An Introspective Analysis of a Literary Translation

Transkript

1 An Introspective Analysis of a Literary Translation An empirical study based on a translation of Geraldine O Neill s Cara Gayle Why do literary translation? Of all the forms that translation takes such as commercial, financial, technical, scientific, advertising, etc. only literary translation lets one consistently share in the creative process. Here alone does the translator experience aesthetic joys of working with great literature, of recreating in a new language a work that would otherwise remain beyond reach (Landers 2001: 4-5). By Exam No May, 2011 Aarhus School of Business Supervisor: Anne Schjoldager Number of characters:

2 Abstract This bachelor thesis is about literary translation. It is an analysis of translation problems, macrostrategies, and microstrategies. Because I enjoy the actual translation process, I decided to do my own translation and an introspective analysis. I found one of my favorite books and searched for a suitable passage. I chose the beginning of chapter 8 in Geraldine O Neill s book, Cara Gayle. The book is about an Irish woman who goes to the USA to get away from her cheating husband. She encounters many obstacles along the way but ends up finding new, true love. The book takes place in 1963 in both Ireland and the USA. I knew it would be an interesting job to translate the references specific to these places and this time period. I based my analysis on Anne Schjoldager s Four-point Model for Translation Analysis. This model is based on questions about the source text, the target text, the macrostrategy, and the microstrategies. Christiane Nord has made a model of translation problems that I also used to distinguish between the problems I encountered while I translated. The translation was done by dividing the source text into segments that would be analyzed individually. Some segments had no translation problem, while others had one or two. I was convinced that in a literary text like the one I translated, the source-text and target-text cultures and situations would be so different that it would have caused a lot more pragmatic translation problems than the ones I found. Furthermore, I did not expect direct translations to be applied as often as it did. My analysis shows that oblique translation was the microstrategy used most often. The second most used microstrategy was direct translation. I had expected to use more paraphrasing or adaptation, since these are the strategies that rephrase a segment and make it fit target-text conventions and situations. My introspective analysis shows, though, that in this specific translation situation, direct translation and oblique translation were the most appropriate microstrategies. Characters: Side 1 af 48

3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction Literary Translation The Book The Translation Method Theories Translation Problems Macrostrategies Microstrategies Introspective Analysis The Source Text The Target Text Macrostrategy Microstrategies Conclusion References Appendices Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Side 2 af 48

4 1. Introduction The English language has always been a big part of my life. I have watched many English TV shows and movies. Lately, I have begun to read novels written in English. During my time at the Aarhus School of Business, ASB, I have learned a lot about translations, but it was not until I took the elective course Understanding Translation that I really began to enjoy analyzing translations, and in particular make my own translations. At ASB, the focus has been translations of technical and legal texts, but I really enjoy literary translations because literary texts have so many wonderful facets and descriptions that can be quite problematic for the translator. I love hunting for solutions to these problems. That is why I have chosen to work with translation studies in this project report. I want to do an introspective analysis with a specific focus on translation problems, macrostrategies, and microstrategies. I want to answer the following questions: Which is the most appropriate macrostrategy for this particular translation job? What kind of translation problems did I encounter? Which microstrategies did I use to solve these problems? Was one strategy applied more often than others? Due to time and page limitations, I have chosen to translate only a short section of a novel, but I have tried to find a section that gives as many examples as possible of potential translation problems. For a couple of years now, my favorite author has been Geraldine O Neill. I was travelling in New Zealand, and, by chance, I found one of her books in a book exchange at a hostel. I read the book quicker than I have ever read any other book, and was very pleased when I discovered that the book was the first in a trilogy. Since this first book, I have bought and read six of her other books and absolutely love them. O Neill s way of describing the surroundings really captures me. All her books take place in or around Ireland in the s. Often in her books, I have come across words or phrases I have never before heard, and I have found it interesting and educational to look up unknown words. Most often, they are words that describe a phenomenon specific to Ireland or this period of time. According to the Danish database that keeps record of all publications in Denmark (bibliotek.dk), none of her books have yet been translated into Danish. That is why I thought I would give it a go. I have chosen O Neill s novel Cara Gayle from 2008, because I loved it, and because I believe it contains several interesting translation problems. This project report will start with a section that will describe and explain literary translation. Next, I will give a short summary of the book and a more detailed recount of the part I chose to translate. Then, I will discuss my method, and in the section called Theories, I will present definitions and examples of translation problems, macrostrategies, and microstrategies. Then, my introspective analysis focuses on the source text, the target text, macrostrategy and microstrategies. Last in my report is a discussion of my findings and a Side 3 af 48

