Here are some examples of borrowing from the source text to the target text: 1. Baseball, skiff, Gulf stream, sheet, shark Factory, block and tackle, guano The translator directly borrowed these English words and terms instead of translating them into Urdu. 2. Calque: No clear examples of calque found. 3. Literal translation: Many parts of the source text seem to have been translated literally word-for-word into Urdu, such as descriptions of objects and actions. For example: "It made the boy sad... and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was

1. International Islamic University
Islamabad
Project work of Translation Studies
Submitted to: Dr. Nighat shakoor
Submitted by: Ayesha Sulaiman
Afsheen Akram
Mufeeza Rauf
Mehreen Shahzadi
Class: M.A (section A)
Dated: 28th
, May 2013

2. Translation Studies:
Translation studies is an interdisciplinary subject; containing elements of social science and the
humanities, dealing with the systematic study of the theory, the description and the application of
translation, interpreting, or both.
Translation typically has been used to transfer written or spoken SL texts to equivalent written or
spoken TL texts. In general, the purpose of translation is to reproduce various kinds of texts—
including religious, scientific, philosophical, and in this study, literary texts—in another
language and thus making them available to wider readers.
If language were just a classification for a set of general or universal concepts, it would be easy
to translate from an SL to a TL; furthermore, under the circumstances the process of learning an
L2 would be much easier than it actually is. In this regard, Culler (1976) believes that languages
are not nomenclatures and the concepts of one language may differ radically from those of
another, since each language articulates or organizes the world differently, and languages do not
simply name categories; they articulate their own. The conclusion likely to be drawn from what
Culler (1976) writes is that one of the troublesome problems of translation is the disparity among
languages. The bigger the gap between the SL and the TL, the more difficult the transfer of
message from the former to the latter will be.
This study is going to concentrate mainly on the problematic factors involved in translation
existing in the Urdu translations of The old man and the sea and to correlate these factors with
the translation procedures proposed by Roman Jacobson and Vinay and Darbelnet.
Historically, translation studies has long been normative (telling translators how to translate), to
the point that discussions of translation that were not normative were generally not considered to
be about translation at all. When historians of translation studies have traced early thinking about
translation, for example, they have most often set the beginning with Cicero's remarks on how he
used translation from Greek to Latin to improve his oratorical abilities as an early description of
what Jerome ended up calling sense-for-sense translation. The descriptive history of interpreters
in Egypt provided by Herodotus several centuries earlier is typically not thought of as
"translation studies" presumably because it doesn't tell translators how to translate.

3. As an interdisciplinary, translation studies borrows much from the different fields of study that
support translation. These include comparative literature, computer
science, history, linguistics,philology, philosophy, semiotics, terminology, and so forth.
Occasionally in English, writers will use the term translatology to refer to translation studies.
However, the term translation studies have become implanted in English, whereas in French, it
is la traductologie that is used.
Statement
To identify whether the translator (Ibn e Saleem) has followed the theories of translation
proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet and Roman Jakobson in his work while translating The Old
Man And the Sea .
Text selected:
Source Text: (Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway)
Target Text: (Old Man and the Sea Translated By Ibn e Saleem)
Target text is the text of the translated document and the target language is the language
into which the source text is to be translated.
Source text is the text that is to be translated and the source language is the language
from which the source text is to be translated
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
The Old Man and the Sea is the story of an epic struggle between an old, seasoned fisherman and
the greatest catch of his life. For eighty-four days, Santiago, an aged Cuban fisherman, has set
out to sea and returned empty-handed. So conspicuously unlucky is he that the parents of his
young, devoted apprentice and friend, Manolin, have forced the boy to leave the old man in order
to fish in a more prosperous boat. Nevertheless, the boy continues to care for the old man upon
his return each night. He helps the old man tote his gear to his ramshackle hut, secures food for
him, and discusses the latest developments in American baseball, especially the trials of the old
man‘s hero, Joe DiMaggio. Santiago is confident that his unproductive streak will soon come to
an end, and he resolves to sail out farther than usual the following day.

