has to consider the commercial exigencies that accompany the translation of literary works. In the interest of publishing potential and positive target audience response, careful consideration must therefore be given to if and how these culture-specific elements are translated. Placing commercial pressures aside, one of the aims of literary translation is to make foreign cultures accessible to translating-language readers. This aim, Venuti (2008, p.14) argues always risks the wholesale erasure of the foreignness of the original. Conversely, consideration of the cultural idiosyncrasies of the original text, although possibly posing a threat to the overarching requirement for fluency and comprehensibility, also becomes a determining factor of the overall translation approach used. On the one hand, the translator can opt for domestication, that is, the text is translated in such a way that the foreignness of the ST is reduced and/or adapted to the cultural values of the target audience. While on the other hand, he can opt for foreignisation whereby the cultural otherness of the ST is preserved thus bringing the target reader closer to the reality of the foreign culture. These two 1
WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE theoretical methodologies “do not establish a neat binary opposition”, rather they point to “ethical attitudes towards a foreign text and culture” (Venuti, 2008, p.19). These ethical attitudes are at the heart of discourses on postcolonial literary translation and mirror, to a large extent, the conflicting approaches that traditional and modern translators have adopted when translating postcolonial literature. In light of this, some of the possible strategies that can be employed to translate culturebound elements will be examined in this paper within the context of a modern approach to the translation of postcolonial literary texts. To achieve this, an analysis of the Spanish translation of the novel, A House for Mr. Biswas will be done and examples of relevant strategies employed by the translator will be discussed. The writer of the English original, V.S Naipaul, is a descendant of Hindu East Indian indentured immigrants and was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. His novel was first published in 1961, one year before the island gained its independence from Britain. The translation, Una casa para el señor Biswas (hereafter referred to as Biswas) was first published in 1999 by Flora Casas. However, attempts to find background information on Casas proved futile, which seems to attest to the translator’s attempt at invisibility. A House for Mr. Biswas qualifies as a postcolonial text as it is written by a native of a formerly colonised country (Boehmer, 2005, p.4) and it possesses the biographical and historical characteristics of this literary genre (Herrero, 1998, p.309). The novel, inspired by the life of Naipaul’s father, portrays Mr. Biswas’ search for a sense of self and place as he moves from one inhospitable environment to another and vividly captures the unique cultural and social milieu of Trinidad. The novel concludes with the premature demise of Mr. Biswas after having finally acquired a house of his own. The methodology used to analyse some of the strategies that can be employed to translate culture-specific elements in Biswas comprised three stages. Firstly, a reading of the English original was done, during which all references to culture-specific elements were noted and categorised. The categories included references to religious elements, such as those related to Hinduism; ecological elements, such as flora and fauna and linguistic elements, such as the local dialect, idioms and proper names. Secondly, a reading of the Spanish translation was carried out, during which all references to these culture-specific elements were noted along with the strategy used to translate them. Thirdly, a back translation of the target text (TT) was done, followed by a comparison of corresponding ST elements and TT elements, to determine the accuracy of the translations and their effects on the TT. For the purpose of this essay the findings of stages two and three of the methodology will be discussed vis-à-vis 2
WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE some of the possible strategies for translating culture-specific concepts in postcolonial literature. TRANSLATION STRATEGIES AND THE POSTCOLONIAL TEXT Translation strategies can be categorised into global and local strategies (Chesterman and Wagner, 2002, p.58). Global strategies are those which are applied to the entire text and include domestication and foreignisation. Local strategies are those which are used on particular segments of the text and include domesticating strategies such as adaptation and omission and foreignising strategies such as borrowing and calque. In the case of Biswas, foreignisation seems to be the dominant global strategy employed by the translator. This overall strategy is arguably apt in its attempts to counterbalance the “[a]symmetrical power relations” (Munday, 2008, p.133) between the coloniser and colonised, exert “ethnodeviant pressure” on dominant cultural values and “register the linguistic and cultural differences of the foreign text” (Venuti, 2008, p.15). While one can only speculate on Casas’ ideological reason for this approach, in considering the potential readership of the translation, Spanish speakers from Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean, it might be safe to conclude that this translation seeks to send the reader abroad to a cultural reality from which he has been alienated because of the Euro-American tendency to domesticate the Other (Lefevere, 1999, pp.75-94). However, despite the translator’s overall aim of foregrounding the cultural identity of the ST, it must be noted that there are instances when she employs local strategies which fall under the purview of domestication in order to solve problems of untranslatability. This combination of foreignisation and domestication strategies in a text that generally seeks to preserve the cultural characteristics of the ST seems to suggest that instead of adhering to one extreme, compromise is sometimes necessary to overcome problems which can affect the overall quality of a translation. TRANSLATION OF RELIGIOUS ELEMENTS