5 final conclusion. Due to the page limitations, I have decided to use throughout the text the following abbreviations: source text (ST) and target text (TT). 2. Literary Translation At ASB, I have learned how to make translations of legal and technical texts, but doing a translation of a literary text is something quite different. This section of my report gives a better understanding of what literary translation really is. Literary Studies and Translation Studies are two separate academic fields. Literary translation can be seen as a category in either field of study. In the field of Translation Studies, literary translations have always been a big category on its own, though, in the field of Literary Studies, literary translations are not a widely discussed subject (Delabastita 2010: ). Perhaps it is because the literary translator tries to be as invisible as possible. Iben Hasselbalch, a professional translator of Spanish literature, looks at literary translation as a window: it should give the reader a chance to see into another world through a glass as transparent as possible. Even the finest glass will always cast a shadow, and the translator s work will always be colored by the choices s/he makes (Hasselbalch 1999: 7). Line Reeh explains in her article in Samvirke, December 2001, how a translator of literary texts has to make a choice for every single word s/he translates and it is not all about logic and analysis, it is even more about emotions and intuition. According to Ida Klitgård, literary translation is more subjective and creative than, say, technical translation (Klitgård 2008: 247). A translator should be creative in the choices s/he makes, but should, of course, as with technical translation, be sure that the ST and the TT are as similar as possible according to the intended purpose of the author. What the intended purpose of the author is can be hard to decipher, since a story often has a large number of themes. Most novels have one or two main themes but will have a huge amount of underlying themes or little issues presented in one way or another throughout the text. A main theme for a novel could be forbidden love, and the underlying themes could be as different as religion, World War II, and music. It is important that the translator sees and understands all the themes so that s/he can convey the text as was intended by the author. 3. The Book This section is just to give you a short summary of the book with which I am working. I will present a more in-depth analysis of the book in point 6.1 The Source Text. Geraldine O Neill s book Cara Gayle takes place in 1963 and is about a young Irish schoolteacher named Cara. She and her family are Catholics, and she is a teacher at a local Catholic school. Cara has been married to Oliver for seven years, but she is not happy in Side 4 af 48

6 the marriage. Oliver has been cheating on her from day one and she has just, on the day of their wedding anniversary, found out he has been cheating again. Because of her religion, and because Cara has always done what was right and what was expected of her, she stays with Oliver. Cara and Oliver live in a small Irish community where Cara s family also lives. Her parents, Maggie and Declan, own a shop where Cara s brother, Charles, and her sister, Pauline, work. Pauline has an illegitimate daughter, Bernadette, from a failed romance in England. In the summer of 1963, Cara decides to join her parents on a trip to America to take part in her cousin s wedding and to get away from Oliver. Cara and her parents are staying with Maggie s sister, Jean, and her husband, Bruce. They live in a beautiful home on the bank of Lake Savannah. On the trip to America, Cara meets Thomas, a slow kid, and his father, Jameson Carroll, who also live by the lake. Cara enjoys spending time with Thomas, and she treats him as any other child, something most people at that time would not. Cara and Jameson fall in love and spend most of Cara s time in America together. Because of her family, her religion, and her marriage, Cara is afraid to stay in America with Jameson and Thomas. It is what she really wants, but she ends up joining her parents on the home journey to Ireland - just to find Oliver cheating again. Cara finally leaves Oliver; just to find out she is pregnant with Jameson s child. Cara wrongly thinks that Jameson is back together with his ex-wife, so she does not tell him about leaving Oliver or about the pregnancy. Fortunately, through Jean, Jameson hears about Cara s pregnancy and decides to travel to Ireland to find her. Cara is very surprised when she finds Thomas and Jameson on her doorstep one day, but they all decide to move back to America to spend the rest of their lives together. 3.1 The Translation The section I have decided to translate is the first part of chapter 8. It is one of the first days of Cara and her parents visit in America. The day before, Cara, her parents, and Jean and Bruce went shopping in a nearby town. Cara was shopping by herself for a while when she was approached by a man in a purple and yellow shirt. The man started to follow her and would not leave her alone. Fortunately, Cara bumped into Thomas, whom she had met just briefly the day before, and his father, Jameson Carroll, who then helps Cara get rid of the stalker. This incidence is brought up several times during the conversations in chapter 8. First, Maggie comes to wake up Cara in her bedroom. They sit for a while and talk before they join the others for breakfast in the garden. Then, Thomas shows up and is invited to have pancakes in the kitchen. Meanwhile, Cara questions Jean about the Carroll family. Cara follows Thomas to his house while Maggie and Jean have a heart-to-heart conversation about religion, children, grandchildren, and Oliver. I chose this first part of the chapter because it includes some cultural references that would be interesting in connection with translation problems in an English-Danish translation. Side 5 af 48