4. On the eighty-fifth day of his unlucky streak, Santiago does as promised, sailing his skiff far
beyond the island‘s shallow coastal waters and venturing into the Gulf Stream. He prepares his
lines and drops them. At noon, a big fish, which he knows is a marlin, takes the bait that
Santiago has placed one hundred fathoms deep in the waters. The old man expertly hooks the
fish, but he cannot pull it in. Instead, the fish begins to pull the boat.
Unable to tie the line fast to the boat for fear the fish would snap a taut line, the old man bears
the strain of the line with his shoulders, back, and hands, ready to give slack should the marlin
make a run. The fish pulls the boat all through the day, through the night, through another day,
and through another night. It swims steadily northwest until at last it tires and swims east with
the current. The entire time, Santiago endures constant pain from the fishing line. Whenever the
fish lunges, leaps, or makes a dash for freedom, the cord cuts Santiago badly. Although wounded
and weary, the old man feels a deep empathy and admiration for the marlin, his brother in
suffering, strength, and resolve.
On the third day the fish tires, and Santiago, sleep-deprived, aching, and nearly delirious,
manages to pull the marlin in close enough to kill it with a harpoon thrust. Dead beside the skiff,
the marlin is the largest Santiago has ever seen. He lashes it to his boat, raises the small mast,
and sets sail for home. While Santiago is excited by the price that the marlin will bring at market,
he is more concerned that the people who will eat the fish are unworthy of its greatness.
As Santiago sails on with the fish, the marlin‘s blood leaves a trail in the water and attracts
sharks. The first to attack is a great mako shark, which Santiago manages to slay with the
harpoon. In the struggle, the old man loses the harpoon and lengths of valuable rope, which
leaves him vulnerable to other shark attacks. The old man fights off the successive vicious
predators as best he can, stabbing at them with a crude spear he makes by lashing a knife to an
oar, and even clubbing them with the boat‘s tiller. Although he kills several sharks, more and
more appear, and by the time night falls, Santiago‘s continued fight against the scavengers is
useless. They devour the marlin‘s precious meat, leaving only skeleton, head, and tail. Santiago
chastises himself for going ―out too far,‖ and for sacrificing his great and worthy opponent. He
arrives home before daybreak, stumbles back to his shack, and sleeps very deeply.
The next morning, a crowd of amazed fishermen gathers around the skeletal carcass of the fish,
which is still lashed to the boat. Knowing nothing of the old man‘s struggle, tourists at a nearby

5. café observe the remains of the giant marlin and mistake it for a shark. Manolin, who has been
worried sick over the old man‘s absence, is moved to tears when he finds Santiago safe in his
bed. The boy fetches the old man some coffee and the daily papers with the baseball scores, and
watches him sleep. When the old man wakes, the two agree to fish as partners once more. The
old man returns to sleep and dreams his usual dream of lions at play on the beaches of Africa.
About the Target Text:
The Old Man and the Sea is translated by Ibn e Saleem with the book name Borha Aur
Samandar. This book was published in 2012 by Fiction House Publisher in Lahore.
Role of Translator:
The need for professional translators is growing rapidly. Every multinational company and
organization uses translation services, and many companies now have translators on staff. The
role of Translator is always a subject of contradiction and complication. A translator has to
perform a herculean task; he has to be competent in two languages. A translator occupies central
position between source text and target text, this role makes him a mediator; he is not only
mediating between two languages but also mediating between two cultures. Mediation is a
sensitive activity and a complex issue, which translator performs. He tries to overcome the
compatibilities and disparities between the two cultures. When he tries to alter the original text to
convey meaning, he acts as a reconcilator. Translator‘s role as a reconcilator is to bridge the
religious gaps as well. Every translator has to perform three important tasks:
Semiotic
Pragmatics
Communicative competence
Another important role performed by the translator is the creativity of the translator which is
linked to the translation of literary texts. Less amount of creativity is found in a translator‘s work
when he is translating a non literary text i.e. scientific text; because in scientific texts a
translator‘s personal interpretation is not involved.
Three key roles of professional Translators:

6. In Communication: It is a basic instinct of man to communicate. And to communicate only
means that the original message will be clearly sent in its equivalent context to the target
audience. The main role of translators is to send the message across without any form of
distortion or emphasis. That‘s why it is an imperative that only professional translators handle
the sending process.
Also, maintaining and building good relationships is an essential to an individual‘s healthy
living. Communication is vital to maintaining and creating those relationships. But how can one
build or sustain a sound relationship across the world if there‘s lack of understanding to one
another. With professional translators it is possible.
The main job of translators is simple – provide an effective means of communication. Efficient
communication is not only to translate an original text by word-per-word basis. It‘s delivering
the genuine context of the message to the language that the target person understands.
This task of professional translators is not a piece of cake as it demands nothing less than
accuracy. A single mistake in context translation can result to offensive message that can
eventually lead to misunderstandings between people.
With full content management, skilled translators take care of every single detail of the
translation process, no matter how big or small. Professional language translation services make
the client feel confident that every word reads and sounds locally correct. Accurate content and
context are keys to quality communication.
In Growth and Development: Growth and development can be achieved through fair trading or
exchange of knowledge and resources. In business, not only that it is essential to understand the
culture of the target clients but to communicate efficiently using their local language. This is
another key role of professional translators.
Universal growth of any business requires employing not less than professional translation
services to convert a single message to almost all languages in the world. The more languages a
single message can be translated, the higher the possibility to reach diverse people. It is only
when there‘s freedom in exchanging goods and skills that global progress can be attained. And
nothing can aid in this better than professional translators.
Culture Sharing: In able to appreciate, promote or share culture across continents, it is
important that to have an in-depth understanding of it. Again, with the help of skilled translators,
it is feasible. The best manifestation of this role of translators is seen on beauty pageants.

7. Candidates can freely promote their culture to the international scene but the job of professional
translators can‘t be taken for granted. Without them, culture promotion will remain unshared and
uncultivated. Events that encourage culture sharing are quite impossible, if not chaotic.
Translating is a complex task that demands expertise. It offers three indispensable functions that
man constantly needs. With such great and crucial responsibility only professional translators
have the ability to carry out the tasks.
Translation Theories:
Vinay and Darbelnet’s Translation Model:
Vinay and Darbelnet carried out a comparative stylistic analysis of French and English. They looked at
the text in both languages, noticing differences between the languages and identifying different translation
strategies and ‗procedures‘.
The two general translation strategies identified by Vinay and Darbelnette are Direct (literal)
Translation, and Oblique Translation. The two strategies comprise seven Procedures, of which
direct translation covers these three:
1) Literal translation: It is also called word-for-word translation. Literal translation is the
Author‘s prescription for a good translation ‗literalness should only be sacriced because
of structural and metalinguistic requirements and only after checking that the meaning is
fully preserve‘. But Vinay and Darbelnet say, the translator may judge literal translation
to be unexceptable because it
Gives a different meaning
Has no meaning
Is impossible for structural reasons
Does not have a corresponding expression within the metalinguistic experience of the TL.
Correspond to something at a different level of language.
2) Calque, where the SL expression is literally transferred to the TL. It‘s a special kind of
borrowing. Vinay and Darbelnet note that both borrowing and calque often become fully
integrated in to the TL. Although, sometimes with some semantic change, which can turn them
in to false friends.

8. 3) Borrowing: The SL word is transferred directly into the TL.
Oblique (free) translation covers four strategies:
4) Transposition: Interchange of parts of speech that don‘t affect the meaning, a noun phrase for
a verb phrase.
5) Modulation: This changes the semantics and also reverses the point of view of the SL.
6) Equivalence: Same meaning conveyed by a different expression, which is most useful for
proverbs and idioms.
7) Adaptation: Cultural references may need to be altered to become relevant
Roman Jacobson’s Translation Theory:
Robinson writes that for some translators ―the entire purpose of translation is achieving
equivalence. The target text must match the source text as fully as possible‖. Linguistic meaning
and equivalence are the key issues for the Russian structuralist Roman Jakobson who, in his
1959 work On Linguistic Works of Translation, states that there are 3 types of translation:
1) Intralingual: rewording or paraphrasing, summarizing, expanding or commenting within a
language
2) Interlingual: the traditional concept of translation from ST to TT or the ―shifting of meaning
from one language to another‖.
3) Intersemiotic: the changing of a written text in to different forms.
For Jakobson, meaning and equivalence are linked to the interlingual form of translation, which
―involves two equivalent messages in two different codes‖
He considers Saussure‘s ideas of the arbitrariness of the signifier (name) for the signified (object
or concept) and how this equivalence can be transferred between different languages. He
expands on Saussure‘s work in that he considers that concepts may be transferred by rewording,
without, however, attaining full equivalence. His theory is linked to grammatical and lexical
differences between languages, as well as to the field of semantics.

