Less Translated Languages (Benjamins Translation Library)

Less Translated Languages Benjamins Translation Library The Benjamins Translation Library aims to stimulate researc...

Author: Albert Branchadell | Lovell Margaret West

167 downloads 2827 Views 4MB Size Report

This content was uploaded by our users and we assume good faith they have the permission to share this book. If you own the copyright to this book and it is wrongfully on our website, we offer a simple DMCA procedure to remove your content from our site. Start by pressing the button below!

Report copyright / DMCA form

DOWNLOAD PDF

Less Translated Languages

Benjamins Translation Library The Benjamins Translation Library aims to stimulate research and training in translation and interpreting studies. The Library provides a forum for a variety of approaches (which may sometimes be conﬂicting) in a socio-cultural, historical, theoretical, applied and pedagogical context. The Library includes scholarly works, reference works, post-graduate text books and readers in the English language.

EST Subseries The European Society for Translation Studies (EST) Subseries is a publication channel within the Library to optimize EST’s function as a forum for the translation and interpreting research community. It promotes new trends in research, gives more visibility to young scholars’ work, publicizes new research methods, makes available documents from EST, and reissues classical works in translation studies which do not exist in English or which are now out of print.

General editor Gideon Toury

Associate editor Miriam Shlesinger

Tel Aviv University

Bar Ilan University

Advisory board Marilyn Gaddis Rose

Zuzana Jettmarová

Juan C. Sager

Binghamton University

Charles University of Prague

UMIST Manchester

Yves Gambier

Werner Koller

Mary Snell-Hornby

Turku University

Bergen University

University of Vienna

Daniel Gile

Alet Kruger

Sonja Tirkkonen-Condit

Université Lumière Lyon 2 and ISIT Paris

UNISA

University of Joensuu

José Lambert

Lawrence Venuti

Ulrich Heid

Catholic University of Leuven

Temple University

University of Stuttgart

Franz Pöchhacker

Wolfram Wilss

Eva Hung

University of Vienna

University of Saarbrücken

Chinese University of Hong Kong

Rosa Rabadán

Judith Woodsworth

W. John Hutchins

University of León

Mt. Saint Vincent University Halifax

University of East Anglia

Roda Roberts

Sue Ellen Wright

University of Ottawa

Kent State University

Volume 58 Less Translated Languages Edited by Albert Branchadell and Lovell Margaret West

Less Translated Languages Edited by

Albert Branchadell Lovell Margaret West Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/Philadelphia

8

TM

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Less translated languages / edited by Albert Branchadell, Lovell Margaret West. p. cm. (Benjamins Translation Library, issn 0929–7316 ; v. 58) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Translating and interpreting. I. Branchadell, Albert, 1964- II. West, Lovell Margaret. III. Series. P306.L474 2004 418’.02-dc22 isbn 90 272 1664 9 (Eur.) / 1 58811 480 5 (US) (Hb; alk. paper)

2004057689

© 2005 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microﬁlm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 15:47

F: BTL58CO.tex / p.1 (41-85)

Table of contents

Introduction: Less translated languages as a field of inquiry Albert Branchadell

1

I. English: The dominant language The quantitative analysis of translation flows in the age of an international language Anthony Pym and Grzegorz Chrupała Multilingualism in Europe: Blessing or curse? Vilelmini Sosonis An example of linguistic submission: The translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants into Arabic Hassan Hamzé

27 39

49

From Arabic to other languages through English Nobel Perdu Honeyman

67

The translation of cultural references in the cinema Maria D. Oltra Ripoll

75

II. Minority languages: Facing inequality in the translation arena Translation policy for minority languages in the European Union: Globalisation and resistance Oscar Diaz Fouces Translation of minority languages in bilingual and multilingual communities Marta García González

95

105

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 15:47



F: BTL58CO.tex / p.2 (85-113)

Table of contents

Mandatory translation Albert Branchadell

125

Theatre and translation: Unequal exchanges in a supermarket of cultures 137 Eva Espasa Obscured cultures: The case of sub-Saharan Africa Anna Aguilar-Amat and Jean-Bosco Botsho

147

III. Translating from less translated cultures and languages African literature in colonial languages: Challenges posed by “minor literatures” for the theory and practice of translation Goretti López Heredia

165

Translating Mia Couto: A particular view of Portuguese in Mozambique Andrés Xosé Salter Iglesias

177

Translational passages: Indian fiction in English as transcreation? Dora Sales Salvador

189

The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara: A Buddhist treatise translated into Western languages Nicole Martínez Melis Regional Indian literature in English: Translation or recreation? Leticia Herrero What do we leave behind when failing to translate a Chinese dead metaphor? Sara Rovira-Esteva

207 225

237

IV. Catalan: Translating into a less translated language Translation from Spanish into Catalan during the 20th century: Sketch of a chequered history Montserrat Bacardí Translation between Spanish and Catalan today Cristina García de Toro

257 269

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 15:47

F: BTL58CO.tex / p.3 (113-133)

Table of contents 

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan: A current assessment Irene Llop Jordana

289

Symposium: Six Catalan translators Andreu Nin: Exponent of an unyielding intellectual yearning Judit Figuerola

315

Bonaventura Vallespinosa: Translation and cultural revitalisation Judit Fontcuberta i Famadas

329

Manuel de Pedrolo: Not just a prolific translator Alba Pijuan Vallverdú

339

Josep Vallverdú: Translation as resistance and service Anna Cris Mora

353

Maria-Mercè Marçal: (Re)presentation, textuality, translation Pilar Godayol

365

Jordi Arbonès i Montull: Translating in difficult times Victòria Alsina Keith

375

Biographical notes on the authors and editors

391

Index

401

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.1 (41-118)

Introduction Less translated languages as a field of inquiry Albert Branchadell

.

Introduction

The idea for this book, Less Translated Languages, arose from the 5th International Conference on Translation, “Interculturality and Translation: Less Translated Languages”, organised by the Departament de Traducció i d’Interpretació at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) in October 2001.1 The focus of this conference was the role of translation in cross-cultural relations with special emphasis on languages which are less translated and more particularly on Catalan, a significant Western minority language that remains largely unresearched in mainstream Translation Studies. One of the main contributions of this book to the field of Translation Studies is the very notion of “less translated languages,” a concept that has been developed by the authors of several of the chapters. Inspired by the concept of “lesser-used languages,” a term now current in the European Union, “less translated languages” applies to all those languages that are less often the source of translation in the international exchange of linguistic goods, regardless of the number of people using these languages. The most extreme examples are of course those languages that are never the source of translation. Using Cronin’s terminology (1995), less translated languages would be the contrary of source-language intensive languages (not necessarily target-language intensive). Having reached this conclusion, we were pleased to realise that we had come up with a category that serves equally well for well-known widely used languages such as Arabic or Chinese and longneglected minority languages such as Catalan. This seems the right place to explain why this makes sense and why it is important. We will begin with the notion of minority languages and go on to see how the cultural turn, the power turn and nation-building serve as a background to the concept of “less translated languages”.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41



F: BTL5801.tex / p.2 (118-175)

Albert Branchadell

. Minority languages and translation “Minority language” is a fuzzy term that resists a clear-cut definition. For the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages “regional or minority languages” means languages that are (a) traditionally used within a given territory of a State by nationals of that State who form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the State’s population; and (b) different from the official language(s) of that State. Under this definition the term covers Aragonese, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Frisian, Friulian, Galician, Ladin, Occitan, Sardinian, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Sorbian, Welsh, and so on, but it also applies to French in Val d’Aosta or German in South Tyrol – two bigger state languages that happen to be in a minority position in two Italian provinces. Given this, we’d rather give the term a narrower definition than that suggested by the European Charter, one that excludes true state languages such as French or German but still includes a merely symbolic state language such as Irish Gaelic. Whatever the definition, minority languages were long ignored in Translation Studies. As late as 1995 Michael Cronin complained that contemporary writings on translation and postcolonialism such as those by Cheyfitz and Niranjana blatantly ignored minority languages in Europe. The same point was made in the introduction to his Translating Ireland (1996). According to Cronin, Cheyfitz and Niranjana’s “simple opposition of Europe and the New World or Europe and the Colony” precludes the fact that “the translation experience of Europe is not homogeneous, and the intense pressures on language resulting from internal colonialism in Europe itself are ignored in analyses which posit a common European historical experience and attitude to language”. Another author who has simplified the issue is Jacquemond (1992: 140) (emphasis added): “As a result of colonial and postcolonial history, inequality is the main feature of the relationship between Western and Third World languages and cultures, a fact which is bound to carry many implications for North-South translation processes”. In the face of this mistakenly simple opposition, Cronin warned that “translation theory must not restrict itself to the perspectives of majority languages”. Prior to Cronin, other, lesser-known scholars – writing in minority languages, that is – had already made the point. In a paper that was originally published in Basque and was later translated into English, Zabaleta (1991/2002) argued that “analyses of the translation of lesser- and medium-diffused languages can undoubtedly contribute enormously to translation science”. However, it is instructive to notice that there is no entry for “minority language” in Mona Baker’s Enyclopedia of Translation Studies (1998), nor in Mark Shuttleworth and Moira Cowie’s Dictionary of Translation Studies (1997). Whereas in Baker’s work there is no single mention of “minority” in the index, in the Dictionary we find an entry for “minoritizing translation”, which, according to

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.3 (175-207)

Introduction

the authors, has the same meaning as “foreignizing translation”. In one of the dictionary’s entries (“Multilingualism and translation”), Rainier Grutman refers to “minority writers” – a term which is not intended to cover writers of minority languages but writers who “resort to multilingualism in order to convey the linguistic heterogeneity of their speech communities” (p. 159). He then mentions the use of French by Flemish authors, Spanish by Catalan and English by FrenchCanadian. But he has nothing to say about the use of Flemish by Flemish authors, Catalan by Catalan authors and French by French-Canadian ones – nor about their translations. On the other hand, it is obvious that the realities of Dutch, Catalan and French are very different, with Catalan as the only true minority language in the triad. If we turn to more specific encyclopedias, a similar situation obtains. Classe’s Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English contains no entry for “minority language” either. As a matter of fact, the purpose of this work (Classe 2000: vii, emphasis added) “is to provide a historical and analytical survey [. . . ] of the theory and practice of literaty translation into English from the principal world languages” (on page xi she speaks of “the major world languages”; on the face of this it comes as a surprise to find entries for Catalan, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh, by Francesc Parcerisas, Michael Cronin, Derick S. Thomson and Katie Gramich respectively). Generally speaking, if one surveys the field looking for the keyword “minority language”, there don’t seem to be a great many works that specifically tackle this subject, after Toury’s 1985 pioneering work. Minority languages appear every now and then in conferences on Machine Translation. At the Nineteenth International Conference on Translating and the Computer (London, November 1997) Harold Somers presented a paper on “MT and minority languages”. MT and minority languages (Galician, to be exact) was also the topic of a paper delivered by Inés Diz at the Eighth Machine Translation Summit (Santiago de Compostela, September 2001) (“The Importance of MT for the Survival of Minority Languages: SpanishGalician MT System”). Some attention has also been paid to media translation and minority languages. O’Connell (1998: 68f.), for instance, stressed the importance of dubbing for minority languages such as Basque, Welsh or Irish, and O’Connell (1994) pinpointed some potentially negative implications of subtitling for lesserused languages. O’Connell is also the author of a recent monograph (2003) on minority language dubbing for children, with the focus on screen translation from German into Irish. A landmark reference for minority languages is of course “Translation and Minority”, the special issue of The Translator (Vol. 4, No. 2) guest-edited by Lawrence Venuti in 1998. In his contribution to this issue Cronin complained that translators working in minority languages have been ignored in theoretical and historical debates on translation, whereas their experiences “have much to reveal to other languages in a world increasingly dominated by one global language”. It is



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41



F: BTL5801.tex / p.4 (207-269)

Albert Branchadell

important to notice, though, that the term “minority” was used in this collection in a rather broad sense. In Venuti’s words, [. . . ] minority is understood here to mean a cultural or political position that is subordinate [. . . ]. This position is occupied by languages and literatures that lack prestige or authority, the non-standard and the non-canonical, what is not spoken or read much by a hegemonic culture. Yet minorities also include the nations and social groups that are affiliated with these languages and literatures, the politically weak or underrepresented, the colonized and the disenfranchised, the exploited and the stigmatized.

In this broader sense, the concept of minority has indeed inspired innovation in translation practice and research. But the truth remains that Venuti’s number of The Translator did not really open up a new venue of research in Translation Studies scholarship on the specific issue of minority languages and translation. No volume with this title exists at this time, and references to most Western minority languages continue to be scarce in contemporary Translation Studies. Interestingly enough, minority languages and translation were not an issue in Venuti’s The Translation Studies Reader (2000). In the index to this collection just three entries for “minor language” are to be found. One of them corresponds to Annie Brisset’s paper on Québécois – obviously not a minority language in the sense intended here. Brisset herself acknowledges that there is a considerable difference between the linguistic status of Occitan [a true minority language] and that of Québécois. Occitan is a different sign system from French, as Catalan is from Spanish. Québécois is not a different sign system from French.

A second reference is about minority languages in the UK, which are mentioned in passing in the context of a discussion about observational studies of the translation process – not for the minority languages’ sake. Minority languages were indeed the concern of Paula Burnett’s European Minority Literatures in Translation (2003). But this is not an academic work; it is part of an EU project aimed at the publication of short literary texts written in minority European languages, matched with a translation into more widely used languages. In mainstream Translation Studies, journal references to minority languages that are not in contact with English are rare. Among the few that exist, there are references to Catalan translation (such as Coll-Vinent 1998), Galician translation (such as Millán-Varela 2000) and Basque translation (such as Mendiguren 1993/2002). Not surprisingly, the most researched minority languages tend to be languages that are in contact with English: Irish in Ireland, Scots in Scotland, and French in Canada – a non-minority language that nevertheless occupies a minority position. The situation of minority languages vis-à-vis English seems to condition

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.5 (269-317)

Introduction

the degree of attention that they receive from the scientific community. In the same vein, there has been more research in postcolonial anglophone (and francophone) literature than in lusophone (or hispanophone) literature. In this book, both shortcomings are questioned. Catalan translation – taking Catalan to be representative of Western minority languages – is explicitly focused on, and an example of postcolonial lusophone literature (from Mozambique) is discussed along with more commonly discussed postcolonial French and English literatures (from the Côte d’Ivoire and India, in the present case). No matter how neglected minority languages have been, it should not be all that difficult to fit them into ongoing discussions in the field of Translation Studies. This is being done in certain fields of Postcolonial Translation. As a matter of fact, what Graham (1994), Cronin (1995, 1996) and Tymoczko (1999) have done is to treat the case of Irish within the framework of postcolonial theories. According to Cronin (1995), the neglect of minority languages by Translation Studies was all the stranger, given the fact that these languages “offer graphic illustrations of the processes of conquest, resistance and self-definition that guide translation in its relationship with power and history”. Cronin (1996: 3) significatively used the term “internal colonialism” to refer to the case of Irish. The concept of internal colonialism might be the link between minority languages in Europe and the nonWestern languages which have undergone a “standard” colonial situation and thus are dealt with in “standard” postcolonial theories. Indeed, the concept of internal colonialism has a relatively long tradition in the social sciences. Borrowing the concept from the study of ethnic conflict in Latin American societies, Hechter (1975) drew on it to develop a new model aimed at explaining the persistence of ethnic attachments in complex Western societies. In this model a core, or dominant cultural group, and a peripheral, or subordinate cultural group, were distinguished, and the periphery was considered to be an “internal colony” of the core – not unlike colonies created by overseas colonisation. Interestingly enough, the three empirical cases of internal colonies that Hechter put forward were Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. No matter how promising this line of research might be, it cannot be applied to all cases. Critics of Hechter claimed that Scotland did not really fit the model (which Hechter himself soon acknowledged), and later on scholars have convincingly claimed that Catalonia cannot be analysed in these terms either (Moreno 1988). Catalan, the Western minority language which receives most attention in this book, is unlike Irish, and hence cannot simply be added to the empirical cases that can be analysed in the terms of Postcolonial Translation. The case of Catalan permits us to make a more general point: bringing Western minority languages and larger non-Western languages together cannot simply mean integrating the former into the type of postcolonial studies that deal with the latter. However, if a shared colonial experience is not what brings less-translated languages together,



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41



F: BTL5801.tex / p.6 (317-374)

Albert Branchadell

what does? We can identify the real link by having a closer look at the contemporary evolution of Translation Studies.

. From the “cultural turn” to the “power turn” The term “the cultural turn” was coined in 1990 by Susan Bassnett and André Lefevere in the introduction to Translation, History and Culture. They maintained that this was the turn advocated by Snell-Hornby in her contribution to the book (“Linguistic Transcoding or Cultural Transfer? A Critique of Translation Theory in Germany”) – which she had already put forward in her book Translation Studies. The idea that translation takes places between cultures, not languages was not entirely new. As early as 1954 Casagrande had bluntly proclaimed that “one does not translate languages, one translates cultures”. The difference between the fifties and the nineties was that in the nineties most scholars adhered to the idea of the cultural turn and works on cross-cultural (rather than just crosslinguistic) translation proliferated (Talgeri & Verma 1988; Dingwaney & Maier 1995; Hatim 1997; Snell-Hornby et al. 1997). Now, what made the whole cultural turn really interesting was the notion that translation takes place between cultures that maintain asymmetrical power relations; between cultures that are placed, to use Tymoczko’s (1999) words, in “radically different positions in the grid of cultural power”. This is why the cultural turn combined so well with Postcolonial Translation. And this is why the cultural turn spurred interest in the notion of “minority” as understood by Venuti. Issues of power and translation have long been dealt with in Translation Studies. In Bassnett and Lefereve’s book, for instance, some contributions explicitly dealt with the category of power as a constraint on the production of translations. In 1996 Román Álvarez and M. Carmen-África Vidal edited a book based on notions of “power” and “subversion”. In other publications we find work that explicitly focuses on the power of translation, such as Wolf (1997). Even the tradition of Translation and Norms cannot be understood without reference to power. Drawing on this long-standing but not deeply studied relationship, Tymoczko and Gentzler (2002) have recently advocated a “power turn”, in which power-andtranslation is explicitly put forward as an object of study in its own right. As a matter of fact, the power turn is a step further in the cultural pathway, rather than a deviation from it, unlike the cultural turn’s departure from linguistics-dominated Translation Studies. For the purposes of our book, what makes the power turn interesting is the stress on unequal power relations, for inequality is the main feature of the relationship between less-translated languages and dominant languages like English, French, German, and so on. In this sense, the power turn was already

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.7 (374-432)

Introduction

present in Venuti’s notion of minority: dismissing the question of size, he understood the term to mean a cultural or political position that is “subordinate”. This may help us in our definition of less-translated languages: they are not joined by a shared colonial experience, but by shared subordination. Subordination might be due to colonialism, but this is not necessarily so: as the Catalan case shows, cultural and political subordination does not always coincide with a colonial situation. This idea is in line with Simon and St-Pierre’s inclusion of China, “a country which has never, strictly speaking, experienced colonialism”, in a collection devoted to translation “in the postcolonial era” – in which the issue of power is paramount (Simon & St-Pierre 2000: 18). In this context of inequality, as elsewhere, translation plays a double role, as many scholars have pointed out. Within postcolonialism, Tymoczko (1999: 21) observed that translation is a “locus of imperialism” but a “site of resistance and nation building” as well. Other theorists working within the postcolonial paradigm have made the same point. According to Simon and St-Pierre (2000: 15): “translations, though undertaken as acts of colonial mimicry, though undertaken under the aegis of colonial power, can have unpredictable effects and can become stimulants to the development of national languages”. Outside the postcolonial paradigm, the double-faced role of translation and more specifically its benefits have been stressed by some minority language scholars. Thus, many authors (Zabaleta [1985/2002] for Basque, O’Murchu [1991] for Irish, Xirinachs [1995] and Garcia Porres [2002] for Catalan, and Millán-Varela [2000] and García González [2002] for Galician) have stressed the contribution of translation to the process of what Spanish sociolinguists call “linguistic normalisation” – a term that covers both standardisation and language spread. More generally, if translation has helped the development of major national languages and literatures (Delisle & Woodsworth 1995), it has also helped the development of minority national languages and national literatures. In Delisle and Woodsworth, the role of translation is examined in the development of Gbaya in Central Africa and Hebrew (a minority language at the relevant time), alongside English, French, Swedish and German. As for the emergence of national literatures, mention is made of Irish, Scots, and African languages such as Douala and Acholi. With respect to Irish, Delisle and Woodsworth stress “the very specific difficulties of minority languages [. . . ] which must be taken into account in any chronicle of the emergence of national literatures”. A review of the literature shows the pivotal role of translation in the development of other minority languages and literatures. Macura (1990) studied the role of translation in the Czech Revival at a time when Czech was a minority language within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Irish Gaelic has been studied by Cronin and Tymoczko, Scots by Woodsworth (1996), Kinloch (2002), and more prominently by Corbett (1998) and Findlay (2004). The relevance of translation for the development of Aragonese is the topic of Aragüés (1998). The



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41



F: BTL5801.tex / p.8 (432-508)

Albert Branchadell

role of translation in the individualisation of Macedonian is briefly addressed in Zlateva (2000), and its role in the perception of Galician as a different language from Portuguese has been studied by Baxter (2002). Outside Europe, the role of translation in the formation of modern Hebrew literature has been taken up by Toury (2002) and Shavit (1997), in the Haskalah and Yishuv periods respectively; the role of translation in the Bengali Renaissance has been dealt with by Chatterjee (1993); Pattanaik (2000) has studied Oriya, the language of Orissa, the Indian state situated on the Eastern coast below Bengal; and Fitzpatrick (2000) has investigated Indonesian Malay in Indonesia. The role of translation in the individualisation of Tamazight (the Northern Africa language also known as Berber) has been studied at length by Castellanos (2003). Beyond Translation Studies proper, the role of translation in the affirmation of minority languages appears every now and then in sociolinguistics and language planning monographs. González (1992), for instance, described the case of Filipino, and Jaffe (1999) that of Corsican. This two-sided nature of translation is present in this book, with an intended bias towards its “positive” contribution. Thus, the papers specifically devoted to Catalan leave the role of translation as a form of aggression aside, and concentrate rather on the contribution of translation to the maintenance and development of the language. Other papers present translation planning as a useful tool for less translated languages in the task of overcoming the inequalities they face. This theme, which is taken up in the papers by Marta García and Oscar Diaz, is a promising one. In the light of current discussions within Translation Studies, these papers are a real contribution to the intersection of language planning and Translation Studies advocated by Toury in recent times (1999, 2002). Neither are the allegedly negative linguistic effects of translation on minority languages taken up in this book. In fact, the concerns about the “deleterious” effects of English translation on the purity of Quebec’s French, which Sherry Simon has studied at length, are not matched in the case of Catalan, nor in other minority language contexts, where there is a marked tendency to view (literary) translation not as a “vehicle of assimilation” (to quote Mezei’s 1988 paper) but as an opportunity for language maintenance and development – both in sociocultural and linguistic terms. Precisely in 2001, shortly after the 5th International Conference on Translation was held at the UAB, the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (which acts as the Academy of Catalan Language) organised a workshop on the role of translation in the standardisation of Catalan (Mallafrè 2002), a theme that was already present in the 2nd International Conference on Catalan Language in 1986. Earlier on we mentioned that the concept of internal colonialism, coined within the study of ethnic conflict, was useful in Translation Studies, but could not provide the real link that brought together Western minority languages and larger non-Western languages under the rubric of “less translated languages”. However,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.9 (508-524)

Introduction

the “power turn” permitted us to catch a glimpse of a second link that might be more effective. Now the concept that might be useful is nation-building, and this has again been borrowed from the social sciences. Catalonia, Scotland and other contexts might not be internal colonies as defined by Hechter. However, they have engaged in nation-building policies – of which translation is a small but significant part. A number of scholars have already made this point. Tymoczko (1999: 21) observed that “the Irish seized translation of their own cultural heritage as one means of reestablishing their nation and their people: throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries alike translation was engaged for the purposes of nationalism or protonationalism, leading to both cultural and armed resistance”. In their presentation of Pattanaik’s paper, Simon and St-Pierre (2000: 19) mentioned that “endotropic translations were associated with the consolidation of Oriya nationhood”. According to Zlateva (2000: 67), the very process of establishing an autonomous Macedonian nation “began with a translation”. In the background lurks Venuti’s well-known conception of translation as a cultural political practice: “translation [. . . ] wields enormous power in the construction of national identities” (Venuti 1992: 13; emphasis added). “Power” is also one of the keywords of Tymoczko’s presentation of the Irish case, “the use of a minority-culture language is a matter of cultural power: of resistance to foreign dominance and foreign cultural assertion”. Some pioneering work on issues of translation and nationalism can be found in Danan (1991). A recent noteworthy contribution is Ellis and Oakley-Brown (2001). They state in the introduction (p. 2) that the papers in this publication “are concerned with the cultural and political implications of translation and the construction of English subjectivities at particular historical moments”. If translation contributed to the emergence of national languages and national literatures, why should it not have contributed to the formation and development of nations themselves? This finally brings us to a familiar theme in ongoing discussions within the field of Translation Studies: what Simon and St-Pierre (2000: 28; emphasis added) optimistically term “the dialogue between cultural nationalism and postnational heterogeneity”, which is also the topic addressed in Schäffner (2000) by participants in the symposium around Snell-Hornby’s paper on language, translation and cultural identity. Nation building, not internal colonialism is thus what unites Western minority languages and larger non-Western languages spoken in former overseas colonies. Some Western minority languages are indeed spoken in what Hechter plausibly named “internal colonies” – but some others are not. What is of interest here is that Western minority languages across the internal colonialism divide have resorted and resort to translation as a means of resistance against dominant languages and dominant-language attitudes with respect to language diversity. Resistance is not an uncommon issue in “true” postcolonial settings. As Tymoczko (1999: 37, fn. 9) pointed out, in such settings “writers who do choose to write in the language of a



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41



F: BTL5801.tex / p.10 (524-577)

Albert Branchadell

dominant and/or dominating culture can also choose resistant strategies of writing, strategies that challenge the resolutely monolingual and monocultural stance of the dominant culture in question”. Both forms of resistance are well represented in this collection, in a number of papers that strongly remind us of the interdependence of descriptive and theoretical studies of translation. In papers devoted to translation into minority languages, the role of translation as a “cultural political practice” (to use Venuti’s term) is highlighted. Be it through deliberate translation planning or thanks to the deeds of devoted individual translators, translation takes place in settings where it is not necessary to ensure communication. If all Catalan people understand Spanish, why bother to translate foreign works into Catalan when they are already accessible in Spanish? And why bother to translate Spanish works themselves? The issue that we raise here for Catalan is also raised for Galician in this publication, and it has of course been raised for other minority languages such as Basque, Corsican, Scots, Welsh, and so on. Jaffe (1999: 42), for instance, observed that in a context where not all Corsicans speak or read Corsican but all Corsicans speak and read French, translations from French to Corsican openly violate the communicative principle that “translations are done in order to make a document accessible to people who cannot read it in the original”. Exactly the same point has been made for former minority languages like Czech or Hebrew. In his study of the Czech Revival, for instance, Macura (1990: 68) noticed that “the function of revivalist translation [. . . ] was not to mediate a foreign text, which was usually accessible in German”. In all these contexts translation can be construed as a political statement and certainly performs an ideological role. On the other hand, papers on Postcolonial Translation shed light on new aspects of the subversion of dominant languages at the hands of postcolonial writers. In this connection, the idea that postcolonial works written in dominant languages are translations of themselves recurs throughout the papers – an idea which of course challenges common-sense and purely linguistic views on translation, and reinforces well-known aspects of the cultural turn in Translation Studies. Dingwaney (1995: 4) argued that “translation is also the vehicle through which ‘Third World’ cultures (are made to) travel – transported or ‘borne across’ to and recuperated by audiences in the West”, and within this context “even texts written in English or in one of the metropolitan languages, but originating in or about non-Western cultures, can be considered under the rubric of translation”. Tymoczko (1999: 37, fn. 9, emphasis added) was a little more straightforward: in postocolonial settings where writers choose to write in the former colonial language “literary works in a sense become translation of themselves”. Some of the papers in this publication build on this idea and put new pressure, so to speak, on culturallyoriented theories of translation. Interestingly enough, these papers, while dissolving common-sense, purely linguistic views on translation, do have a clear linguistic dimension, a fact that reminds us of the interdependence of approaches to transla-

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.11 (577-639)

Introduction

tion based on both linguistics and cultural studies. Indeed, the first advocates of the cultural turn never obliterated this interdependence. After all, what Snell-Hornby argued for in the late eighties was an integrated approach bewteen linguistics and cultural studies – not really an approach that just dismissed linguistics altogether.