7 4. Method I have chosen to do an introspective analysis based on an empirical study of a literary translation. Introspective analysis means that I will be analyzing something I have done myself, in this case my own translation. Empirical study means I will be studying collected data, in this case my analysis of the many translated segments. By choosing to do the project introspectively, I was able to translate and gain useful information and knowledge about the choices I made while I translated. I have attached my translation and analysis in Appendix C. I did this translation by writing down the ST and then dividing it into segments, each segment being approximately equivalent to a sentence. Then, I made my TT by translating each segment into Danish. After having made a few revisions concentrating only on the TT, I analyzed each segment individually, focusing on Nord s translation problems presented in 5.1, and Schjoldager s microstrategies presented in 5.3. I have chosen to present this analysis in my report in section 6. Introspective Analysis. It is based on Anne Schjoldager s Four Point Model for Translation Analysis (see Appendix A). This model is basically a list of questions about the ST, the TT, the macrostrategy, and the microstrategies. 5. Theories This section of the report is to present the theories and models I will be using in my analysis. First is Christiane Nord s categorization of translation problems. Second is a section on macrostrategies based on Anne Schjoldager s analysis questions. Third and last is a presentation of Schjoldager s taxonomy of microstrategies. 5.1 Translation Problems According to Christiane Nord, a translator can have translation difficulties if s/he lacks the skills required for a certain translation job. No matter how good a translator is, s/he will always have problems when translating from English into Danish merely because the two languages are so different (Schjoldager 2008: 174). Nord has set up a model in which she divides different translation problems into categories: pragmatic, cultural, linguistic, and text-specific translation problems. Based on the model on page 175 and the following examples given in Schjoldager s Understanding Translation, I will briefly explain the different categories of problems. Pragmatic translation problems arise because situations in the ST and the TT are different. An example could be an article published in a British newspaper with several words that are specific for the situations (e.g., our Prime minister, this country, the economy). If the article was to be published in a Danish newspaper, the translator should make sure not to translate the terms directly (i.e., vores premierminister, dette Side 6 af 48

8 land, økonomien 1 ) since these terms would refer to the Danish prime minister, Denmark and the Danish economy. The situation has changed and so should this type of reference. Cultural translation problems refer to the differences in conventions (norms) and habits (Schjoldager 2008: 175) between the ST culture and the TT culture. One particular genre is set up and written in a certain way in the ST culture but may have to be very different if the TT conventions are not the same in that specific genre. An example could be how spoken language is often contracted in English-written novels, whereas we in Denmark usually write out every word, even in a dialog. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a piece of dialog is as follows: Reg, I don t understand Let go, I m not your husband, you ve got to go home! (Rowling 2007a: 220). Whereas the dialog in Danish is spelt out: Reg, jeg forstår det ikke Slip mig, jeg er ikke din mand, du må se at komme hjem! 2 (Rowling 2007b: 234). translation problems occur because of structural differences between the source and target languages (Nord 1997: 66). This could be grammatical differences such as the use of gerunds in English and not in Danish. Text-specific translation problems are as the name indicates, specific for this one text. J.K. Rowling made up a whole new universe in the Harry Potter series and with it came new words such as Muggle, Quidditch, Animagus, and Dementor (Rowling 2007a/b). New words like these are always hard to translate because the translator has to choose either to make up new words in the target language, to keep the original term, or to make an explanation describing the meaning of the original term. On page 265 in Schjoldager s book, Ida Klitgård adds a category: the stylistic translation problems. These are problems in rendering the style in which a ST is written. A writer could choose to use figurative language and metaphors, and it is important that the translator renders these stylistic features as close to the original as possible in order to give the TT reader the same experience with the translation as the ST readers had with the original text. In this project report, though, I have decided not to use this extra translation problem, and base my analysis solely on Nord s categories. It is essential that a translator is able to identify these different translation problems so that s/he knows to be extra careful with what solution is chosen. There are many ways of solving these problems, many strategies from which to choose, these are the microstrategies I will present in section [our Prime minister, this country, the economy] 2 *Reg, I do not understand Let me go, I am not your husband, you have to go home!] Side 7 af 48

9 5.2 Macrostrategies Macro: large and concerning a whole system rather than particular parts of it (Longman 2006: 917). This definition explains very well what a macrostrategy does: a macrostrategy looks at the whole text rather than the different parts of the text (e.g., sentences and words). I have chosen to use the terminology of source-text oriented macrostrategy and target-text oriented macrostrategy, but other scholars have used a different terminology, though the basic meaning is the same. Based on Schjoldager s section 5.1 Some wellknown dichotomies (Schjoldager 2008: 68), I will give a short summary of other scholars categorization. Eugene Nida would categorize the strategies as formal equivalence or dynamic equivalence. According to Nida (Nida 1964/2000: 129), formal equivalence focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content, whereas dynamic equivalence is centered on the principle of equivalent effect. Peter Newmark uses the categorization of semantic translation and communicative translation. A semantic translation renders, as far as possible, the exact linguistic meaning of the source text, whereas a communicative translation will produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original (Newmark 1977/1989: 118). Christiane Nord has yet another approach that is quite similar. She distinguishes between a documentary translation and an instrumental translation. According to Nord, a documentary translation aims at producing a kind of document of what went on between the source-text sender and his/her (source-text) receivers; an instrumental translation aims at producing an instrument for the communication between the source-text speaker/writer and his/her target-text readers/listeners (Nord 1997: 47). Scholars seem to distinguish between two strategies that either focus on the ST form and content, or on the TT and its effect. Nida s formal equivalence, Newmark s semantic translation, and Nord s documentary translation are all what I will be calling ST oriented. While Nida s dynamic equivalence, Newmark s communicative translation, and Nord s instrumental translation have somewhat the same equivalence as a TT-oriented macrostrategy. The translator has to analyze the TT situation in depth to figure out which macrostrategy is appropriate. To help the translator best analyze the situation, Schjoldager has set up three questions (Schjoldager 2008: 71): While translating, are you expected to focus on the form and content of the source text or on the effect of the target text? Are you expected to act as a communicator of somebody else s communication or as a mediator between primary parties? Is your translation to appear as an overt translation or as a covert one? Side 8 af 48