9. For Jacobson cross linguistic differences occur at three levels:
Level of gender
Level of aspect
Level of semantic field
It can be concluded that Jacobson‘s theory is essentially based on his semiotic approach to
translation according to which the translator has to recode the ST message first and then he has
to transmit it into an equivalent message for the TT.
Application of translation theories on the TT:
Application of Vinay and Darbelnet’s Model
The two general translation strategies identified by Vinay and Darbelnet are Direct Translation,
and Oblique Translation. The two strategies comprise seven Procedures, of which direct
translation covers these three:
1. Borrowing
2. Calque
3. Literal Translation
Findings:
1. Borrowing:
Source Text Target text
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff, in the
Gulf stream and he had gone eighty four days
now without taking a fish. P.3

10. Go and play baseball. P.5
The old man leaned the mast with its wrapped sail
They sat on the terrace and many of the fishermen
made fun of the old man and he was not angry. P.4
They waited for the ice truck to carry them to the
market in Havana. P.4
It made the boy sad… and he always went down to
help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and
harpoon and the sail that was furled around the
mast. P.3
One sheet. That’s two dollars and a half. P.9
Those who had caught sharks had taken them to the
shark Factory on the other side of the cove where
they were hoisted on a block and tackle, their livers
removed, their fins cut off and their hides skinned
out and their flesh cut in to strips for salting. P.4

11. against the wall and the boy put the box and the
other gear beside it. P.7
“Eighty-five is a lucky number”, the old man said. P.8
The shack was made of the tough budsheilds of the
royal palm which are called guano and in it there was
a bed, a table, one chair, and a place on the dirt floor
to cook with charcoal. P.7
What about the eighty-seven of your great record?
P.9
In the above examples the word gulf stream( ), truck( ), terrace( ),
harpoon( ), sheet( ), shark factory( ),baseball( ), box(
), number( ), table( ) and record( ) are borrowed as it is in Urdu.
2. Calque:
Those who had sharks had taken them to the
shark factory on the other side of the cove where
they were hoisted on a block…for salting. P.4
― keep warm old man,‖the boy said. ―Remember
we are in September‖. P.9

12. But this is in bottles, Hatuey beer, and I take
back the bottles. P.11
In the above examples, the words sharks( ), September( )and
bottles( ) are calque which means that it is also a kind of borrowing but with a little
change in its form.
3. Literal Translation:
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff, in
the Gulf stream and he had gone eighty four
days now without taking a fish. P .9
Everything about him was old except his eyes
and they were the same color as the sea and
were cheerful and undefeated. P.3
The old man looked at him with his sun-
burned, confidant, loving eyes. P.5
In the above example, we have found word for word translation at word level, e.g old man

13. ( ), cheerful( ), undefeated ( )and sun-burned( ).
In those cases where Literal translation is not possible, Vinay and Darbelnet say that the strategy
of Oblique translation must be used. This cover further four procedures:
4. Transposition
5. Modulation
6. Equivalence
7. Adaptation
4. Transposition:
In the first example in ST ―passed is verb while in TT ( ) is used as verb. In the second
example in ST ― anchored‖ is used as a verb while in TT ( ) is a verb.
5. Modulation:
Then he passed the line a little lower on his
shoulders and braced his left hand on it. P. 49
He rested his chin on the wood of the bows
where the ship lay anchored with the evening
off-shore breeze and he waited to see if there
would be more lions and he was happy. P. 49

14. In the above example the word never is used in negative connotation while in the word
( ) is used .In the second example, for needless temptation the sentence
( ) is used which is positive in meaning.
6. Adaptation:
―It was papa made me leave. I am a boy and I
must obey him‖. P.4
On the brown walls of the flattened,
overlapping leaves of the sturdy fibered
guvano there was a picture in color of the
He was sorry for the birds, especially the
small delicate dark terns that were always
flying and looking and almost never
finding, and he thought, the birds have a
harder life then we do except for the robber
birds and the heavy strong ones. P.17
No one would steal from the old man but it
was better to take the sail and the heavy
lines home as the dew was bad for them
and, though he was quite sure no local
people would steal from him, the old man
thought that a gaff and a harpoon were
needless temptations to leave in a boat. P .7

15. Sacred Heart of Jesus and another of the Virgin
of Cobra. P.7
―Wake up old man‖, the boy said and put his
hand on one of the old man‘s knees. P.10
―I have not wished to open the container until
you were ready.‖ P.11
―Black beans and rice, fried bananas and some
stew.‖ P.10
―He will take it‖, the old man said aloud.
―God help him to take it‖. P.25
―Que‘va,‖ The boy said. P.13
He lived along that coast now every night and
in his dreams he heard the surf roars and saw
the native boats come riding through it. P.14
The boy was asleep on a cot in the first room
and the old man could see him clearly with the