. The contributors The papers in this publication are conducted within a variety of frameworks based on linguistics and language planning, literary studies, philosophy, and cultural studies. Most of them describe the workings of translators and translations within one particular context of cultural hegemony-dependency and seek thereby to question current theories of translation. The book is divided into four thematic parts. Though it may seem contradictory in a collection focused on less translated languages, Part I (“English: The Dominant Language”) is devoted to English. If there are less translated languages, there are more translated languages. The trade imbalance in translation has often been pointed out after the cultural turn of Translation Studies. For example, drawing on data from Le Grand Atlas des Littératures, Jacquemond (1992: 139) observed that “the global translation flux is predominantly North-North, while South-South translation is almost nonexistent and North-South translation is unequal”. He claims that this inequality can be measured by having a look at the book market: “translations from languages of the South represent at best 1 or 2 percent of the translated book market in the North, while in the South 98 or 99 percent of this market is made up of books translated from Northern languages”. The same point could be made with data from the UNESCO’s Word Culture Report or Index Translationum. Now, it is obvious that the huge gap between literature translated from English and that translated into English makes this language the most translated language. And we are all aware that globalisation, from the linguistic point of view, has placed English in a hegemonic position in cross-cultural communication. In their contribution (“The Quantitative Analysis of Translation Flows in the Age of an International Language”), Anthony Pym and Grzegorz Chrupała acknowledge the great disparity between what is translated into English (not much) and what is rendered from it (a lot), but challenge the view that this is due to true cultural hegemony. They claim that the key is rather the sheer size of English. They use a formal model of calculation and UNESCO data to conclude that the more books are published in a language, the more translations there will be from that language, and the fewer translations there will be into that language. In other words, the bigger you are, the less you translate into your language.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41



F: BTL5801.tex / p.12 (639-724)

Albert Branchadell

If we turn from the world arena into Europe, and go beyond literary translation, we realise that the European Union has avoided giving one of the European languages a preeminent role. Sosonis’ paper (“Multilingualism in Europe: Blessing or Curse?”) dwells upon the multilingualism of European institutions. This unique language policy has been criticised for its cost and for its disputable notion of linguistic equality. Leaving the issue of cost aside, linguistic inequality arises with respect to the status of regional or minority languages like Catalan, with no official status within European institutions, and the status of official languages like Finnish, which are lesser-used (and less translated) compared to working languages like English and French. Sosonis concludes that despite avowed linguistic equality in the EU, certain languages (English above all) are “more equal” than others. The influence of English (and French) on a less translated language such as Arabic is the topic of Hassan Hamzé’s contribution. He observes that Arabic, like the languages of the Third World, imports many terms from European languages, English and French in particular. Hamzé criticises the defense of a systematic translation of suffixes made by some professionals. According to their viewpoint, a systematic use of Arabic equivalents for French and English prefixes and suffixes should be adopted, so that each French or English affix should correspond to one and only one Arabic equivalent. He calls into question the (mistaken) theoretical presuppositions underpinning this token of what he calls “linguistic submission”. As a global lingua franca, English often acts as an intermediate language in indirect translation. Nobel Perdu (“From Arabic to Other Languages through English”) describes the experience of translating the Kitáb-i-Aqdas into Spanish from the English version using the Arabic original as a reference, and argues in favour of indirect translation for some specific cases. The role of English as a global language, and more specifically the monopoly of the film industry of Hollywood, is the reason why we can find plenty of cultural references from the American culture in most films that are translated and then dubbed or subtitled into Spanish. The problem of translating such references is the subject matter of Maria D. Oltra’s contribution, which closes Part I (“The Translation of Cultural References in the Cinema”). She presents a possible classification of cultural references and then comments on a number of selected examples (starting with the film Pretty Woman) in order to analyse the techniques for the translation of cultural references. Oltra stresses the tremendous challenge that such translation poses to the translator, and calls for continuing research in screen translation in an age that experiences a dialectical tension between the trend toward globalisation and cultural nationalism. Part II (“Minority Languages: Facing Inequality in the Translation Arena”) turns to minority languages from the point of view of translation. The first three papers deal with certain aspects of what Toury aptly termed “preliminary norms”, and more specifically with “translation policy”. Partly in line with Sosonis’ contri-

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.13 (724-737)

Introduction

bution in Part I, Oscar Diaz defines three levels of languages in the European Union (“Translation Policy for Minority Languages in the European Union: Globalisation and Resistance”). At the first level we find the official languages of the memberstates. The second level corresponds to minority languages like Breton, Catalan, Frisian, Galician, Scots and Welsh, for which according to Diaz “minorised language” is a more accurate term to stress their deprived status. And there is a third level for languages of migrants. Diaz is well aware that translation can be a useful resource for promoting linguistic and cultural imposition, but also to avoid it, and henceforth argues that efficient planning in the area of translation can be very useful in improving the status of minorised languages. To this effect, he puts forward a number of criteria for successful translation policies on behalf of these languages – an endeavour that fleshes out Toury’s (1999, 2002) desideratum to capitalise on the convergence of Translation Studies and Language Planning. In a similar vein, Marta García’s paper (“Translation of Minority Languages in Bilingual and Multilingual Communities”) is focused on the social factors determining translation in specific minority-language communities of Western Europe. With the aim of establishing what reasons actually determine the existence of translation from and into these languages, she presents a descriptive model based both on the communicative situations requiring translation and on the social, cultural and political conditions which influence the presence of translation activity. Whereas Diaz and García refer to translation as a tool of resistance to avoid cultural imposition, Albert Branchadell’s paper (“Mandatory Translation”) deals with an example of the imposition of translation upon minority language speakers. The background of this paper is the study of the linguistic rights of members of linguistic minorities. Seen from the perspective of translation, the right to use one’s own language in the public sphere is the right not to have to translate one’s acts or words. In this context he introduces the concept of “Mandatory Translation Languages” (languages whose speakers do not have the right to not translate their acts or words), relates it to the notion of “Less Translated Language” (most less translated languages in the international arena are mandatory translation languages in their homelands) and illustrates his notion of an MTL with Catalan – the Western minority language this publication has focused on. In certain circumstances, Catalan speakers have to translate their acts or words into Spanish, in violation of the principle of “linguistic security” (that is, the extent to which individuals can carry out all their activities in their own language). Inequalities related to translation are also the topic of Eva Espasa’s contribution (“Theatre and Translation: Unequal Exchanges in a Supermarket of Cultures”). She offers a general view of the inequalities framing asymmetrical cultural exchanges between major and minor cultures in the “supermarket of cultures”, and illustrates this view with examples of stage practices in which translation challenges the logic of the global supermarket. She touches on the cases of Quebec, where translation



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41



F: BTL5801.tex / p.14 (737-800)

Albert Branchadell

into the local variety of French has been used as a tool of ‘québécisation’, and Scotland, where the dissident practice of translating into Scots has been defended. We said at the outset that the extreme case of less translated languages would be “non-translated languages”. Anna Aguilar-Amat and Jean-Bosco Botsho’s paper (“Obscured Cultures: The Case of Sub-Saharan Africa”) deals with languages of this sort – with “non-recognised cultures”, as a matter of fact. Their paper introduces an innovative approach to the issue of interculturality and translation: the neurobiological point of view. When the translator is confronted by multiculturality, a cognitive process of “recognition” is to be carried out. They address the question of how this is possible if it has not been done before, as in the case of subSaharan Africa, and make a strong case for heavily neglected sub-Saharan African culture(s) as a pivotal field of inquiry in intercultural studies. Sub-Saharan Africa is thus seen as representative of the many other ignored cultures around the world. Part III is entitled “Translating from Less Translated Cultures and Languages”. The first three papers thereof are devoted to “minor literatures” in the sense defined by Deleuze and Guattari (“une littérature mineure n’est pas celle d’une langue mineure, plutôt celle qu’une minorité fait dans une langue majeure”) and taken up by Goretti López. In her contribution (“African Literature in Colonial Languages: Challenges Posed by ‘Minor Literatures’ for the Theory and Practice of Translation”), López draws on Mounin’s and Ortega y Gasset’s work to argue that the postcolonial writer is a kind of translator of silences, since s/he attempts to render in a colonial language views of the world that belong to very distant languages, culturally speaking. She then illustrates this claim with an analysis of the novel Allah n’est pas obligé by Amadou Kourouma (Côte d’Ivoire), and argues that the translation of texts written in colonial languages like English, French or Portuguese should count as a paradigmatic example of translation of less translated languages. Mia Couto’s Vozes Anoitecidas is the theme of Andrés Xosé Salter’s paper (“Translating Mia Couto: A Particular View of Portuguese in Mozambique”), where he makes a number of reflections on the troubles he faced when translating this novel into Spanish. Unlike López’s emphasis on the transposition of a local culture into a colonial language, Salter stresses the properly linguistic difficulties for translation that arise from what he calls a true “process of miscegenation” between standard Portuguese and the creativity of Mozambican Portuguese, in a sense aggravated by Couto’s unique ability to “disorganise the language”. Salter’s is thus one of the papers that most clearly relies on the interdependence of approaches to translation based on both linguistics and cultural studies. With Dora Sales (“Translational Passages: Indian Fiction in English as Transcreation?”) we turn from Africa to India – a context of “frenetic” translation, to use Kothari’s felicitous expression (2003). Sales dwells upon the work of Raja Rao, Shashi Deshpande, and Vikram Chandra, three Indian writers who, like Kourouma

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.15 (800-860)

Introduction

in Côte d’Ivoire and Couto in Mozambique, have chosen to write in the former colonial language without giving up the aim of rendering their local cultural values and worldview in this language. In connection with this, Sales would agree with López’s point: this kind of transcultural writing is a “translational act” – “transcreation”, to use P. Lal’s term. Sales contends that the literature originally written in English by Indian writers is thus a transcreation whereby the less translated languages and cultures of India are creatively transmitted into English. The three remaining papers of Part III explore another venue of translation in intercultural relations with an eye on less translated languages. They are devoted to translation from works written in non-Western languages into Western ones. Nicole Martínez, whose paper is the only paper on cross-temporal translation in the publication, focuses on the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara, the sacred treatise of mah¯ay¯ana Buddhism (“The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara: A Buddhist Treatise Translated into Western Languages”). She traces the history of the text and comments on six of the seventeen complete translations into Western languages that she has found record of. These include translations from the original Sanskrit text or the Tibetan version and also one case of indirect translation from Sanskrit into Spanish through French. Martínez distinguishes two waves of Bodhicary¯avat¯ara translations. The first translations were clearly academic works, comparable to the work of cultural archaeologists. Later translations were the work of practising Buddhists, and the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara has turned from being an object of academic interest into a living source of inspiration for Westerners. In this way, translation is a major contribution to the spread of Buddhism in the West – a conspicuous case of cross-cultural relations. Despite its title, Leticia Herrero’s contribution (“Regional Indian Literature in English: Translation or Recreation?”) is unlike that of Dora Sales in Part II: it is not about Indian fiction written originally in English but about Indian fiction (written in Tamil, to be exact) translated into English. She offers an insightful analysis of the English version of the Tamil text Suzhalil Mithakkum Deepangal, by Rajam Krishnan. This translation is part of a series of translations into English of Indian novels edited by Macmillan Publishing House – a noteworthy exception to the traditional reluctance to translate literatures written in non-Western languages into English. Out of concern for respecting the cultural originality of the text, the editors rejected working with British translators (who were susceptible to “domesticating” the text, to use Venuti’s 1995 term), and relied on two translators (Uma Narayanan and Prema Seetharam) brought up in the Tamil language and culture. They overtly accepted the untranslatability of many terms and so acknoweledged the limits of linguistic transfer. According to Herrero, this move, far from calling their skill as translators into question, enabled them to reach their goal of truly sharing the Tamil source culture with the Western reader.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41



F: BTL5801.tex / p.16 (860-916)

Albert Branchadell

Sara Rovira-Esteva’s contribution (“What Do We Leave Behind When Failing to Translate a Chinese Dead Metaphor?”) addresses the difficulties of transferring the major culture from the Far East into Western languages. This author focuses on the troubles that surround accurate translation of Chinese measure words into Western languages, which lack a direct counterpart to them. She argues for a cognitive approach to this linguistic phenomenon, uses selected English and Catalan examples to illustrate it, and argues further that Chinese measure words are a powerful tool for the creation of striking metaphorical and metonymical expressions; these expressions are a challenge for any translator who wants to avoid mechanical translation in order to render the full force of the Chinese text. Whereas Part III was devoted to translation from less translated cultures and languages, Part IV (“Catalan: Translating into a Less Translated Language”) is devoted to translation into a less translated language, and more specifically to Catalan. It is quite logical that a conference on less translated languages celebrated at a Catalan university should pay special attention to Catalan – a prominent Western minority language that, as we said at the outset, remains largely unexplored in mainstream Translation Studies. In her paper in Part II, Marta García comments that translation from dominant languages to minority ones is not always motivated by intelligibility. Montserrat Bacardí’s initial paper in Part IV (“Translation from Spanish into Catalan during the 20th Century: Sketch of a Chequered History”) is entirely devoted to such a case: translation from Spanish into Catalan, which is done in a context where most Catalan speakers, if not all, are reputed to know Spanish. This poses interesting questions such as what is translated when the need for translation has disappeared, who does the translation and why, and who reads the translated works. Bacardí gives preliminary answers to these questions with a brief survey of translation from Spanish into Catalan in the 20th century. Whereas Bacardí’s paper has a clear historic slant and is centred on literary translation from Spanish into Catalan, Cristina García’s contribution (“Translation between Spanish and Catalan Today”) focuses on the present state of translation between Spanish and Catalan in both directions and at all levels. Her paper reviews the chief areas in which translation between Spanish and Catalan is presently carried out, with an eye on the regularities and reasons that govern translation in each area. In her assessment of literary translation García also addresses the issue of translations between Spain’s peripheral languages (Galician and Basque into Catalan, to be exact). This deserves mentioning since translation between minority languages is truly an ill-studied and poorly understood phenomenon. To close this initial section of Part IV we chose a paper devoted to a survey of translation from a language other than Spanish into Catalan. Of the several languages which are translated into Catalan, we selected Hebrew – a prominent language in Translation Studies that has recently been the focus of a solid bibli-

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.17 (916-971)

Introduction

ography published by this house. Although Irene Llop (“Translation from Hebrew into Catalan: A Current Assessment”) presents this as a case of translation between minority languages, a word of caution is in order here. Demographically speaking, Hebrew is a small language indeed, but nonetheless it is a state language today, and as such enjoys all the benefits associated with state languages – something that cannot be said of Catalan. In any case, Llop surveys the 20th century in order to identify which authors and genres have been translated, who the translators are and how they work. Besides the Bible, translation from Hebrew encompasses a number of books and other documents written by medieval Catalan Jews and some tokens of Hebrew contemporary literature from Israel. The final section of Part IV and of the entire selection is a symposium on six significant translators of dominant languages (mostly English and French, but Italian and Russian as well) into Catalan. A common thread of these contributions is the role of translation in the (re)creation of literary language in a minority context and more generally in the process of linguistic “normalisation”. Judit Figuerola’s paper (“Andreu Nin: Exponent of an Unyielding Intellectual Yearning”) is devoted to Andreu Nin (1892–1937). In Catalonia and Spain in general, Nin is well-known as a political activist, and his name is associated with a local communist party named POUM (Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification). His death in 1937, probably at the hands of the Soviet political police that operated in Spain in the midst of its Civil War, is still a matter of debate. But behind the political activist, there was a true man of letters: Nin was a teacher and pedagogue, a journalist, a political theorist, a literary critic, and a translator. Figuerola concentrates her attention on Nin’s celebrated translations from Russian into Catalan – the first direct ones ever, together with Francesc Payarols’. Nin became familiar with Russian language and literature during his stay in the Soviet Union, where he militated in the Soviet Communist Party. But his decision to translate Russian classic and contemporary writers into Catalan was driven by an endeavour to enrich Catalan literature, rather than by overt political reasons, as was the case of his non-literary translations of Marxist writings into Spanish. Judit Fontcuberta’s paper (“Bonaventura Vallespinosa: Translation and Cultural Revitalisation”) is focused on Bonaventura Vallespinosa (1899–1987). Vallespinosa was a doctor and also a cultural activist. His love of theatre and the lack of Catalan versions of contemporary plays led him to translate his favourite French, Italian, and American texts; in this way, he contributed to the revitalisation of Catalan culture by grafting new intellectual trends onto it by means of translation. Vallespinosa is credited with 64 translations (not all published) into Catalan, 47 of which are theatrical works. Among his translations, we find modern language classics (Molière, Racine, Alfred de Musset Ludovico Ariosto), the existentialists (Camus and Sartre, as well as Anouilh and Sagan), and the avant-garde (Cocteau, Pirandello, Ionesco and Betti).



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41



F: BTL5801.tex / p.18 (971-1027)

Albert Branchadell

Alba Pijuan’s paper (“Manuel de Pedrolo: Not Just a Prolific Translator”) is devoted to Manuel de Pedrolo (1918–1990), a major writer in contemporary Catalan literature whose work as a translator had never been studied before. With his 42 published translations of poetry, American novels, existentialist theatre, theatre of the absurd and crime fiction, Pedrolo greatly contributed to introducing new authors and genres into Catalan literature – aiding the cultural reconstruction of Catalonia in times of hardship (after decades of suppression under a dictator). His contribution to the popularisation of crime fiction through a series called La Cua de Palla at Edicions 62 publishing house deserves special mention. For her part, Anna Cris Mora (“Josep Vallverdú: Translation as Resistance and Service”) turns her attention to Josep Vallverdú (b. 1923), a prolific Catalan writer of fiction for children and young readers, who has published some seventy translated works from English, French and Italian. Vallverdú started as a translator into Spanish in 1948, at a time when the Catalan language was subject to a ban in all areas, and particularly in that of translation. In the sixties, he produced his first translations in Catalan, and became engaged in producing translations for the series La Cua de Palla edited by Pedrolo. Like Pedrolo, as a translator Vallverdú acted as a creator of a language and contributed to forging a model for the language of narrative in Catalan at that time. Pilar Godayol’s contribution (“Maria-Mercè Marçal: (Re)presentation, Textuality, Translation”) is on Maria-Mercè Marçal (1952–1998), the youngest of the three selected Catalan writers, who devoted part of her professional life to translation. Godayol is aware that Marçal, a prominent feminist, did not write about translation. However, Godayol claims that her work allows us a glimpse of a philosophy of life, and of writing, “that celebrates difference, contamination and intertextuality”. As for translation proper, Marçal is noteworthy for her Catalan versions (and her vindication) of woman writers such as Colette, Marguerite Yourcenar, Leonor Fini, and, in conjunction with the Slavist scholar Monika Zgustová, the Russian poets Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsetayeva. Part IV and the entire collection ends with Victòria Alsina’s contribution (“Jordi Arbonès i Montull: Translating in Difficult Times”) on Jordi Arbonès (b. 1929), who passed away in 2001, shortly before the opening of the 5th International Conference on Translation at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. A self-trained translator, Arbonès stands out both for the number of works he translated (93 Catalan translations, alongside 48 translations into Spanish) and his important role in the introduction of modern North American literature into Catalan – which he saw as part of a larger effort to rebuild Catalan literary language. His linguistic choices were criticised in the late eighties by certain scholars, a fact that Alsina takes to be a sign of the “cultural normalcy” that Arbonès himself helped to achieve. In his insightful 1996 book on Irish translation, Cronin contended that “the contribution of translators to the languages, literatures and cultures of Ireland

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.19 (1027-1112)

Introduction

has been immense”, and termed this contribution “a debt which is rarely acknowledged”. Andreu Nin, Bonaventura Vallespinosa, Manuel de Pedrolo, Josep Vallverdú, Maria-Mercè Marçal, and Jordi Arbonès are just six out of many translators who have contributed and are contributing with their translations to the continuity of Catalan language and culture. This book is dedicated to them – and to translators all over the world who contribute to the continuity of one of the greatest assets that we as human beings have: linguistic and cultural diversity. For this is the condition of one of the most stimulating challenges that humanity has ever faced: communication and understanding across languages and cultures.

Note . The Departament de Traducció i d’Interpretació organises an international Conference on Translation every two years. Following the 4th edition of the Conference, in the year 2000 John Benjamins published Investigating Translation, edited by Allison Beeby, Doris Ensinger, and Marisa Presas.

References Álvarez, Román & Vidal, M. Carmen-África (Eds.). (1996). Translation, Power, Subversion. Clevedon/Philadelphia/Adelaide: Multilingual Matters. Aragüés, Chusé (Coord.). (1988). Primeras chornadas sobre a traduzión: o papel d’a traduzión en o desembolique d’as luengas: o caso de l’aragonés. Zaragoza: Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses/Gara d’Edizions. Baker, Mona (1996). “Linguistics and Cultural Studies: Complementary or Competing Paradigms in Translation Studies?”. In Angelika Lauer et al. (Eds.), Übersetzungswissenchaft im Umbruch: Festschrift für Woffram Wilss zum 70. Geburtstag (pp. 9–19). Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Baker, Mona (Ed.). (1998). Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. London/New York: Routledge. Bassnett, Susan & Lefevere, André (Eds.). (1990). Translation, History and Culture. London: Pinter Publishers. Bassnett, Susan & Trivedi, Harish (Eds.). (1998). Post-colonial Translation: Theory and Practice. London/New York: Routledge. Baxter, R. Neal (2002). “El paper de la traducció en la consolidació de la percepció social del gallec com a Abstandsprache”. Quaderns. Revista de Traducció, 7, 167–181. Brisset, Annie (2000). “The Search for a Native Language: Translation and Cultural Identity”. In Lawrence Venuti (Ed.), The Translation Studies Reader. London/New York: Routledge. Burnett, Paula (Ed.). (2003). European Minority Literatures in Translation. London: Brunel University Press.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41



F: BTL5801.tex / p.20 (1112-1204)

Albert Branchadell

Castellanos, Carles (2003). “La individuació de les llengües i la traducció. Consideracions entorn de la llengua amaziga (o berber)”. Quaderns. Revista de Traducció, 9, 35–56. Chatterjee, Partha (1993). The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Cheyfitz, Eric (1991). The Poetics of Imperialism: Translation and Colonization from The Tempest to Tarzan. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Classe, Olive (Ed.). (2000). Enclyclopedia of Literaty Translation into English. 2 vols. London/Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. Coll-Vinent, Sílvia (1998). “The French Connection. Mediated Translation into Catalan during the Interwar Period”. In Lawrence Venuti (Ed.), The Translator. Special Issue: Translation & Minority. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Corbett, John (1998). Written in the Language of the Scottish Nation: A History of Literary Translation into Scots. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Cronin, Michael (1995). “Altered States: Translation and Minority Languages”. TTR, VIII(1), 85–103. Cronin, Michael (1996). Translating Ireland: Translation, Languages, Cultures. Cork: Cork University Press. Cronin, Michael (1998). “The Cracked Looking Glass of Servants. Translation and Minority Languages in a Global Age”. The Translator, 4(2), 145–162. Cronin, Michael (2003). Translation and Globalization. London/New York: Routledge. Danan, Martine (1991). “Dubbing as an Expression of Nationalism”. Meta, XXXVI(4), 606– 614. Delisle, Jean & Woodsworth, Judith (Eds.). (1995). Translators through History. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Dingwaney, Anuradha & Maier, Carol (Eds.). (1995). Between Languages and Cultures: Translation and Cross-Cultural Texts. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Diz, Inés (2001). “The Importance of MT for the Survival of Minority Languages: SpanishGalician MT System”. Paper delivered at the Eighth Machine Translation Summit (Santiago de Compostela, September 2001). Ellis, Roger & Oakley-Brown, Liz (2001). Translation and Nation: Towards a Cultural Politics of Englishness. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Findlay, Bill (Ed.). (2004). Frae Ither Tongues: Essays on Modern Translations into Scots. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth (2000). “Balai Pustaka in the Dutch East Indies: Colonizing a Literature”. In Sherry Simon & Paul St-Pierre (Eds.), Changing the Terms: Translating in the Postcolonial Era. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. García González, Marta (2002). “El paper de la traducció en la normalització de la llengua gallega”. In Oscar Diaz Fouces et al. (Eds.), Traducció i dinàmica sociolingüística. Barcelona: Llibres de l’Índex. Garcia Porres, Yannick (2002). “El paper de la traducció en el procés de normalització de la llengua catalana”. In Oscar Diaz Fouces et al. (Eds.), Traducció i dinàmica sociolingüística. Barcelona: Llibres de l’Índex.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.21 (1204-1299)

Introduction

González, Andrew (1992). “Reconceptualization, Translation and the Intellectualization of a Third World Language: The Case of Filipino”. In A. K. Bolton & H. Hwok (Eds.), Sociolinguistics Today. International Perspectives (pp. 300–322). London/New York: Routledge. Graham, Colin (1994). “‘Liminal spaces’: Post-Colonial Theories and Irish Culture”. The Irish Review, 16, 29–43. Hatim, Basil (1997). Communication across Cultures: Translation Theory and Contrastive Text Linguistics. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. Hechter, Michael (1975). Internal Colonialism. The Celtic Fringe in British National Development. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press. Hechter, Michael (1982). “Internal Colonialism Revisited.” Cencrastus, 10, 8–11. Reprinted in David Drakakis-Smith & Stephen Wyn Williams (Eds.). (1983), Internal Colonialism: Essays Around a Theme (pp. 28–41). Monograph No. 3, Developing Areas Research Group. Institute of British Geographers. Edinburgh. Also reprinted in E. Tiryakian & R. Rogowski (Eds.). (1985), New Nationalisms of the Developed West (pp. 17–26). Boston/ London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd. Hechter, Michael & Levi, Margaret (1979). “The Comparative Analysis of Ethnoregional Movements”. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2(3), 262–274. Jacquemond, Richard (1992). “Translation and Cultural Hegemony: The Case of FrenchArabic Translation”. In Lawrence Venuti (Ed.), Rethinking Translation. Discourse, Subjectivity, Ideology. London/New York: Routledge. Jaffe, J. (1999). “Locating Power: Corsican Translators and Their Critics”. In J. Blommaert (Ed.), Language Ideological Debates. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Kinloch, David (2002). “Questions of Status. Macbeth in Québécois and Scots”. The Translator, 8, 73–100. Kothari, Rita (2003). Translating India. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Macura, Vladimír (1990). “Culture as Translation”. In Susan Bassnett & André Lefevere (Eds.), Translation, History and Culture. London: Pinter Publishers. Mallafrè, Joaquim (Ed.). (2002). II Jornades per a la Cooperació en l’Estandardització Lingüística. Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Mendiguren, Xabier (1993). “Euskal itzulpenaren garapena”. Senez. Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 14. French version: (2002). “Développement de la traduction en langue basque”. Senez. Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 24, 11–29. Mezei, Kathy (1988). “Speaking White: Literary Translation as a Vehicle of Assimilation in Quebec”. Canadian Literature, 117, 11–23. Millán-Varela, Carmen (2000). “Translation, Normalisation and Identity in Galicia(n)”. Target, 12, 267–282. Moreno, Luis (1988). “Identificación dual y autonomía política: los casos de Escocia y Cataluña”. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 42, 155–174. Niranjana, Tejaswini (1992). Siting Translation: History, Post-Structuralism and the Colonial Context. Berkeley: University of California Press. O’Connell, Eithne (1994). “Media Translation and Lesser-Used Languages: Implications of Subtitling for Irish Language Broadcasting”. In Federico Eguíluz (Ed.), Transvases Culturales: Literatura, Cine, Traducción. Vitoria: Universidad del País Vasco.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41



F: BTL5801.tex / p.22 (1299-1392)

Albert Branchadell

O’Connell, Eithne (1998). “Choices and Constraints in Screen Translation”. In Lynne Bowker, Michael Cronin, Dorothy Kenny & Jennifer Pearson (Eds.), Unity in Diversity? Current Trends in Translation Studies. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. O’Connell, Eithne (2003). Minority Language Dubbing for Children. Screen Translation from German into Irish. Berlin: Peter Lang. O’Murchu, Seosamh (1991). “Scientific Translation in Languages of Lesser Diffusion and the Process of Normalisation”. Senez. Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, VII(2–3), 77–116. Pattanaik, Diptiranjan (2000). “The Power of Translation: A Survey of Translation in Orissa”. In Sherry Simon & Paul St-Pierre (Eds.), Changing the Terms: Translating in the Postcolonial Era. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. Schäffner, Christina (Ed.). (2000). Translation in the Global Village [Current Issues in Language and Society]. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Shavit, Zohar (1997). “The Status of Translated Literature in the Creation of Hebrew Literature in Pre-State Israel (The Yishuv Period)”. Meta, XLIII(1), 1–8. Shuttleworth, Mark & Cowie, Moira (1997). Dictionary of Translation Studies. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Simon, Sherry (1994). Le Trafic des langues. Traduction et culture dans la littérature québecoise. Montréal: Boréal. Simon, Sherry & St-Pierre, Paul (Eds.). (2000). Changing the Terms: Translating in the Postcolonial Era. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. Singerman, Robert (2002). Jewish Translation History. A Bibliography of Bibliographies and Studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Snell-Hornby, Mary (1988). Translation Studies: An Integrated Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Revised edition, 1995. Snell-Hornby, Mary (1990). “Linguistic Transcoding or Cultural Transfer? A Critique of Translation Theory in Germany”. In Susan Bassnett & André Lefevere (Eds.), Translation, History and Culture. London: Pinter Publishers. Snell-Hornby, Mary (2000). “Communicating in the Global Village: On Language, Translation and Cultural Identity”. In Christina Schäffner (Ed.), Translation in the Global Village. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Snell-Hornby, Mary, Jettmarová, Zuzana & Kaindl, Klaus (Eds.). (1997). Translation as Intercultural Communication. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Somers, Harold (1997). “Machine Translation and Minority Languages”. Paper presented at Aslib’s Translating & the Computer Conference in November 1997. Talgeri, Pramond & Verma, S. B. (1988). Literature in Translation: From Cultural Transference to Metonymic Displacement. Bombay: Popular Prakashan. Tóth, Eva (1991). “La traducción literaria de lenguas minoritarias a lenguas de mayor difusión”. Senez. Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 7(2–3), 129–146. Toury, Gideon (1985). “Aspects of Translating into Minority Languages from the Point of View of Translation Studies”. Multilingua, 4(1), 3–10. Toury, Gideon (1995). Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:41

F: BTL5801.tex / p.23 (1392-1459)

Introduction

Toury, Gideon (1999). “Culture Planning and Translation”. In A. Álvarez & A. Fernández (Eds.), Anovar/Anosar. Estudios de Traducción e Interpretación (pp. 13–25). Vigo: Servicio de Publicacións da Universidade de Vigo. Toury, Gideon (2002). “Translation as a Means of Planning and the Planning of Translation: A Theoretical Framework and an Exemplary Case”. In Saliha Parker et al. (Eds.), Translations: (Re)shaping of Literature and Culture. Istanbul: Bogaziçi University Press. Tymoczko, Maria (1999). Translation in a Postcolonial Context. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Tymoczko, Maria & Gentzler, Edwin (2002). Translation and Power. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Venuti, Lawrence (1995). The Translator’s Invisibility. A History of Translation. London/New York: Routledge. Venuti, Lawrence (Ed.). (1998). The Translator. Special Issue: Translation & Minority. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Venuti, Lawrence (Ed.). (2000). The Translation Studies Reader. London and New York: Routledge. Wolf, Michaela (1997). “Translation as a Process of Power: Aspects of Cultural Anthropology in Translation”. In Mary Snell-Hornby, Zuzana Jettmarová & Klaus Kaindl (Eds.), Translation as Intercultural Communication. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Woodsworth, Judith (1996). “Translation and the Promotion of National Identity”. Target, 8(2), 211–238. Xirinachs, Marta (1997). “La traducción como instrumento de normalización lingüística”. Senez. Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 19, 25–40. Zabaleta, Jesus M. (1985). “Itzulpena eta hizkuntz normalkuntza”. Senez. Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 3, 13–28. French version: (2002). “Traduction et normalisation linguistique”. Senez. Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 24, 181– 191. Zabaleta, Jesus M. (1991). “Hedadura txiki eta ertalneko hizkuntzetako itzulpena aztertzeko zenbait aldagai bakantzeko saloa”. Senez. Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 12, 17–37. English version: (2002). “To Find Variables for the Analysis of Translation between Lesser-diffused and Medium-diffused Languages”. Senez. Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 24, 193–206. Zlateva, Palma (2000). “Globalisation, Tribalisation and the Translator: A Response to Mary Snell-Hornby”. In Christina Schäffner (Ed.), Translation in the Global Village. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 9:54

P I

English The dominant language

F: BTL58P1.tex / p.1 (41-63)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44

F: BTL5802.tex / p.1 (42-115)

The quantitative analysis of translation flows in the age of an international language* Anthony Pym and Grzegorz Chrupała

.

Introduction

Arguments about the effects of hegemonic globalisation on cultural diversity have been used to suggest that translation can liberate us from the domination of just one international language, namely English. More specifically, some claim there should be fewer translations from English and more translations into English. However there is some empirical evidence that the percentages of translation from and to international languages cannot tell us how open or hegemonic a culture is, nor whether there should be more or fewer translations into or from an international language.

. The debate One consequence of globalisation, by whatever definition, would seem to be that translations account for only 2 to 4 percent of books published in the United States or the United Kingdom. This general proportion is much lower than the percentages often cited for other countries: 15 to 18 percent for France, 11 to 14 for Germany, some 25 for Italy, 25 to 26 for Spain, to bring together reports for years between 1985 and 1992 (Ganne & Minon 1992). Nor can one really doubt that translations from English account for a good deal of the movements into other languages. UNESCO figures indicate that English was the source language for an average of 41 percent of all translations in 1978–1980 (the years that will interest us here) and this proportion may have been as high as 49 percent in 1987 (Venuti 1998: 160). We must accept that the disparity between what is translated into English (not much) and what is rendered from it (a lot) is great. But what does this disparity actually mean?

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44



F: BTL5802.tex / p.2 (115-157)

Anthony Pym and Grzegorz Chrupała

It is easy enough to argue that globalisation, in linguistic terms, is a process whereby international languages become increasingly concentrated and dominant, to the point where just one language – currently English – has a clearly hegemonic position in cross-cultural communications. This general observation then produces some kind of binary opposition: when communicating between cultures, we may either translate or use the dominant trade language, English. The growth of one option – international English – must thus mean a decline in the other – translation –, which is why there are apparently so few translations into English. In this view, globalisation would have very negative results, not only for the lot of translators and the diversity of the world’s languages and cultures, but also for English-language cultures themselves. The latter would be using globalisation to promote an inward-looking cultural autarky, oblivious to the damage they are causing to the rest of the world. This kind of argument is common enough among writers on translation. But can it be backed up by strong statistics? We suspect not. Or better, some pernicious exploitation no doubt exists, but the available data show the process to be rather more complicated than many of the arguments would have it. In what follows, we shall try to explain our doubts in two ways: first in terms of a mental warm-up, second with some actual statistics on the numbers of book-titles translated into various languages.