10 Answering these questions will help the translator decide whether to choose a source-text oriented macrostrategy or a target-text oriented macrostrategy. If the translator chooses a ST-oriented strategy, the focus will be mainly on ST form and content; s/he will be communicating somebody else s communication, and s/he will be expected to do an overt translation. A TT-oriented strategy will focus on the effect of the TT, the translator will function as a mediator between two parties, and the translation will be covert. If the translator chooses to focus on the form and content of the ST, s/he will render very closely what was written in the ST. This could entail a lot of direct translation in order to keep the ST form and content. On the contrary, if the translator chooses to focus on the TT effect, s/he will have to adapt the TT to fit the TT situation so TT readers can experience the same effect as the ST readers. As a translator, you might be translating for a third party what was communicated between the addresser and the addressee, or you might work as the mediator between the addresser and the addressee. When you translate a written text for a third party about the communication that went on between the addresser and the addressee, you do it to show the TT readers what was communicated in the ST situation. In that case, the translator will have to stay close to the original text in order to render the ST situation as closely as possible. When the translator acts as a mediator between the addresser and the addressee, s/he will translate a text the addresser had intended for the TT readers. This means that s/he will have to take the target situation into account when translating. Whether a translation is overt or covert depends on the relationship between the text, the sender, and the readers. Basically, a text is overt if the readers know they are reading a translation and if the sender of the ST is a known person to the TT readers. A text is covert if readers neither know nor care that they are reading a translation, and if they do not recognize the original sender (Schjoldager 2008: 31-32). The translator might have some difficulties choosing which strategy best fits the job at hand since literary texts are not just black and white. This distinguishing of ST- and TT-oriented macrostrategies is only a guide and should be seen as a continuum where each macrostrategy is placed at the polar ends. A translation might focus on ST form and content, be overt, but be a meditation between the writer and the TT readers. This would put the translation somewhere between the two poles and make the translation both ST- and TT-oriented. 5.3 Microstrategies As I mentioned briefly in section 5.1, microstrategies are different solutions a translator can choose whenever s/he encounters a translation problem. As opposed to macrostrategies that look on the whole text, microstrategies focus on sentences and words. Many scholars, including Vinay, Darbelnet, Delabastita, and Side 9 af 48

11 Zethsen, have worked with analyses on word and sentence level. Based on and inspired by many of these scholars work, Schjoldager has made a taxonomy of microstrategies (Schjoldager 2008: 89-92) that I will be using in my analysis. The taxonomy lists 12 different approaches of how to solve translation problems (see Appendix B). I will now present and discuss all of these strategies and give examples from my own translation (see Appendix C). Direct Transfer: A translator can choose to transfer a term directly to the TT without doing any changes. Proper nouns, such as names of places and persons, and neologisms are often transferred directly to the TT. An example from my translation could be segments 18 and 19 where Cara, Jameson Carroll, and Maggie in the ST are all transferred directly to the TT. 18 For some reason, Cara found herself self-conscious about calling Jameson Carroll by his name. Af en eller anden grund følte Cara sig for genert til at kalde Jameson Carroll ved navn. 19 Maggie nodded. Maggie nikkede. Calque: A translated segment is analyzed as calque because the ST item has been translated to the TT in a way that sounds unidiomatic or foreign in the TT language. I believe that the Danish sentences 95 and 264 sound rather unidiomatic, the language does not flow the way it should. 95 Even a nice kid like Thomas. Selvom barnet er ligeså flinkt som Thomas. 264 A man likes to prove himself in that way. En mand vil jo gerne vise sig selv på den måde. Direct Translation: A translator translates the words in the ST directly. To use Schjoldager s words, direct translation is a word-for-word translation (see Appendix B). Segments 22 and 240 below are direct translations since all the words are basically translated directly from the ST to the TT. 22 Thank God you re safe, Cara I d die if anything happened to you and so would Oliver Gayle. 240 He sounds a real nice guy, and so full of life. Gudskelov du har det godt, Cara. Jeg ville dø, hvis der skete dig noget og det ville Oliver Gayle også. Han lyder til at være en rigtig flink fyr, og så fuld af liv. Side 10 af 48