Most of the action of Naipaul’s work occurs within the cultural space of the Hindu community in Trinidad and therefore the work is imbued with a significant number of references to elements related to Hinduism such as rituals and special clothing. The religion was brought to the island by scores of East Indian indentured labourers who arrived in Trinidad after slavery was abolished. Linguistic labels associated with its practices, dress code and traditions have been maintained to such an extent that Hindi words constitute part of the lexicon of Trinidad English. Although in some cases these lexical items can be roughly 3
WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE translated or paraphrased, to do so may result in some loss of their inherent spiritual, emotional and social dimensions. Moreover, for those which cannot be roughly translated or paraphrased, the translator is faced with the challenge of untranslatability. To avoid these potential losses and solve the problem of untranslatability, borrowing or transference can be employed to transmit these concepts to the target readership. Borrowing is a strategy that is usually employed by translators when faced with an entity that has no close equivalent in the target culture. For example, in Biswas Hindi words such as “puja”, “dhoti” and “chulha” are reproduced without modification. As Hafgors (2003, p.125) points out, the foreignisation of these culture-bound terms “can serve as a tool for learning about foreign cultures...and intrigue readers to find out more about them”. It can be argued however, that while the preservation of these culture-specific terms in the TT succeeds in maintaining the exoticness and extralinguistic ethos of the source culture, it can result in some level of incomprehensibility on the part of the target reader due to unfamiliarity with such concepts. However, this can be minimised by the context within which these culturebound items appear. In Casas’ translation, for example, in the sentence “Yacía en un ataúd, en el dormitorio, vestido en sus mejores dhoti, chaqueta y turbante…” (Casas, 1999, p.37) [“He lay in a coffin in the bedroom, dressed in his finest dhoti, jacket and turban...” (Naipaul, 1969, p.32)], the meaning of the borrowed Hindi word “dhoti” is implied by the collocations “vestido” [dressed] and “chaqueta” [jacket]. Nevertheless, according to Hönig and Kussmaul, in
the
absence
of
contextual
information
to
explain
culture-specific
items
“underdifferentiation” can occur (1982, cited in Davies, 2003, p. 73). To solve the problem of “underdifferentiation” the translation strategy of amplification can be used. Craig and Sánchez (2007, p.175) defines amplification as the “addition of elements in the TT that were not present in the ST”. Such additions may take the form of footnotes, translator’s notes, glossaries, intratextual glosses or short adjectival or adverbial phrases which aid the culturally distant reader to better understand culture-specific items embedded in the ST. An example of amplification can be observed in Casas’ translation of the sentence, “He had walked; his dhoti and jacket were sweated and dusty.” (Naipaul, 1969, pp.18-19) into “Había ido a pie; llevaba el dhoti y la chaqueta sudados y llenos de polvo.” (Casas, 1999, p.23). In the translation, Casas adds the verb phrase “llevaba” [he was wearing] as a means of indicating that “dhoti” is an item of clothing. Another example of amplification in Biswas is the use of footnotes. In the sentence “Algunos listos hablaron en susurros de la suttee” (Casas, 1999, p.445) [“Some of the knowing whispered about suttee” (Naipaul, 1969, 4
WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE p.414)], the Hindi word “suttee” is borrowed in the translation. However, its context does not give any indication of its meaning. Therefore Casas includes a footnote explaining that “suttee” is the practice of self-immolation carried out by Hindu widows. While such additions to the TT may prevent the loss of communicative and emotive effect, they may also “hold up the narrative, burden the reader with irritating detail [and] lead to divergence from the style of the original” (Davies, 2003, p.77). However, in the case of Biswas the entire work contains only two footnotes and therefore the narrative seems to be unaffected by these problems. Nevertheless, in some contexts, such as the Chinese translation tradition, the sometimes exhaustive use of footnotes to explicate foreign concepts is the norm (Davies, 2003, p.79). It can therefore be argued that translations with such additions not only increases the comprehensibility of the ST culture, but may also serve as a constant reminder to culturally distant readers that they are indeed reading a foreign text and not one adapted to their local sensibilities. TRANSLATION OF ECOLOGICAL ELEMENTS
In addition to culture-specific elements relating to the Hindu sub-culture of Trinidad, the novel abounds with references to local flora and fauna. As evidenced by the strategies used by Casas, the translation of these ecological features can be addressed in a number of ways. In most cases borrowing is the strategy used to translate these elements. A possible reason for this is that the names of flora and fauna can vary from region to region, even within the same country. As such, this strategy is generally effective since it maintains an essential part of the identity of the source culture. Even in those cases where the ecological element has an equivalent in the target language, borrowing, rather than a literal translation, may still be the more recommended strategy because of the varying connotations that an animal or plant may have in different cultures. For example, the flower “poinsettia” mentioned several times in Naipaul’s novel has a Spanish equivalent, “flor de la Nochebuena”. Within the Mexican culture, for example, this flower is associated with Christmas, which is evidenced in part by the literal translation of its Spanish name, “Christmas Eve flower” (Focus on Mexico). However, within the culture of Naipaul’s work the poinsettia does not carry this specific connotation, therefore it can be argued that the translator made a wise choice by borrowing the term “poinsettia” instead of using its Spanish equivalent. At times, however, borrowing may not be the best strategic option for translating ecological elements. For example, when such an element is mentioned within the context of its use for a 5
WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE particular function in the source culture, simply borrowing the term may not transmit its functional meaning to the target reader. To successfully transmit this essential meaning, the translator can use a strategy such as adaptation in which an equivalent element of the same value is used in the TT so that it suits the cultural sensibilities of the target reader. For example, in Biswas the translator uses a “situational equivalent” (Vinay and Darbelnet, 1995, p.39) to translate “tapia grass”. Tapia grass is a special type of grass used in Trinidad to thatch houses (Winer, 2009, p.881). However, because tapia grass is not used to thatch houses in the target culture, Casas uses the term “cimbalaria”, which is a grass that can be used for this purpose (1999, p.154). By employing adaptation in this case, the translator is better able to transmit the more essential levels of meaning carried in the source term. The use of this target-oriented strategy in a text that seeks to transmit as much of the source culture as possible proves that “in practice, translators...perform a series of pragmatic choices” which can range from the retentive to the recreative (Holmes, 1988, p.48). It also seems to suggest that the overall aim of the translator is to produce a TT that is essentially grounded in the foreign culture, but understandable to the target reader despite its exoticness. TRANSLATION OF LINGUISTIC ELEMENTS
Another culture-specific element which can be preserved in a TT that seeks to highlight the source culture is language. Within the context of modern postcolonial literary translation the preservation of linguistic forms which do not fit into the conventions of the former imperialists is of major concern because of its aim to give a voice to those cultures that have traditionally been rendered mute by dominant cultures. Lingua-cultural specificity in a postcolonial literary text can be manifested through dialects, idioms and proper names. These culture-specific elements reflect the linguistic peculiarities of the source culture and therefore should not be effaced if a major part of the overall aim is to preserve the culture of the ST. In the cultural context of Trinidad, the native language of the majority of the population is a variety of Caribbean English Creole called Trinidad English Creole. This linguistic form, which is principally comprised of an English lexicon and a syntactic structure similar to various African languages, is characterised in part by uninflected verbs regardless of tense, mood or aspect, omitted copulas and reduplication in word formation for emphasis (McArthur, 1998). However, the Oxford-educated Naipaul, while desiring to portray as many aspects of Trinidadian culture as possible, does not always defamiliarise the speech of his characters by writing their dialogues in the dialect that they actually speak. Instead he mentions by way of contextual information that they do not speak Standard English. 6
WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE As a postcolonial writer, his decision to standardise most of the speech of his characters may have been his attempt to ensure that the reception of his text as literature was not compromised. This underscores how the true essence of postcolonial literature can be distorted because of the pressures of acceptability that is exerted on the writer by dominant cultures. However, there are instances when the non-standard speech of some of the characters is overtly expressed in their dialogues. This is usually done to create a humorous effect or to underscore particular characteristics of the speaker such as his socioeconomic status or level of formal education. In such cases, Casas translates the source sentences into Spanish sentences containing grammatical and syntactic errors. For example, the question “How old you is, boy?” (Naipaul, 1969, p.41) is translated as the ungrammatical “¿Qué años tienes, chico?” (Casas, 1999, p.48) instead of “¿Cuántos años tienes, chico?” to reflect the speaker’s non-standard speech. It is important to mention that due to the grammatical structure of the Spanish language, to translate this question using an uninflected verb like the original sentence would have exaggerated the dialect in an unnatural way, which differs from its use in the ST. Therefore the translator shifted the ungrammaticality of the utterance from the verb to the interrogative in the TT, which created a similar effect to that of the ST. This shift demonstrates the impossibility of perfect homology in translation since a ST can never be seamlessly mapped onto its TT (Tymoczko, 1999, p23) and also highlights the types of pragmatic decisions that the translator must make when translating dialectal speech. Despite the grammatical constraints which can affect the translation of non-standard language, the existence of colloquial forms in the target language can facilitate the translation of certain types of culturally bound speech patterns. For example, in the local dialect of Trinidad an adverbial phrase such as “very soundly” is expressed by reduplication. Therefore in the sentence “I been sleeping sound sound.” [I have been sleeping very soundly.] (Naipaul, 1969, p.150) the reduplication of the word “sound” represents the adverbial phrase “very soundly”. Casas translates this expression by using the colloquial Spanish word “requetebien” [very well] (1999, p.162) to reflect the dialectal speech of the protagonist’s wife. Translating dialects is not always an uncomplicated task though and some translators may therefore opt to translate them by using the standard version of the target language instead of confusing the reader or ridiculing the ST character by choosing an unsuitable strategy to portray the dialect. However, standardising the dialectal speech of characters can result in a loss of certain intrinsic features of their portrayal.