. Two simple mind games and some algebra The first warm-up exercise is just common sense. Imagine, if you will, that there is a language with a huge number of books in it, and another with just a few books. Now, which of these languages is going to have the greater number of books translated from it? All else being equal, the bigger one, of course. So we might imagine that there are many translations from English just because there are many books published in English. And this need not imply any global conspiracy on the part of publishing companies or any other pernicious agent. Second game: Let us suggest, as a general idea, that a language in which many books are published will have a lower translation percentage (i.e. translations as a proportion of all books published) than one in which fewer books are published (Pym 1996, 1998). Here we are talking about any language whatsoever. All we have to picture is the same scene as the one we have just thought about: Language A, with many books, has more things that could be translated than does Language B, which has fewer books. For example, Language A has 100 books, and Language B has 10. Now, let us imagine an ideal world where translation percentages apply to all books independently of their origin. Let us say 10 percent of all books in this imaginary world are worth translating and are translated. That means 10 percent of

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44

F: BTL5802.tex / p.3 (157-229)

Quantitative analysis of translation flows

all A’s books are translated into B, and 10 percent of all B’s books are translated into A. Universal justice! But look at what happens: Language A gets just one book from B and finishes up with a translation rate of 0.99 percent (one translation for the 101 books published), and B receives 10 translations from A, so its translation rate is actually 50 percent (translations now account for half of all books published). From this game we must conclude that a low translation percentage in a language may be due to no more than a relatively high number of books published in that language. This seems as obvious as the idea that the more books there are in a language, the more translations there are likely to be from that language (the finding of our first game). It would thus be normal for international English, which has numerous books published in it, to have a relatively low percentage of translations into it. The percentages would be a result of sheer size, and nothing else. Let us try to formalize this simple model and see whether our intuitions and finger-counting games lead to valid generalizations. In order to this we need to switch from arithmetic to algebra and derive the appropriate equation describing the relations we are interested in. As before, we will assume a constant rate of translation from a language, so that if this rate were 10 percent (0.1) then 10 percent of texts written originally in a given language are going to be translated into all other languages. But we want our model to be valid for all possible translation rates and for any number of languages. So let’s have: wi = number of texts written in a language i (originals) pi = total number of texts published in a language i (originals+translations) k = constant translation rate from each language (from 0 to 1) ti = number of translations made from any given language i; equals k×wi Ti = number of translations made into any given language i Now, the rate of translation into a language i (let’s call it ri ) is the following: ri = Ti / pi Ti , the number of translations going into language i, is a sum of translations made from all languages (sum of all ti s), minus those made from i itself (normally one doesn’t translate from, say, Kashubian into Kashubian). The pi , the total of publications in language i, is the number of originals wi plus the above Ti . So, for n languages we get: ri =

kw1 + kw2 + . . . + kwn – kwi wi + (kw1 + kw2 + . . . + kwn – kwi )

ri =

k(w1 + w2 + . . . + wn – wi ) wi + k(w1 + w2 + . . . + wn – wi )



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44



F: BTL5802.tex / p.4 (229-301)

Anthony Pym and Grzegorz Chrupała

At this point let’s put S (number of all originals written in all languages) instead of the unwieldy “w1 + w2 + . . . + wn ”. So we get: ri =

k(S – wi ) wi + k(S – wi )

Here we have an equation that describes the rate of translation into language i as a function of S (the sum of all original texts written in all languages) and wi (number of originals written in language i). However, it would be more convenient to have a single variable that would combine S and wi . We can use wi mi = S where mi is language i’s ‘market share’, that is, the ratio of the number of originals written in that language to the number of originals written in all languages. From this we get: wi = mi × S When we feed this into the equation we can get rid of S and finally we get: ri =

k(1 – mi ) mi + k(1 – mi )

For low (i.e. realistic) values of k, this relation is far from linear. Let’s see a plot for this function f (m) = k(1 – m) / (m + k(1 – m)) for k at 0.1, the level we adopted in our mind game (see Figure 1). The non-linearity of the function makes our original point even stronger. Not only do translation rates decrease as languages become bigger, they decrease faster than a simple linear relation would suggest. Our equation gives a fully linear plot only at k = 1, which stands for the highly implausible scenario where 100 percent of the texts written in any language are translated into all other languages, and for k = 0 where no translations at all are done. What are the possible objections to this simple model? First, our basic assumption of a constant rate of translation from every language is probably not very realistic. That may be so, but the assumption is an acceptable first approximation. By simplifying matters it allows us to construct a manageable model in order to demonstrate the influence of the size of a language on its translation rate. Second, some might object, the ideal world should have a 10 percent proportion or whatever going into each language, such that Language A with 100 books would be obliged to translate all the 10 books from Language B, and Language B with just 10 books would be obliged to translate no more than one book from Language A. That is a possible scenario. However, if each language takes its translations in accordance with the distribution of books available to be translated, the biggest

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44

F: BTL5802.tex / p.5 (301-334)

Quantitative analysis of translation flows r = translation rate

r = k(1 – m) / m + k(1 – m) for k = 0.1

1.16 1.02 0.88 0.74 0.60 0.46 0.32 0.18 0.04 0.04

0.18

0.32

0.46

0.60

0.74

0.88

1.02 1.16 1 m = market share

Figure 1. Hypothetical relation between translation rate and market share

one will still have the most books translated from it. So even this does not entirely solve the problem of global asymmetry, because the rates are equal but the absolute numbers are far from equal. Further, few cultural theorists would be entirely happy with a command economy that were really so indifferent to the relative qualities of books. Would we really want to judge and translate texts solely in terms of their origin?

. Using UNESCO data The games only give us models and hypotheses. To test them we need data on the translations and nontranslations published in a fairly wide range of languages. The numbers most readily available are those in the UNESCO yearbooks, although the yearbooks become less complete and appear less trustworthy from 1986 (thanks in no small measure to the withdrawal of the United States). We have thus decided to look at the data published in 1985, which actually includes figures for 1978–1983. Some notes on these numbers are necessary before proceeding: –

–

This database is rather less than ideal: key countries are missing in many of the tables; the figures given in different tables sometimes do not agree with each other; the notes on the language breakdowns are incomplete. This is also a precarious database because different countries have different definitions of the basic categories (e.g. what counts as a “book”; what counts



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44



F: BTL5802.tex / p.6 (334-391)

Anthony Pym and Grzegorz Chrupała

–

–

–

–

as “literature”; whether we are counting first editions or all editions). Care must thus be taken to ensure that the raw data for each country are compared only with other raw data for the same country (e.g. translations in Germany vs. non-translations in Germany), so that the more blatant differences in definition can be overcome. In search of the least perilous path we have looked at the numbers of first-edition titles in all categories of books (by whatever definition) for 21 languages (which were actually all the languages available for comparison with any degree of certitude). This is an intriguing database because it gives information on books published in non-national languages (e.g. books in French published in Sweden). This enables us to estimate the total number of books published in English without being limited to national categories such as the United States or the United Kingdom. It also gives us some kind of measure as to how non-nationalist certain countries are about their publishing (on which, more below). The database gives figures for several years, so some anomalies can be ironed out by taking the means. It also covers a fair range of languages, both big and small. The period concerned was one of relative stability in political terms, perhaps free of the high volatility that marks the translational development of languages with few books. For example, we find from another source (Vallverdú 1978) that translation percentages into Catalan were 55 percent in 1965, 8.3 percent in 1973, and 16.5 percent in 1977. Our test numbers should try to avoid such rapid shifts, which are due more to local developmental factors than to the general principles we are interested in testing. Perhaps because of the above reasons, the percentages of translations found in the UNESCO data are generally lower than those given in other sources for more recent dates. We find only 13 percent (instead of 25 percent) for Spanish; only 11 percent for German and French apiece. However, since the rate for English is just over 2 percent both here and in other sources, the fundamental difference we are interested in is not quite obscured by the uncertainties of UNESCO.

. Two principles tested Our first mind game suggested that the more books were published in a language, the more translations there would be from that language. When we test this principle on our data, we get the results in Figure 2. English is clearly in an anomalous position. And about twelve languages are huddled together in the bottom left corner, with not many books published and

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44

F: BTL5802.tex / p.7 (391-425)

TRANSLATIONS FROM LANGUAGE (IN THOUSANDS)

Quantitative analysis of translation flows

20 English 15

10 Russian French

5

German Spanish Japanese

0 0

50

100

150

200

BOOKS PUBLISHED IN LANGUAGE (IN THOUSANDS)

Figure 2. Books translated from language, by books published in language. UNESCO data for 1979–1983

thus not many that they could have had translated. But the regression line here averages all of that out and tells us that the general hypothesis holds. In fact the correlation is quite good (p < .0001), as might be expected for such a banal hypothesis. The only slight hitch is that English is clearly above the regression line, which might suggest that more books are indeed translated from it than is the norm for this field. We shall return to this problem later. For the moment, let us simply note that the fact that 41 percent or so of all translations are from English no longer looks quite so abnormal: it is more or less in keeping with what the regression line would predict. Our second game and the equation derived from it suggested that the more books were published in a language, the lower the translation rate would be in that language. In other words, the bigger you become, the smaller the share of your cultural energy you put into intranslations (i.e. translations into your home language). When we test this on our data we obtain the following picture (see Figure 3). Once again English is out on a limb, at a point that is difficult to compare with other languages. We might also note that the highest translation percentage in the sample was for Albanian, which in 1979–1981 was (falsely?) perceived as one of the most closed cultures in the world. And yet here we find that 25 percent of its books



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44

Anthony Pym and Grzegorz Chrupała

PERCENTAGE OF TRANSLATIONS IN LANGUAGE



F: BTL5802.tex / p.8 (425-465)

30 Albanian Danish, Norwegian Finnish, Arabic 20 Hebrew Dutch Slovak Italian 15 Spanish Hungarian German Turkish French Russian 10 Polish Portuguese 5 Japanese

25

English

0

0

50

100

150

200

BOOKS PUBLISHED (IN THOUSANDS)

Figure 3. Percentages of translations, by books published in different languages. UNESCO data for 1979–1983

were translations. Could this be true? As the scatter plot suggests, Albanian had a high translation percentage not just because of any cultural openness but perhaps also because it had so few books published. Unfortunately the general relation here is not as strong as one might have hoped for (p = .0009), which is just under the 0.5 we would like for a convincing correlation). Yet the picture seems clear enough in general terms, especially for the languages with the larger numbers of publications. As the number of books grows, the percentage of translations tends to decline. Figure 3 seems to show quite different behaviour for a group of small languages, for a group of large national languages, and for English out there all by itself. This means there may be groups of languages obeying quite different dynamics, such that further analysis would have to consider each group on its own terms. We would then have even less reason to compare translations into English with translations into Albanian.

. Translation vs. foreign-language reading There was no third game above, but we can play one here. Or you could play it in a bookshop next time you travel. Just walk around and try to estimate the percentage of translations on the shelves (and if you are not yet convinced that English is

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44

F: BTL5802.tex / p.9 (465-520)

Quantitative analysis of translation flows

dominant, take a close look at the business-management or computing sections). You might get estimates as high as 40 percent or 50 percent, or even 80 percent for some fields if the bookshop is at all academic or intellectual. But what you will also find, in many countries, are foreign books that are not translated, usually on sale in the major trade languages of our day, increasingly in English. That is, in many countries the tendency is to read directly in foreign languages, without translation. And this practice, unevenly distributed, must necessarily skew any attempt to associate “cultural openness” (or any such value) with a high percentage of translations. If the Swedes, for example, are all reading in English, they should not really need translations from English, and they will potentially have a very open culture with a rather low percentage of translations. So all the arguments that might be based on translation data, including ours, are at best limited in what they can say about the ways cultures react to globalisation. The hypothesis to be tested, the one that seems quite logical, is that the more a country consumes foreign-language books without translation, the lower the translation percentage will tend to be in its national language or languages. To test this hypothesis we really need reliable data on book exports and imports between a wide range of languages. We do not have any such data. But what we do have, embedded in the UNESCO tables, are numbers of non-nationallanguage books published in numerous countries (e.g. books published in French in Germany). Faute de mieux, we might hope that these numbers indicate uses of nontranslation that are compatible with a certain degree of cultural openness. True, the numbers may concern the country’s foreign projection more than its internal consumption patterns. But that is no reason for not looking at the data. Here is what happens to our hypothesis (Figure 4). Despite severe limitations on the data (UNESCO does not tell us about nonnational-language publications in the United States, the United Kingdom, France or Germany), the results are interesting. Our logical hypothesis is shown to be quite wrong. When countries publish many books in foreign languages, they also tend to translate many books from foreign languages. The R2 here is a high 0.717 (p < .0001), which is a good correlation for a hypothesis that is not at all banal. Exactly what this means requires more information. It could be that intranslation and extranslation are simply moving hand-in-hand, as complementary sides of increased cross-cultural exchange. Or it may just be that translations and nonnational-language publications more actively help each other in raising public awareness about foreign books, with each practice stimulating more than its own narrow market, as was argued by Schlösser (1937: 2) when observing similar phenomena in the German reception of English literary texts. Such speculation goes beyond our present concerns. All we are really interested in showing is that if translation percentages are to indicate something like cultural openness, percentages of nontranslations might be assumed to operate the same way,



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44

Anthony Pym and Grzegorz Chrupała % BOOKS PUBLISHED IN NON-NATIONAL LANGUAGES



F: BTL5802.tex / p.10 (520-547)

35 Albania

30 25

Finland Sweden Arabic-speaking countries Norway Israel Denmark

20

Netherlands

15 Hungary

10 5

Brazil

Poland

USSR Turkey

0

Italy

Slovakia

Spanish-speaking countries

Japan

0

5

10 20 25 15 % TRANSLATIONS IN ALL BOOKS PUBLISHED

30

Figure 4. Percentages of translations, by percentages of books published in nonnational languages. UNESCO data for 1979–1983

at least until we find good data able to prove that translation and foreign-languagereading are compensatory rather than complementary intercultural strategies.

. Postscript: Minorities and the state of English We are not arguing that there is no cultural hegemony. In fact, if one attempts a slightly different kind of calculation, translations into English might have been numerous enough to develop a certain kind of productive hegemony. For the period 1960–1986 the Index Translationum lists more than 2.5 times as many translations in Britain and the United States (1,872,050) as in France (688,720) or Italy (577,950). That is, the number of publications in English is now so great that readers can indeed find more translations there than they can in some languages with higher translation rates. This perhaps amounts to saying that imperialism can bring certain translational rewards; the victors carry off the trophies. Less provocatively, as we have noted, it means we are being less than astute whenever we try simple comparisons (the above lineal regressions) between the world’s major trade language and other languages.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44

F: BTL5802.tex / p.11 (547-615)

Quantitative analysis of translation flows

The sheer size of English means it has its own dynamics. It is not only the first language of some 320 million people worldwide, but also a second language for perhaps that number again. It is an official or dominant language in over 60 countries and “routinely in evidence” in a further 75 countries (Crystal 1997). It has multiple standardised varieties and is the matrix language for some 44 creoles and pidgins across the globe. This is a very big language, with countless variations churning within it. Sheer size may bring with it a very high degree of inner diversity, visible in a wide range of distinct yet more or less mutually comprehensible varieties. Further, many of those different standards and non-standards gain access to printed communication, and do so in many different countries. Our data give some 24 percent of all books in English being published outside of the United States or the United Kingdom; the presence of writers born beyond those two main centres has become a regular feature of English-language literature. In fact, to complete our argument, the sheer size of English could mean that much of the diversity and new blood that other language groups seek through translation, Englishlanguage cultures may be receiving without translation (for the same argument in slightly different terms, see Constantin 1992: 126). Thus, in order to carry out a comparison between the United Kingdom and, say, Albania, we might want to take some of that 24 percent “extra-territorial” publication rate for English (i.e. of non-British or non-American origin) and add it on to the United Kingdom’s basic translation rate. The point, once again, is that if we are trying to assess the effects of globalisation on cultural diversity, translation alone is neither a sufficient measure nor a sufficient remedy. Nontranslation may also be a measure of cultural diversity and openness. And quick statistics on the speed and dangers of globalisation must be handled with a great deal of care.

Note * Briefer comments on the graphs have been published in Pym (2004: 40–45). The authors would like to thank Gideon Toury for corrections to a previous version of this report.

References Constantin, Jean-Paul (1992). “Les éditeurs”. In Françoise Barret-Ducrocq (Ed.), Traduire l’Europe (pp. 125–133). Paris: Payot. Ganne, Valérie & Minon, Marc (1992). “Géographies de la traduction”. In Françoise BarretDucrocq (Ed.), Traduire l’Europe (pp. 55–95). Paris: Payot.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:44



F: BTL5802.tex / p.12 (615-649)

Anthony Pym and Grzegorz Chrupała

Crystal, David (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pym, Anthony (1996). “Venuti’s Visibility”. Target, 8(2), 165–177. Pym, Anthony (1998). Method in Translation History. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Pym, Anthony (2004). The Moving Text: Localization, translation, and distribution. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Schlösser, Anselm (1937). Die englische Literatur in Deutschland von 1895 bis 1934. Jena: Biedermann. UNESCO (1985). Statistical Yearbook / Annuaire statistique / Anuario estadístico. Paris: Unesco. Vallverdú, Francesc (1987). “Els problemes de la traducció”. In Carme Arnau et al. (Eds.), Una aproximació a la literatura catalana i universal (pp. 95–107). Barcelona: Fundació Caixa de Pensions. Venuti, Lawrence (1998). The Scandals of Translation. Towards an Ethics of Difference. London/New York: Routledge.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 14:56

F: BTL5803.tex / p.1 (42-119)

Multilingualism in Europe Blessing or curse? Vilelmini Sosonis

.

Introduction

The European Union, a democratic federation of 15 (and soon 25) equal nations, is an unquestionable reality that dominates the European continent and that will probably continue to do so in the future. Its democratic character implies, among other things, that everyone in the EU has a right to speak in his/her own national language and be understood by the speakers of the rest of the languages of the member-states. Taking that into account, the European Union, since its inception (Council Regulation No. 1, 15 April 1958), has agreed on a policy of multilingualism which dictates the use by the European institutions of the official languages of all the member-states. As a result, at the moment there are 11 official languages for the current 15 member-states. The existence of this unusual multilingual way of working could lead one to wonder how it really works in practice. The first questions that we will attempt to answer are the following: Is the EU a Garden of Eden or a Tower of Babel, or else why is multilingualism in the EU important? In its present form, is it true multilingualism and what is the status of lesser-used languages like Greek and Finnish, and even local varieties – proud hallmarks of national identity like Catalan and Gaelic? At the heart of multilingualism we find translation, an activity that is in itself complex but which becomes even more complex in the context of the European Union. This is due first to the production of original documents in a multilingual environment, second due to the need to express new concepts in all 11 languages and third due to Eurospeak. The questions that thus arise are: How does this multilingual and multicultural environment affect translation? What are the implications for the languages involved? Are all languages equally affected or do the vehicular languages affect the lesser-used languages more?

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 14:56



F: BTL5803.tex / p.2 (119-176)

Vilelmini Sosonis

. The status of multilingualism in the European Union Multilingualism in Europe is an issue that is inextricably related to the notion of language and to its importance for human communication and development. Language is the support of the identity, the memory and the culture of a people. It adds to the diversity and beauty that characterises life on the European continent and constitutes a primordial guardian of cultural identity. The European Union, founded almost fifty years ago and now comprising 15 member-states and almost 370 million people, aims at uniting Europe. This is a task that nobody has managed to achieve through armed force, not even Napoleon or Hitler. This task of the unification of Europe is based on a very simple principle: uniting the nations of Europe while fully respecting their cultural and linguistic diversity, creating a synthesis of European countries and not a fusion of them. This principle lies at the heart of the European Union and at the understanding that European peoples and their cultures are particularly attached to their languages and consider them to be a refuge of liberty and cultural spirit (Goffin 1990: 13). The founding fathers of the European Community, the authors of the Treaties of Rome, recognised right from the beginning the importance of language as the bearer of the cultural identity of a people. Thus, on April 15, 1958 they agreed on a policy of multilingualism with Council Regulation No. 1, which dictates the use by the European institutions of the official languages of the member-states. As a result of the policy of multilingualism, the Union’s legislation must be published in all the member-states’ official languages before it becomes national law. Well before that point, proposals must be aired for debate at all levels – European, national and local – in forms accessible to non-linguists and nondiplomats. In order to participate equally and fully in the decision-making process, citizens or their representatives must be able to read proposals sent from the Commission to the Council of Ministers, to the Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee in their official language. Furthermore, the European Union’s institutions, despite their complicated procedures, aim at being as open as possible to the general public as well as to government departments and official and unofficial interest groups of all kinds. This too is reflected in Council Regulation No 1. In particular, Articles 2 and 3 lay down that the residents of the member-states have the right to communicate with the EU institutions in their official language. The questions that arise at this point are the following: What is the cost involved and what are the implications for the future? Is multilingualism in the context of the European Union true multilingualism? Before we attempt to give answers to the questions posed above, it is necessary to explain the term ‘official languages’. By ‘official languages’ are meant the official languages of the member-states (Koskinen 2000: 52) and all are considered to be

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 14:56

F: BTL5803.tex / p.3 (176-222)

Multilingualism in Europe

‘equal’. According to Council Regulation No. 1, if a member-state has more than one official language, the language to be used shall, at the request of that state, be governed by the general rules of its law. The six original founding nations had four official languages: French was used in France, Belgium (partly), and Luxembourg (partly). Dutch was the language of the Netherlands and also an official language in Belgium. Germany (and Luxembourg) spoke German, and Italy used Italian. In 1973, English and Danish were added to the official languages thus bringing the total of official languages to six. In 1981, the entry of Greece added Greek to the official languages of the European Union. Spain added Spanish and Portugal Portuguese in 1986. In 1995, the entry of Sweden (Swedish), Finland (Finnish), and Austria (German) brought the number of member-states to 15 and the number of official EU languages to 11 (Dollerup 1996: 298; Bitsoris & Karantzola 1996: 17). At present, ten more countries (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Cyprus and Malta) have signed an Accession Treaty and are legally bound to join the Union in May 2004. This means that the Union will soon have 21 members and 20 official languages. Even though many Europeans consider this ideal of multilingualism and linguistic equality essential, they do not always respond to it with enthusiasm (Koskinen 2000: 53). In fact multilingualism is a controversial issue; it is praised by some but it is also fiercely criticised by others. The reasons for criticism arise first from the cost that the implementation of multilingualism involves and second from the ‘relative’ notion of linguistic equality. As far as the cost of multilingualism is concerned, it is worth mentioning that the resources needed to make the official regime of multilingualism work are considerable: 1. Six interpreters for meetings with three-language interpretation, 33 for 11 languages. 2. In each institution, translation units for translation into each official language, teams of lawyer-linguists in the Parliament and in the Commission, linguistic typing pools corresponding to the size of the translation units, extra printers, distributors, typists and archivists to cope with all the language versions of documents. 3. The Office for Official Publications which issues a daily Official Journal in two parts in 11 languages, i.e. 110 publications a week. 4. Separate Translation Service in Luxembourg for the EU institutes. 5. Large conference rooms to allow for interpretation cabins and extra offices for linguistic staff (Forrest 1998: 302). Based on the multitude of these resources, the critics of multilingualism in the EU reckon that the system is very complicated and expensive and sometimes leads to delays. The answer that can be given to them is that the entire administrative costs



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 14:56



F: BTL5803.tex / p.4 (222-278)

Vilelmini Sosonis

of the EU institutions, including interpretation and translation, account for only 5% of the EU budget. In addition, delays in decision-making are more likely to be caused by political problems or by cumbersome procedures than by translation problems (Forrest 1998). If we move on to the issue of linguistic equality, we can break it down into two parts: (1) the status of regional or minority languages, like Catalan or Saami and (2) the status of lesser-used languages, like Finnish and Greek, compared to vehicular languages, like for instance English and French. As pointed out earlier, the official languages of the European Union are the official languages of the member-states. Consequently, not all European citizens have the right to use their ‘own language’, in the sense that speakers of various regional or minority languages like Catalan or Saami, let alone the multiple ethnic minorities of immigrant origin, do not have the same linguistic rights as, for instance, speakers of English or Spanish. To be specific, in the present Union, there are about forty million people who speak approximately forty regional or minority languages, like Catalan (Spain, France, Italy), Frisian (The Netherlands, Germany), Welsh (UK) and Saami (Sweden, Finland). It is notable that Catalan is spoken by some seven million people in Spain, France and Italy – that is by as many, or even by more, than those who speak one of the official languages Swedish, Portuguese, Danish or Finnish. Apart from the minority and regional languages that ‘question’ multilingualism and the principle of linguistic equality, the official languages of the European Union are also involved in the debate. In particular, although the European Union guarantees equal rights to the official languages of its members, it is only on a judiciary level that these rights are actually applied (Pavlidou 1991: 286). Real life within the EU favours the languages spoken by most people, i.e. English, French and German, the so-called ‘vehicular’ languages. Most documents are originally drafted in one of those languages and not in a lesser-used language or language of lesser diffusion like Danish or Greek. In addition, most talks and discussions take place in English, based on the assumption that, taken the status of English as an international lingua franca, the majority, if not the entirety of the participants can speak English fluently and effectively communicate their ideas. As a concluding point we can say that . . . linguistic equality in the EU is indeed a relative concept which depends on one’s native language, French, German and mainly English being ‘more equal’ than the others, and minority languages with no official status being at the bottom of the ladder. (Forrest 1998: 314–317)

It is obvious that multilingualism in its present form is not true multilingualism, but despite the deficiencies in its implementation, it is in itself valuable. At least, it is more democratic than a policy that dictates the use of a lingua franca, such as

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 14:56

F: BTL5803.tex / p.5 (278-331)

Multilingualism in Europe

English, as has been proposed by many, especially by those who fear the cost and the difficulties that will arise in an enlarged Union. In order not only to safeguard, but also to ‘create’ true multilingualism in an enlarged European Union, and pursue the promotion of minority and regional languages, it is essential that the institutions of the Union work together with the member-states. Up to now, some action has been taken with respect to lesserused and minority languages. Specifically, the European Parliament has prepared a series of reports on the situation of regional or minority communities and adopted a series of resolutions calling for measures to benefit them, notably the resolution of 9 February 1994 on linguistic and cultural minorities. It has also encouraged the European Commission to take initiatives in this direction and has used its budgetary powers to increase the amount in the Union’s budget thus enabling a large number of projects to be carried out (Euromosaic). The education international exchange programmes ERASMUS and LINGUA, as well as the overall programme SOCRATES to which they now belong, should also be mentioned as a successful initiatives. Finally, equally important are the Community vocational training action programme LEONARDO, which helps finance transnational pilot projects on language learning in vocational training and work situations, and the ARIANE Programme on books and reading which involves financial support for the translation of literary works, mainly from lesser-used and minority languages. Even though these measures constitute a positive step towards multilingualism, more have to be taken, especially after further enlargements take place, when more languages, both official and not official, will be added to the linguistic map of Europe.

. Translation, hybridity and implications for translation The role of translation and its status in the European Union is an issue which is closely related to multilingualism and the policy of linguistic equality. Translation together with interpretation constitute the means to implement Council Regulation No. 1 and thus the policy of multilingualism. At present, three bodies have permanent ongoing translation activity in Brussels: the European Commission, the European Council and the Economic and Social Committee. In Luxembourg, the European Parliament has its own Translation Service. However, the Commission’s Translation Service is by far the largest and the most complex of all. In fact, it is the largest Translation Service in the world. But what exactly is the role of the Translation Service? First of all, the Translation Service is responsible for translating the Union’s legislation, which as we observed earlier, must be published in all the member-states’ official languages. In



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 14:56



F: BTL5803.tex / p.6 (331-391)

Vilelmini Sosonis

addition, it regularly has to undertake the translation of texts like calls for tender, technical rules, reports and studies on various subjects, speeches and speaking notes, briefings and press releases, international agreements, policy statements, answers to written and oral parliamentary questions, financial reports, minutes, etc. Almost all of these texts are translated into the 11 official languages of the European Union and, as new countries join, their languages will be added to the number. The role of the Translation Service may seem straightforward but unfortunately that is far from the truth. Since the 11 official languages of the European Union enjoy equal official status, in theory, once a set of translations is complete, a source language (SL) does not exist and the target texts (TTs) are not called translations but ‘versions’ (Schäffner 1997: 194). Actually it is the official policy which states that translations are not real translations but ‘language versions’, in other words that the documents are not merely translated but drafted in all languages simultaneously, and that none of the versions is a derivative of any other. Once the translations are finished, the source text (ST) actually ceases to exist as such, since none of the eleven ‘equivalent’ documents is supposed to carry any sign which distinguishes it from the others. In other words, within the EU context, equivalence is an inherent quality of all translations. This kind of equivalence can be seen clearly in EU legislation, where all the ‘language versions’ are equally valid. Based on that notion, the Translation Service has sometimes been called a contemporary Tower of Babel. Koskinen (2000: 34), however, points out that a better analogy can be found in the well-known myth of the translators of the Septuagint, according to which seventy-two Greek rabbis translated the Old Testament in isolated cells and guided by divine inspiration all produced identical translations. In a similar way to their biblical colleagues, EU translators miraculously produce eleven equal versions of a document (Koskinen 2000: 54). Koskinen also points out that this linguistic equality, so intensely defended by the European Union, is sometimes synonymous with ‘existential equivalence’, i.e. all the language versions need to exist, and any further use for the text is quite irrelevant or at least subordinate to the symbolic function (2000: 51). For instance, the translations of the minutes of various administrative boards and EU committees may never be read by anyone, but they have to exist so that they conform with the policy of linguistic equality. In reality, this ‘equality’ seems to be located mainly on the notional level (equal value) which was discussed above and on the surface level. Surface similarity, whereby all texts should look the same, is considered to guarantee that readers of the various translations all get the same message (Koskinen 2000). Surface similarity mainly consists of ‘sameness’ between texts in all 11 languages. In particular this means that the documents are typed out in much the same way in terms of sentences (and largely layout) and that there is literal rendering and the closest possible syntax and lexis (Dollerup 1996: 306). That is deemed

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 14:56

F: BTL5803.tex / p.7 (391-439)

Multilingualism in Europe

necessary because in oral and written negotiations that are based on a document, the negotiators must be able to refer to a particular article, paragraph, sentence, etc. In addition, there are constraints with regard to the sentences: one sentence in the ST must correspond to one sentence in the TT (Trosborg 1997: 152); the number of paragraphs has to match, and headings and subheadings have to be located in the same place as in the original. There is also the full-stop rule, which prescribes an equal number of full stops in ST and TT (Koskinen 2000: 55). Related to the above is the aspect of uniform conventions, such as the way to conclude letters. Until very recently, for example, Danes were not allowed to conclude letters the Danish way, that is “Med venlig hilsen”, but were required to use the French expression “Veuillez agréer, monsieur le professeur, l’assurance de mes sentiments distingués” (Dollerup 1996: 306). Languages, or rather texts, in the EU are characterised not only by uniform conventions but also by Eurospeak and Eurojargon. According to Wagner, jargon is the language used by any group of insiders or specialists to communicate with each other in a way that cannot always be understood by outsiders (e.g. commitology, habilitation, etc.) (1999). Trosborg refers to Eurojargon as the language used by Eurocrats, i.e. EU negotiators, staff and even translators and interpreters, and which is “often blurred, complicated and hard to understand” (1997: 152). This jargon, she continues, is most outspoken in Union legalese which may lead to lack of comprehension for the non-specialist reader. Wagner claims that Eurospeak, on the other hand, is potentially useful language coined to describe European Union inventions and concepts which have no exact parallel at national level. Others, like Flesch (1998, http://europa.eu.int/comm/translation/en/ftfog/flesch.htm) and Goffin (1994) use Eurospeak and Eurojargon interchangeably. Still, they all agree (including translators) that Eurospeak constitutes a necessary aspect of EU texts and it stems from the need to name new concepts and objects. Eurospeak cannot be simplified in EU texts mainly because it would entail long and therefore unnatural explanations which would be very difficult for EU officials to deal with since they would disrupt continuity of meaning (Interview with W. Fraser, Brussels: November 1999). According to Wagner there are only a few cases of real Eurospeak, like subsidiarity, codecision, convergence, etc. but whether we are referring to Eurojargon or Eurospeak, Europeans don’t like it. As Goffin observes, the citizens of the European Union disapprovingly call the language of EU texts ‘l’eurobabillage’, ‘le brouillard linguistique européen’, in French or ‘Eurowelsch’ or ‘Eurokauderwelsch’ in German, ‘Eurospeak’ or ‘Eurofog’ in English. They have even referred to it by way of an acronym which is made of the first letters of the official languages of the European Union before 1984, namely ‘Dadefinspeaking Community’ (da=danois, d=deutsch, e=english, f=français, i=italien, n=néerlandais) (1994). All those names pictorially describe



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 14:56



F: BTL5803.tex / p.8 (439-493)

Vilelmini Sosonis

the negative attitude that Europeans adopt with respect to EU texts and the Eurospeak or Eurojargon that these use. We can, therefore, say that the linguistic equality, with the surface equivalence and ‘sameness’ that it entails, in combination with Eurojargon, leads to the creation of texts that can be characterised as ‘hybrid texts’. Hybrid texts are texts that are produced as a compromise between cultures and they appear as an outcome of negotiations between different languages and cultures and may involve features which are contradictory to target language (TL) and target culture (TC) norms (Trosborg 1997: 329–330). Hybridity is usually viewed as the result of intercultural communication as opposed to cross-cultural communication. As Schäffner and Adab (2001) observe, the two prefixes ‘inter-’ and ‘cross’ suggest a different perspective. Whereas intercultural focuses on a process of fertilisation from both languages and cultures, cross-cultural seems to focus on a one-dimensional movement, a simple aspect of crossing boundaries and therefore in this case taking concepts, ideas or words from the other. One can argue, of course, that hybridity in the case of EU texts cannot be viewed as an instance of intercultural communication since, most often, it is a dominant culture that enters and penetrates a minor, subordinate or, if we put it more positively, a receptive culture. It is intercultural though, because even if languages and cultures in the European Union vary from dominant to less dominant, they interact, they borrow and lend; maybe English and French lend more to, say, Finnish and Greek but Greek and Finnish in return definitely lend something back, even if it is to a lesser degree. In any case, EU texts remain the products of multicultural and multilingual negotiation and reflect a new reality marked by internationalisation and language interrelationship. They are, thus, an inevitable consequence of intercultural communication.