12 Oblique Translation: Often, writers use special language features such as wordplays, rhymes, and proverbs in their texts, and these can be hard to understand in the target situation. Instead of translating in a wordfor-word procedure, the translator could make an oblique translation where the translation is a sense-forsense procedure. This way, wordplays and proverbs will make sense for the TT readers. Furthermore, oblique translation is a way to stay close to the ST but still make an idiomatic translation. 228 It doesn t have to be, Jean told her. 187 Oh, well beauty is as beauty does, Maggie stated. Sådan behøver det jo ikke at være, sagde Jean. Ja, men skønhed kommer indefra, konstaterede Maggie. Explicitation: Sometimes information is implicit or written between the lines because the writer knows that it is obvious to the ST readers what is meant, but, maybe in the TT situation, this information is not so obvious. In order to help the TT readers understand this implicit information, a translator can choose to explicate or explain what is meant between the lines. 46 Each person was armed with plates of pancakes and bacon strips, fresh rolls and Danish pastries. 52 Then, further down the lakeside path, a red-headed figure came running into view. Alle bar de fade med amerikanske pandekager og strimler af bacon, friskbagte boller og wienerbrød. Lidt efter, længere nede af den sti der gik hele vejen rundt om søen, kunne de skimte en rødhåret skikkelse komme løbende. Paraphrase: In Schjoldager s words, to paraphrase is to translates rather freely (see Appendix B). The ST meaning is rendered in the TT, just not in a literal or direct way. The translator is more creative in this microstrategy. 233 There s times it s hard to work out what s going on in somebody else s head. 216 A little dote but God love her, she s going to have it hard with no father. Nogle gange er det ret svært at finde ud af, hvad hun tænker. En lille engel. Men selv med Guds hjælp får hun det svært uden en far. Side 11 af 48

13 Condensation: The ST meaning is rendered in a shorter way. Words have been deleted, but the meaning remains. In some cases it is the opposite of explicitation, where implicit information is made explicit. In condensation, explicit information may be made implicit. 112 Jean motioned with her hand for Maggie to keep her voice down. 238 She has a lovely big farmhouse, and she goes short of nothing. Jean gjorde tegn til Maggie om at dæmpe sig. Hun har et dejligt stort hus, og hun mangler aldrig noget. Adaptation: More creative than paraphrasing, adaptation recreates the effect of the ST in the TT so that TT readers will be affected just as the ST readers were. This strategy is often chosen to explain terms that are specific to the ST culture and would, therefore, be unknown in the TT culture. 133 Thomas is very fond of his food, and he doesn t exactly look as though he s fading off the face of the earth, now does he? Thomas kan rigtig godt lide hans mad, og han ligner jo ikke just en, der er ved at svinde ind, gør han? 148 He s a good six-footer. Han er næsten to meter høj. Addition: The translator needs to be careful when using this microstrategy since it adds new meaning to a sentence. In explicitation something is explained, whereas something is added in addition. It is problematic, if the translator infers something that the ST writer did not intend. 37 Cara continued to drink her tea. Cara drak sin te uden at sige noget. 51 Half an hour later, everyone sat full and contented, chatting and looking out over the shimmering lake. En halv time senere sad de alle mætte og tilfredse og snakkede, mens de nød udsigten ud over den glitrende sø. Substitution: A translator can choose to change the meaning of the ST if s/he finds it necessary in order for the TT readers to experience the same effect. If the meaning is changed considerably, the microstrategy is that of substitution. 267 Have you any reason to feel that way about him? Jean asked, realizing she was treading on delicate ground. Jean var klar over, at hun skulle være forsigtig med at udspørge Maggie yderligere, men kunne ikke lade være. Har du nogen grund til at tro, at han bliver det? Side 12 af 48

14 Deletion: When using condensation, the translator translates the ST in a shorter way but still renders the meaning. When the translator uses deletion s/he deletes some of the meaning. The translator should be cautious when using this microstrategy since it does entail a change in what the ST writer intended to say. 32 This holiday, Maggie went on, her curled head nodding earnestly, might be the making of ye both. 49 Cara shook her head, and concentrated on climbing down the wooden steps to the lower part of the garden. Denne ferie, fortsatte Maggie, mens hun nikkede alvorligt, er nok god for jer begge. Cara rystede på hovedet og koncentrerede sig om at gå ned ad trappen til den lavereliggende del af haven. Permutation: The translator decides that a TT will be more idiomatic or will render the ST effect better, if a unit of meaning is translated in a different place in the sentence or text. 80 Her first time making them, and they re the best I ve ever eaten in America. 244 Then, she bent down to smell a rose bush. 245 She picked one of the flowers and twiddled it around in her hands. Det er første gang hun laver dem, men det er de bedste amerikanske pandekager, jeg nogensinde har smagt. Hun bøjede sig ned for at dufte til en rosenbusk. Derefter plukkede hun en af blomsterne og legede lidt med den i hånden. Sometimes, it is hard to decide which microstrategy was applied in the different segments, and often the translator applied more than one strategy to a given segment. Segment 32 is both deletion (Maggie s curled head, and the use of a dialect in ye) and oblique translation when the making of ye both was translated into god for jer begge This holiday, Maggie went on, her curled head nodding earnestly, might be the making of ye both. Denne ferie, fortsatte Maggie, mens hun nikkede alvorligt, er nok god for jer begge. So, one segment can be analyzed as being the product of more than one strategy. In my analysis I might focus on one strategy, while others might focus on a different problem or strategy. 3 [good for you both] Side 13 af 48