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WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE With regard to the translation of idioms, Baker (1992, pp.71-78) proposes four strategic options: the use of an idiom of similar meaning and form as that of the ST, the use of an idiom of similar meaning but different form, translation by paraphrase or translation by omission. In order for an idiom to be accurately conveyed it is imperative that the translator is cognizant of the nuances of the source language to avoid misinterpreting the idiom in the TT. For example, throughout her translation, Casas, in her attempt to convey the meanings of these expressions to the target reader, translates these expressions by using Spanish idioms of similar form and meaning. However, she is not always successful in accurately rendering their ST meanings in the TT. An example of this shortcoming is observed in her translation of the idiomatic expression “cat-in-bag” into the idiom “ir a tontas y a locas” [to move helterskelter] (Casas, 1999, p.131). In the ST culture this expression is usually used in contexts of arranged marriages or situations where an individual is tricked into accepting an offer that does not meet its advertised standards. Because the signification of these types of fixed expressions are more than the sum meanings of their lexical composition it seems that Casas misconstrued the meaning of “cat-in-bag” and therefore translated it with a Spanish idiom which does not accurately capture its meaning. A more fitting translation of “cat-in-bag” as used in the ST context is another Spanish idiom “dar gato por liebre” [to sell a pig in a poke] which has a similar meaning to the ST idiom, that is, to swindle someone by giving them something of inferior quality than what was expected. It is worth mentioning though that rendering an idiom with an idiom is not the only strategy that can be problematic when translating culture-specific expressions. While paraphrasing solves the problem of nonexistent equivalents in the target language, it may also result in a mistranslation if the ST idiom is misunderstood or it may give the idiom a greater degree of emphasis than it possessed in the ST. Similarly, while omission of an idiom in the TT may remedy the translator’s failure to find an adequate way of communicating its source meaning, it may result in some loss of meaning or effacement of the linguistic idiosyncrasies that embody the potency and identity of the local language of the source culture (Gikandi, 1991, p.166 cited in Adejunmobi, 1998, p.171).
Another type of culture-specific element requiring careful consideration by the translator seeking to preserve the cultural identity of the ST is proper names. The decision to preserve proper names or adapt them to the target culture may depend on the value that they possess in the text. In postcolonial settings, the proper names of people and places generally attest to their colonial past. For example in Trinidad, the names of people reflect the cultural 8
WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE influences of Europeans, Africans and Asians on the island as a result of colonisation, slavery and indentureship. In Naipaul’s novel, the Hindu names of the major characters demonstrate one of the ways in which the indentured labourers and their descendents have been successful at resisting the colonial pressures of assimilation to the imperial culture. In her translation, Casas wisely maintains these names and by extension their cultural significance. Likewise, the places mentioned in the novel are towns and villages in Trinidad and the origin of their names generally attest to the Spanish, French, and English colonisation of the island. The use of the names of actual places on the island enhances the verisimilitude of Naipaul’s work and the translator also wisely maintains the form of these names to preserve this quality in the TT. However, in the case of the fabricated name “The Maharajah of Barrackpore” (Naipaul, 1969, p.148) Casas uses calque to translate it as “El maharajá de Barracapore” (1999, p.160). By reproducing the form of the ST expression with contrived equivalents in the TT, the translator ingeniously mimics the made-up nature of the ST expression and therefore captures its original effect.