. Conclusion The road to the application of the policy of multilingualism is not smooth; it is bumpy and sometimes full of traps. All Europeans can do is be aware of the dangers but at the same time accept the fact that an enormous change is taking place which unquestionably affects life, culture, and inevitably language. Leaving aside political and cultural issues, Europeans should celebrate their linguistic diversity but at the same time they should also be aware lest they end up consecrating it with some sort of divine right to remain unaltered by events. It is, after all, events which have produced this diversity in the first place. Whilst it is true that languages can be seen as natural resources, which

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 14:56

F: BTL5803.tex / p.9 (493-575)

Multilingualism in Europe

can be either squandered or protected like endangered species, people should not neglect the possibility that, by seeking to protect, they in fact squander. The best guarantee of survival is the ability to adapt to the world in which they, and their languages, live. (Roche 1991: 146)

References Bitsoris, V. & Karantzola, E. (1996). La Langue Grecque dans l’Union Européene élargie. Athènes: Centre de la Traduction Litteraire. Coulmas, F. (Ed.). (1991). A Language Policy for the European Community. Prospects and Quandaries. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Dollerup, C. (1996). “Language Work at the European Union”. In M. Gaddis Rose (Ed.), Translation Perspectives IX. New York: State University of New York at Binghamton. Flesch, C. (1998). “Fight the Fog”. [Consulted 1 Sept. 2003]. . Forrest, A. (1998). “The Politics of Language in the European Union”. European Review, 6(3), 299–319. Goffin, R. (1990). “L’Europe en Neuf Langues: Champ d’Affrontements et Ferment d’Intégration Linguistiques”. Meta, XXXV(1), 13–19. Goffin, R. (1994). “L’Eurolecte: Oui, Jargon Communautaire: Non”. Meta, 39(4), 636–642. Koskinen, K. (2000). “Institutional Illusions”. The Translator, 6(1), 49–65. Pavlidou, T. (1991). “Linguistic Nationalism and European Unity: The Case of Greece”. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), A Language Policy for the European Community. Prospects and Quandaries. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Roche, N. (1991). “Multilingualism in European Community Meetings – a Pragmatic Approach”. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), A Language Policy for the European Community. Berlin: de Gruyter. Schäffner, C. (1997). “Where is the Source Text?”. In H. Schmidt & G. Wotjak (Eds.), Models of Translation. Frankfurt: Vervuert. Schäffner, C. & Adab, B. (2001). ‘The Idea of the Hybrid Text in Translation: Contact as Conflict’. Across Languages and Cultures, 2(2), 167–180. Schmidt, H. & Wotjak, G. (Eds.). (1997). Models of Translation. Frankfurt: Vervuert. Trosborg, A. (Ed.). (1997). Text Typology and Translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Trosborg, A. (1997). “Translating Hybrid Political Texts”. In A. Trosborg (Ed.), Text Typology and Translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Wagner, E. (1999). “Does Eurojargon Exist and what is the Fight the Fog Campaign?”. Paper presented at the Seminar Translating for the European Institutions. London: ITI.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03

F: BTL5804.tex / p.1 (42-109)

An example of linguistic submission The translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants into Arabic Hassan Hamzé

.

Introduction

Arabic, like the languages of the Third World, imports many terms from European languages, English and French in particular. The transfer is done at high speed and often in an anarchic way. The fast evolution of sciences and the absence of a unique Arabic organisation endowed with a real power to deal with the standardisation and the unification of loan terms are two major factors contributing to this anarchy.1 English and French massively call upon affixes and Greco-Latin formants in the formation of their terminology. Many tables of equivalence were elaborated in the Arab World with the aim of proposing one or many Arabic equivalents to each one of these affixes and formants.2 However, it seems that the idea of going even further appeals to certain minds. In order to find a solution to the real problem of terminological transfer, certain researchers in the Arab World deem it necessary, even essential to adopt systematic Arabic equivalents of French and English prefixes and suffixes. M. R. al-H . amzaoui, for example, recommends an exhaustive study of all the affixes in Arabic and in European languages to draw, as he says, “general automatic rules and criteria which can be applied in a systematic way, in order to ensure a fast translation” (1975: 128, emphasis added). The aim is no doubt legitimate, and the idea is, at first sight, tempting. The search for a systematisation of translation to avoid the treatment of each case separately is fully justified. To each French affix should correspond one Arabic equivalent, and only one; thus we obtain unified Arabic terminology with respect to French or English.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03



F: BTL5804.tex / p.2 (109-169)

Hassan Hamzé

Nevertheless, the validity of this approach remains to be proved not only for Arabic, but also for other languages which have a status similar to that of Arabic. In what follows, we will examine this approach, as well as the theoretical presuppositions which underlie it and which seem to escape, totally or partially, its partisans.

. The superiority of source languages . Systematisation of exporting languages? The first theoretical presupposition that underlies this approach is the contrast, most certainly implicit, between anarchic, inaccurate, inadequate, badly structured Arabic scientific terminology – which is considerably true – and systematic Western scientific terminology which couldn’t be better. We can describe at length the problems of Arabic terminology, which are not unfamiliar to the Third World modern languages which are constantly running to import new scientific terms. However, on no account are these true difficulties and problems to mask the reality and to let us believe that the vocabulary of exporting languages is a model to follow, not without the same defects. It is just simply that exporting languages’ difficulties are double. These difficulties are related to the formation of vocabulary, even scientific vocabulary, as well as to issues of synonymy, polysemy and homonymy.

. The formation of vocabulary The formation of general vocabulary and scientific terminology by means of affixes and Greco-Latin formants is far from being systematic in source languages such as French. With the two French suffixes -logue and -logiste (the two suffixes mean -logist in English) we form radiologue and radiologiste (the two terms mean radiologist in English), ophtalmologue and ophtalmologiste (two French synonyms that mean ophthalmologist), neurologue and neurologiste (neurologist in English); but we say psychologue and not *psychologiste (psychologist in English), biologiste and not *biologue (biologist in English), etc. It is hard to expect a systematic formation of terminology in the target language if this formation is not systematic in the source language. What systematisation can we ask for in Arabic in the translation of the suffixes -logue and -logiste if they haven’t a systematic function in the source language?

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03

F: BTL5804.tex / p.3 (169-221)

Translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants into Arabic

. Synonymy Synonymy is a common occurrence in the source languages. Let us come back to the suffixes -logue and -logiste mentioned above in neurologue and neurologiste, ophtalmologue and ophtalmologiste. What is the difference between ophtalmologue and ophtalmologiste? The dictionary doesn’t mention any difference between the two words; neither do the subject-field specialists.3 Moreover, the two terms appear under the same headword in le petit Larousse as well as in Le Robert d’aujourd’hui: “anatomist, physiologist, doctor specialist of the eye” (Le Robert d’aujourd’hui). By choosing one and only one Arabic equivalent for each prefix and each suffix, we will carry over this synonymy into the target language and we will obtain two signifiants for the same signifié. This example should not surprise us. Synonymy is very frequent among prefixes and suffixes. When comparing for instance terms with the prefixes cutand derm-, or with the suffixes -able and -ible or -ment and -ion, we realize the full extent of synonymy of those affixes.4

. Polysemy Polysemy is very frequent among prefixes and suffixes. C. Bally (1965: 240–241), speaks of prefixes “indulged to unforeseeable whim”. He gives as example the prefix re- which has, as he says, “extremely varied” meanings. Indeed, in addition to the meaning that we can find in relire, revenir, This prefix offers delicate nuances related to aspect; thus, remplir indicates the terminative aspect [. . . ]. A close nuance is that which shows the importance of the action, the effort, the attention, the care which it requires: “recouvrir une table d’un tapis” [. . . ]. Finally, and very frequently, re- is meaningless: regarder [. . . ]; it shows sometimes a purely conventional difference between the simple and the prefixal (“tarder à venir: ma montre retarde”) [. . . ]. Or, in the same word, sometimes this prefix has a meaning and sometimes it is asemantic: compare “représenter un plat” and “représenter une comédie” [. . . ]. (C. Bally 1965: 240–241)

This polysemy does not occur only in general vocabulary. It also occurs in scientific and technical terminology. The suffix -eur, for instance, can apply, inter alia, either to a human agent who produces an action or to an instrument similar to an agent. Thus, the term émetteur (sender) can mean, inter alia, in the banking field, a person or an organization “who issues notes, bills” and in the telecommunication field a “set of devices and apparatuses aimed at producing electromagnetic waves able to transmit sounds and pictures” (Le Robert d’aujourd’hui). In linguistics, this term which refers



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03



F: BTL5804.tex / p.4 (221-282)

Hassan Hamzé

to “the person who produces a message carried out according to specific code rules” applies to “the apparatus” or to “the person who produces the message” (Dictionnaire de linguistique).5 We can say the same thing about the two prefixes hypo- and hyper- which are defined in the dictionary as, respectively, “insufficiency” and “excess”.6 If we are to go by al-Kat.îb’s testimony (1982: 42), there is a quasi-agreement (šibh ‘ittifâq) at the Arabic Academy of Cairo to translate the prefix hypo- by the term habt.7 and the prefix hyper- by the term fart.. However, between the two technical terms hyponym and hyperonym, for example, there is no relation of insufficiency and excess, but a relation of contents and container, and vice versa.8 The systematic translation of these two prefixes by the two Arabic terms habt. and fart. would produce two polysemous terms and would appear, in the case of the two terms hyponym and hyperonym as a cruel joke because the Arabic equivalents thus produced wouldn’t make sense.9

. Homonymy Homonymy is also present in a certain number of affixes even if it is not as frequent as synonymy and polysemy. In the prefixes anté- (ante-) and anti- (anti-), polysemy is coupled with homonymy. Just compare antédiluvien (antediluvian) to antéchrist (antichrist) or antidate (antedate) and antichambre (anteroom) to antibrouillard (fog light) and anticorrosion (anticorrosive). In the first cases (antédiluvien, antichambre and antidate), the prefix comes from Latin and expresses anteriority; in the latter cases, it comes from Greek and expresses opposition.10 The prefix auto- provides another example of homonymy which differs, however, in its creation. This prefix “comes from the Greek pronoun αύτός and means of or by oneself ”; hence terms such as autobiography, which means the “biography of a person written by that person”. Automobile, a “term of mechanics”, means “something that moves by itself, without mechanism” (Littré). This prefix is coupled with another auto- which comes from the word automobile. It doesn’t mean “by itself ”, like the first one, but something in relation with the automobile, without there being any explicit explanation of this relation. Thus autoradio (car radio) is a “radio designed to be fixed on the dashboard”; auto-stop11 (hitch-hiking) is the “act of stopping a car and asking for free rides”. Finally, un train auto-couchette (a car sleeper-train) is a “night train transporting at the same time passengers in berths and their car” (Le Robert d’aujourd’hui). The big problems posed by the affixes in the source languages before translating them are very obvious. The consultation of any French general dictionary, affixes dictionary or dictionary in the technical field makes it possible to notice

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03

F: BTL5804.tex / p.5 (282-344)

Translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants into Arabic

these problems.12 The systematic translation of these affixes would produce, in the best of cases, a copy true to the original. If the French-Arabic specialised dictionaries and lexicons do not manage to give a systematic translation of prefixes and suffixes, it’s quite simply because it’s impossible, objectively, to produce a systematic copy of an original which is, in itself, unsystematic.

. Meaning of the unit and meaning of the components The second theoretical presupposition concerning the request for a systematic translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants is to believe that the meaning of a given term consists of the sum of the signifiés of its various components. This presupposition is wrong, to say the least. If the various constituent morphemes of a unit should be taken into account, the meaning of the whole unit cannot be reduced to a simple mechanical addition of the signifiés of its components. A word should not be seen as a linear translation of the prefix, radical, and suffix that form it, but rather it is the signifié of the whole unit that should be rendered. A term like antiphrase (antiphrasis) should mean, if we just translated its radical phrase and its prefix anti-, “that which is opposite to the phrase” or “that which comes before the phrase”, as the prefix anti- is homonymic. Thus, we should think of a simple unit, the word, or of an unstructured group, as opposed to the complex and structured phrase. However, it is the semantic aspect and not the combinative one which is referred to by the term. The Dictionnaire de linguistique defines the word antiphrase as follows: The name antiphrasis is given to a word or a group of words used with a meaning contrary to its true signification by irony, for stylistic reasons or to subject oneself to a taboo. Thus, the exclamatory phrase That’s great! can express regret or anger.

We can even go further and say that the approach of the terminologist is onomasiologic. He tries to find the sign or the signs capable of rendering a given concept. In a translation, it’s inevitable for him to go through the linguistic sign. However, he isn’t aiming at giving, in the target language, the equivalent of this sign or the equivalent of the elements which constitute it, but he is aiming at finding the sign or the signs in the target language that can render the concept of the source language.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03



F: BTL5804.tex / p.6 (344-390)

Hassan Hamzé

. Only one view of the world? . Translation of language or translation of culture? The third theoretical presupposition in the approach examined is related to the traditional conception of language.13 This conception is based on two postulates: the primacy of thought over language and the universality of thought vis-à-vis the diversity of languages. On the other hand, modern linguistics stresses the fact that languages aren’t nomenclatures, that translation isn’t a transfer of language but a transfer operating from one culture to another. De Saussure laughs at the traditional view which considers the difference in denomination in different languages as a difference in labelling an exterior reality which is the same for all people (Cours de linguistique générale, note 129, p. 440). Languages do not view realities in the same way. To illustrate, Arabic distinguishes between borrowing an object to return it later (like when borrowing a book) from borrowing an object to return its equivalent later (like when borrowing money). French and English do not make this distinction. Furthermore, Arabic can create two different forms with nouns. the first one, /facc a:l/, is to name the person who exercises a profession, the second one, /fa:c il/, is to name the possessor. We say /Ta:MiR/ for one who possesses dates (TaMR), /TaMma:R/ for the date merchant. It is the same for milk (LaBaN) since we distinguish /La:BiN/ from /LaBba:N/ (Sîbawayhi: al-kitâb, 3, 381–382).14 On the other hand, Arabic uses one term to denote both a library and a bookshop. It is not compulsory to find a systematic use of two different forms or two different affixes in French that correspond to the two Arabic forms /fa:c il/ and /facc a:l/. That’s also true for Arabic and this is certainly not a gap to fill or a defect to correct. Indeed, languages may view the same reality from many different angles. French gardien (guard) uses the suffix -ien, which is typically used to denote membership in a group (e.g. an ethnic group, such as égyptien [Egyptian]). On the other hand, the Arabic term for guard would correspond to a French word with the agentive suffix -eur (such as chanter [sing] > chanteur [singer]). In other words, the Arabic word would be like *gardeur (keeper). Do we have to force the target language to adapt its view of the world to the requirements of a systematic translation of affixes?

. The conceptual traits of the term A name is a label.15 In the best of cases, it can only select a limited number of traits from the concept to be named. It is often limited to the expression of a single trait or, quite simply, to the fact of giving a proper name, that of the creator

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03

F: BTL5804.tex / p.7 (390-461)

Translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants into Arabic

of the concept. Examples: Ampere, Volt, etc. In this case, the concept remains completely opaque. The trait or traits selected by the source language to denote the given concept is/are not necessarily the most relevant one(s) for this denomination. To do a systematic translation of the affixes would amount to a selection of the same conceptual traits in the two languages. However, it is not compulsory for the target language to select the same traits selected by the source language, an idea that is closely akin to the one developed in the previous paragraph. Thus, the translation of prefixes and suffixes is not inevitably a relevant choice contributing to the transparency of the term. To illustrate, in autoroute (motorway), two traits are selected: the trait of the radical and the trait of the formant auto-. However, autoroute is not a simple route for auto, but “a broad road with double carriageway reserved for motor vehicles, protected, without crossroads or level crossings” (Le Robert d’aujourd’hui). Thus, many traits are not taken into account in the term. Obviously, the creation of an Arabic term must aim to designate a definite concept and not to translate the traits selected by the French term. The prefix ré- is often translated tâniyat-an (a second time) in works of the Arabic Academy of Cairo. M. R. al-H . amzaoui’s (1988: 458) main criticism of the translation of this prefix is that it lacks precision and generalisation (’it..tirâd), and sometimes even shows a total ignorance of the concept. He gives as an example the use of the term radd (restitution) to translate the prefix ré- in réhabilitation translated by radd al-’ic tibâr (restitution de la considération). However, the trait selected by the Arabic term radd (restitution) in the translation of réhabilitation does not indicate a repetition, a second time, but it refers to an esteem which was withdrawn and then restored. This trait comes close to the meaning of réhabilitation given by le Petit Larousse: “to restore rights, capacity, and legal situation to someone who had lost them.” The choice of radd (restitution, retour) can also be a bad choice as shown in this beautiful example given by al-Kat.îb (1982: 38). The term réaction, in the field of mechanics, is translated radd fic l. However, in chemistry, when there is a reaction between an acid and a base to produce salt, for instance, Arabic does not choose radd fic l, which is used by certain translators, but the form /tafa :c ul/ (mutual action), denoting reciprocity. This type of translation exists “for wellestablished terms” (muttafaq c alay hi), according to al-Kat.îb. But what can we say about new ones?



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03



F: BTL5804.tex / p.8 (461-506)

Hassan Hamzé

. Traditional terminology An additional problem arises: the status of old Arabic terminology in scientific and technical fields. Indeed, the fact of insisting on a systematic and automatic translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants implies a prerequisite: the absence of any terminology prior to the source language translation. This way of proceeding, which may possibly apply to young sciences like genetics and computing, will certainly come up against problems in fields in which Arabic scientific or technical terminology already existed, like grammar or medicine. Old Arabic terms were elaborated quite a long time ago and some of these terms are still in use in fields invaded by a considerable number of new terms. Thus, the word pair déterminé vs indéterminé (definite vs. indefinite), which has the deeply entrenched traditional Arabic equivalent mac rifat vs. nakirat, is not suitable for a systematic translation of affixes. Indeed, the prefix in- in indéterminé has no equivalent in the term nakirat. Should we give up using this term just to meet the requirements of systematic translation? The same problem is likely to arise with regard to the reapplication of old terms in order to denote new concepts more or less close to their old meanings.16 This is the case of .safaqa, which was reapplied by certain researchers in the term .safq addam17 to denote blood transfusion. One of the meanings of .safaqa in old Arabic texts, as mentioned in the Arabic-French dictionary (Kazimirski 1860), is: “to decant, to pour (e.g. wine) from one glass bottle into another in order to make it clear”. However, using .safq ad-dam for blood transfusion goes against a systematic translation of affixes since it does not make it possible to take into account only one translation of the prefix trans- which can also be found in transfusion, transmutation and transbordement (transshipment) (al-H . amzaoui 1988: 460–461).

. The diversity of source languages The translation of a term is not the search for its linguistic equivalent in the target language but the selection of a signifiant which matches its signifié. To attempt to render the same traits in the target language means to translate the signifiant. However, the translation of signifiants is always trapped by the diversity of source languages. The traits selected by a given source language are not always the same traits selected by the others. The diversity of source languages, French and English in this case, is one of the reasons for the anarchy in modern Arabic linguistic terminology.18 From which source language do we have to translate? It is said that the affixes are the same in the scientific fields and that there’s a set of “international” terminology to translate. This thesis of internationality is true to a certain extent, perhaps even to a large extent in some fields, but it

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03

F: BTL5804.tex / p.9 (506-566)

Translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants into Arabic

remains partial and it reflects a strong tendency to ignore the others, which is the most important and the most dangerous thing. This “international terminology” reminds us of “international opinion,” which is reduced, broadly-speaking, to the United States and some Western Europe countries. All the rest of the world, thousands of millions of people in China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan – to mention only the largest countries – is considered as a negligible quantity.

. The ignorance of linguistic differences The fourth theoretical presupposition of the aforementioned approach ignores the differences between linguistic systems and recommends, perhaps without realising it, the transposition of terms from one system to another. The recommended systematic translation of affixes in international terminology poses an acute problem for languages with morphology that is different from that of source languages. In French, the derivation is done from a radical, a unit made up of a sequence of consonants and vowels to which we can possibly stick prefixes and suffixes. This is the type of derivation which seems to be taken into account in the definition of derivation given by the Dictionnaire de linguistique (Dubois 1973), and it is basically the concept of agglutination: Derivation consists of the agglutination of lexical elements, at least one of which is not likely to be used independently, in a single form [. . . ]. The elements of a derivative are: – The radical, consisting of an independent term (faire in refaire) or dependent one (-fec in refection). – The affixes, elements attached to a word, called prefixes if they precede the radical [. . . ], or suffixes if they follow it [. . . ]. It is worth noting, however, that prefixes can correspond to forms having lexical autonomy [. . . ] whereas suffixes are not likely to be used independently. (Dubois 1973, emphasis added)

On the contrary, derivation in Arabic is done via interior inflection19 from a consonantal root. Unlike French, the syllabic system of Arabic establishes a fundamental disjunction between the subgroup of consonants and the subgroup of vowels. Says A. Roman (1999: 19–20) This disjunction, since the consonants and the vowels can be used independently of each other, allows systematic assignment of different tasks to consonants and vowels [. . . ]. The Semitic languages have set up their “sous-système de nomination” [the subsystem of denomination] on the basis of consonantal roots. As to short



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03



F: BTL5804.tex / p.10 (566-632)

Hassan Hamzé

vowels, they are used, at the end of the form like case endings of the “système de communication” [system of communication]; inside the form, they are the privileged signifiants of “grammatical determiners” or “modalities.”

The organization of derivatives by means of interior inflection can be schematised as follows (Capital letters have been used to distinguish the radical consonants.): (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) m-a (8) m-a (9) (10)

Ka Ki Ku Ku Ka: Ku K K Ka Ka:

T Ta: Tu Tayyi Ti Tta: Ta Ta Ta Ta

(11)

Ku: Ti

(12) (13) ta(14) ta(15) (‘u)20 etc.

Ka K K K

Tta Tu Tu Tu

B “the fact of writing. B “a piece of writing, a book” B “pieces of writing, books” B “a short piece of writing, a short book” B “the one who writes, writer” B “those who write, writers” B “place where one writes, office” B-a-t “place teeming with books, library” B -ta “you wrote” B -ta “you exchanged pieces of writing with someone” B -ta “someone exchanged pieces of writing with you” B -ta “you made someone write” B -u “you write (indicative)” B -a “you write (subjunctive)” B Ø “Write! (imperative)”

In all these examples, the process of denomination is ensured by the triconsonantal root (K.T.B.) which denotes the concept of writing common to all the derivatives; the change is made via interior inflection. The right margin of nouns remains free to receive the case endings, pieces of the système de communication; the right margin of the prefixed forms of the verb receives modal endings, the suffixed form indicates always the real mode called indicative by the Arabic tradition. As one can see, these case and modal endings are placed outside the root. Inside the root, vowels constitute modalities or simple syntagmatic vowels. In KaTaBa (he wrote), for instance, the concept of writing is ensured by the root K.T.B., the first vowel /a/ is the signifiant of the active form as opposed to /u/, signifiant of the passive; the second vowel /a/ was the signifiant of being an agent; in the historical Arabic language, it is no more than a syntagmatic vowel. The table clearly shows the vocalic alternation inside the root, but it also shows a consonantal affixation: a prefixation like the /m/ in /maKTaB/, an infixation like the /t/ in /KaTtaBa/ which forms a redoubling of the second radical consonant, and a suffixation like the /t/ in /maKTaB-a-t/. It is worth repeating that the right margin

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03

F: BTL5804.tex / p.11 (632-712)

Translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants into Arabic

always remains free to receive the case ending, the last vowel /a/ which precedes the /t/ is a syntagmatic vowel set by the Arabic syllabic pattern. In his Traité de philologie arabe (1961: 406–469) as well as in l’arabe classique (1986: 107–121, 145–146), Henri Fleisch gives many examples of this affixation. Nonetheless, it would be proper to give some pieces of information regarding this Arabic affixation and what distinguishes it from the system of affixation in the Indo-European languages. Arabic affixes are extremely limited in number. In contrast to more than 600 affixes and Greco-Latin formants listed in al-Kat.îb and al-H . amzaoui’s tables, Arabic has only a few consonants that can be affixed onto words. These consonants were, as A. Roman (1990: 24) put it: Recruited in three series of consonants chosen because of their demarcating capacity, i.e. the self-identification granted to them by their specific signifiants. The three series are: the series of transients with formants: {/w/, /j/}; the nasal series: {/m/, /n/}; the series of occlusives produced by closing the glottis or glottal occlusives {/t/, */c/, /k/, /?/}.21

Arabic prefixes and suffixes are, to repeat the expression of Henri Fleisch (1961: 406), “subject to interior inflection: or rather the interior inflection governs the whole word. Prefixes and suffixes have, thus, a vocalisation determined by the form taken as a whole”. The diminutive consonant /y/, geminated in /KuTayyiB/ (small piece of writing, small book) is not a simple infixation in /KiTa :B/ (a piece of writing, a book) which constitutes its base of derivation;22 it involves a change of the word’s interior structure: the first vowel is inevitably /u/, the third – when existing – is inevitably /i/ or /i:/. It is probably for this reason that Arabic grammar books don’t mention the infixation of /y/ in diminutive formation rules, but they speak of the diminutive schema. Says az-Zajjâjî: “there are three forms of diminutive: /Fuc ayl/, /Fuc ayc il/ and /Fuc ayc i :L/” (al-Jumal, 245). This characteristic limits not only the form of the term, but its length too: it doesn’t permit the creation of very long words by the agglutination of several affixes. The first examples given by H. Fleisch (1961: 407) as regards the hamza augmenté /’/ (hamza added to the radical) show clearly the difficulties to find signifiés for affixes which do not have or which no longer have any semantic value: ’imlîs (arid, without plants), ’imlîd (delicate), ’ijfîl (timorous), ’uskûb (poured), ’arbac at (four), ’arnab (rabbit), ’is.bac (finger), ’afc â (viper), etc. These nouns seem to form non-decomposable blocks. In a rebuilding of the old Arabic system, A. Roman mentions the consonants with demarcating capacity used as monoconsonantal roots and modalities, in the pro-forms: personal pronouns, demonstratives, marks of kind and number, etc., and within the forms, whether the latter are res, units imagined by the human



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03



F: BTL5804.tex / p.12 (712-759)

Hassan Hamzé

being out of time, or modus, units imagined by the human being within time (1990: 3). This is, for instance, the case of the prefix /m/ and the suffix /t/ in /ma-KTaB-a-t/ (a general place teeming with pieces of writing: library, bookshop), in which “the morpheme /m/ constitutes, by shift in meaning, a signifié of general place. The morpheme /t/ is considered to be, by shift of meaning, a modality of abundance” (1990: 39), /m/ is, according to the author, the signifiant of the general res (1990: 26), /t/ a signifiant of time (1990: 3) and a demonstrative modality (1990: 31). These consonants, limited in number, were reused for several signifiés. Nevertheless, even within the formes augmentées (forms added to the root) and the déverbaux (nominal forms having certain verbal features), the value of affixed consonants seems like a value linked to form: /maC1 C2 aC3 / would designate the place, as in /maKTaB/ (place where one writes, office), /miC1 C2 aC/ would designate the tool, as in /miBRaD/ (tool with which we file, a file), etc. The value of a prefix or a suffix in languages like French is assessed as opposed to another form without affix. The value of the prefix re-, for instance, can be drawn by comparing re-vivre (to live again) to vivre (to live). However, this is very often not the case of what is called an affix in Arabic. The prefix /m/ in /maKTaB/ (place where one writes, office) or in /maKTu :B/ (what is written, letter) cannot be interpreted as opposed to */KTaB/ or */aKTaB/ or */KTu :B/ or */aKTu :B/. It’s the same for /’/ in colour names: /aH . MaR/ (red), /’aSWaD/ (black), etc., /m/ or /’/ are picked out and compared to other units constructed according to the same root, for example, to /KiTa :B/ (book) or /SaWa :D/ (blackness). It is an affix insofar as the consonant in question does not form a part of the radical consonants of the root, and not because there is an opposition between two words, the first with affix, the second without. The three chapters in as-Suyût.î’s book the Muzhir (1986: 2, 257– 260) concerning affixes allow one to compare /zayd/ to /zaydal/, /c abd/ to /c abdal/, and /’ibn/ to /’ibnum/. But these are very rare examples. H. Fleisch (1961: 464) adopts, like Brockelmann, a diminutive value for the prefix /l/ which “seems to remain under testing”; he notes that Arab grammarians who recognised this added /l/ in /zaydal/ and /c abdal/ “did not specify the nuance it brought.” Thus, we are far from the formation of affixes in the Indo-European languages. Because of the reduced number of Arabic affixes and the absence of equivalent French ones, the translation of affixes and formants is done via words. The search for systematic and automatic translation means giving one Arabic equivalent, and only one, to each affix in the source language. In that way, the translation of a French term composed of a radical, a prefix and a suffix will be done by giving an Arabic equivalent to these three elements, i.e. three distinct words. Thus, we should either have recourse to the “système de communication” (system of communication) in order to form the different equivalents of the term within a syntagm, or to adopt a mode of derivation similar to the French one for Arabic,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03

F: BTL5804.tex / p.13 (759-825)

Translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants into Arabic

i.e. to agree to stick the Arabic equivalents of the prefix and the suffix to the Arabic equivalent of the radical and to form compound words. The first process, totally in conformity with the Arabic system of derivation, may appear a little bit heavy since it inevitably produces long syntagms, at least three words which will be formed according to the communication system rules and constitute annexational, qualifier and prepositional syntagms. The second process, apparently lighter than the first one, is outside the system. We can retort that compounding (which Dubois 1973 defines as “the formation of a semantic unit from lexical elements which can have autonomy by themselves in the language”) exists in the old Arabic texts; which is true. Indeed, /ma :l/ (money) has been modelled on the relative /ma:/ (which is) and /li/ (for): (16) /ma: +l +i:/ which is for me was interpreted as follows: /ma :l +i:/ (Fleisch 1983: 184). In addition to this very rare type of formation, Arabic books describe another type of compounding: the formation of a word by truncation of two or several words like /c abšam-iyy/ to indicate the affiliation of someone to a tribe called /c abd šams/, or like /h.ayc ala/ for the expression /h.ayya c ala : / (Hey! Come here!) (as.S.âlih. 1962: 278–279) used in the call for prayer: /h.ayya c ala : .salât/ (Come to the prayer!),23 or like /basmala/ used to be: /bi sm all :h ar-rah.m :an ar-rah.i :m/ (In the Name of God, the Almighty, the All-Merciful). Nevertheless, this type of formation remains very limited on one hand, very irregular on the other hand. Words are not linked together according to Arabic syntactic rules in order to form a syntagm, nor are they stuck together to form a compound word.24 This is a particular type of formation that selects, within the syntagm, a certain number of word elements without precise rules of compounding. All the attempts made to set up rules for this type of formation have been doomed to failure (al-H.amzaoui 1986: 44). Indeed, no rule fixes the dropping of an element or the keeping of another, except perhaps the obligation to select the first element of the first word and the tendency to use quadriconsonantal verbal formation. This second process, in spite of being in nonconformity with the rules of Arabic derivation, is adopted by many translators, either out of need (because the number of affixes and formants to be translated is very high) or out of snobbery (some authors are fascinated by innovations, not being very conscious of the major differences between the two morphological systems). They consider it an obligation to translate each compound term with an equivalent Arabic compound term. However, the simple fact of sticking together two Arabic words which render the radical and the prefix or the radical and the suffix doesn’t produce the desired results. The final product, in addition to its nonconformity, is still heavy. To



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03



F: BTL5804.tex / p.14 (825-881)

Hassan Hamzé

lighten it, it should be reduced to a single unit comparable with a source language unit having prefixes or suffixes. To this end, the Arabic words already selected as equivalents of the components of French and English terms are being transformed to affixes by reducing their size. The final part of the word is often removed to keep it down to one syllable – sometimes two or more – that are added to the word which renders the radical. Here is an example: sous-marin (submarine) in which the radical marin is translated by bah.rî, the prefix sous- (sub-) is translated by tah.ta. Then, the word tah.ta is reduced to its first syllable, tah., and stuck to the radical as a prefix, which gives tah.-bah.rî.25 Some further examples are: super-sonique (supersonic) which gives fawqa s.awtî > faw-s.awtî; extra-linguistique (extra-linguistic) which gives kârij lisânî > kâ-lisânî. In auto-biographie (autobiography), the prefix auto- is translated by a qualifier (dâtiyy, in the feminine: dâtiyyat), and placed, as an epithet, after the radical biographie (translated as tarjamat), which gives the qualifying syntagm tarjamat dâtiyya, a translation generally adopted in the Arab World. An interesting phenomenon occurs when trying to make only one compound word from French: inversion of roles between the radical and the affix. To lighten the syntagm, the noun (tarjamat) which is the head of the syntagm and which renders the radical, will be cut down and reduced to its first two syllables (tarja). Consequently, it will appear to be a prefix, whereas the prefix (auto: dâtiyyat), in turn, will appear to be a radical. Thus, we will obtain: (17) Auto = dâtiyy in the masculine, dâtiyyat in the feminine Biographie = tarjamat Auto-biographie = dâtiyyat tarjamat > tarjamat dâtiyyat > tarja-dâtiyyat It is obvious that we are not at all within a perspective of translation in discourse, but in search of equivalent words or terms in the language, and that the equivalence is only conceived like a process of construction on the same pattern. A difference between source languages (French and English) leads, inevitably, to two different translations. Thus, we see another problem that an unrestrained search for similarity can lead to.