15 6. Introspective Analysis In Appendix C, I have presented my translation and my analysis in a rather segmented and divided form. Contrary to Appendix C, this section will present the analysis by answering the research questions outlined in Appendix A. These questions are based on Anne Schjoldager s Four Point Model for Translation Analysis, which was mainly intended for technical and legal texts, but I have made a revised line of research questions which I find interesting in connection with literary translation (see appendix A). The main point in 6.1 is to analyze the ST so that the translator will have the best possible starting point for the translating job at hand. Section 6.2 analyzes the TT situation. Then, section 6.3 will discuss the most appropriate macrostrategy, and section 6.4 will discuss translation problems and microstrategies that were actually found during the analysis (also presented in Appendix C). 6.1 The Source Text In order to make a good translation, a translator must know as much as possible about the ST s/he is translating. S/he must know the author s intentions with the original text so that s/he better can render this to the TT readers. By answering the four questions below, I hope to get a better understanding of the ST and the situation for which it was intended. What is the communicative situation? The sender of the ST is Geraldine O Neill the author of the book. She has undoubtedly had an editor and a publisher that reviewed the book and suggested corrections and changes, but the overall text is O Neill s. When she wrote the book, she must have had a special reader group in mind. I believe the typical reader of an O Neill book is a romantic female with a liking of novels describing old times. The age of the typical reader is harder to determine since I think the reader can be anyone from in her late teens to ninety years old. Cara Gayle is about family life, travelling, parents, love, and, not least, life a teen as well as a ninety year old would be able to identify with these subjects. Cara Gayle was published in 2008 as a paperback novel. What is the communicative purpose of the text? There could be many reasons for an author to choose to write a certain book. I believe that some of O Neill s reasons for writing Cara Gayle were to entertain her readers, to tell a good story she had been making up in her imagination, and, perhaps, to teach the younger generation about Ireland, America, family life, and religion in the 1960 s. For older readers, it might be a welcoming retrospect of their own life back then. Side 14 af 48

16 What is the genre? Cara Gayle is a 518-page paperback. It is a story, in chronological order, about a series of events happening to several made-up characters. The Longman Exam Dictionary defines a novel as: a long written story in which the characters and events are usually imaginary. This all fits to Cara Gayle. A closer look will reveal that the main theme of the book is love, and I would then characterize the book as a romantic novel. Why is this text interesting in connection with translation? The text is interesting in connection with translation for several reasons. Firstly, the book received good reviews when it was published in the original language. The romantic storyline is something with which all women, English or Danish, would be able to identify, so, I believe that a Danish publishing company would be able to make a profit on the book in Denmark. Secondly, the book would be interesting for a translator as well, since it has several references that are either culturally or historically related. This makes it a challenge for the translator since these terms are often hard to translate into another language and culture. Thirdly, the book would be interesting for Danish readers, since it will give them a chance to experience how the American and Irish societies were back in the 1960 s. The book was first published as a small, but rather thick, paperback novel. By using the paperback format, the publisher took into account that many people like to read while travelling. Preferably, the Danish publishers should remember and copy this when publishing the novel in Denmark. The translator should be aware of the different purposes the author might have intended. The translator needs to render all of these underlying themes, as I mentioned in section 2 about literary translation. The genre should, of course, not change. Maybe translators could look at other romantic novels so that the specific features of that particular genre could be rendered as would be appropriate by TT conventions. Furthermore, the translator will need to have some knowledge of Irish and American cultures and have knowledge about this time period. The book takes place in 1963, and this is reflected in the way they speak. It is important that the translator keeps this tone and writes the Danish version in a similar old-fashioned tone. The translator should also focus on terms that are culturally specific for the ST country. The translator has to make sure that these terms would be understood by the TT readers. Otherwise, s/he needs to make an explanation, rephrase, or maybe even delete these terms. It is up to the translator to decide what solution best fits the specific translation problem. 6.2 The Target Text The translator s end product is the TT. This TT is the final destination of a long process of analyzing and selecting. In order to be able to select the best possible solutions, the translator must know as much as possible about the TT. To make the translation job as real-life as possible, I have decided to pretend that I Side 15 af 48

