Welcome to this week's ToP. Today we will talk about Translation:
In his book Sur la Traduction (2004), Paul Ricoeur discusses what he calls the "impossible relationship" between different languages. Contrary to what common sense may imply, however, every single aspect of every language in the world may be translated, in one way or another, even if the translator needs a whole page to translate a single word (the American translator of Grande Sertão: Veredas, a masterpiece of Brazilian Literature written by Guimarãens Rosa, wrote a 10-page long Preface about the concept of "sertão").
However, there are instances in which the translator has to stop for (quite) a while and do a brainstorming in order to find an acceptable solution for a given "translation trap". Many authors call these traps "Untranslatabilities".
I usually categorize untranslatabilities as such:
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Untranslatabilities
1. Linguistic
1.1. Syntactic
1.2. Lexical
1.3. Phonetic
2. Cultural
3. Circumstantial
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Let's see some examples:
1. Linguistic Untranslatability
1.1. Syntactic
"Make poverty history."
In order to translate this, especially to a non-Germanic language, the translator would have to restructure the word order, adding connectives. In Brazilian Portuguese, for instance, a translation option would be "Faça da pobreza uma coisa do passado."
1.2. Lexical
Every language has certain words that express idiosyncratic meanings, many of which may be found only in one given language.
"My mother moonlights as a nurse."
English is a particularly good language for lexical untranslatabilities because, in theory, every noun may be turned into a verb without any morphological marks.
1.3. Phonetic
This is the main problem a translator faces when translating classic poetry, because not only the meanings must be kept, but also the music/rhymes/rhythm of the text.
Observe this dialogue between a little girl and her father:
Little girl: "Let's see Bambi!"
Father: "No, dear."
Little girl: "Come one!"
Father: "I said no deer!"
2. Cultural Untranslatability
As language is an inseparable part of a community's culture, it always has a way of expressing cultural elements that are specific to that community.
In many Germanic languages, when you say "My family has come to the party.", you mean "father, mother, sister and brother". When you say the same thing in Brazilian Portuguese, it may imply that you've brought your father, mother, sister, brother, uncles and aunts, cousins, in-laws and perhaps the family dog, cat and parrot.
In some countries, families throw a party when their girl turns 16, the so-called "Sweet Sixteen". In many other countries, this is done when the girl turns 15.
In Brazil, a famous brand of household appliances, Brastemp, has become a synonym for "a high-quality product", although its usage has become somewhat obsolete nowadays. Thus, Brazilians might say "Comprei um carro novo. Não é uma Brastemp, mas quebra o galho." ("I've just bought a new car. It's not a Brastemp, but it works.")
3. Circumstantial Untranslatability
This is perhaps the hardest of all types of translation traps, because it has to do with the circumstance in which the speech act or text was uttered/written.
In an episode of "That 70's Show", there is a scene in which we see a mechanic workshop with a sign that says "Trade your used muffler". Then, a group of teenagers show up and one of them sprays the letters "LER", covering them in black graffiti. Now, how would you reconstruct this situation in another language?
Another classic example is "There is no I in team".
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It is certainly not easy to be a translator. Apart from the usual intrinsic difficulties to correctly use translation procedures, due to obvious discrepancies between the two linguistic systems, they are also faced with such frigging traps.
If you have additional examples of any of these untranslatabilities, I'd be glad to know.
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