. Conclusion The search for a systematic and automatic translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants means to abandon the fundamental characteristics of the Arabic system of derivation. The vocabulary of current Arabic, its scientific terminology in particular, increasingly uses a mode of formation that is different from the initial

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03

F: BTL5804.tex / p.15 (881-940)

Translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants into Arabic

model built on radical consonants through the process of interior inflection. More and more new terms are formed by agglutination of a radical and many affixes. A. Roman says that Arabic vocabulary is, henceforth, structured around . . . two subgroups: the subgroup of general vocabulary lexemes which are built on a certain combination of its consonants [. . . ] and the subgroup of the vocabulary of special purpose which contain a proportion of terms, more significant all the time, built on syllabic roots. (1999: 204)

This change, which is very significant for technical terms, is beginning to affect a part of the general vocabulary. It is driven by the great advance of sciences and by the blind imitation of the strongest. This advance does not explain everything. There’s a sociocultural parameter which should not be overlooked. The inferiority complex and the tendency to take the developed countries, the former colonizers, as a model have something to do with this change. The great historian and sociologist Ibn Kaldûn (who died in 808/1406) highlighted the general tendency of the defeated to imitate the victor. The creation of Arabic terminology in the technical and scientific fields is vital. This process inevitably goes through the knowledge and the adaptation of the terminology elaborated in Indo-European languages. The search for the values of affixes and Greco-Latin formants is certainly essential for the understanding of this terminology. On the other hand, the search for Arabic equivalents of affixes and formants is more than debatable within terminological work aimed at examining the concepts and the traits of substance. The search for a systematic and automatic translation of affixes and formants is not only illusive but also suicidal. Are those who call to find, at all costs, an Arabic equivalent, and only one, for each affix, really aware of the consequences? As for me, I do not believe it. (Translated by Andrée Affeich)

Notes . See the problems arising from the translation of affixes and numerous discussions concerning this subject in the Arabic academies and elsewhere in M. R. al-H . amzaoui (1988: 447–483); (1975: 121–122). . See, for example, A. Š. al-Kat.îb (1982: 43–65); M. R. al-H . amzaoui (1986: 101–116). Each one of these two tables gathers more than 600 affixes and formants with their Arabic equivalents. . I even asked my ophtalmolo(gue/giste) what difference there was between the two terms. The answer: “There is no difference.”



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03



F: BTL5804.tex / p.16 (940-1016)

Hassan Hamzé

. J. Dubois and F. Dubois-Charlier said in La dérivation suffixale en français: “nominalisations with -ment and -ion are relatively synonymous since they result to some extent from the same syntactic structures, but they are very often the product of different uses of the same verb, -ion is more technical and more recent” (see Ghassan Zerez 2001: 520–521). . This term may be given as an example of synonymy. Indeed, “R. Jakobson named the sender addresser” (Dubois 1973). . The dictionary defines hypo- as a “prefix which means under, below, below normal, insufficiently”, and hyper- as a “prefix which expresses the exaggeration, the excess and the highest degree” (Le Robert d’aujourd’hui). . al-H . amzaoui (1988: 449–450) speaks of a decision taken by the Academy, even though this decision has not always been respected by the academicians themselves. Indeed, he says that this formant has sometimes been translated naqs. or even ’aqall in the Academy texts. . In dictionaries on linguistics, the relation between hyperonym and hyponym is defined as a relation of “inclusion starting from the most specific to the most general” (G. Mounin 1974). . Mseddi (1984) was quite right to avoid translating the prefixes hyper- and hypo- in these two terms. In fact, he translates hyperonym as muh.taw-in (that which contains, includes) and hyponym as mundarij (included, contained). This second term is also translated as mundarij in Baalbaki’s dictionary (1990) and as nawc (kind) or fard al-jins (species unit) in the dictionary of Alecso (1989). The term superordinate is translated successively as kalimat muh.tawiyat (word that contains) or al-jins al-qarîb (the close species). . In the Littré, the prefix anti- is given two meanings: (1) “before, as in antédiluvien; it comes from Latin ante (2) against, as in antechrist [sic]; it comes from άυτί.” On the other hand, the prefix anti- is presented as a unit that expresses (1) “opposition as in antiscorbutique [antiscorbutic]; in this case, it comes from άυτί. (2) anteriority, the former situation, as in antidate, antichambre; in this case, it represents the Latin ante, before”. . Currently, we tend to remove the hyphen when the second word does not start with a vowel. . We can see, for example, in al-Kat.îb’s table of equivalence (1982: 43–65) polysemous prefixes like: ép(i)-, extra-, kata-, met(a)-, ped(o)-, para-, etc. and synonymous ones like cut- and derm-, dactyl- and digit-, anti- and contra-, counter-, oc- and ob-. It’s the same for suffixes. . See H. Hamzé: “Humour, culture et traduction, la traduction des textes humoristiques entre le français et l’arabe”, in: Interaction entre culture et traduction, Actes du symposium international organisé par l’Ecole Supérieure Roi Fahd de Traduction, Tangier, 137–152. . One century after Sîbawayhi, al-Mubarrid (285/898) seems to say that the rules have become generalised (H. Hamzé 1987: 148–149).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03

F: BTL5804.tex / p.17 (1016-1103)

Translation of affixes and Greco-Latin formants into Arabic . According to ancient Arabic scholars, the name is a mark that applies to the named persons or things (see, for example, Ibn al-‘Anbârî: al-’Ins.f fî masâ’il al-kilâf, vol. 1, p. 6). . Concerning the conditions of the reapplication of old terms in order to denote new meanings, see H. Hamzé (2001: 226–227 and 229–231). . In al-H . amzaoui’s text (1988: 461) we read: s.alq ad-dam. . See A. Odeh’s doctoral dissertation, University of Lyon 2 (1998): La traduction de la terminologie linguistique du français en arabe, l’arabisation du “Cours de linguistique générale” de F. De Saussure. . Term used by H. Fleisch (1961: 1, 373–374). . The brackets are used to indicate an element that is omitted when the word appears in the middle of a sentence. . In Fleisch (1961: 463) we find, however, the suffix /l/ which is not included in the consonant list. . For other examples of triconsonantal nouns whose diminutive is modelled on /FuCayc iL/, the quadriconsonantal model, see az-Zajjâjî (al-Jumal: 247). . Kazimirski (1860: 2, 523) gives other variants modelled on the same interjection /h.ayyahala:, h.ayyahala, h.ayyahal, h.ayyahalla/. . H. Fleisch (1986: 185) gives the example /h.abqarr/ (hail) composed of /h.abb qurr/ (grain of cold or grain of winter), and says that it can resemble the French model of compounding, but it remains a very rare example. . Fortunately, the sous-marin which is a warship was previously translated by ˙gawwas.at, a form derived from the verb ˙gâs.a (to dive), a translation adopted unanimously.

References Abdel Nour, Jabbour & Idriss, Souheil (1983). al-Manhal (7th ed.). Beirut: Dâr al-c ilm li l-malâyîn. Arab League Educational Cultural and Scientific Organization (1989). Unified Dictionary of Linguistic Terms (English-French-Arabic). Tunis. Baalbaki, Ramzi (1990). Dictionary of Linguistic Terms: English-Arabic. Beirut: Dâr al-c ilm li l-malâyîn. Bally, Charles (1965). Linguistique générale et linguistique française (4th ed.). Franck Berne (Ed.). Bern: A. Francke. Baraké, Bassam (1998). Dictionnaire Larousse français-arabe. Beirut: Academia. De Saussure, Ferdinand (1985). Cours de linguistique générale. Tullio de Mauro (Ed.). Paris: Payot. Dubois, Jean et al. (1973). Dictionnaire de linguistique. Paris: Larousse. Fleisch, Henri (1961). Traité de philologie arabe. Vol. 1. Beirut: Catholic Press. Fleisch, Henri (1986). L’arabe classique, esquisse d’une structure linguistique. Translated into Arabic by c Abd as.-S.abûr Šâhîn under the title al-c Arabiyyat al-fus.h.â, nah.wa binâ’ lu˙gawî jadîd (2nd ed.). Beirut: Dar al-Mašriq.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:03



F: BTL5804.tex / p.18 (1103-1211)

Hassan Hamzé

c al-H . amzaoui, Mohamed Rachad (1975). “as.-S.udûr wa l-lawâh.iq wa s.ilatuhâ bi ta rîb alc c c ulûm wa naqlihâ ‘ilâ al- arabiyyat al-h.adîtat”. al-Lisân al- arabî, 12(1), 121–138. c al-H . amzaoui, Mohamed Rachad (1986). al-Manhajiyyat al- âmmat li tarjamat al˙ mus.talat.ât wa tawh.îdihâ wa tanmît.ihâ. Beirut: Dâr al-Garb al-‘islâmî. c c c al-H . amzaoui, Mohamed Rachad (1988). ‘A mâl Majma al-lu˙gat al- arabiyyat bi l-Qâhirat ˙ (The Arabic Academy of Cairo). Beirut: Dâr al-Garb al-‘islâmî. Hamzé, Hassan (1987). Les théories grammaticales d’az-Zajjâjî. Thèse de doctorat d’Etat. Université Lyon 2. Hamzé, Hassan (1999). “La traduction de la terminologie grammaticale arabe vers le Français”. In A. Clas, H. Awaiss, & J. Hardane (Eds.), L’éloge de la différence: la voix de l’autre, Actualité Scientifique, VIe journées scientifiques du Réseau thématique de l’AUF (pp. 225–234). Beirut: AUPELF-UREF. Hamzé, Hassan (2002). “Humour, culture et traduction, la traduction des textes humoristiques entre le français et l’arabe”. In Interaction entre culture et traduction (pp. 137–152). Tangier: Ecole Supérieure Roi Fahd de Traduction. Ibn al-’Anbârî, S. D. (Year unknown). al-’Ins.âf fî masâ’il al-kilâf. Muh.ammad Muh.yi d-dîn c Abd al-Hamîd (Ed.). Cairo: Dâr al-Fikr. . Al-Kat.îb, Ah.mad Šafîq (1972). “Sawâbiq wa lawâh.iq tarid fî l-mus.t.alah.ât al-c ilmiyyat mac tarjamâtihâ l-c arabiyyat”. al-Lisân al-c arabî, 19(1), 43–66. Littré, Paul-Emile (1970). Dictionnaire de la langue française. Monte Carlo, Madec: Editions du Cap. Al-Mounged: Français-arabe (1972). Beirut. Dâr al-Mašreq. Mounin, Georges (Dir.). (1995). Dictionnaire de la linguistique. (2nd ed.). Quadrige: PUF. Mseddi, Abdessalem (1984). Dictionnaire de linguistique. Tunis: Maison arabe du livre. Odeh, Akram (1998). La traduction et la terminologie linguistique du français en arabe, l’arabisation du “Cours de linguistique générale” de F. De Saussure. Dissertation. Université Lyon 2. Petit Larousse. (1967). 29th printing. Paris: Librairie Larousse. Le Robert dictionnaire d’aujourd’hui. (1991). Paris: Dictionnaires Le Robert. Roman, André (1990). Grammaire de l’arabe. [Collection: Que sais-je?]. Paris: PUF. Roman, André (1999). La création lexicale en arabe. [Collection Etudes Arabes]. Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon. Sîbawayhi (1971–1977). al-Kitâb. c Abd as-Salâm Hârûn (Ed.). Cairo: al-Hay’a l-mis.riyyat al-c âmma li l-kitâb. as-Suyût.î (1986). al-Muzhir. M. Jâd al-Mawlâ, M. Abû al-Fad.l ‘Ibrâhîm, & A. Al-Bajjâwî (Eds.). Beirut: al-Maktabat al-c as.riyyat. az-Zajjâjî (1984). al-Jumal fî n-nah.w. c Alî al-H . amad (Ed.). Beirut & Irbid: Mu’assasat arRisâlat & Dar al-‘Amal. Zerez, Ghassan (2000–2001). Pour une théorie de la traduction: application au discours journalistique (français-arabe). Dissertation. Université Lyon 2.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 12:26

F: BTL5805.tex / p.1 (40-102)

From Arabic to other languages through English Nobel Perdu Honeyman

.

The experience of translating the Kitáb-i-Aqdas into Spanish from the English version using the Arabic original as a reference

In 1992, the centenary of the death of Bahá’u’lláh (1817–1892), the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the “Most Holy Book” of the Bahá’í Faith, written originally in Arabic, was published in English, containing several parts published for the first time together, four of which had never been in book form at all: The Preface, Introduction, collection of “Questions and Answers”, and the notes. Since then, this version with all its parts has been used as a basis for translation into other languages; in many cases these translations have been done from the English with the help of the Arabic original. In 1993, the Universal House of Justice (governing council of the Bahá’í Faith) appointed an “International Panel for Spanish Translations of Bahá’í Literature”. Its first mandate was to produce one Spanish translation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas for all Spanish-speaking countries. The working document for all purposes was the English publication of 1992, although wide use of the Arabic original was to be necessary, apart from many other books by the same author in their original language and their authorised canonical English translation. In due course, the Panel was to approve other translations of Bahá’í scripture. A similar process began with French nearly at the same time.

. Indirect translation: Some features, background and implications Although it is increasingly being discovered that a large number of literature translations in circulation nowadays are either partially or totally the result of indirect translation, this is generally not admitted explicitly in the publication. The

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 12:26



F: BTL5805.tex / p.2 (102-172)

Nobel Perdu Honeyman

result gives the impression that all the translation effort (including documentation) is original. Concealing that a translation was indirect can be comparable to plagiarism, and therefore despised by the scientific community. The author would like to argue in favour of indirect translation for some specific cases, without at all implying that this practice should always be regarded as advantageous. First of all, from the point of view of simplicity and economy, expenses involved in the number of translators required increase geometrically as the number of languages present at a conference grows: N: number of interpreters required. L: number of different languages needing translation. N = 2(LL!– 2)! or similarly: N = L(L2– 1) Figure 1. Number of interpreters required in cross-language settings

For two languages, one interpreter is enough. For three languages, three translators are needed; for 4 languages, 6 interpreters; for 5, 10. If we arranged direct translation among 50 representatives from linguistic communities spoken by more than 50 million inhabitants, 1225 interpreters would be necessary! In conclusion, indirect translation seems the only way out (50 interpreters would suffice using one language as intermediary) for multilateral cultural interaction. As early as 1976, UNESCO itself mentioned that this practice should only be used where absolutely necessary, and sanctioned it in its “Recommendations on the legal protection of translators and translations, and on means to improve the status of translators”, in its point V.14 (c): (c) as a general rule, a translation should be made from the original work, recourse being had to retranslation only where absolutely necessary. These recommendations are expressed in very general terms and do not take into account such specific situations as the one presented in this paper – corporate team translation, with participation of specialists from more than two languages, apart from specialists in the subject matter. Nevertheless, the UNESCO recommendation transmits a clear impression of something to beware of. In a similar vein, and in the same year, Anton Popovic also referred to this sort of translation as “second hand” (1976: 19). Around that time, Even-Zohar was speaking about polysystems (1978) and he later presented a view of translation as an instance of “interference” (1990: 54) with implications of direct and indirect loans through literature. Beyond Even-Zohar’s reference to interference, Theo Hermans prefers to use the concept of “contact” in which “cultural goods migrate

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 12:26

F: BTL5805.tex / p.3 (172-238)

From Arabic to other languages through English

between systems” (1999: 109). A valuable insight into the translation of translations comes from Gideon Toury who, in Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond, includes a chapter called “A Lesson from Indirect Translation”. He remarks that, excluding individual instances in which a translator may turn to already existing translations as an immediate source possibly due to inability, indirect translation can appear recurrently, and in this case (1995: 129): [. . . ] recurrence of this practice, especially if regular patterns can be detected, should thus be taken as evidence of the forces which have shaped the culture in question, along with its concept of translation. [. . . ] second-hand translation is not some kind of disease to be shunned, as has long been the dominant attitude. Such an approach only reflects a fallacious projection of a currently prevalent norm, ascribing uppermost value to the ultimate original, onto the plane of theoretical premises. By contrast, mediated translation should be taken as a syndromic basis for descriptive-explanatory studies [. . . ].

A clarifying approach to “indirect translation”, originally within the context of Bible translation, comes from Ernst Gutt (1991), according to whom success in translation will depend on the purpose the translator intends to fulfil and on the fact that this same purpose is shared by the final reader, who will normally infer the intention of what is read by applying what Sperber and Wilson (1986) called the principle of relevance. Shuttleworth and Cowie’s Dictionary of Translation Studies put it in the following terms (1997: 76–77): Indirect translation is defined as the strategy used by the translator when the dilemma between “the need to give the receptor language audience access to the authentic meaning of the original, unaffected by the translator’s own interpretation effort” (Gutt 1991: 177) and “the urge to communicate as clearly as possible” (Gutt 1991: 177) is resolved in favour of the latter. An indirect translation will typically expand upon and elucidate ST so that implicit information which it contains and which is easily retrievable by the SL audience in the original context envisaged by the ST writer will be equally available to the TL audience. Consequently an indirect translation created for a communicative context which differs significantly from the original context is likely to include large amounts of additional interpolated explanatory information; such a translation is, however, considered FAITHFUL inasmuch as it resembles the original in “relevant respects” (Gutt 1991: 111). A strategy of indirect translation is frequently employed when translating the Bible into languages which are rooted in cultures and world-views radically different from those presupposed by the original, or from the translator’s own.

The Spanish publication El Kitáb-i-Aqdas is not merely a translation of a translation. To be precise, it should be said that the English publication of 1992 contains



JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 12:26



F: BTL5805.tex / p.4 (238-292)

Nobel Perdu Honeyman

a new structure and several new pieces of content apart from the 192 paragraphs of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas itself: The introduction, the preface, a chapter describing the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (written by Shoghi Effendi, Head of the Bahá’í Faith from 1921 to 1957 and himself appointed Interpreter by its authoritative Scripture), the notes, and a large and elaborate 50-page index. The clarifying chapter called “Questions and Answers” (originally written by Bahá’u’lláh) had not been published in English. Therefore, it is particularly in this chapter and in the chapter of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas itself where the debate about the features and effects of mediated translations may have greatest interest. It should be noted, however, that there is no “interpolation” (to use Shuttleworth and Cowie’s terms from the definition above) but additional explanatory information and supplementary material intended to help the readers from distant cultures understand the content and purpose of the original text. There certainly seems to be little doubt about the fact that we are speaking of a recurrent phenomenon, in the light of the above and to use Toury’s terms. It was Shoghi Effendi who decided that all translations of Bahá’í scripture into Western languages were to be done through English, informed by the original Arabic or Persian. Such has been the case of the translations of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas into Italian, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Russian, Spanish, German and Norwegian so far. Consequences of indirect translation through the English version include: – – – – – –

–

The same preface, introduction, “Questions and Answers”, notes and glossary as appeared in the 1992 English edition are used. There is a visible uniformity of format and external presentation. Paragraph division and numbering (introduced in the 1992 English edition) is maintained. The large English index has served as a model for many other language editions. The same transliteration criteria have been maintained in most languages whenever possible. Translation is available much earlier that it might otherwise be possible if it were done directly from the Arabic version, which itself was only published in its extended version in 1999. There are serious financial implications in indirect translation.

Shoghi Effendi had already developed his own criteria in translation of scripture. The following are some of its most salient features: Clear rules for the use of capital letters (introduced in 1921), his use of King James’ style sentence structures when dealing with scripture, his methods of elevation of language style (including superlatives) in references to the divine, and particularly his transliteration system for adaptation of Persian and Arabic words into Western languages. He translated approximately one third of the whole book into English apart from a large and

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 12:26

F: BTL5805.tex / p.5 (292-348)

From Arabic to other languages through English

representative amount of Bahá’í scripture. For the present project, advantage was taken of a computer program that enabled us to make use of the knowledge and interpretation of Shoghi Effendi and his criteria for translation, by cross identification of original and English terms in context.

. Phases of translation The draft version was initiated by one of the members of the Panel (a specialist in Arabic, English and Spanish), followed by revision by the other two members. The result of approximately the first third of the whole book was distributed to collaborators in all Spanish-speaking territories: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Equatorial Guinea, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Spain (different regions), the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. They were particularly requested to offer impressions, proposals for modification, comments, and so forth, from their linguistic and cultural standpoint. The result of this collaboration was classified and prepared for analysis and decisions to be taken by the Panel, which met for the first time in 1995 at the University of Almería, Spain. Translation criteria and working method were developed during the subsequent annual meetings. A first complete translation was sent to the Universal House of Justice, which returned a wide range of comments to be studied by the Panel. During a meeting held in Mexico (July 1997), decisions were taken on all proposals received and on translation criteria to be included in a Compendium for future reference. Teamwork in regional groups was explored, and an extensive glossary of language problems continued growing. At a meeting held in Chile (December 1997) the translation work was nearly finished, and contact was established with the Publishing Trust for the first edition. The first proofs were available in May 1998, and by the end of the same year the general index was ready. The book reached final publication in May 1999 after 23 revisions. A second revised edition appeared in 2003. Apart from the chronological list of stages, mention should be made of revision being done also by “non-contaminated” readers (revisers who only read Spanish language), consultation with university specialists in Spanish language, linguistics and translation, and also consultation with a number of translators who had worked on the original version from Arabic into English, among them Dr. Suheil Bushrui, Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland, himself an author of a valuable presentation of the Arabic literary style of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (1995). During the project some of the members of the Panel visited the place



JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 12:26



F: BTL5805.tex / p.6 (348-403)

Nobel Perdu Honeyman

where the book had been written, consulted with the Universal House of Justice on aspects of translation beyond fidelity to meaning, in search of ways to recuperate the aesthetic beauty of the original. A very useful phase was the uninterrupted solemn recital of the draft Spanish translation to check the flow of the text and the reaction of the public (an audience of over 15 most collaborative people from diverse backgrounds). A special letter font was designed to solve some of the transliteration problems of compatibility with the computer facilities being used by the Panel.

. Use of tools One of the most valuable tools was a computer program called “Holy Writings Translation Tool,” or “CAT” (computer aided translation) specially designed for translation of Bahá’í texts. It has processed all English translations done by Shoghi Effendi. An extensive amount of translation background was available with examples, which were useful for diversification of terminology, richness of alternatives and clarification of meaning. The program was developed by means of international collaboration between Mr. Hooper Dunbar, a member of the Universal House of Justice and specialist in translation of Bahá’í texts, and a team of translators and computer engineers. A first version of this program was developed for MSDOS around 1992, and in 1996 a Windows version was produced. It also contains the translations done by Shoghi Effendi from Arabic or Persian into English side by side with the writings of the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Forerunner and Successor of Bahá’u’lláh). After selecting all or part of the corpus for reference (by author and titles), it is possible to introduce a selection of words in English for the program to search and present all occasions in which this selection of terms appears in translations. The result appears side by side with the original, highlighting the original terms used. Each result can be explored extensively by moving backward and forward inside the text both in English and in Arabic or Persian. It is possible to select any part of the result for new searches, for example in the opposite direction. It is also possible to check whether one English term is an exclusive translation of a single Arabic term, or if not, it allows the identification of other English alternatives used to translate the Arabic term. Exploration can also be initiated from Arabic or Persian. The program can develop two types of reports. One offers the list of results ordered by frequency, and the other presents all cases with three lines of context.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 12:26

F: BTL5805.tex / p.7 (403-462)

From Arabic to other languages through English

. Development of other documents in support of translation During the six years this project lasted, two other documents were developed based on the decisions taken by the Panel. One is a glossary of terms and expressions, useful for other translations of the same type. Another is a compendium containing the reasoning and background related to the phases of translation, transliteration, criteria for use of superlatives, names of God, and so forth. This whole project was the basis for the development of a doctoral dissertation published at the University of Almería.

. Conclusions related to indirect and group translation Although a large amount of world literature is translated indirectly, this practice is often despised as second hand work unworthy of attention; therefore its indirect nature is often concealed so there is not much published on mediated translation. This is a wide field for research, experimentation and growth. Apart from the now classical work by Nida and Taber (1982: 174–180) “proposals for organising a translation project”, very little has been published about systematisation of teamwork in translation, another broad area for research and growth. More collaborative and interdisciplinary efforts between different translation teams will no doubt be useful. The author is especially interested in following up the effect participation in team translation on this project may have on future translations of Bahá’í literature. The developing recurrent pattern of mediated translation through English, particularly in translation of Bahá’í literature, is an attractive field of research, as is also the accumulation of expertise at the Bahá’í World Centre (Haifa) through the coordination and supervision of the translation of this title into an increasing number of languages every year.

References Bahá’u’lláh (1992). The Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre. Bahá’u’lláh (1999). El Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Terrassa: Editorial Bahá’í de España. Bahá’u’lláh (2003). El Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Barcelona: Arca. Bushrui, Suheil (1995). The Style of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas: Aspects of the Sublime. Bethesda, MD: University Press of Maryland. Even-Zohar, Itamar (1978). Papers in Historical Poetics. Tel Aviv: Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics. Even-Zohar, Itamar (1990). Polysystem Studies. Poetics Today, 11(1) (special issue). Gutt, Ernst A. (1991). Translation and Relevance. Cognition and Context. Oxford: Blackwell.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 12:26



F: BTL5805.tex / p.8 (462-499)

Nobel Perdu Honeyman

Hermans, Theo (1999). Translation in Systems: Descriptive and System-oriented Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Nida, Eugene & Taber, Charles (1982). The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: E. J. Brill. Perdu, Nobel (2003). La relevancia de la pragmática en la traducción de textos interculturales: versión del Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Ph.D. dissertation. Almería: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Almería. Popovic, Anton (1976). Dictionary for the Analysis of Literary Translation. Edmonton, Alberta: Univ. of Alberta, Department of Literary Communication. Shuttleworth, Mark & Cowie, Moira (1997). Dictionary of Translation Studies. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Sperber, Dan & Wilson, Deirdre (1986, rev. ed. 1995). Relevance: communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell. Toury, Gideon (1995). Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. UNESCO (1976). “Recommendations on the legal protection of translators and translations, and on means to improve the status of translators”. (latest modification 09 Feb. 2001, retrieved 14 July 2004).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08

F: BTL5806.tex / p.1 (42-105)

The translation of cultural references in the cinema Maria D. Oltra Ripoll

.

Introduction

Leaving aside some purely linguistic conceptions, it seems quite clear that every text, and especially an audio-visual text, makes no sense and has no raison d’être if it is not included in a specific context, attached to the heart of a particular society and a particular culture. The context in which a communicative process takes place becomes one of the essential elements that determine every translation, given that the original message can be understood in many different ways, depending on the context in which this message is received. This fact has come to the attention of Translation Studies, which have experienced a “cultural turn” in the last few decades and have evolved from strictly linguistic conceptions to more cultural approaches basically focused on the cultural dimension. Because of the fact that screen translation is a cultural-mediation instrument, it is obviously a kind of translation where the presence of references alluding to specific features of a culture becomes of vital importance. For this reason, a screen translator has to pay special attention to these references. Furthermore, he or she has to consider that a cultural reference may not exist or may not be present in the same way in the target culture as in the original one. But to all this we should add one extra difficulty: the interdependence that exists in screen translation between the written text and the image. This overlapping interdependence determines the whole translation process and constitutes the distinctive feature of this type of translation. Because of this, the screen translator has to be able to transmit in the target text the elements of the original culture that may be implicit or explicit in the original text, always taking into account not only the image but also the target culture where these cultural references are to be interpreted. As stated by Hatim and Mason, “every reading of a text is a unique, unrepeatable act and a text is bound to evoke differing responses in different re-

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08



F: BTL5806.tex / p.2 (105-166)

Maria D. Oltra Ripoll

ceivers” (Hatim & Mason 1990: 4). Inevitably, the translated text is bound to affect the readings of the film that can be made by the audience. Due to the film monopoly of Hollywood and the internationalisation of English as a lingua franca, in the majority of films that are translated and then dubbed or subtitled into Spanish, we can find plenty of cultural references coming from the Anglo-Saxon world and, more specifically, from the American culture. Some of these references have become so common and popular in certain cultures that they have been included and accepted as a part of their own cultural heritage – this is the case of certain trademarks, for instance. Nevertheless, there also exist many other references that are extremely difficult to translate because of their cultural specificity. But how are these references really translated? What kind of translation skills are used by translators and what are the solutions they give in such cases? We will now go on to present a possible classification of cultural references, followed by a commentary on some examples of real audio-visual texts. We will analyse the solutions and the translation techniques used in each case in order to extract pertinent conclusions on this subject.

. Typologies of cultural references With regard to cultural references, there exist many different classifications proposed by various authors. Newmark (1988: 95), for instance, talks about “cultural categories”, among which cultural references can be classified: a.

ecology, where we would include the flora, the fauna, types of winds and natural phenomena, etc.; b. the material culture, related to the artificial products manufactured by a society, like food, clothes, housing, cities, means of transport, etc.; c. the social culture, which would include work and employment, and also leisure; d. organisations, political, administrative, religious or artistic concepts, activities or institutions; e. customs and manners. Furthermore, there are other authors who introduce new factors and concepts in their typologies of cultural references, such as Mallafrè (1991), who deals with a related factor: the opposition between tribe language (referring to private life) and polis language (regarding public life). The first element would be related to the own personal experience of an individual, and it would allude to his or her personal relationships, his or her family, etc. We can include in this group some cultural references such as children’s plays, traditional tales and stories, folk feasts

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08

F: BTL5806.tex / p.3 (166-234)

The translation of cultural references in the cinema

and traditions. In contrast, polis language would be intimately related to the social, political and working environment of an individual as a community citizen, and it would refer to laws, conventions, rights, organisations, and so on. Finally, Katan (1999: 45) distinguishes five categories in his classification of cultural references: a. b. c. d. e.

environment behaviour capacities and strategies principles identity

It must be acknowledged, however, that establishing a complete classification of cultural references seems to be quite a difficult task, precisely because “such an exhaustive classification should comprise all aspects of community life” (Marco 2002: 207). Nevertheless, we have tried to make a relatively exhaustive classification that includes as many categories as possible, in order to use it as an instrument to better explain the features of cultural references, at least those that appear in the examples presented below. So now, and taking into consideration the classifications proposed by other authors, we could classify cultural references into the following categories: a.

nature, including all references to ecology, fauna and flora, types of winds and other natural phenomena, climate and weather, etc.; b. leisure, feasts and traditions, with all cultural referents related to gastronomy, popular feasts, regional traditions, sports, games, leisure places, etc.; c. artificial products, such as commercial trademarks, clothes, perfumes and cosmetics, etc.; d. religion and mythology, which would comprise all kinds of references related to religion (passages from the Bible, names of religious characters, names of saints, liturgical elements, etc.) and mythology (Greek-Latin, JewishChristian, Slav, etc.); e. geography, a category that would include all references regarding place-names and names of the inhabitants of a country, of a region, etc.; f. politics and economy, containing all cultural references alluding to political or economic institutions and organisms, theories and tendencies, ideologies, laws, norms, names of banks, public posts, administration, political parties and trade unions, etc.; g. history: not only ancient, but also contemporary. We could include within this category all historical references regarding, for instance, historical characters, events, battles, etc.;



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08



F: BTL5806.tex / p.4 (234-293)

Maria D. Oltra Ripoll

h. art and literature. This would comprise all references to works of art of all kinds and tendencies: literature, painting, sculpture, music, cinema, etc. We could also include in this category all references regarding the press, since this kind of publication could be considered as a form of literature. Moreover, we should include here the literature of oral tradition (represented by popular fairy tales, for instance); i. science, which would constitute the artificial representation of nature. Natural science and all scientific fields (such as medicine, physics and chemistry, biology, etc.) should be included here. However it should be clarified that, as stated before, it is challenging to find a suitable exhaustive classification, for the limits of each category are not clearly defined and a particular cultural reference can be related to more than one social or cultural field within a community. This fact can be observed, for instance, in literature, where we can find a lot of mythological references; or in history, that is quite often related to politics. Taking all these considerations into account, let’s analyse some examples of cultural references that appear in several fragments of films.