17 am a professional translator who has been asked by a publishing company to translate Cara Gayle, an English written novel, into Danish. The novel is to hit the Danish market in a year as a paperback novel. What is the purpose of the translation? The purpose of doing this translation is to give the Danish readers of romantic novels the chance to read a book that has been a success in Great Britain and is seen by the Danish publishing company as having the potential of making a profit. The commissioner of the translation is the Danish publishing company that will make a profit if the book sells in Denmark, and will be the company that pays me for the job I have done. Who is the translator? In this case, the translator is a professional translator, doing translations for a living. I was asked to do the job because I have the relevant education, experience in translating romantic novels, and special knowledge about America and Ireland. It is important that the person the publishing company hires is someone who does the job with a minimum of mistake since this will save them time and money in the revision process. I will be paid by the publisher, either per page, per character, or per hour. Who are the intended target-text readers? The TT readers are the people who buy the Danish book. This will most likely be the same type of person who would buy the book in its original language: women age 16-90, cf Most of the women in this age group will have at least a minimum of English proficiency and will understand everything, even though proper nouns (e.g., names of people and places) are not translated. Besides having the potential of earning the publishing company some money, the TT will need to have the same purpose as the ST, namely, to entertain and teach about Ireland, America, and the 1960 s. The translator should, therefore, make sure to have or acquire some knowledge of these subjects. Danish readers will know from the cover or from the title page of the book, and from the directly transferred proper nouns, that they are about to read a translation. This will normally call for an overt translation, but I will elaborate further on this in the next section about the macrostrategy. 6.3 Macrostrategy As I have mentioned in section 5.2, a macrostrategy is an overall approach the translator has chosen for his or her translation. I will build on the imaginary story about me being a professional translator commissioned by a Danish publishing company. I will answer the questions mentioned in section 5.2 about the focus, the role of the translator, and whether the translation is overt or covert. Side 16 af 48

18 Should the translator focus on the source-text form and content or on the target-text effect? Some readers might have heard about O Neill, and they will want to know what was on her mind when she wrote this particular book. Since none of O Neill s novels have yet been published in Denmark, I do not believe this is the case. For most TT readers, O Neill will be an unknown author, and they will want to experience the universe in her story; they will want to experience the same effect as the ST readers did while they were reading the original text. That is why I believe that the translator should focus more on the TT effect than on the specific form and content of the ST. The translator should of course make sure to also focus on getting O Neill s content across so that it is basically the same content the readers will read, whether it being in English or Danish. Should the translator be communicating somebody else s communication or be the mediator between the source-text sender and the target-text receivers? According to my answer above, TT readers want to experience the same effect as the one the ST readers experienced. This would make the translator a communicator of somebody else s communication, namely that of O Neill s communication to her English readers. I do believe, though, that in this case, the translator could be a mediator between O Neill and the TT readers. I analyzed O Neill s purpose as being that of entertaining and teaching about Ireland, America, and the 1960 s; she might want to communicate this to the Danish audience as well. O Neill is still alive and active as a writer; the translator could contact her and ask for advice about the cultural terms, the style in which the story is written, and about names and places and their significance. That way, the translator is a mediator between O Neill and her Danish fans. Should the translation be overt or covert? As I mentioned in section 5.2, the definition of overt and covert are basically whether or not the readers of the TT are aware that they are reading a translation. In this case, the readers are aware, because on the cover or on the title page it will be noted who the translator is. Another indicator of the fact that they are reading a translation could be that the names of people and places are not usual in the TT language. This all calls for an overt translation, but I do not really believe that the readers will care whether the text is a translation. They will want the same experience and the same feelings after they finish the book as the ST readers had. If the readers/listeners are unaware or do not care that they are reading/listening to a translation (Schjoldager 2008: 31), it will call for a covert translation. If both of these viewpoints should be taken into account, the translation should be both overt and covert. I do believe, though, that the translation should be a bit more covert than overt, since the readers will not care about the fact that they are reading a translation. Side 17 af 48

19 Based on the analysis so far, is the appropriate macrostrategy source-text oriented or targettext oriented? I believe that the translator should focus mainly on the TT effect, act as a mediator between O Neill and her Danish readers, and render a translation that is slightly more covert than overt. As defined in 5.2 about macrostrategies, this calls for a target-text oriented macrostrategy. The translator should still have the form and content of the ST in mind, and should be aware that the TT readers will know they are reading a translation, but I do believe that a TT oriented macrostrategy would be appropriate when translating Cara Gayle from English into Danish. 6.4 Microstrategies As mentioned earlier, microstrategies are possible solutions to the different translation problems the translator might encounter. In order to give a better outlook on the microstrategies I chose in my translation, I will answer the questions presented in Appendix A. Since microstrategies are primarily interesting as solutions to translation problems, I am going to base this section solely on the segments in which I discovered a translation problem. So, for each interesting translation problem, I will answer the following questions: Which microstrategies could be used to solve the problem? Which microstrategy was used in this particular segment? Why was this microstrategy appropriate? Pragmatic translation problems I have found four examples of pragmatic translation problems in my text. These problems occur because of differences in the source and target situations (Nord 1997: 65). Microstrategies that I would find appropriate include oblique translation, adaptation, and paraphrasing because these microstrategies rephrase the ST so that the TT readers will understand better. Explicitation could also be used to make implicit information explicit and give TT readers a better understanding. If none of these solutions are adequate, the translator could choose to use deletion where the problematic ST item is not translated at all. For each of the pragmatic translation problems in my translation, I have chosen a different microstrategy. The English word Yanks is a term often used in a negative way about Americans. In segment 9, I chose to translate this in a direct way and just translate it with the Danish word for American. Though, by doing this, I omit the negative connotation. I did add jo 4 in the TT which I believe in some ways connotes a negativity, but not in quite the same extent as Yanks does in English. I believe this was an appropriate microstrategy, since only a small part of the meaning is left out. 9 You know the Yanks. Du kender jo amerikanerne. Pragmatic /Deletion 4 [You do know the Americans] Side 18 af 48

