a powerpoint presentation on the challenges of translation with focus on the issues of translation in india.

1. Challenges of
TRANSLATIO
N
m n RAJU
అనువాదము μετάφραση
ಅನುವಾದ перевод
अनुवाद Übersetzung
અનુવાદ traduzione
অনুবাদ
översättnin
भाषांतर करणे翻译
ெமாழிெபயரபப 翻訳

2. mnRAJU
Challenges of Translation
 What is Translation?
 Why Translation?
 What is Good Translation?
 Skills of Translation
 Kinds of Translation
Challenges of Translation

3. mnRAJU
What is Translation?
the skilful art of re-creating
an equivalent message
of a work of art
originally created
in one language
in another language.
equivalent, sensitive and natural

4. mnRAJU
Translating is Connecting
Translation is an intimate encounter
between
Two creative souls
Two languages
Two cultures
Two styles
Two spaces
Two generations

5. mnRAJU
Why Translation?
 Living languages in the world - 6,912
 Languages spoken in India - about 1,600
 Indian languages spoken by more than 10,000 Indians - 211
 The 1948 UN Universal Declaration Of Human Rights has
been translated into the most (321) languages and dialects.
 Country with the most languages spoken: Papua New
Guinea (841)
 Language with the most words: English (approx. 250,000
distinct words)
 Language with the fewest words: Taki Taki, also called
Sranan (only 340 words)

6. mnRAJU
Why Translation?
• To ‘affect’ larger audiences
• Equitable access to information
• Social justice & life-saving needs
• Promoting mother tongues
• Reviving dead/dying languages
• Historical changes in languages
• Greater financial rewards

7. mnRAJU
A Good Translator
₌ Bilingual, Bicultural Proficiency
₌ Transparency in grammar, syntax and idiom
₌ Thorough Perception of theText/Content
₌ Loyalty to Intention, emotion, style
₌ Artistic Correspondence
₌ Fidelity to Detail and Faithfulness toText
₌ Aesthetics Matching the Original

8. mnRAJU
If a translation is
beautiful, it is not
faithful; and if it is
faithful, it is not
beautiful. - Russian axiom
Ad verbum vs ad sensum
Metaphrase or paraphrase?

9. mnRAJU
The Ordeal of Translation
Few foreign masterpieces can have suffered more
than Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin from the English
translator’s failure to convey anything more than–
at best–the literal meaning. It is as if a sound-proof
wall separated Pushkin’s poetic novel from the
English-reading world.There is a whole magic
which goes by default; the touching lyrical beauty,
the cynical wit of the poem; the psychological
insight, the devious narrative skill, the thrilling
compulsive grip of the novel; the tremendous gusto
and swing and panache of the whole performance.
- Samuel Johnson

10. mnRAJU
Translation Skills
Comprehension
Interpretation
Re-wording (writing)
− Synonymy
− Transfer
− Reduction
− Expansion
− compensation
Equivalence
− literal where possible
− paraphrastic where necessary

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Kinds of Translation
Machine Translation
Dictionary/Grammar approach
Statistical Matching approach
Crowdsourcing approach

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Disasters of Machine Translation

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Machine Howlers
“Please Don't Make MeToo Happy”
To Spanish and back to English:
I RequestTo Me NotTo GoToo Much Behind Lucky Person
To German and back to English:
PleaseTo Me Do Not Go BackToo Lucky
To Italian and back to English:
I PrayTo Me NotTo Go BehindToo Much Fortunate
To Portuguese and back to English:
I Pray Me NotTo GoToo Much Behind Fortunate
To French and back to English:
Please Not ReturnTo MeToo Happy

14. mnRAJU
Translation – Some Challenges
 Linguistic untranslatability
 Cultural untranslatability
 Source text
 Illegible/unreadable
 Misspelled
 Unfinished/fragmentary
 Unintelligible/incomprehensible
 Language
 Idioms & coinages
 Acronyms & abbreviations
 Slang & archaisms
 Grammar, syntax, punctuation
 Proper nouns
 Ambiguities
 Time, effort and Expenditure

15. mnRAJU
Challenges of Translation
≠ Lexical
≠ Structural
≠ Cultural
≠ Ethical
≠ Political
≠ Ambiguity

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Lexical Challenges
Words
Idioms
Phrases
Collocations
Contextualizing lexical items
≠ Bilingual/Translating dictionaries

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Astounding Alternatives
Choice depends on context and topic
Two trucks loaded with thousands of copies of Roget's
Thesaurus collided as they left a New York publishing
house last Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
Witnesses were aghast, amazed, astonished, astounded,
bemused, benumbed, bewildered, confounded,
confused, dazed, dazzled, disconcerted, disoriented,
dumbstruck, electrified, flabbergasted, horrified,
immobilized, incredulous, nonplussed, overwhelmed,
paralyzed, perplexed, scared, shocked, startled, stunned,
stupefied, surprised, taken aback, traumatized,
upset. . . .

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Structural Challenges
Grammatical
particles like
articles
tenses
case markers
number
gender etc.
are not identical in
every language.

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Cultural Challenges
 Cultural variation leads to linguistic variation
 Terms deeply rooted in culture
 No equivalents in target culture/language

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Ethical Challenges
Translator’s ethical attitudes
 Personal values and beliefs
 Errors in the source text
 Dangers of misinterpretation

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Political Challenges
 Generating meanings not inherent
 Using for political ends
(Confucius used secular texts for
philosophical purposes)

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Ambiguity Challenges
Linguistic
Diction
Structure
Thematic
Hazy thought
Inept rendition
I saw an Indian dance.

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Indian Literature in Translation
 multi-lingual nation
 diverse social, cultural factors
 wide variety of themes, genres
 official language
State funded agencies
Sahitya Academy
National Book Trust

24. mnRAJU
Translation Humor
In a Paris hotel elevator:
Please leave your values at the front desk.
In a Norwegian cocktail lounge:
Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
In an Acapulco hotel:
The manager has personally passed all the water served
here.
In a Bucharest hotel lobby:
The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we
regret that you will be unbearable.
Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop:
Ladies may have a fit upstairs.
In a Copenhagen airline ticket office:
We take your bags and send them in all directions.

25. mnRAJU
Future Focus
• How are Cyberspace and electronic translation shaping up the
locus of translation production?
• What role should the translator play amidst the increasing
emergence of computer translation software?
• Should translators modify traditional theories or come up with
new theories of translation to meet the new challenges?
• What role do translators play in a global cultures?
• What are the future prerequisites for building a career in
translation?
• How are shifts in technology, international politics and
economics translated in a manner which preserves the cultural
identity of the source and target languages?
• What are the limitations of translation and interpretation
activities on each nation compared to the global scenario?
• What is the role of mass media in advancing proper translations?

26. mnRAJU
Exercise 1
Translate this
sentence
into your mother tongue.

27. mnRAJU
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