16. In the above examples, the words papa, Jesus, old man, container, stew, God,
que‘va, native, and cot have been translated according to our cultural context into
respectively.
Application of Roman Jacobson’s Model:
For Jacobson, cross linguistic differences centre around obligatory, Grammatical and lexical
forms: ‗Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may
convey‘. Examples of differences are easy to find. They occur at:
1. The level of Gender
2. The level of aspect
3. The level of semantic fields
Findings:
1. Level Of Gender:
light that came in from the dying moon. P.15
He always thought of the sea as la mar
which is what people call her in
Spanish when they love her. P.17
The moon affects her as it does a
woman, he thought. P.17

17. In these examples we have found that there is gender difference that exists in both languages i.e
English and Urdu. In the first example, sea is feminine in English and use the objective pronoun
―her‖ for it while in Urdu, it is masculine. In the second example moon in English is neutral and
use the word ― it‖ for moon while in Urdu moon is masculine. Same is the case with sun; in
English it is neutral while in Urdu it is treated as masculine. In the next example, fish (dolphin)
Then the sun was brighter and the glare
came on the water and then, as it rose
clear, the flat sea sent it back as his
eyes so that it hurt sharply and he rode
without looking in to it. P.18
“Because I don‘t know what the fish is
going to do‖. But he seems calm, he
thought and following his plan. But
what is his plan, he thought. And what
is mine? …If he will jump I can kill
him but he stays down forever. Then I
will stay down with him forever. P.36
The line went out and out and out but it
was slowing now and he was making
the fish earn each inch of it. P.50
The sky was clouding over to the east
and one after another the stars he knew
were gone. It looked now as though he
were moving great cannon of clouds
and the wind had dropped. P.48

18. in English is masculine and use the word ―he‖ for it. While in Urdu, fish either it is dolphin or
any other is feminine. In the fifth example, line is neutral in English and use the word ―it‖ for it,
while in Urdu it is feminine. Same is the case with sky in English it is neutral and use the word
―it‖ for it while in Urdu it is masculine.
3.Level of Semantic Field:
I like the beer in cans best. P.11
He saw the phosphorescence of the gulf weed
in the water as he rowed over the part of the
ocean that the fishermen called the great well
because there was a sudden deep of seven
hundred fathom…fed on them. P .17
The shack was made of the tough budshields of
royal palm which are called guano and in it
there was a bed, a table, one chair, and a place
on the dirt floor to cook with charcoal. P. 7

19. In the first example in ST , the writer has used the word ― cans‖ while the translator of TT has
used a minor detail about it like ( ). Similarly in the second example in ST the writer
has the word ―phosphorescence‖, but the translator has used the word
( ) for it but with a little detail. In the third example the writer of ST has
employed a single word ― charcoal‖ but the translator of TT has used the word (
) with minor detail for the translation of same single word.
FINDINGS:
In this Project we have applied two theories, Vinay and Darbelnet‘s model and Roman Jakobson:
The Nature of Linguistic Meaning and Equivalence, to see either the translator of TT has
followed these theories or not. We found all the features of these two theories like, direct
translation (borrowing, calque, literal translation), and oblique translation ( transposition,
modulation, and adaptation) and level of gender and level of semantic fields. Two features like
equivalence and the level of aspect are not found in it at all. So we can say that the translator has
followed these two theories to some extent.
Conclusion:
Generally speaking, there should not be a relationship between the performances of the
translators and the chronological order of their translations. Each translation should be judged on
its own merits at its own time because each period of time possesses its own translating
conventions and in order for a translation to become a smash hit it should conform to these
conventions; and since the conventions change over time, judging two or more translations on
their chronological orders seems not to be reasonable.
From the comparison of these two texts, we come to know that the translator (Ibn e Saleem) has
ignored one of the features of Vinay and Darbelnet‘s model (Equivalence ) and also ignored a
feature of Roman Jacobson‘s model (Level of Aspect). His translation is more communicative, at
the same time more faithful and beautiful than Ernest‘s Hemmingway. Both texts have made use
of the features of the selected translation models nearly to the same degree. The translator was
not consistent in applying Jacobson‘s and Vinay and Darbelnet‘s translation features fully.