. Examples of cultural references in the cinema With the aim of illustrating with practical examples the classification presented above in order to subsequently analyse the translation techniques used in each case by translators, we have chosen some fragments pertaining to several films that contain some cultural referents of relevant significance. First of all, we shall comment on some examples extracted from a prototypical film from the important film industry of Hollywood: Pretty Woman (1990), directed by Garry Marshall and starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. In this case, we shall analyse the original text in English and its translation for the Spanish dubbed version. (1) SCENE IN THE OPERA OLD WOMAN Did you enjoy the opera, dear? VIVIAN It was so good, I almost peed in my pants. OLD WOMAN What? EDWARD She said she likes it better than “Pirates of Penzance”. ANCIANA ¿Le ha gustado la ópera, querida? VIVIAN Por poco me meo de gusto en las bragas. ANCIANA ¿Qué? EDWARD Dice que la música de “La Traviata” la embriaga.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08

F: BTL5806.tex / p.5 (293-352)

The translation of cultural references in the cinema

This is a clear example of a cultural reference that gives rise to a play on words, the translation of which has been quite successful in the target language. The original pun is phonetic and it is based on the assonant rhyme existing between the words “pants” and “Penzance”, an element of the cultural reference. The character of Vivian, who cannot hide her lowly social condition, spontaneously answers with a quite vulgar sentence – “I almost peed in my pants” – to a question posed by an upper-class old lady. And this old lady, who seems to be a bit hard of hearing, becomes confused, since she is not sure of what she has heard. In order to excuse the impertinence of Vivian, Edward says: “She said she likes it better than Pirates of Penzance”. Obviously, we can find in this very sentence a clear reference to a comic opera that may not be so well-known in the Spanish culture as it is in the Anglo-Saxon one. This cultural reference pertains to the category “art and literature”, for it is an allusion to a piece of musical work. But what happens when it comes to translating this cultural reference into Spanish, with the additional difficulty of a play on words, which gives rise to a humorous situation? It is undeniable that we cannot maintain the original phonetic pun in the target language, since the formal differences existing between English and Spanish and the specificity of the cultural reference make this option impossible. For this reason, the translator prefers to create a new play on words in the target language, by taking advantage of the fact that the opera they have just seen is La Traviata (which is indeed quite well-known in our culture), and basing his or her pun on the consonant rhyme of the words bragas (underpants) and embriaga (to enrapture, to make someone go into ecstasies). In fact, it must be acknowledged that this is a very successful pun that perfectly resolves the difficulty of the cultural reference and contributes to maintain the humorous tone of the scene. (2) DIALOGUE IN HOTEL BETWEEN VIVIAN AND KIT VIVIAN I just wanna know, who it works out for. Give me one example of who it works out for. You give me one example of someone that we know. KIT Name you someone? You want me to name you someone. VIVIAN Yeah. I’d like a name. KIT God, the pressure of a name. Cinder–fucking–rella VIVIAN Pues entonces dime a quién le ha salido bien. Dame un solo ejemplo de alguien que conozca que le haya funcionado. KIT ¿Que te diga alguien? ¿Quieres que te diga alguien? ¿Quieres que yo, que yo te nombre algún ejemplo?



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08



F: BTL5806.tex / p.6 (352-414)

Maria D. Oltra Ripoll

VIVIAN Sí, dame algún nombre. KIT Nombrarte a alguien así, de repente. . . “Putanieves” y el Príncipe. The cultural reference appears in the last sentence, and it can be included in the category “art and literature”, since it alludes to the famous fairy tale of Cinderella, a story on which the film is in some way based. Kit brings the fictional character – Cinderella – to the real world of prostitution, to which she and her friend Vivian belong. And this is the reason why she uses the term “fucking” in English, to create an obvious metaphoric parallelism between the story of Cinderella and the story of Vivian. Nevertheless this play on words doesn’t work in Spanish, and for this reason the translator composes a new pun with another cultural reference. This new reference also comes from the world of fairy tales and is linked with prostitution: Blancanieves is “Snow White” in Spanish, and puta is a colloquial way of saying “prostitute”. So the original “Cinder-fucking-rella” becomes Putanieves y el príncipe in Spanish. (3) DIALOGUE AT HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD BETWEEN VIVIAN AND KIT VIVIAN Do you think I look like Carol Channing? KIT No, I love this look. It’s very glamorous. Glamour choice. VIVIAN ¿Crees que parezco Doris Day? KIT No, me encanta tu estilo. Es muy atractivo. Y muy elegante. In this example we find a substitution of the original cultural reference by another one in the translation. The translator uses a cultural reference that belongs to the original culture too (in this case, the North American culture), but that has more meaning in the target culture than the original cultural reference. In the original version Vivian, who wears quite a showy wig, asks Kit if she looks like “Carol Channing”. This name doesn’t mean a lot in the Spanish culture, and for this reason the translator has successfully decided to change it to the name of Doris Day, an actress who not only looked like Carol Channing but is also better known in the Spanish culture. In this case, the cultural reference would also pertain to the type “art and literature”, since it refers to the cinema world. We should emphasize that the overlapping interdependence mentioned above between the script and the image becomes very important in this example, due to the fact that the spectator can see what the character on the screen actually looks like. And so the choices the translator has for finding an equivalent in the target language become more limited. In the dubbing translation process, the phase that consists of adapting the text to the image is called adaptation or synchrony, and it constitutes one of the essential

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08

F: BTL5806.tex / p.7 (414-476)

The translation of cultural references in the cinema

parts of this process. In this very example, we can notice synchrony in contents, since the translator has had to adapt the contents of the text to the image shown on the screen. (4) DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE DETECTIVE AND A COUPLE OF TOURISTS DETECTIVE I’ll bet. Hey, hey, hey! Excuse me, excuse me, where are you from, the press? TOURIST No, no. We’re from Orlando. DETECTIVE I don’t believe this, tourists photographing the body. INSPECTOR Seguro que sí. ¡Eh, eh, eh! Disculpen, disculpen. ¿Son ustedes de la prensa? TURISTA No, no. Somos de Florida. INSPECTOR Oh, no puedo creerlo: unos turistas fotografiando el cuerpo. Regarding the cultural reference in this example, we should emphasise the change undergone by an American place-name in the translation. In the original version, the tourists say they come from Orlando, while the translation becomes more general and substitutes the name of this city for the name of the state it belongs to (Florida). The reason why the translator may have decided to do so is that he or she may have thought that, at that time (1990), “Florida” would be a better-known cultural reference in the target culture. In this case, the cultural reference would be included in the category “geography”, since we are dealing with a place-name. (5) DIALOGUE BETWEEN KIT AND RACHEL AT HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD KIT Hey, Rachel! RACHEL What? KIT You see the stars on the sidewalk, babe? RACHEL Yeah. KIT Well, Vivian and me, we work Bob Hope, we work the Ritz Brothers, we work Fred Astaire, we work all the way down to Ella Fitzgerald! This is our turf. You’ve got to get off our corner. KIT Oye Rachel, ¿ves las estrellas que hay en la acera, rica? RACHEL Sí. KIT Pues Vivian y yo trabajamos en Bob Hope, seguimos en los Hermanos Marx, en Fred Astaire y llegamos hasta Ella Fitzgerald. Esta es nuestra zona, derecho de veteranía, así que lárgate.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08



F: BTL5806.tex / p.8 (476-531)

Maria D. Oltra Ripoll

This is another example of substitution of the original cultural reference for another one that is present both in the original culture and in the target one. As can be noticed, Kit refers to certain names of actors and actresses printed on the ground, exactly in the zone of Hollywood Boulevard where she and Vivian prostitute themselves. In the original version, Kit makes an allusion to the Ritz Brothers among other names, while this name has been replaced in the translation by the Marx Brothers – los Hermanos Marx. At this time, the translator may also have thought that the second reference would be more popular in the Spanish culture than the first one. This could be a successful solution, but it could also involve a problem. Kit talks about the real order in which these names appear on Hollywood Boulevard’s sidewalk, so the name of the Marx Brothers is probably not included in this exact area, and this aspect may not escape the notice of a movie fan from the target culture. This possibility is, however, quite remote, and it seems that the translator achieves his or her purpose: to bring the movie nearer to the target culture spectator. This cultural reference would also be included in the category of “art and literature”, since this group also comprises all references related to cinema. Likewise, it could pertain to the group “leisure, feasts and traditions”, for we are dealing with a popular landmark, which has become a symbol for cinema. (6) DIALOGUE BETWEEN VIVIAN AND EDWARD IN THE HOTEL ROOM EDWARD Not bad. Not bad at all, where did you learn to do that? VIVIAN Well, I screwed the debate team in High School. EDWARD No está mal, no está nada mal. ¿Dónde aprendiste a hacerlo? VIVIAN Bueno, me tiré a todo el equipo de rugby del instituto. This scene takes place in a hotel room, where the character of Vivian is tying the knot in Edward’s tie, and he asks her where she learnt to do it with such expertise. In the original version, she answers ironically that she had “screwed the debate team in High School”. In this case, the cultural reference, which could be included in “leisure, feasts and traditions”, is a typical element in the American culture: debate teams, which are very common in American high schools and universities. This cultural reference implies certain connotations, such as the fact that the members of a debate team have to wear ties, and the irony of Vivian’s speech rests on this particular characteristic. Notwithstanding, the translator decides to change this cultural reference for another element which is characteristic of Anglo-Saxon culture, since he or she may have considered that it would be better-known in the target culture; so the original debate team is replaced by a rugby team in the Spanish version. From my point of view, this decision may introduce some incoherence in the text, since a rugby team

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08

F: BTL5806.tex / p.9 (531-587)

The translation of cultural references in the cinema

does not have the same connotations as a debate team, and it does not necessarily imply that their members have to wear ties. On the contrary, when we think of rugby players, we think instead of their distinctive sports clothing. Therefore, it seems that the ironic connotations of the original version are in some way lost in the Spanish version. Having reached this stage, let’s analyse an example extracted from another film – Una vita violenta (A Violent Life) –, which I personally subtitled from Italian into Catalan, for a regional Spanish TV channel. This is a French-Italian joint production, in black and white, interpreted by Franco Citti and Serena Vergano and based on the famous novel of the same name by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Studying the cultural references of this film is a very interesting task, on account of the fact that the story is set in Italy during the post-war period, and this circumstance gives rise to the introduction of a great number of social and political cultural references that are peculiar to that particular period, as we shall see in the following example (with an English translation provided in square brackets): (7) SCENE IN THE CAR TOMASSO Ma che te credi, che qui stai a casa tua? [Do you think you are at home?] GERINI Perchè, siete della Buoncostume? [Why, do you pertain to the Buoncostume?] LELLO No, semo da buonamorte. [No, we pertain to buonamorte.] TOMASSO Et penses que açò és ta casa? GERINI Sou de la Brigada de la Moral o què? [Are you in the Morality Squad or what?] LELLO No, som de la brigada de la mort. [No, we are in the Death Squad.] In this case, we are dealing with a political cultural reference that is introduced in the original Italian version by the word Buoncostume. This term refers to a kind of morality police that used to operate in Italy at that time, and its objective was to prevent public scandals, such as having sex in the street. This is indeed the plot of this scene, where we can observe a boy and a girl kissing one another inside a car, and there suddenly appear two young men who disturb them. For this very reason the youngster inside the car asks the others: siete della Buoncostume? (“Why, are you from the Buoncostume?”). In order to translate this cultural reference into Catalan, I had to look for an equivalent in the target culture, since I could not maintain the word Buoncostume, as the target spectator may not have understood the implicit meaning of this word. So I decided to invent a new name in Catalan for a similar unofficial organism that



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08



F: BTL5806.tex / p.10 (587-670)

Maria D. Oltra Ripoll

also existed in Spain approximately at the same time – Brigada de la Moral – which has more or less the same connotations as the original cultural reference. But besides all this we should take into account an added difficulty: the restriction of characters in subtitling (from 32 to 38 maximum in each line). This fact compels the translator to summarise his translation, and therefore it is impossible to introduce any explanatory translation of the cultural reference. Let’s now look at two examples taken from a French film entitled La beauté du diable (Beauty and the Devil), which I also subtitled, this time from French into Catalan. This film was directed by René Clair, while Michel Simon and Gérard Philipe played the main roles. Its plot turns on the legend of Faust, the man who sold his soul to the Devil, so in this movie we shall obviously find a lot of mythical and religious cultural references. These are relatively easy to translate into Catalan, for both cultures (the French and the Catalan) traditionally share these cultural references, as we shall observe in the following examples (with an English translation provided below): (8) MONOLOGUE OF MEPHISTOPHELES MEPHISTOPHELES Lucifer, ne m’accable pas! L’Enfer est moins cruel que les hommes! Lucifer, aie pitié de moi! MEFISTÒFIL Lucífer, no m’aniquiles! L’infern és menys cruel que els homes! Lucífer, tingues pietat de mi! [Lucifer, don’t destroy me! Hell is less cruel than men! Lucifer, have mercy on me!] We have here two religious cultural references, for they allude to the Devil and hell, and both elements are constantly present in the Western Christian tradition. It is indeed very easy to translate them into the target language, since they also exist in the target culture. The only relevant aspect we should take into account when translating this reference is that the name “Lucifer” is written with an accent in Catalan. (9) HENRI’S SPEECH HENRI Bien avant que vous ne soyez vivants, en un pays où vous n’irez jamais, un philosophe que vous ne connaissez pas, Platon, enfermait les hommes dans une caverne, afin de leur expliquer les secrets de la terre. Plus tard, un autre homme que vous ne connaissez pas davantage, dans un pays où vous n’irez jamais non plus, l’astronome Newton s’envolait parmi les étoiles pour expliquer aux hommes les secrets du ciel. HENRI Molt abans de nàixer vostés... a un país on no anirien mai...

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08

F: BTL5806.tex / p.11 (670-715)

The translation of cultural references in the cinema

un filòsof que no coneixen, Plató... tancava els homes dins una caverna... per explicar-los els secrets de la terra. Més tard... un altre home que tampoc no coneixen... d’un país on tampoc anirien mai... l’astrònom Newton... volava fins a les estrelles... per explicar a la gent... els secrets del cel. [A long time before you were born, in a country where you would never go, a philosopher you don’t know – Plato – locked men inside a cavern in order to explain to them the secrets of the Earth. Then, another man you don’t know either, in a country where you would never go either, the astronomer Newton flew to the stars in order to explain to people the secrets of the sky.] There appear two cultural references in this fragment: on the one hand, there is an allusion to the philosopher Plato’s famous Myth of the Cavern, a cultural reference that can be included in the category “art and literature” of the classification described above. And on the other hand, we can find an allusion to the scientist Newton, a reference that would pertain to the group “science”. In both cases, these cultural references are relatively easy to translate, since they have a global scope and are present in practically all Western cultures. Finally, we will analyse two more examples, this time extracted from the French film La traversée de Paris (Pig Across Paris), directed by Claude Autant-Lara and interpreted by Bourvil, Jean Gabin and Louis de Funes. The movie, which is in black and white, is set in Paris in 1942, during the German occupation. So there are a lot of cultural references related to this period, as we shall see in the examples below. The film was also subtitled from French into Catalan. (10) DIALOGUE IN THE BAR AGENT Deux viandox bouillants. Il ne fait pas chaud! [Two steaming viandox. It’s freezing outside!] AGENT Dos de vi ben calent, que no fa calor! [Two glasses of hot wine. It’s freezing outside!]



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08



F: BTL5806.tex / p.12 (715-768)

Maria D. Oltra Ripoll

This cultural reference pertains to the category of “artificial products” of our classification, since the term viandox corresponds to a French brand name for a manufactured product. This name was lexicalised in French due to a metonymic process, and for this reason it is written in lowercase letters. The problem I had to face when translating this reference into Catalan was that this is a very rare and old fashioned reference, not only for the target culture, but also for the current French culture, since this brand name does not exist anymore. Consequently, I had to do some research into this subject and I found out that it was a brand name for a bottled meat broth that people used to consume at that time. This reference may seem a bit strange to a Catalan spectator, especially if we take into consideration that the whole scene takes place in a bar, and it does not seem very normal for someone to order a bottle of meat soup in a bar. So I decided to substitute wine for the meat broth, since the image just reveals a dark coloured liquid – due to the fact that it is in black and white – and this kind of soup could easily be taken for wine. Moreover, maintaining the original brand name is not essential, or even relevant, to understand the scene; the most important thing here is making the film more understandable to a modern-day Spanish spectator. (11) DIALOGUE BETWEEN JAMBIER AND MARTIN JAMBIER Pensez à ce que j’ai fait pour vous... Tenez, des gauloises pour le trajet... Il m’en manque que deux. [Think of all I’ve done for you...Here, have two gauloises for the road...I’ve only got two left.] JAMBIER Pense en el que he fet per vosté. Tinga, uns cigarrets per al camí. [Think of all I’ve done for you. Here, have some cigarettes for the road.] This is another example that can be included in the group “artificial products”, since it is also a lexicalised French brand name for cigarettes (gauloises). In this case, the image clearly shows the spectator that the characters are talking about cigarettes, nevertheless I preferred to use the generic word in Catalan (cigarrets), in order to avoid any possible confusion. Anyway, this brand name is not an essential piece of information either, and can be substituted by its generic word in the translation. After having analysed all these examples, it seems undeniable that there are some cultural references that can be translated easily into the target language and others whose translation involves greater difficulty, depending on their degree of specificity. Now we will introduce the notion of the translatability of cultural references, a characteristic that becomes apparent to a greater or lesser extent in a translation,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08

F: BTL5806.tex / p.13 (768-823)

The translation of cultural references in the cinema

depending on certain factors, such as the distance between the cultures involved in the translation process or the specificity of cultural references mentioned above. Indeed this specificity seems to be the most important aspect in the translation of cultural references. Consequently, and bearing all these factors in mind, the translator will have to use different translation techniques and skills depending on the case, as we will see in the following section.

. Techniques for the translation of cultural references As occurs with the classification of cultural references, there exist many different lists proposed by different authors who try to gather together the main translation techniques used in the translation of cultural references from the original culture to the target one. Among all these proposals, Newmark (1988), following the classification by Vinay and Dalbernet (1958), creates a very extensive and perhaps excessively exhaustive classification, from which Marco (2002: 208–209) has taken seven main categories: Transfer, which consists of a loanword taken from the original language. It is mainly used in certain cases where the cultural reference is present only in the original culture and has no equivalence in the target one. This is the case, for instance, of the word perestroika. Naturalisation. This translation technique consists of adapting the original term to the morphology of the target language, and so this term becomes a neologism. Some examples are words like the Spanish fútbol (an adaptation of “football”) and a great amount of vocabulary related to this and other sports; we should also include in this category other terms alluding to, for example, computer science and the Internet, such as the Catalan terms xatejar (participate in a chat room), escannejar (scan), etc. Calque. This is a literal loan-translation of a cultural reference, and we can observe it in words such as Catalan superhome or English superman (translated from the original German term Übermensch). Neutralisation. This involves an explanatory translation of the cultural reference alluding to the features of the element it refers to. A clear example of this technique would be translating the word samurai as “Japanese aristocracy from the 11th to the 19th century”. In contrast, if we decided to maintain this term in its original form, we would be using the transfer technique. Among the examples mentioned above, we can find an application of this technique in the translation of gauloises, a term that has been substituted in the translation with the generic term (cigarettes) in order to explain what kind of product it is.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08



F: BTL5806.tex / p.14 (823-884)

Maria D. Oltra Ripoll

Additional information. With footnotes, paraphrases (which include both the original word and an explanation), explanatory comments, and so on. Cultural equivalence, consisting of choosing a concept from the target culture that is approximately equal to the original concept. An example of this would be translating BA degree as licenciatura in Spanish. This technique has been applied to the two first examples extracted from the film Pretty Woman. The first one refers to an opera (Pirates of Penzance) that is replaced by another one (La Traviata) that is more popular in the target culture. We should emphasise, however, that the second cultural reference also exists in the original culture. We can observe the same translation technique in the example based on the cultural reference of Cinderella (“Cinder-fucking-rella”), which is substituted in the translation by a new play on words based on another fairy tale character, Snow White (“Putanieves y el príncipe”). Omission of the cultural reference. After carefully analysing the above examples, it seems we should add to this classification a new translation technique that is being used in at least four of these examples. We could call it substitution by another cultural reference in the source culture, and it would consist of changing the original cultural reference for another one, which also belongs to the original culture. Its features would be relatively similar to those of the first reference, but it would be more familiar to the target culture spectators. This is the case of some examples that we have already seen, such as the substitution of Doris Day for Carol Channing, the Marx Brothers for the Ritz Brothers, the state of Florida for a city located inside of it (Orlando), or the substitution of a rugby team for a debate team. It would thus consist of looking for an equivalent element, always in the original culture, that would be more familiar to the target audience. Moreover, there is a possibility of combining more than one of these translation techniques, as we can observe both in the examples of Buoncostume and viandox. In the first one, by substituting the original Buoncostume with the Brigada de la Moral, the translator has used a combination of two translation techniques: cultural equivalence and neutralisation, since we are dealing with an equivalent concept that also explains the meaning of the original term. Another example of a combination of two techniques would be translating the original brand name viandox into a generic name – vi (wine). This would be another case of cultural equivalence plus neutralisation. It is an equivalent because it has been replaced by a more common element in the target culture, and it is also a neutralisation, for the brand name is omitted and substituted in the target language by another generic name that explains the features of the product. Notwithstanding, it must be acknowledged that it is almost impossible to use some of these translation techniques in screen translation, due to the space and time restrictions imposed by the image and its synchrony with the written text.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08

F: BTL5806.tex / p.15 (884-940)

The translation of cultural references in the cinema

For this reason, we translators will not be able to use the additional information technique, since we cannot add any footnotes to our translation on the one hand, and on the other, we have to adjust our translation to the time used by the original actor to say his sentence. So we cannot introduce a lot of explanatory elements in our translation. Likewise, the omission technique is not possible in screen translation, due to space restrictions too, for this translation technique implies an information gap that should be filled with another sentence. All of this is true for dubbing, but with regard to the subtitling task the difficulty increases, because of the fact that the spectator can hear the original version, that the translation is written – and not spoken – and that it is subject to space restriction.

. Conclusions As we have already observed, the process of screen translation is closely related to the cultural dimension of a country and a community. So setting out from certain premises proposed by authors such as Snell-Hornby and Vermeer (1988), we reach the conclusion that translation takes place not only between languages, but that it is also a transfer between cultures. Continuing with this point, we should pay special attention to the studies that, as stated by Chaume (1999: 215), “focus on the cultural impact of the translation of audio-visual texts”, such as Goris’ (1993) research and those who follow the trends of the theorists Delabastita (1989, 1990) and Lambert (1989). From the point of view of the translation of cultural references, and more generally, of the intercultural nature of translation, there are some factors of the translators’ environment and the target culture that condition the whole translation process. Chaume (1999: 215, our translation) enumerates the most important factors that should be taken into consideration: a.

The position of the target culture with respect to the international context (with aspects such as society, economy, politics, etc.). b. The cultural relations that the target culture has with the original one. c. The cultural restrictions imposed on the translator by the target culture. d. The client’s intentions and requirements regarding the translation (which will be conditioned by the place and the time of broadcasting, or the connotations of certain specific cultural references with regard to the philosophy followed by a particular TV channel, etc.). e. The tradition existing in the target culture regarding text types and intertextuality.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08



F: BTL5806.tex / p.16 (940-1025)

Maria D. Oltra Ripoll

f. The flexibility of the target culture. g. The linguistic policy of the target culture. h. And especially, the existence in the target culture of the genre of the original culture (with its linguistic models, stylistic and cultural features, intertextuality, etc.). All in all, and as we have already seen, the translation of cultural references, especially in audio-visual texts, can be a tremendous challenge for the translator, who must take into consideration a great number of factors that are different in each case and that condition his or her translation. Therefore, there arises a need to continue the research on audio-visual translation, which is a constantly developing field thanks to the advances in communication technology and our approaching total globalisation. This trend, however, contrasts with these cultural references that are peculiar to a particular country, people or ethnic group. We are facing, thus, a dialectical tension between the trend toward globalisation and the will to maintain this specificity of cultural references, which become symbols of the identity of a community.

References Agost, R. (1999). Traducción y doblaje: palabras, voces e imágenes. Barcelona: Ariel. Agost, R. & Chaume, F. (1996). “L’ensenyament de la traducció audiovisual”. In A. Hurtado Albir (Ed.), La enseñanza de la traducción (pp. 207–211). Castelló: Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I. Agost, R. & Chaume, F. (Eds.). (2001). La traducción en los medios audiovisuals. Castellón: Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I. Cattrysse, P. (1992). “Film (Adaptation) as Translation: Some Methodological Proposals.” TARGET International Journal of Translation Studies, 4(1), 53–70. Chaume, F. (1999). “La traducción Audiovisual: Investigación y docencia”. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 7(2), 109–217. Delabastita, D. (1989). “Translation and Mass Communication: Film and T.V. Translation as Evidence of Cultural Dynamics”. Babel, 35(4), 193–217. Eguíluz, F. et al. (Eds.). (1994). Transvases culturales: literatura, cine y traducción. Vitoria: Universidad del País Vasco. Hatim, B. & Mason, I. (1990). Discourse and the Translator. Harlow, England: Longman. Hurtado, A. (Dir.). (1999). Enseñar a traducir. Metodología en la formación de traductores e intérpretes. Madrid: Edelsa. Izard, N. (1992). La traducció cinematogràfica. Barcelona: Centre d’Investigació de la Comunicació, Generalitat de Catalunya. Katan, D. (1999). Translating Cultures. An Introduction for Translators, Interpreters and Mediators. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Mallafrè, J. (1991). Llengua de tribu i llengua de polis. Barcelona: Quaderns Crema.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:08

F: BTL5806.tex / p.17 (1025-1067)

The translation of cultural references in the cinema

Marco, J. (2002). El fil d’Ariadna. Anàlisi estilística i traducció literària. Vic: Editorial Eumo. Marco, J. (Ed.). (1995). La traducció literària. (Estudis sobre la traducció, 2). Castelló: Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I. Marco, J., Verdegal, J. & Hurtado, A. (1999). “La traducción literaria”. In A. Hurtado Albir (Dir.), Enseñar a traducir. Metodología en la formación de traductores e intérpretes (pp. 167–181). Madrid: Edelsa. Newmark, P. (1988). A Textbook of Translation. London: Prentice-Hall.

Films Pretty Woman. (1990). Produced by Arnon Milchau and Steven Reuther. Directed by Garry Marshall. 119 min. USA: Touchtone Pictures/Buena Vista Distribution Company. Videocassette and DVD. Una vita violenta. [A Violent Life]. (1962). Produced by Zebra Film Roma and Aera Film Paris. Directed by Paolo Heuch. 115 min. Italy-France: Variety Film. Videocassette. La beauté du diable. [Beauty and the Devil]. (1950). Produced by Salvo d’Angelo. Directed by René Clair. 97 min. France: Universalia Production. Videocassette. La traversée de Paris. [Pig Across Paris]. (1956). Directed by Claude Autant-Lara. 80 min. France: Gaumont/Franco-London Films/Continental Produzione. Videocassette.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 13:08

F: BTL58P2.tex / p.1 (40-62)

P II

Minority languages Facing inequality in the translation arena

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 13:23

F: BTL5807.tex / p.1 (40-110)

Translation policy for minority languages in the European Union Globalisation and resistance Oscar Diaz Fouces

Count Dracula, the Transylvanian marginal and accomplished linguist, also looks into a shaving mirror, that of Jonathan Harker in Dracula, but he does not see himself (Stoker 1993: 25). He remains disturbingly invisible. Speakers of minority languages looking into the disciplinary mirror of translation studies can also experience the troubling absence of the undead. (M. Cronin 1998: 146)

.

Introduction

The spread of international trade networks to almost all corners of the world has brought with it a huge extension of communication channels and flows. We refer to this general process as globalisation. The European Union is experiencing the process of globalisation in a very special way. For the first time in their history, most European countries have accepted their integration into a suprastate entity, in which they have delegated their decision-making capacity over very significant aspects of their political, economic and even symbolic structures. However, this integration process has gone forward with the will to respect the European Union’s linguistic diversity, assigning an extraordinary amount of human and material resources to doing so, and with the creation of a specific legal framework intended to protect linguistic minorities. Despite this apparently egalitarian linguistic situation, a new linguistic order is emerging in Europe, and it seems to have at least three different levels. At the first level we find the official languages of the member states (e.g. French, Italian, German, Dutch, Danish, and so on), which are also official in the European institutions.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 13:23



F: BTL5807.tex / p.2 (110-165)

Oscar Diaz Fouces

It should be pointed out that even the languages belonging to this first level have an unequal status. English is without a doubt the language of globalisation, the only truly worldwide language, while the others are relegated to play the role of regional languages. English is, for instance, the official language of the Central European Bank, despite the fact that the bank is actually located in Germany and neither Britain nor any other officially English-speaking country is a member of the European Monetary Union. In fact, it is the threat of English dominance rather than any egalitarian ideology which can actually be thought to have encouraged the respect for the multilingualism in the European Union (see Coulmas 1991). The second level is bound up to the lack of historical correspondence between linguistic and state borders in Europe. Catalan, Breton, Frisian, Scots, Welsh and Galician are just some of these non-official languages of the European Union. The widely used term “minority languages” does not characterise them accurately. For example, the approximately 10 million potential Catalan users spread out between Spain, Andorra, France and Italy actually form a greater block than the number of users of other languages which are, or will shortly be, part of the above-mentioned first level (such as Danish, Slovak, Finnish and Norwegian). Therefore, we will more accurately refer to these languages as minorised languages. As minorised languages are the main focus of this paper, I would now like to describe the characteristics which they share, namely: 1. Their territorial boundaries are often under debate. Secessionist tensions are very frequent, as in the case of Valencian vs. Catalan or Galician vs. Portuguese or, to some extent with Corsican, Faroese, Frisian, Occitan, Walloon, and others. 2. The standards of their linguistic structure are not yet fully consolidated or are open to question. 3. As far as the allocation of use is concerned (i.e. in what situations they can be or are used), the interference of the dominant languages is very strong. The members of the minorised linguistic community have to abide by patterns of bilingual behaviour, whereas the members of the dominant community can use their own language in all or most circumstances within the same territory. 4. Users tend to associate the dominant language with higher expectations of social promotion and the minorised language with less prestigious environments, adjusting their linguistic behaviour patterns accordingly. 5. The exchange of linguistic products with other communities is usually contaminated by the dominant language acting as a filter and as a symbolic and practical border. The third level on the European linguistic scale is a result of the massive influx of people into the European Union from parts of the world that offer fewer opportunities, e.g. almost the whole of the African continent, East European

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 13:23

F: BTL5807.tex / p.3 (165-221)

Translation policy for minority languages

ex-communist countries, Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Vietnamese and Turkish are examples of this level. With some exceptions, immigrants’ languages are not included in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, whose Article 1 restricts its scope to those languages we have included in level two: languages that are [. . . ] traditionally used within a given territory of a State by nationals of that State who form a group numerically smaller that the rest of the State’s population; and [. . . ] different from the official languages of that State; [. . . ] it does not include either dialects of the official language(s) of the State or the languages of migrants. (Council of Europe 1992, Article 1 – Definitions)

Some languages belonging to this third group, such as Polish, Hungarian or Romanian, are now waiting to join the privileged club of the European Union’s official languages. Spanish and Portuguese are examples of the exceptions mentioned above, as they are languages used by a large number of Latin American emigrants which paradoxically also pertain to the linguistic “first class.”