CONCLUSION In translating postcolonial literature, the translator is faced with the dilemma of being faithful to the ST and ensuring that the TT is intelligible to its intended readership. This problem is further exacerbated when the text in question contains culture-specific elements. Faced with such a situation the translator can make a series of pragmatic choices such as creating loan words from the source culture or adapting features of the text to the target culture. When such strategies are used in an extreme way, however, exoticization of the translated text or erasure of the linguistic peculiarities of the original can result. However, because one of the concerns of postcolonial literature is asserting the non-Eurocentric identity of the formerly colonised, it is advocated that the translator take the target reader abroad instead of reducing the foreign culture to an accessible subject. Nevertheless, whether a postcolonial text is foreignised or domesticated, these global strategies can affect the target reader’s understanding of the translation, as well as the image of the source culture. Likewise, some degree of loss may be experienced at the level of readability or characterisation. These inevitable losses, to some extent, caricaturise the effects of imperialist powers on the formerly colonised and seem to support the Venutian view of translation as a form of violence. Despite these generally unavoidable losses the possibility exists, as evidenced by the translation strategies employed in Biswas, that if foreignisation and domestication are employed in tandem and are applied
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WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE according to the context of individual translational problems, the delicate balance of ST allegiance and target audience accessibility can be successfully achieved. (4003 words)
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WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE Bibliography Adejunmobi, M. (1998) Translation and Postcolonial Identity: African Writing and European Languages. The Translator: Studies in Intercultural Communication, 4 (2), 163-81. Baker, M. (1992) In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London, Routledge. Bassnett, S. and Lefevere, A. (eds.) (1990) Translation, History and Culture. London, Pinter. Boehmer, E. (2005) Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. 2nd edition. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Chesterman, A. and Wagner, E. (2002) Can Theory Help Translators?: A dialogue between the ivory tower and the wordface. Manchester, St. Jerome Publishing. Craig, I. and Sánchez, J. (2007) A Translation Manual for the Caribbean (English-Spanish). Kingston, University of the West Indies Press. Davies, E. (2003) A Goblin or a Dirty Nose?: The Treatment of Culture-Specific References in Translations of the Harry Potter Books. The Translator: Studies in Intercultural Communication, 9 (1), 65-100. González Davies, M. and Scott-Tennent, C. (2005) A Problem-Solving and Student-Centred Approach to the Translation of Cultural References. Meta: Translator’s Journal, 50 (1), 161179. Hafgors, I. (2003) The Translation of Culture-Bound Elements into Finnish in the Post-War Period. Meta 48(1), 116-127. Herrero, L. (1998). Sobre la traducibilidad de los marcardores culturales. In: A. Chesterman et al (eds.) Translation in Context: Selected Contributions from the EST Congress, Granada 1998. Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 307-316. Holmes, J.S. (1988) Translated! Papers on Literary Translation and Translation Studies. Amsterdam, Rodopi. La Flor de Noche Buena. Focus on Mexico [online]. Available from: http://www.focusonmexico.com/La-Flor-De-Noche-Buena.html [Accessed 25th December 2010].
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WILESSE OTTEN-ANNISETTE Lefevere, A. (1999) Composing the other. In: S. Bassnett et al. (eds) Post-colonial Translation: Theory and Practice. London, Routledge. McArthur, T. (1998) Caribbean English Creole. Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. [online]. Available from: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1029CARIBBEANENGLISHCREOLE.html [Accessed 28th December 2010]. Munday, J. (2008) Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and applications. 2nd edition. London, Routledge. Naipaul, V.S. (1969) A House for Mr. Biswas. London, Penguin Books Ltd. Naipaul, V.S. (1969) Una casa para el señor Biswas. Trans. F. Casas. Barcelona, Random House Mondadori. Newmark, P. (1988) A Textbook of Translation. London, Prentice- Hall. Nord, C. (1997) Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained. Manchester, St. Jerome. Tymoczko, M. (1999) Post-colonial writing and literary translation. In: S. Bassnett et al (eds.) Post-colonial Translation: Theory and Practice. London, Routledge. Venuti, L. (2008) The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. 2nd edition. New York, Routledge. Vinay, J. And Darbelnet, J. (1995) Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A Methodology in Translation. Trans. J. Sager. Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Co. Winer, L. (ed) (2009) Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad and Tobago: On Historical Principles. London, McGill-Queen’s University Press.
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