20 In segment 46, I decided that the Danish word pandekager 5 is not quite equivalent to the English, or in this case American, word for pancakes. That is why I chose to use explicitation and explain to the TT reader what kind of pancakes they were carrying. The rest of the sentence is translated using oblique translation, rendering the sense of what was written in the ST. 46 Each person was armed with plates of pancakes and bacon strips, fresh rolls and Danish pastries. Alle bar de fade med amerikanske pandekager og strimler af bacon, friskbagte boller og wienerbrød. Pragmatic Explicitation/ As with segment 46, pandekager 6 is just not the same as the American pancakes to which they are referring in the story. In segment 80, I chose to translate in an oblique way and make the part about eating them in America into an adjective that explains what kind of pancakes they are. Translating something in a different place is categorized as permutation. 80 Her first time making them, and they re the best I ve ever eaten in America. Det er første gang hun laver dem, men det er de bedste amerikanske pandekager, jeg nogensinde har smagt. /Pragmatic / Permutation In Denmark, we use meters not feet when referring to a person s height. To make the Danish readers understand, I had to adapt the text for the TT situation. I converted the feet to an approximate equivalent, namely two meters. Applying this microstrategy makes it easier for the TT readers to understand. 148 He s a good six-footer. Han er næsten to meter høj. Pragmatic Adaptation In these examples, all the ST and TT situations are considerably different. Even though they are, however, similar in problem, the solutions are very different. I chose deletion, explicitation, permutation, oblique translation, and adaptation. By choosing as I did, I attempted to help TT readers experience the same effect of the text as the ST readers did. Cultural translation problems I have 19 examples of cultural translation problems in my translation. These problems occur because of differences between source-culture conventions (norms) and habits and those of the target culture (Nord 1997: 66). I believe, as with pragmatic translation problems, that oblique translation, paraphrase, and ad- 5 [pancakes] 6 [pancakes] Side 19 af 48

21 aptation are appropriate microstrategies because they rephrase the ST in a way that better fits with TT conventions. Permutation could be appropriate if the specific ST item could be moved and translated in another sentence or section of the TT. Two of the nineteen cultural translation problems are because of very short sentences. I decided that the Danish sentence was too staccato; the sentences were cut short, so I decided to combine them with the previous sentences. The rest of the cultural translation problems are problematic because of the use of the dash. In English, the dash is most often used to separate an embedded comment or explanation from the rest of the clause (Andersen 2006: 216). In my translation I found it unidiomatic to keep the dash in the TT. In the two examples below, segment and 86-87, I have analyzed the microstrategy as condensation, since I translate the ST in a rather shorter way when removing the full stop. I believe this microstrategy was appropriate because the TT otherwise would have been harder to read. It might have been a stylistic feature the author thought fit, but I, as the translator, did not feel the TT was living up to TT norms. 65 Then, satisfied with his impact, Thomas sat down heavily in one of the empty deckchairs. Da Thomas var tilfreds med deres reaktion, satte han sig tungt ned i en af de tomme liggestole 66 He turned to Cara. og vendte sig mod Cara. Cultural Condensation 86 What do you think, she said, about me going over to see Thomas medals? Hvad synes du om, at jeg går over og ser Thomas medaljer? spurgte hun 87 She pulled a face. og skar en grimasse. Cultural Condensation In 12 segments, I used oblique translation to solve the problems. In 4 segments, (including segment 149) I inserted a comma. In 7 segments, (including 229) I inserted a full stop. In 1 segment, (segment 157) I did not add any new form for punctuation but wrote out the sentence in words. 149 Yes but so was the weird fellow! Cara said. 229 The thoughts in your own head can be the same wherever you are it s up to you. 157 Those pancakes swell! he said. Ja, men det var den ubehagelige mand også! sagde Cara. De tanker du har i dit hoved, kan være de samme, uanset hvor i verden du er. Det er helt op til dig selv. De pandekager var perfekte! sagde han. Cultural Cultural Cultural Side 20 af 48