. Linguistic inequality and linguistic mediation In our globalised world, a huge textual production is flowing out from everywhere, not only as a result of the creation of original content, but also as a consequence of the linguistic and cultural adaptation of existing content arising from internationalised markets. This adaptation of the content to the local linguistic community is called localisation. Disparity between the two kinds of textual production is related to a community’s status. The most powerful economies, i.e. the most powerful cultural industries, generate original products that are massively adapted to be consumed all over the world. Obviously, English is the most influential, being the language of multinational companies, international trade and business communication, and hence also of mass-market cultural products. We must bear in mind, however, that the growing importance of translation is linked with one of the consequences of globalisation, namely, that English has become the unique universal lingua franca. A. Pym explains this phenomenon, referring to it as a “diversity paradox”, as a result of the differences between the economic categories of production and distribution. Globalisation promotes increased international trade. However, international trade promotes specialisation rather than global homogeneity. These two factors mean that the physical and cultural distance between the centres of production and consumption is growing more and more prominent. At the same time, the diversification of production



JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 13:23



F: BTL5807.tex / p.4 (221-282)

Oscar Diaz Fouces

centres forces the adaptation of products from widely differing origins for many publics that are also spread out and diverse (see Pym 2003 for more details). Of course, we should not forget that dominant languages produce the greatest number of original products, and the ones that are the most prestigious and culturally valued. As we have pointed out above, the American film industry and big software companies are good examples of this. At the other end of the spectrum we have subordinated communities, which are those that have access to more localised products than original ones. It is obvious that these increasing new flows of translated communicative exchanges play different roles on the three levels of languages we have described above. In fact, the first-level languages are the main players in these flows, interacting with each other and, particularly, with English. The third-level languages (with the exceptions mentioned above) also play a leading role in those flows. However, the translation of commercial product labels into Vietnamese, for instance, is not focused on the European Union’s potential consumers (Vietnamese immigrants), but on the consumers in their linguistic home (Vietnamese citizens in their native country). A Vietnamese emigrant to Lyon would have trouble buying a tin of beans labelled in Vietnamese unless it was imported from Vietnam, but his relatives won’t have any problem finding products labelled in Vietnamese in Hanoi. The situation of second-level languages, however, is very different and globally more precarious. A Breton speaker certainly cannot buy those same beans labelled in Breton whether he’s in Paris or in Brest, even though they may have been produced in Brittany. However, we can probably find the product labelled in several languages of the first level simultaneously, like in German, English, Italian, of course French, and perhaps even Greek. Generally speaking, the linguistic communities of the third level are exoglossic, while the communities of the second level are endoglossic, and that situation is very uncomfortable if one does not have a state of one’s own. (Note that exoglossic minorities of level one languages constitute a particular case that we are not taking into account in this paper.) The role that linguistic mediation activities play in the European Union is substantially different for each kind of language. In the case of the first-level languages, translation basically fulfils an instrumental function. Its aim is to bring certain products, e.g. cultural products, to people who cannot speak a certain language, in accordance with European Legislation. In the case of the second-level languages, however, that instrumental function is much more relative. In practice, texts published in the dominant language are accessible, almost without exception, to citizens of these communities. This discourages their translation into these languages, thus forcing the members of minorised linguistic communities to maintain patterns of bilingual behaviour. In practice, this means that level two language users have had to move from bilingualism to multilingualism, as English has gained its global status.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 13:23

F: BTL5807.tex / p.5 (282-329)

Translation policy for minority languages

. Translation policy for minorised languages The role translation plays in the processes of linguistic standardisation and the emergence of nations has often been a subject of interest. A good example of this kind of historical approach is the work by Delisle and Woodsworth (1995). The study of the social role played by translation in general in the present has been a less frequent approach, although there are some interesting exceptions such as the recent congress of The Canadian Association for Translation Studies (Halifax, May 29–31, 2003), on the subject of Translation and Globalisation. However, prospective approaches to the social functions of translation are much more few and far between. This paper combines the last two approaches. We take linguistic communities as complex systems which interact in different settings. We see linguistic diversity as a value that should be preserved and not as a burden that must be put up with, and we defend the need for an ecological approach in this context. What this means, in our opinion, is that linguistic mediation is not merely an additional cost to the commercial exchange of products and services, but rather a practical and symbolic tool that is vital to manage relationships in human communities. Translating can be a useful resource for promoting linguistic and cultural imposition, and, therefore, translation can also be useful to prevent it. Of course, we are interested in this second dimension that considers translation as an instrument to maintain diversity, i.e. the wealth of the ecolinguistic system, and, therefore, to resist the centripetal socioeconomic and sociocultural tensions. In previous publications we have tried to isolate some elements to analyse Translation Policies (see Diaz Fouces 2001, 2002). We believe that efficient planning in that area can be very useful in changing the status of these languages. We shall now go on to some general criteria that would be useful when setting up programs with those characteristics. It is important to always keep in mind the list of characteristics we put forward above for level two languages.

. Homogeneity criterion: Social cohesion and linguistic cohesion Translation activities create a symbolic cohesive group of users of a language, when defining autonomous communication spaces. In linguistic terms, translation activities contribute to standardising the language and to spreading it among the users (see Mallafrè 2003). Both aspects can be combined in a homogeneity criterion: translation activities should encourage the linguistic community’s cohesion, with two apparently contradictory corollaries, i.e. translation should help towards standardisation based on dialectal convergence, but it should also expose the members of the community to the different dialectal variations, to encourage internal com-



JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 13:23

F: BTL5807.tex / p.6 (329-379)

 Oscar Diaz Fouces

municative interactions in spite of diatopic and diastratic differences. Some cases of effective sociolinguistic management seem to avoid the latter strategy. As A. Pym stated (2000: 214), concerning translation policies in Catalonia: “The Generalitat [Catalan government] itself has a very elaborate and expensive policy for the promotion and standardisation of Catalan, surreptitiously combating the language’s regional varieties (although this is rarely admitted)”. Translation is an effective instrument for linguistic secessionism when it is used in linguistic areas that could be considered as a unit. On the other hand, translation is a good tool to encourage group cohesion when it does not occur or when it is applied to outside communities. As R. N. Baxter (2000) points out concerning translations of Portuguese to Galician (two languages that could be considered to form one linguistic area), the sheer existence of such translations justifies the fact that they are different languages and not part of a common linguistic-cultural system to the receiving public. It is interesting to note that dominant languages reject linguistic variations. Audiovisual products dubbed into French in Quebec are re-translated into metropolitan European French when they are shown in France, whereas audiovisual products made in France that are destined for export to other French-speaking countries do not take the linguistic particularities of those communities into account (see Paquin 2000). In the case of minorised languages, these practices are at the root of the symbolic and effective disintegration of social communities. The assignment of public funds to promote them, as in the case of Galician and Catalan, is clearly very meaningful. Talking about Catalan in particular, P. Zabalbeascoa, N. Izard and L. Santamaria stated that [. . . ] most foreign television programming translated into Catalan is dubbed twice into its two main dialects. Since Catalan is a minority language, political reasons recommend the unnecessary public investment of dubbing for a potential audience of seven million people in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands plus three million people in Valencia. Thus, we are witnesses to the division of a lesser-used language, a split made possible thanks to and through the mass media and due to a politically motivated decision with the excuse of satisfying viewers’ preferences. (Zabalbeascoa, Izard, & Santamaria 2001: 102)

. Autonomy criterion: Competition and distinction Translation activities involving minorised languages threaten the hegemony of the dominant language in the coveted communicative space, which means that translation activities involving minorised languages should not avoid translating from the dominant language. If translation ignores the dominant language products, pat-

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 13:23

F: BTL5807.tex / p.7 (379-442)

Translation policy for minority languages 

terns of bilingual behaviour will maintain their solid footing. C. Millán-Varela has referred to this circumstance, speaking of Galician and Castilian (Spanish): Translating from Castilian is one of the polemical issues in the Galician context. On the one hand, since it is perfectly understandable and, in addition, the preferred language among Galician readers, translation from Castilian would seem to be unnecessary. On the other hand, from a nationalist perspective, this translation is necessary since the point is to be able to have direct access to as many works as possible from Galician. (Millán-Varela 2000: 279)

There are, of course, some important exceptions. Filling the gaps in their own textual or terminological repertories based on translations from the dominant language is, obviously, very risky. As M. Cronin points out, talking about Irish translators, If they translate allowing the full otherness of the dominant language to emerge in the translation, inviting rather than eliminating Anglicisms from their Irish translations, then the language into which they translate becomes less and less recognisable as a separate linguistic entity capable of future development and becomes instead a pallid imitation of the source language in translatorese. (Cronin 1995: 90)

Faced with the impossibility of resorting to native production, it seems reasonable to turn instead to interacting with different communities in such specific cases. Translation links the minorised language community to the outside world without the filter that the dominant language represents. This author also notes that the status of the dominant language is questioned as a consequence of this heteroglossic translation practice in subordinated language communities: The movement can be theorized alternatively as the minoritization of major languages through heteroglossia (Deleuze & Guattari 1975). This minoritization can of course become the basis of a movement in translation that affirms identity through minoritized translation. (Cronin 1998: 159)

The above would fit in with a criterion of autonomy. Another example of exercising this criterion would be to forego (re)translating foreign texts from previous translations to the dominant language. In general, translation from the dominant language means considering it as something foreign. Such a stance is also obviously open to varying degrees. For example, showing audiovisual material originally created in the dominant language offers all of these possibilities: showing it dubbed into the subordinated language, showing it with subtitles, or showing it in the original language. Showing Spanish films dubbed into Basque in the cinemas of Donostia may appear provocative given that the whole audience understands Spanish, although the opposite process, films originally shot in Catalan dubbed into

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 13:23

F: BTL5807.tex / p.8 (442-494)

 Oscar Diaz Fouces

Spanish for showing in Madrid would not surprise anyone. Nevertheless, Spain is officially a multilingual state and alternatives like subtitling definitely would have a remarkable pedagogic value following the Belgian model, for example. The Galician Television Channel (TVG) often broadcasts South American soap operas dubbed into Galician. Paradoxically, it has also shown films with Mario Moreno Cantinflas, a famous Mexican actor, in their Mexican Spanish original version. This lack of criterion may indicate the lack of a carefully thought-out decision, or even of a well-planned translation policy.

. Prestige criterion: Awareness and pride Translation is an effective tool to change users’ perception of the symbolic and practical value of their own language, as a language into which translations are made is considered a useful one. In the linguistic ranking outlined above, an effective management of translation practices leads minorised languages to assume attributes of the languages of the upper level. As M. Cost-Rixte points out Les «grandes langues» se traduisent mutuellement et traduisent le patrimoine universel de tous les temps et de tous horizons. L’accès à cette «cour des grands» suppose pour toute langue minorisée qu’elle intéresse les traducteurs et qu’elle pose son existence majeure tant face à la langue qui la domine que face aux langues proprement étrangères. (Coste-Rixte 1998: 86)1

For this reason, it would be particularly useful to promote the translation of those products that have not yet been localised into the dominant language and to give priority to those associated with higher instrumental prestige. Another example of the application of this approach could be to avoid (re)translating foreign texts based on translations into the dominant language as the source texts. As J. Woodsworth (1996: 235) states concerning Scots and Romansch, “By translating works that have enjoyed prestige, authority or simply wide distribution in the source culture, the translator confers credibility on the target language text and the target language itself ”. Of course, it should always be borne in mind that the traditional view of translation reduced to an aesthetic phenomenon and the automatic equation between translation studies and literary translation, albeit generally absurd, in such cases as these are quite simply dangerous. Again in M. Cronin’s words: The desired presence of the minority language in all areas of life, in all disciplines, the refusal of the aesthetic ghetto, demands a much greater reflection than has hitherto been undertaken on the role of scientific, technical and commercial translation in identity formation for minorities. (Cronin 1998: 150)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 13:23

F: BTL5807.tex / p.9 (494-560)

Translation policy for minority languages 

What we have said so far could serve as the basic guidelines for drawing up a draft prestige criterion, geared to (re)shaping the linguistic market and the positive values and attitudes that this fact would help to create.

. Comments and conclusions The criteria we have just presented, albeit cursorily, could help draw up translation policies for the improved management of the role played by linguistic mediation, primarily although not exclusively applied to European minorised communities. Some people might be inclined to criticise our position by dint of its apparently overly-protective rather than particularly ecological slant, and it could even be thought to be merely conservative. Fully aware of such possible objections, we would simply reply that it is actually the neoliberal ideology underpinning the current conservative model of global communication which causes communities to fluctuate in a global, free market. Nor should it be forgotten that we are suggesting defensive measures, arguments for holding out against assimilation. On the other hand, we would also like to add that our criteria are not too far removed from the concept of translation norms, the clearest difference being that here we have assigned them a prescriptive rather than a descriptive nature. In the narrowest view, Descriptive Translation Studies has come to accept that tacit norms have always been the bedrock of historic social conventions and constraints that did not need to be brought into the open. No one should be surprised that a proposal for efficient translation management in minorised communities necessarily implies the explicitness of such norms. Social consensus based on silence usually implies the invisibility of certain human groups and the time is always ripe to claim back one’s own reflection in the mirror.

Note . “Major” languages are translated between one another and translate the universal heritage of all times and perspectives. For any minorised language which wants to play in this “major league” translators must deem it to be of interest and it must size up not only against the particular language that dominates it but also against foreign languages per se.

References Baxter, R. Neal (2002). “El paper de la traducció en la consolidació de la percepció social del gallec com a Abstandsprache”. Quaderns. Revista de Traducció, 7, 167–181.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 13:23

F: BTL5807.tex / p.10 (560-636)

 Oscar Diaz Fouces

Coste-Rixte, Marie-Christine (1998). “De l’identité à la traduction”. Lengas, 44, 85–98. Coulmas, Florian (1991). “European integration and the idea of the national language.” In F. Coulmas (Ed.), A Language Policy for the European Community: Prospects and Quandries. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Council of Europe (1992). European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, 5.XI.1992. European Treaty Series – No. 148. Strasbourg. [Cons. 30.11.03] Cronin, Michael (1995). “Altered States: Translation and Minority Languages”. TTR, VIII(1), 85–103. Cronin, Michael (1998). “The Cracked Looking Glass of Servants. Translation and Minority Languages in a Global Age”. The Translator, 4(2), 145–162. Delisle, Jean & Judith Woodsworth (1995). Les traducteurs dans l’histoire. Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa / Éditions UNESCO. Diaz Fouces, Oscar (2001). “Cal planificar la mediació lingüística? L’exemple de Catalunya”. Revista de Llengua i Dret, 36, 121–156. Diaz Fouces, Oscar (2002). “La planificació de la mediació lingüística”. In O. Diaz Fouces, M. García González & J. Costa Carreras (Eds.), Traducció i dinàmica sociolingüística (pp. 85–110). Barcelona: Llibres de l’Índex. Mallafrè, Joaquim (2003). “Estandardització i traducció”. In M. À. Pradilla (Ed.), Identitat lingüística i estandardització (pp. 57–88). Valls: Cossetània. Millán-Valera, Carmen (2000). “Translation, Normalisation and Identity in Galicia(n)”. Target, 12(2), 267–282. Paquin, Robert (2000). “Le doublage au Canada: politiques de la langue et langue des politiques”. Meta, XLV(1), 127–133. Pym, Anthony (2000). Negotiating the Frontier. Translators and Intercultures in Hispanic History. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Pym, Anthony (2003). “Globalization and the Politics of Translation Studies”. Paper delivered to the conference Translation and Globalization (Canadian Association of Translation Studies) in Halifax, Canada, 29 May 2003. [Cons. 27.11.2003] Woodsworth, Judith (1996). “Language, Translation and the Promotion of National Identity: Two Test Cases”. Target, 8(2), 211–238. Zabalbeascoa, Patrick, Izard, Natàlia & Santamaria, Laura (2001). “Disentangling audiovisual translation into Catalan from the Spanish Media Mesh”. In Y. Gambier & H. Gottlieb (Eds.), (Multi)Media Translation. Concepts, Practices and Research (pp. 101–111). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.1 (42-114)

Translation of minority languages in bilingual and multilingual communities Marta García González

.

Introduction

On a general level, affecting both multilingual and monolingual communities, the existence of international relations with foreign communities generates communication exchanges and can involve the use of two or more languages. It is clear that in the present context of international openness, the exchange of information between communities has become a key element for success. A company devoted to the export-import business, for instance, shall necessarily have to resort to language mediation, either by using its in-house resources or by hiring the services of an external company. The exchange of information and the development of crossnational research projects often involve the presence of translation activity. Even to be informed about what is happening in other communities, we need to rely on the work of translators. The publishing and film industries, finally, cannot subsist without the edition of works coming from different communities and generally written in different languages. Although all the above examples represent international relations that justify the existence of translation, contact situations can be identified also within many nations that involve a need for communication between speakers of different languages and, therefore, the potential presence of language mediation activities. One of these situations is where there is the co-existence of several language groups within the same geographical space, who are sometimes unable to understand each other. This is the most common pattern in some African countries, such as Nigeria, which we will be dealing with later in this article. A second situation that is closely related to the previous one is the inability of some language groups to speak the official language of a state, or the usual standard of a specific field. In some regions where emigration was a usual practice some decades ago, there are many people who, after having spent half of their lives in a different country and using a foreign language, still need to resort to

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.2 (114-168)

 Marta García González

translation to understand the official administrative documents of that country. This translation activity is caused by the incapacity of those people to understand the administrative terminology of the language, which does not prevent them from staying and working in the country for many years. Also related to migration is the necessity of public authorities, for instance, to hire interpreters who can mediate in communication with the immigrants entering Europe. The existence of two or more official language communities sharing a single political state, though initially distributed in different geographical areas, can also make translation necessary. This is the case in Switzerland and Belgium, states where the official multilingualism does not necessarily involve the bilingualism of the population, thus making it necessary to ensure the availability of translators and interpreters for any text or in any event involving two or more territories with different languages. Another example would be the resistance or incapacity of the members of a language group settled in a currently bilingual or multilingual region to learn the other co-existing languages of the region, or to use them even if they know them. This resistance is clearly subject to the power relations between groups. The typical situation of the colonies would be the consequence of the decision of the dominant group not to speak and in some cases not even to learn the language of the subordinated people. In a different and even opposite context, although somehow arising from a similar situation, we find the decision of minor language speakers to always use their language, even when they can speak the major language whose speakers cannot understand theirs. Achieving the legal and social requirements that make this position possible is clearly very difficult and again closely related to the issue of power relations. Some of the above examples depict communicative situations where the presence of translation is justified by the need of the involved parties to understand each other. However, this is not always the case. Among the examples, we can think of circumstances in which the parties could really understand each other without resorting to translation. Those are precisely the circumstances this paper is focused on, and more specifically on those that determine the presence of translation from or into minority languages of Western Europe.

. The functions of translation If we walk through the history of translation research, we can see that until the twentieth century translation studies were articulated around two central ideas: on the one hand, scholars discussed the way of translating; on the other, they

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.3 (168-225)

Translation of minority languages in bilingual and multilingual communities 

questioned the very possibility of translation. Although these main approaches became considerably diversified during the second half of the twentieth century, they still are to a certain extent reference points for the present research trends. No matter the position it is approached from, be it applied linguistics, text typology studies, a search for norms within the target community, etc., research on translation still focuses its main efforts on explaining the how, either from a descriptive (how do we translate?) or from a prescriptive (how should we translate?) point of view. In the face of all this exchange of confronted, though many times complementary theoretical approaches involving this insistence on studying the way we translate, and considering the examples we mentioned before, maybe we should question whether we might not have disregarded some basic issues which we can gather under the common label of why. And it might be that such disregard is precisely due to the widespread trend of seeing translation as an activity that only makes sense when implemented to meet the need to communicate something that is expressed in a language the recipient does not understand. This way of seeing translation is clearly illustrated in the following excerpt: Al hablar de traducción conviene señalar de entrada su función comunicativa: se traduce para comunicar, para hacer que un destinatario que no comprende la lengua, ni a veces la cultura en que está formulado un texto (oral, escrito o audiovisual) tenga acceso a este texto. (Hurtado Albir 1991: 57. Emphasis added.)

Although it is true that most translation work is carried out for the purpose of enabling communication between two parties (communities, individuals) speaking different languages, the fact is that we can also identify situations in which translation can be clearly associated with different objectives. To study translation in a national context is to become aware of the multiplicity of intersecting functions and discourses in which it participates. If translation is taking on increased importance today as a way to conceptualise processes of cultural transmission, it is because we recognise that it participates in many different ways in the generation of new forms of knowledge, new textual forms, and new relationships to language. (Simon 1992: 160)

On the other hand, we have to acknowledge that even as a communicative activity, translation is not always associated with a lack of understanding. When a given company makes the decision to have its advertisements or the labels of its products translated into the minority languages of a state, such decision is not motivated by the inability of the recipients to understand the major language. This type of translation, however, can still be considered a (persuasive) communicative action, since the text producer expects to achieve a higher level of persuasion by addressing the recipient in his or her own language.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.4 (225-290)

 Marta García González

Although we have so far claimed the analysis of the how to be the focus of most translation research approaches, we cannot deny the existence of studies addressing the reasons for translation to a certain extent: why some texts are selected for translation whereas others are not, what role a translation is intended to play in the target community, etc. In his description of translation norms, Toury (1980, 1995) describes preliminary norms as those that have to do with “the existence and actual nature of a definite translation policy” and those “related to the directness of translation”. When talking about translation policies, we are actually referring to the choice of texts and therefore also to the reasons that govern such choice. It is one of the first times Toury approaches the issue of translation norms, which relates to Even-Zohar’s application of the polysystem theory in the field of literary translation, where the author defines the role of translation and its position in the literary system. It is clear that the very principles of selecting the works to be translated are determined by the situation governing the (home) polysystem: the texts are chosen according to their compatibility with the new approaches and the supposedly innovatory role they may assume within the target language. (Even-Zohar 1978, 1990: 47)

In recent years, Toury has also concentrated on the issue of translation and minority languages, as well as on the idea of translation as an object and subject of planning: After all, it cannot be contested that, being norm-governed by its very nature, translation is as much a means of effecting planning as it is a paradigmatic case thereof. (Toury 1999: 15)

From a different standpoint, strictly rooted in the translation from and into minority languages, Cronin (1995) draws a distinction between the pragmatic and the aesthetical functions of translation. The pragmatic function refers to all the translations made to meet the practical needs of the minority language, so as to ensure the right of its speakers to live and interact with the environment in that language, in the same way the speakers of the major language do. In contrast to this pragmatic function, Cronin introduces the concept of aesthetical translation, which is mainly related to literary translation. In this case, the degree of freedom is considerably higher, since the community can decide both which works to translate (in order to shape its own literary system) and whether or not the minority language is to assume the role of source language and export its own models to achieve a higher level of development and internationalisation of its literary system. In a similar context, Simon (1992) distinguishes between obligatory and optional translations:

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.5 (290-343)

Translation of minority languages in bilingual and multilingual communities 

It is important to distinguish between translation as replacement and translation as supplement. In the first case, a translation is undertaken for reasons of legal or commercial constraint to stand in the place of a previously existing text. This is the case of the overwhelming majority of translations undertaken in Canada, largely as legal obligation. In the second case, translation is optional and seeks to integrate the alterity of the text into the receiving culture, to expand its repertoire. (Simon 1992: 161)

Woodsworth (1996) studies translation as a means to promote national identity. She analyses specifically the translation into Scots of a Quebecois play and the translation into Romansch of an English children’s book, two clear examples of politically driven translation: The primary function of literary texts is not to communicate specific information. Communication is even less of an issue in these two instances because virtually none of the speakers of Scots and Romansch are monolingual. Thus, translation is not “necessary,” strictly speaking. [. . . ] It is not simply a matter of “communication of verbal messages across a cultural-linguistic border” (Toury 1980: 15). Instead, it is an activity with significant institutional, political and ideological implications, which can be highly instructive for our understanding of translational phenomena in general. (Woodsworth 1996: 213)

Shavit (1997) provides us with a second example of political motivations for translation when she describes the type of German works selected for translation into Hebrew, and used as reading and school material for the Hebrew community in Germany. During the Enlightenment period German literature was adopted as an example to shape the Hebrew system. However, once it had been adopted, the model was maintained without acknowledging the changes brought about in German literature by the arrival of Romanticism, to prevent the entry into the system of any ideology contrary to Hebrew Haskala ideology. The policy was adopted as a preliminary norm, since it referred to the selection of texts itself, and not to the way they should be translated. The eligibility of texts for translation was ideologically motivated: the extent to which a text reflected the ideological inclinations of various Haskala writers was a definite factor for or against its translation into Hebrew. In other words, a German text had to “prove” its unequivocal adherence to Hebrew Haskala ideology before it could even be selected for translation. Only texts seen through the filter of the Haskala norms as affiliated to the German Enlightenment and/or the Jewish tradition were thus candidates for translation. (Shavit 1997: 117)

The above is not the only pertinent example we can find of translation into Hebrew. Shavit (1998) describes the high status gained by literature when translated into

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.6 (343-400)

 Marta García González

this language. To illustrate, Toury (1998) analyses the translation of Yiddish texts into Hebrew during the nineteenth century, which was not intended to spread such texts (potential readers of Hebrew in Eastern Europe were also able to read Yiddish) but to deliberately increase their cultural prestige. We could still mention and comment on other examples, all of them approaching the reasons for translation from different standpoints and positions. Any of them could spark off a long discussion on the relevance and purposes of translation into and from minority and less-translated languages. At this point, however, it is more interesting for us to walk again through the different translation research schools and theories, to discover that the above-mentioned disregard for the reasons for translation is parallel to the widespread trend to focus translation studies on major languages. Translation theory itself remains hostage to the perceptions and interests of major languages. [. . . ] Translation conferences are generally noteworthy for the lack of attention paid to minority languages and the dominance of theories predicated on the historical experience and insights of the translation triumvirate, English, French and German. (Cronin 1995: 94)

The hegemony of major languages in translation studies is verified in two different aspects. One the one hand, we can clearly identify their hegemony as vehicular languages of translation theory itself. This of course is not an isolated circumstance, but a common trend closely related to the use of major languages, and more specifically the English language, as a vehicle to carry and spread scientific and humanistic knowledge. Apart from this trend, the walk through translation theory history also reveals the widespread practice of analysing translations between major languages. When it comes to analysing the way we translate, studies on major languages are clearly far more profitable than the research on minority languages, since they increase the number of people that have access to them. Cronin himself acknowledges the difficulties involved in analysing translations from or into a minority language, when the analysis is to be read by people who can neither speak nor even understand the language. The hindrance disappears, however, when the activity of translation is approached from a sociological perspective, since in that case it is not the knowledge of the language itself but of its position that matters. That all the works directly or indirectly dealing with reasons for translation we have mentioned above refer either to minority languages or to languages involved in a language planning process cannot be seen as a chance circumstance. We might be able to find the reason for such concurrence in the fact that translation between major languages is something commonly taken for granted, as a natural activity when such languages are in contact. In the case of minority languages, on the contrary, translation is an activity that has to be fostered and activated,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.7 (400-452)

Translation of minority languages in bilingual and multilingual communities

as a mechanism to promote the language itself. In other words, translation is no longer an underlying element of communication, but an essential tool in the process of language recovery or preservation, and therefore it is more likely to be studied in relation to language and culture planning than translation between major languages. It can therefore be claimed that, when treating translation as a mere tool to enable understanding between two parties, at least in the context of minority languages, we are clearly forgetting an essential aspect of the activity: its role in language normalisation processes (i.e. in the attempts to cause a language to be normally used in all spheres of a speech community1 ) can be of equal or even more importance for such languages than the communicative function itself.

. Presence of translation activity in specific scopes The normalisation role with which we closed the second part of this paper, whether consciously or not, is in many cases essential for the development of the minority language. Therefore, it seems worth trying to study its main characteristics, with the purpose of classifying them in a consistent way and using them in the interests of the language. Research into the past and present translation practices and policies, and systematic account of the roles actually played by translations in the development of languages and cultures may, however, yield certain patterns and regularities in this basically intuitive behaviour. Studies of that type, if conducted within one and the same theoretical and methodological framework may therefore be very useful for future planning in the domain of translating; for what has been done intuitively can also be put to deliberate use, once the mechanisms involved in the activity itself have been laid bare. (Toury 1985: 4)

However, the design of the common theoretical and methodological framework suggested by Toury poses important difficulties. Firstly, it requires the identification of common situations where translation is carried out. Secondly, it requires the definition of comparable and measurable social, cultural, political and economic factors that can be studied for all the analysed languages. We shall make an attempt to create this framework, beginning with the identification of the common situations and then proceeding to focus our attention on the factors. Any situation in which there is contact between two different language systems can create a need for translation, either with or without communicative intention. Even so, if we bear in mind that the total amount of minority languages greatly exceeds that of major languages, and if we take into account that they are spread all over the planet and are used in quite different social contexts, it seems clear that



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45



F: BTL5808.tex / p.8 (452-516)

Marta García González

we will need to define a set of separate contexts in which there might or might not be translation, depending on the analysed community. Such contexts should be broad enough to be easily adapted to the specific characteristics of each separate community. The difference established by Cronin between pragmatic and aesthetical translation might serve as a starting point upon which we could build our typology. We should, however, question to what extent such division is applicable to all minority languages. In fact, it is not even clear whether the aesthetical function exists on its own, dissociated from the pragmatic function. If, as Cronin himself claims, the pragmatic function must guarantee that the users of the minority language enjoy the same rights as the users of the major language, it seems clear that we should include literary translation both from and into that language under the pragmatic category, since the life of a person is not only based on his or her interactions with the public administration. We must also discard for now the difference between necessary and optional translations as regarding mutual understanding, since the number of translations included in each category would vary considerably from some languages to others, apart from the difficulties involved in establishing to what extent translations are (un)necessary for understanding. Though we could use Simon’s dichotomy between translation as replacement and translation as supplement, which does not necessarily involve need for understanding, translations into most minority languages are not likely to replace the major language source texts, given their common lack of recognition as the only official language of a political territory. Brann (1981) designs a typology of language contact situations in Nigeria for the purpose of describing the role of translation in each of those situations. Although language distribution patterns in Nigeria differ considerably from other states, we can identify some similarities which suggest that the behaviour of language communities and the situation of minority languages are actually not so different as we might assume in advance. In static multilingual societies, [. . . ] distinct languages are assigned to distinct classes or domains of activity, resulting in situations of stable polyglossia. This has to some extent been the case in Nigeria until recently, where distinct languages were assigned specific roles, as Arabic for (Islamic) worship, English for (public) education, Pidgin for the (southern) market. In the present rapidly modernising society of Nigeria, however, there is dynamic social thrust both horizontal – resulting in rural-urban migration, and vertical – making for the improvement of social status through education. This movement causes constantly new contacts between language users. (Brann 1981: 12)

When we read Brann’s description of the language situation in Nigeria thoroughly, we can identify some parallels with that of the bilingual communities we want

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.9 (516-560)

Translation of minority languages in bilingual and multilingual communities

to study. First of all, there is a more or less overcome stage, in which different languages are assigned to different fields and, subsequently, to different social classes: the major language is associated with the administration and the public sphere in general, whereas the minority language is mainly used in the traditional primary sector and in private circles. This situation evolves gradually as language normalisation efforts succeed and minority languages are able to recover part of their lost ground, and gain new ground. The main difference, however, lies in the fact that while in Nigeria the need for translation is caused by the lack of mutual understanding between the monolingual users of the different languages, in Western Europe such need does not exist, since we are dealing with almost bilingual communities. Despite this important difference, the fact is that the model designed by Brann can be used as a base for the development of our typology, since it represents a consistent and well-structured trial of including all the languages involved and all the public fields in which language contact can exist. On the basis of Brann’s model, therefore, two parameters shall be considered to describe the situation of translation: contact languages and contact fields.

(1) Contact languages We can state that almost all the speakers of vernacular minority languages in Western Europe understand the major language they coexist with, and that the speakers of the major language do not need to understand the minority language except in very specific situations. If this is in fact the case, translation could only be understood as part of some sort of public policy or planning program, and not as a response to a real communication need. It is not a communicative transaction (Hatim & Mason 1990: 2), in the strict sense of the term, but a tool intended to achieve different goals. We will not go into the reasons that determine the use of translation in specific fields for the moment; we will simply include them all under the category of political reasons, understanding the term political in its broadest definition as the specific nature of a set of ideas or plans that are agreed on by people in authority as a basis for making decisions and achieving specific goals. As for translation between the minority language and other languages not spoken in the community, in principle we could expect it not to be affected by its relation with the dominant language. We know, however, that again in this case the minority language has to compete with the major language. In the field of literary translation, for instance, it is common for a considerable number of the texts selected for translation into the minority language to have already been translated into the majority one. For such reason, a minority language version would be unnecessary if it were intended to make the work understandable. This circumstance



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45



F: BTL5808.tex / p.10 (560-618)

Marta García González

is counterbalanced by the use of literary translation as a normalisation tool. In the field of business activities, most foreign companies prefer to translate into the major language to communicate or sell their products, since they can reach a wider population group with an equal expense. Finally, the existence of translation between two minority languages, whether belonging to the same country or not, can be of high relevance. If two minority communities sharing the same major language resort to translation, it is clear that they do not do it to understand each other, but as a way of promoting their otherness. From that perspective, the volume of translation activity between minority languages can be an important indicator of the language status, both at the institutional and at the social level. We will therefore consider three different types of language contact: a. Contacts between the minority language and the major dominant language b. Contacts between the minority language and other major languages c. Contacts between the minority language and other minority languages

(2) Contact fields2 (See Appendix for a table that could be used to summarise these data.) (a) Public scope Under the public scope, the following fields have been selected: i. ii. iii. iv. v.

Government Legislative branch Judicial administration General public administration International relations

All the above fields are enclosed within the scope of public administration and therefore likely to be subject to completion of sets of guidelines or regulations concerning translation. Such guidelines can be associated with the use of a specific standard or the obligation of translating given types of documents; sometimes the legality of a text is even subject to the validity of its translation. The effective existence and the degree of implementation of those guidelines, therefore, can be an indicator of the importance of translation in a given community or region. Besides, translation services are likely to be created to meet the needs of the several public institutions, which will not happen if translation is inexistent or only sporadically practiced. Both the guidelines on translation and the translation services play an important role in the normalisation of the minority language and in the establishment of its standard variety, whether or not they are specifically included in language planning programs.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.11 (618-691)

Translation of minority languages in bilingual and multilingual communities

(b) Mixed scope (private/public) Under the mixed scope, the following fields have been selected: (i) Culture and education: The introduction of a language in the school curriculum requires the publication of textbooks. In many cases these are obtained through the translation of already existing books, though this circumstance varies depending on whether the language is introduced just as a subject or also as a vehicular language. The exclusion of the language from the school system, on the contrary, has negative consequences for the speakers’ proficiency in such language and therefore for their ability to read and understand given types of texts. As concerning research activities and the translation of specialised literature into the minority language, we would expect it to be much less frequent than the edition of textbooks, given the scarce number of potential readers. If instances of technical text translation are recorded, this might be an indicator of a high normalisation degree, or of a considerable relevance of the language in the technological, research and university fields. We have already commented on the prevalence of the English language in these fields, which affects not only the minority languages but also many major languages. Still in this field, it would also be relevant to know if the minority language is used as a working language in scientific and cultural conferences or events, and if interpreting services are available for such purpose. The national and international nature of many conferences causes the minority language to be absent in many cases, in favour of the dominant language with which a larger audience can be addressed without increasing the event cost. The presence of the minority language in this type of events would therefore reveal either a high level of normalisation, a considerable planning effort or even a trial to depict a false image of normality. (ii) The media: When the written varieties of a minority language have not been used for a long period, and the language has survived thanks to its oral use, it can be rather difficult for the speakers to process texts written in that language, especially if the language is or was not part of the school curriculum at the time the speakers completed their education. For that reason, oral media such as the radio, television or cinema can serve as useful channels for groups that are hard for language planners to reach. Among the activities involving translation carried out by the media, we can include their relations with news agencies and exchanges with other media, interviews, and, clearly in the case of television and theatres, the dubbing and subtitling of films, series, documentaries and even live programs. Some media hire staff workers who are in charge of all the translation work, whereas other media resort to private companies to have part or all the translation work done. (c) Private scope Under the private scope, the following fields have been selected:



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45



F: BTL5808.tex / p.12 (691-734)

Marta García González

(i) Private business sector: The private sector is usually the most problematic field when it comes to measuring the presence of translation activities therein, due to the inaccessibility and even inexistence of translation records. This is especially the case when the measurements involve a minority language. Still, when a private company makes the decision to translate some documentation into or from a minority language, there must be a good reason for such decision. We have already mentioned the example of advertising, where translation is used as a marketing strategy. In other cases, companies can receive grants from the public administration if they issue their documentation in the minority language and this often leads the companies’ management to resort to translation. Difficult as it might be, measuring the volume of translation activities from and into the minority language generated by private companies or individuals would be a highly significant indicator of the language status, given the relative freedom level of this group as compared to the public sphere. (ii) Publishing industry: A considerable amount has been written on the role literature plays in the development of languages, and in the last few years also about the role of literary translation. We have to bear in mind, however, that most publishers belong to the private sector, where financial criteria are often more relevant than normalisation efforts. This circumstance subordinates the production of literary translations into the minority language to elements like the number of potential readers, the availability of grants or other financial aid for the edition of the works, etc. This situation also determines the choice of texts, which are selected on the basis of different criteria such as the prestige of the author or of the work itself, the source language, the original date of publication, the genre and the potential target readers. A specific role is played by translation of children’s literature, which is usually fostered by the political establishment by means of the introduction of the language into the school curriculum, as we mentioned above. (iii) Film industry: As concerns the film industry, some communities might promote the production of films originally shot in or dubbed into the minor language, sometimes by establishing obligatory percentages for commercial theatres, or by creating financial aid to support the use of said language. Another interesting source of information within the scope of the film industry could be local or independent film festivals, where the use of the minor language can be an indicator of a planned language policy in a sub-field that is relatively free from commercial interests, as compared to big film and film distribution companies.

(d) Other fields Finally, it seems necessary to define a final group where we can record all the contact situations that cannot be classified in any of the previously defined theoretical fields. For some communities, these situations might require the definition of a

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.13 (734-857)

Translation of minority languages in bilingual and multilingual communities

separate field, when the volume of translation within the contact situation warrants such decision.

. Social factors that might determine the existence of translation activity We have just introduced a model designed to record in a consistent way the presence of translation in specific communities.3 It is a first framework which could allow us to establish which type of texts and discourses are translated and in what percentages. Initially, this information could serve as a criterion for different planning decisions, such as the design of specific translation curricula for separate communities. These should meet the real needs of such communities in terms both of language pairs and of professional specialisation, so as to cover the actual demand of the market and train translators in especially disregarded fields (cf. Robinson 1998). However, to attain the main goal of the study, that is, to work out the reasons that determine the effective practice of translation from and into minority languages, we need data apart from the incidence of translation. We would also need data concerning the present and past situation of the language, its history, its legal and social status, the fields where it is mainly used, etc. It is only by analysing and comparing such data that we will be able to understand the real status of translation in each studied community. Once the status of several minority languages and the incidence and distribution pattern of translation from and into them have been described, we shall be able to define a set of criteria that allow us to forecast in advance the translation needs associated with specific changes in the status of a given language. If for instance a language is expected to become official or co-official in a given community, it is necessary to train professionals that are able to translate all the laws and other statutory provisions into that language. On the other hand, if the need for sworn translators, for instance, is identified, pressure can be put on the administration to demand the recognition of such a figure, as a way of contributing to the legal status of the language. At the same time, specific training content concerning legal translation can be introduced in the translation curricula, so that the new graduates can also pressure the administration to acknowledge their professional status. To describe the different languages in a consistent way, a model based on Verdoodt, Kloss and McConnell (1989) is suggested (see Figure 1). In spite of its schematic nature, the model gives quite a clear idea of the factors that should be taken account of when comparing the incidence of translation in different minority communities. Is translation volume higher in communities with



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45



F: BTL5808.tex / p.14 (857-868)

Marta García González

LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

14.

15.

Language name(s) and main varieties Relation between the language and the major language of the state Language family Short historical description Standard variety Number and nature of speakers Status of the language Legal status Social status: speakers’ attitudes towards the language Language protection Language and public administration Private sectors Language and religion Literature Education Primary education Secondary education University education Periodicals and mass media Periodicals Radio – TV Other remarks

Figure 1. Language description table

a greater number of speakers? Does translation volume in a specific community increase when there is an increase in the number of speakers? Does this happen in all the studied communities, or only in some of them? Does the status of the language have any influence on the volume of translations from and into that language? Does an increase in the number of translated literary works or films involve an increase in the number of readers or in the audience? Or is it the increase in the number of potential readers that causes an increase in the amount of translated works? The study, in short, is intended to fulfil a double objective: On the one hand, it tries to determine what factors really do contribute, and to what extent, to increasing or decreasing the number of translations. On the other, it should help us to establish the effect translation exerts on each of those factors.

. Conclusion Back in the eighties, when Toury began to analyse translation within the scope of minority languages, he questioned whether it was justified to establish a broad category of minority languages in relation to translation. Toury focused his doubts

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.15 (868-939)

Translation of minority languages in bilingual and multilingual communities

on two specific issues: on the one hand he questioned whether a specific and unique category under which all the minority languages can be classified actually exists. [. . . ] whether the fact that a TL is recognized – on sociological, geo-political, or at most sociolinguistic grounds – as a “minority language” makes any difference in terms of its behaviour in translation studies. (Toury 1985: 5)

Besides, Toury questioned to what extent it is possible, and even desirable, to generalise about minority languages as a whole, instead of focusing on the study of translation problems or characteristics between specific language pairs. First of all, it is generally acknowledged that the category of minority languages as such is a rather broad and imprecise category, the concept itself being subject to considerable debate. However, based on Cronin’s theories about diachronic and spatial relationships: The concept of “minority” with respect to language is dynamic rather than static. “Minority” is the expression of a relation, not an essence. The diachronic relation that defines a minority language is an historical experience that destabilises the linguistic relations in one country so that languages find themselves in an asymmetrical relationship. [. . . ] The spatial relationship is intimately bound up with diachronic relationships but it is important to make a distinction between those languages that find themselves in a minority position because of a redrawing of national boundaries and those which occupy the same territory but are no longer in a dominant position. (Cronin 1995: 86–87)

We can define a common pattern in terms of their relation to translation: translation from and into a language will be altered if there is a redrawing of national boundaries (leading to a change in the community’s translation policy), or if there is a loss of its dominant position (which makes translation unnecessary in specific fields). In any case, both the volume of translations and the choice of texts are likely to change, due to a specific situation that cannot be compared to the situation of major languages. The above model was designed to cover our need for a common methodological framework that allows the description of Western languages in a consistent way. In the foregoing pages, we have tried to offer a general overview of that framework, a model with which we can determine which fields have been affected within each separate community and which social factors were really involved in such changes. From the application of the model to a sample of minority languages in Western Europe, we expect to be in position to establish whether or not they share more common characteristics that justify the study of translation from and between minority languages beyond specific language pairs.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.16 (939-970)

 Marta García González

At the same time, the model is intended to measure the significance of social factors in translation and to determine the degree of normalisation of specific languages. The mere existence of a high volume of translation into a language, for instance, does not imply that such language has achieved an important level of normalisation. In fact, the ongoing translation of documents from the majority into the minority language might indicate that the minority language still lacks the necessary text models to be used in all public and private fields. The reverse situation, that is, translation from the minority into the major language, can involve the existence of an important volume of original texts initially issued in the minority language. Translation between the minority language and other major languages outside its geographical boundaries can also be seen as a positive indicator, since it means that the speakers use the language beyond the boundaries of their own community, and also that the speakers of other languages acknowledge it to be a language on its own, independent from the major language. Once a considerable amount of languages have been described, we will be able to determine which factors are to be used as variables, and which of them are invariable elements in the comparison of two languages, or in the analysis of one specific language from a diatopic or diachronic perspective. Before finishing, we should warn that this is a dynamic model, which may be subject to modification in the event that design problems arise during implementation. Despite these limitations, however, we think it can serve as a useful starting point which can, if not completely cover, at least contribute to reduce the methodological gap existing in the study of translation from and into minority languages, and in a broader sense, in the more general field of sociology of translation.

Notes . For a review of the concept of language normalisation, see Branchadell (1987). . We must remember that the fields were initially defined for the description of minority languages in Western Europe. The application of the model to describe other minority languages might require an adaptation of the fields’ organisation. . Though the model suggested in this paper was designed to describe minority languages in Western Europe, its general nature makes it suitable for implementation in other regions without major changes.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.17 (970-1075)

Translation of minority languages in bilingual and multilingual communities

References Aracil, L. (1965). Conflit linguistique et normalisation linguistique dans l’Europe nouvelle. Nancy: I.R.S.E. Branchadell, A. (1987). “Normalització lingüística: El concepte”. Límits, 3, 21–43. Brann, C. M. B. (1981). “A Sociolinguistic Typology of Language Contact in Nigeria: The Role of Translation”. Babel, 27(1), 6–17. Cronin, M. (1995). “Altered States: Translation and Minority Languages”. TTR, VIII(1), 85–103. Even-Zohar, I. (1990). “The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary System”. Poetics Today, 11(1), 45–51. Hurtado Albir, A. (1991). “Necesidad de la traducción y desarrollo de la terminología. Su evolución histórica”. Senez, Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 2(3), 57–75. Lamuela, X. (1994). Estandardització i establiment de les llengües. Barcelona: Edicions 62. O’Murchu, S. (1991). “Scientific Translation in languages of lesser diffusion and the process of normalisation”. Senez, Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 2(3), 77–110. Robinson, A. (1998). “Israeli Market Needs for Arabic Translations”. Meta, XLIII(1). Romaine, S. (1988). Pidgin and Creole Languages. London: Longman. Shavit, Z. (1997). “Cultural Agents and Cultural Interference: The Function of J. H. Campell in an Emerging Jewish Culture”. Target, 1997, 9(1), 111–130. Shavit, Z. (1998). “The Status of Translated Literature in the Creation of Hebrew Literature in Pre-State Israel (The Yishuv Period)”. Meta, XLIII(1), 46–53. Simon, S. (1992). “The Language of Cultural Difference: Figures of Alterity in Canadian Translation”. In L. Venuti (Ed.), Rethinking Translation, (pp. 159–176). London / New York: Routledge. Spears, A. K. & Winford, D. (1997). The Structure and Status of Pidgins and Creoles, Including selected papers from the meetings of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Tóth, E. (1991). “La traducción literaria de lenguas minorizadas a lenguas de mayor difusión”. Senez, Itzulpen eta Terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 7(2–3), 129–146. Toury, G. (1995). Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Toury, G. (1998). “A Handful of Paragraphs on ‘Translation’ and ‘Norms”’. In C. Schäfner (Ed.), Translation and Norms (pp. 10–32). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Toury, G. (1999). “Culture Planning and Translation”. In A. Álvarez & A. Fernández (Eds.), Anosar / Anovar. Estudios de traducción e interpretación (pp. 13–25). Vigo: Servicio de Publicacións da Universidade de Vigo. Toury, G. (2002). “Translation as a Means of Planning and the Planning of Translation: A Theoretical Framework and an Exemplary Case”. In S. Paker et al. (Eds.), Translations: (Re)shaping of Literature and Culture. Istanbul: Bogaziçi University Press. Verdoodt, A., Kloss, H. & McConnel, G. D. (1989). Europe occidentale: les langues régionales et minoritaires des pays membres du Conseil de l’Europe. Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval. Woodsworth, J. (1996). “Translation and the Promotion of National Identity”. Target, 8(2), 211–238.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.18 (1075-1203)

 Marta García González

Appendix: Summary of data an contact fields

FIELDS

SUB-FIELDS

A (MinL/MajL) B (MinL/OMajL) C (MinL/OMinL) √/x/? No. √/x/? No. √/x/? No.

1. PUBLIC SCOPE Government

Executive work

Legislative

Legislation Chamber meetings

Judicial

Legal Procedures Legal documents

Public Administration

Administrative documentation

International Relations

International legislation Meetings

2. MIXED SCOPE – PUBLIC / PRIVATE Culture and Education

Textbooks Research Conferences

The Media

News Agencies Interviews (TV / papers) Series/Films/ Documentaries

3. PRIVATE SCOPE Private business sector

Production Business Relations Advertising Labelling

Publishing industry Literature Sacred texts Other texts Film Industry 4. OTHER FIELDS — —

Films Independent Films

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:45

F: BTL5808.tex / p.19 (1203-1203)

Translation of minority languages in bilingual and multilingual communities 

Key to table: A: B: C: √ /x/?: No.:

Translations between the minority and the national language Translation between the minority and other major languages Translations between the minority and other minority languages There is translation / There is no translation / I do not know Amount of translations (in percentages / number / frequency (very often / often / sometimes / rarely / never)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:46

F: BTL5809.tex / p.1 (41-113)

Mandatory translation Albert Branchadell

.

Introduction

This paper first presents the concept of a “mandatory translation language” (MTL), then examines a specific instance of the phenomenon, and finally relates MTL to the concept of “linguistic security” – the extent to which individuals can live through their own language without being subject to pressure to use another. The research framework within which this paper is written is the study of the linguistic rights of members of linguistic minorities from a translation perspective. Since the second half of the 20th century there have been various instances of official recognition of the rights of members of linguistic minorities to use their own language in public. As will be seen below, these legal provisions have evolved from rather vague to relatively clearer forms of recognition, and have also finally incorporated the passive dimension of this right. For example, Article 27 of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights speaks of a generic right to use one’s own language, the 1992 Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities specifies that speakers have the right to use their own language “in private and in public.” Similarly, Paragraph 34 of the Copenhagen Document of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe sets out that the right to use one’s own language in public implies that states must ensure that members of national minority groups can use their own language in dealing with public authorities. Finally, according to Paragraph 14 of the Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities, the right to use one’s own language in dealings with the public authorities could mean that the latter are obliged to provide services in the minority language, while Paragraph 19 suggests that all legal proceedings affecting minority language speakers should be conducted in this language. There are two dimensions to the right to use one’s own language in public: the active and the passive. In the latter, the right generates a duty on the part of

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:46

F: BTL5809.tex / p.2 (113-166)

 Albert Branchadell

the administration to respond in the language of the individual. If X addresses Y in X-ish, Y may have the duty to respond to X in X-ish as opposed to Y-ish. The right to use one’s own language can be interpreted in terms of translation. In the active dimension, the right to use one’s own language in the public sphere is the right not to have to translate one’s acts or words; similarly it is the right to receive translations into one’s own language of the acts or words of others. In this paper, our attention shall be on a specific case of the right to not translate. The right to receive translations from others will be left for another occasion.

. The concept Mandatory translation languages (MTL) are languages whose speakers do not have (or cannot exercise) the right to not translate their acts or words and the right to receive translations into their language of the acts of others. Mandatory translation languages do not form a homogeneous block. We can, at very least, distinguish between total MTLs and partial MTLs. The rights of speakers of a total MTL are simply not recognised. Therefore, speakers of total MTLs must always translate what they say in the public sphere if they are to carry out legally valid actions, and they never receive translations into their language of the acts of others. Speakers of a partial MTL can exercise these rights in certain cases. For example, the right of speakers to use their language may be recognised but not their right to receive a response in that language. It may also be that speakers can exercise their rights in a given region of their state but not in others. A typical example of a partial MTL is found in states which recognise a language as official in a given part of the national territory but not in others. Italy, for example, recognises German as an official language in the Trentino-Alto Adige region. Speakers of German in this region have the right not to translate their actions in dealings with the public authorities and also the right to receive a response in their own language, but only within this region of Italy. Spain also recognises Catalan, Galician and Basque as official languages in the corresponding regions, but not in the remainder of the state. Of course, there are also languages which are quite definitely not MTLs. NonMTLs are languages whose speakers always have (or can exercise) the right to not translate their actions and to receive translations into their language of the acts of others. The concept of “mandatory translation language” is closely related to the notion of “less translated languages”. The concept of “less translated language” is based on data like those provided by the UNESCO World Culture Report and is mainly centered on literary translations. However, many of the languages whose

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:46

F: BTL5809.tex / p.3 (166-209)

Mandatory translation 

literature is less translated are, ironically, mandatory translation languages, with the result that certain languages whose literature is less translated are more translated in a general sense than the languages whose literature is more widely translated. For example, English, which is the most widely translated language in literary terms, is less translated in the sense this paper is concerned with; English speakers in the United States, for example, can live their lives without ever having to translate anything, unlike all the other linguistic groups there. On a hypothetical scale of “mandatory translation”, we would see that the most translated language in literary terms, i.e., English, would occupy the last position.

. A specific case of MTL We shall now consider the Catalan language in Spain as an example of a partial MTL. Catalan is official in the autonomous regions of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia (where it is called “Valencian”). In keeping with this situation, legal deeds carried out in Catalan and in these regions are not valid in the rest of the state. To become valid, they must be translated into Spanish. However, acts executed in Catalan are not always valid even within the region in which Catalan is an official language. In other words, the right of Catalan speakers not to translate does not always apply even within the region in which their language is recognised as official. This situation is anomalous in terms of the definition of “official language” accepted by Spain’s public authorities. The origin of this definition lies in an unpublished report by the Consell Consultiu de Catalunya which stated that granting a language official status . . . is to accept it as the vehicle of internal communication of the public authorities, and the vehicle of communication among them, and between them and the public. It is also to accept the language as the vehicle of communication of the public when addressing the said public authorities.

This definition is essentially identical to that proposed by Milian (1984: 131) in a study of the constitutional regulation of multilingualism in Spain (“granting a language official status is to accept it as the vehicle of communication of the public authorities, at the different levels [intracommunication, intercommunication and extracommunication], and also to recognise it as the vehicle of communication used by the public in addressing the said public authorities”), and was the definition adopted by the Spanish Constitutional Court in Decision 82/1986, 26 June: “a language is official, independently of its situation and importance as a social phenomenon, when it is recognised by the public authorities as a normal vehi-

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:46

F: BTL5809.tex / p.4 (209-260)

 Albert Branchadell

cle of communication within and between them, and between them and private individuals, with full legal validity and force.” As already mentioned, the situation set out above is anomalous since one of the consequences of full legal “validity and force” is that there is no obligation to translate. Let us now see the situations in which current legislation stipulates that acts executed in Catalan (and therefore valid within the regions in which Catalan is an official language) must be translated into Spanish. Although no effort will be made in the text to make this link, it is obvious that legislation imposing translation is a very specific instance of norms in the sense envisaged by Translation Studies scholars like Nord (1991), Hermans (1991, 1996), Chesterman (1993), Toury (1995), and others.

. Mandatory translation within the region in which Catalan is an official language We can distinguish two types of case, depending on the party that is obliged to translate. In one case, translation is the obligation of the private individual. This category includes, for example, the legislation on patent registration, which states that all the relevant documentation must be presented in Spanish, though it may also be optionally presented in Catalan. Two formulations of this particular obligation exist, the essential difference between them being one of style: one is that the documentation must be presented in Spanish, and an additional set may be presented in Catalan; the other is that documentation may be presented in Catalan but a translation must also be provided in Spanish. These two stylistic variations are illustrated by Law 32/1988, of 10 November, on Registered Trademarks, and Law 11/1986, of 20 March, on Patents and Utility Models: Law 32/1988, of 10 November, on Registered Trademarks. Article 16. 3. Both the application and the other documentation to be presented in the Patent Office must be presented in Spanish. In the Autonomous Regions with another official language, these documents, in addition to Spanish, may also be presented in the other official language. Law 11/1986, of 20 March, on Patents and Utility Models. Article 21. 4. Both the application and the other documents to be presented in the Patent Office must be presented in Spanish and must comply with legal requirements. 5. In the Autonomous Regions, the documents set out in section four may be presented in the Autonomous Government offices, when these have been granted the appropriate competence. These documents may be

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:46

F: BTL5809.tex / p.5 (260-312)

Mandatory translation 

presented in the official language of the Autonomous Region, and must be accompanied by a translation into Spanish, which shall have precedence should there arise any discrepancy between the two versions. In the other case, the duty of translation falls to the administration. Here, we may draw a distinction between cases in which translation is only required in given circumstances, and others in which translation is always necessary. Organic Law 6/1985, of 1 July, on the Judiciary, illustrates the first category, while Organic Law 2/1989, of 13 April, Regulating Military Procedure, illustrates the second. As set out below, Law 6/1985 states that translation of an act carried out in the regions where Catalan is an official language is only necessary “when stipulated by law or requested by one of the affected parties”; if neither of these circumstances obtains, then translation is not obligatory. Article 71.2 of Law 2/1989 appears to apply a similar criterion, however, article 71.3 of the same law stipulates that acts must always be translated, whether requested by one of the parties or not. Organic Law 6/1985, of 1 July, on the Judiciary. Article 231.1 3. The parties, their representatives and those who instruct them, witnesses and experts, may use the co-official language of the Autonomous Region where the case is heard, both in oral and written submissions. 4. Judicial acts and documents presented in the official language of an Autonomous Region shall have full validity and legal force, without any need for translation into Spanish. They shall be translated when they are to apply outside the jurisdiction of the legal organs of the Autonomous Region, except when they are to apply in other Autonomous Regions having the same official language. They shall also be translated when stipulated by law and when requested by one of the affected parties. 5. In oral hearings, the Judge or Court may appoint as an interpreter any person with knowledge of the language employed, upon their taking an oath. Organic Law 2/1989, of 13 April, Regulating Military Procedure. Article 71. 2. The parties, their representatives and those who instruct them, witnesses and experts, may use, in addition to Spanish, the co-official language of the Autonomous Region where the case is heard, both in oral and written submissions. If one of the participants in the aforementioned case does not know the official language of the Autonomous Region, he or she shall inform the court in advance so that it may appoint, under oath, any person with knowledge of the language employed as an interpreter.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:46

F: BTL5809.tex / p.6 (312-362)

 Albert Branchadell

3. Judicial acts executed and documents presented in the official language of an Autonomous Region shall have full legal validity and force within the Region. Notwithstanding, they shall be translated into Spanish.

. Mandatory translation outside the region in which Catalan is an official language Thus far, we have seen a number of cases in which the applicable legislation stipulates that acts executed in Catalan and applicable within the region in which Catalan is an official language must be translated into Spanish. We shall now consider two examples of mandatory translation when acts executed in Catalan are to be applicable outside the region. In this case, the duty of translation falls to the source-region government.2 Article 231.4 of Organic Law 6/1985, of 1 July, on the Judiciary, stipulates in regard to legal acts and documents presented in Catalan that “they must be translated when they are to apply outside the jurisdiction of the legal organs of the Autonomous Region, except when they are to apply in other Autonomous Regions having the same official language” (my italics). Organic Law 2/1989, of 13 April, Regulating Military Procedure, does not contain any such clause because, as we have seen, it stipulates that all legal acts and documents presented in Catalan must always be translated. The criterion employed in Organic Law 6/1985 is identical to that in Law 30/1992, of 26 November, on Public Administration and Common Administrative Procedure. Law 30/1992, of 26 November, on Public Administration and Common Administrative Procedure. Article 36.3 3. The source-region public administration shall translate into Spanish all documents, forms or parts thereof which are to apply outside the Autonomous Region and any documents concerning affected parties who expressly seek this translation. If the documents are to apply in an Autonomous Region with the same co-official language, then translation shall not be necessary.

. Conclusion We have seen that there are a number of circumstances in which the Catalan language is not legally valid without translation, whereas Spanish is always legally valid without translation. In terms of the Spanish Constitution and the homerule Statutes of the Autonomous Regions, this situation is correct in the case of

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:46

F: BTL5809.tex / p.7 (362-477)

Mandatory translation

documents which are to apply outside the region in which Catalan is a co-official language; however, the situation is clearly anomalous in the case of acts which are applicable only within this region. The tables below set out the situation of Catalan as a partial MTL (i.e., a language which must mandatorily be translated into Spanish in a number of cases), and in the hypothetical cases of it being a non-MTL (one which never has to be mandatorily translated) or a total MTL (one which must always be translated). We have also seen the issue of which party has the duty to translate when translation is mandatory. Of course, this is quite another issue from the question of who actually carries out the material translation. Time and space prevent us from dealing with this issue in any depth here; however, it is interesting to note that none of the cases outlined above makes explicit provision for the Catalan as a partial MTL Within the region in which Catalan is an official language Translation is Translation is mandatory in any mandatory in certain circumstance circumstances Translation must be done by the private individual

Trademark law, Patent law

Translation must be done by the Administration

Organic Law of Organic Law on the Military Procedure Judiciary

In the remainder of the state Translation is mandatory in any circumstance

Organic Law on the Judiciary, Law on Administrative Procedure

Catalan as a non-MTL Within the region in which Catalan is an official language Translation is Translation is mandatory in any mandatory in certain circumstance circumstances

In the remainder of the state Translation is mandatory in any circumstance

Translation must be done by the private individual

No case

No case

No case

Translation must be done by the Administration

No case

No case

No case



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:46

F: BTL5809.tex / p.8 (477-505)

 Albert Branchadell Catalan as a total MTL Within the region in which Catalan is an official language Translation is Translation is mandatory in any mandatory in certain circumstance circumstances

In the remainder of the state Translation is mandatory in any circumstance

Translation must be done by the private individual

All cases

(Not applicable)

All cases

Translation must be done by the Administration

(Not applicable)

(Not applicable)

(Not applicable)

employment of professional translators or interpreters. In the two cases in which the translation falls to the private individual, he or she is free to engage the services of a professional translator, but there is no obligation to do so, and he or she may decide to translate the documents personally. When the translation falls to the Administration, we have seen two cases in which the legislation provides for the appointment of “any person with knowledge of the language” (Organic Law 6/1985, 1 July, on the Judiciary, and 2/1989, 13 April, Regulating Military Procedure). In other words, the applicable legislation explicitly condones employment of unqualified persons as translators in at least a considerable portion of instances of mandatory translation. In Section 4 below, we shall see how this consideration can further dissuade the private individual from using any language other than Spanish in dealings with the legal system.

. Translation and linguistic security Mandatory translation has a negative effect on linguistic security, as described by the Canadian jurist Denise Réaume. Réaume (1991) sets out to design a theory of linguistic rights which will serve as the basis for the legal protection of languages and which will answer the following question: “Under what circumstances and to what extent should the use of particular languages be legally protected?” The first step is to establish the interest underlying the use of a given language. Réaume takes the distinction drawn by Green (1987) between two interests for individuals in using their own language: an instrumental communication-based interest and an expressive interest in the language as a marker of cultural identity. For Réaume (1991: 45),

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:46

F: BTL5809.tex / p.9 (505-572)

Mandatory translation 

since it is difficult to learn a second language, and even those who succeed are rarely as comfortable in it as in their mother tongue, there is a powerful interest in being able to communicate with others in one’s own language.

And, most people regard their languages as a marker of identity, a cultural inheritance which they value. Even if they can speak another language, they prize the community in which they have been raised and acculturated and regard the use of their language as an important sign of this affiliation.

The protection of these two interests is what underlies the right to use one’s own language and guaranteeing this right means that speakers should not be placed under pressure (either by direct coercive measures or disincentives) to abandon their language: The point of language rights is to give speakers a secure environment in which to make choices about language use, and in which normal social processes of language transmission between generations can take place in a way that confers positive value on the resulting ethnic and cultural identification.4

This theory of linguistic security is a response to concern for the rights of linguistic minorities. Members of a linguistically homogeneous society, or the speakers of a majority language in a linguistically heterogeneous society, take it for granted that they can live through their language, free of impediments (Réaume 1991: 46): Through sheer numbers they enjoy de facto linguistic security without need for special legal protections. No doors are closed, and no aspects of human fulfilment are unavailable on account of language. Abandoning one’s mother tongue (oneself or on behalf of one’s children) is, of course, a conceivable option for them, but not one to which they are driven by force of social circumstance and not one which will ever be considered in the normal course of life.

The situation of speakers of minority languages is, in contrast, entirely different (Réaume 1991: 46f.): Without special protections, minority language speakers are inevitably placed under strong pressures to abandon their mother tongue. The more restricted the opportunities available in one’s own language the more rational it becomes to take up the language that offers greater ones.

The obligation to translate is clearly a factor which militates against continued use of one’s own language, and more so when the responsibility of translation falls to the private individual. In the case presented in this paper, if the individual knows that he or she will have to pay for translation of the original Catalan

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:46

F: BTL5809.tex / p.10 (572-616)

 Albert Branchadell

documentation into Spanish, it is highly likely that he or she will opt to have the original documentation written in Spanish. The practical factors favouring this decision are quite clear: the process will take less time if there is no need to translate documents; it will also be cheaper if there is no need to pay a professional translator. The second factor can be overcome if the individual decides to translate the documents him or herself, but in this case, the fact that he or she is unlikely to be qualified to translate the documents can mean that (a) that the process will take even longer and (b) that the work of translation will be a difficult task, leading to excessively high opportunity cost. However, even when the responsibility for translation falls to the administration, the need to translate has the effect of encouraging speakers to abandon their own language. In legal cases, individuals who persist in using Catalan risk having their contributions translated into Spanish by non-qualified translators, thus running the risk of reducing the effectiveness of these contributions. In addition, it must be borne in mind that in the Spanish legal system, there is an in-built incentive to renounce one’s right not to translate, in that the judges are not required to necessarily understand any language other than Spanish. Furthermore, although certain judges may understand Catalan, they are not ever obliged to use it. Catalan is a partial MTL; however, in the case of total MTLs the pressures to abandon the speaker’s own language in favour of the corresponding non-MTL language are even stronger. In general, the obligation to translate a language militates against the maintenance of linguistic diversity. From the point of view of translation, the recipe for maintenance of this diversity is clear: on one hand, minimisation of mandatory translation (i.e., we must ensure that individuals do not need to translate their acts into a non-MTL in order to live a normal life); and secondly, we must maximise “free” (optional) translation (i.e., translation of literary works in one language into as many other world languages as possible). (Translated by Carl MacGabhann)

Notes . Subject to Organic Law 16/1994, 8 November, which amended Organic Law 6/1985, 1 July, on the Judiciary. Before the amendment, Article 231.4 of the earlier law concluded “shall be translated when they (the documents) are to apply outside the jurisdiction of the legal organs of the Autonomous Region [. . . ], or by mandate of the Judge or when requested by one of the affected parties” (my italics). . Jaume Vernet and Eva Pons argue that the translation should be the responsibility of the receiving Administration. For their comments, see Revista de Llengua i Dret, 33, 319.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:46

F: BTL5809.tex / p.11 (616-679)

Mandatory translation . Subject to Law 4/1999, 13 January, amending Law 30/1992, 2 November, on Pubic Administrations and the Common Adminstrative Procedure. . See also Réaume and Green (1989: 781s): “The point of language rights is to give speakers a secure environment in which to make choices about language use, and in which ethnic identification can have positive value [...]. To have linguistic security in the fullest sense is to have the opportunity, without serious impediments, to live a full life in a community of people who share one’s language.”

References Chesterman, Andrew (1993). “From ‘Is’ to ‘Ought’: Laws, Norms and Strategies in Translation Studies”. Target, 5(1), 1–20. Green, Leslie (1987). “Are Language Rights Fundamental?”. Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 25, 639–669. Hermans, Theo (1991). “Translational Norms and Correct Translations”. In Kitty M. van Leuven & Ton Naaijkens (Eds.), Translation Studies: The State of Art. Proceedings of the First James S. Holmes Symposium on Translation Studies (pp. 155–169). Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi. Hermans, Theo (1996). “Norms and the Determination of Translation. A Theoretical Framework”. In R. Álvarez & M. C. A. Vidal (Eds.), Translation, Power, Subversion (pp. 25–51). Clevedon/Philadelphia/Adelaide: Multilingual Matters. Milian, Antoni (1984). “La regulación constitucional del multilingüismo”. Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional, 10, 123–154. Nord, Christiane (1991). “Scopos, Loyalty, and Translational Conventions”. Target, 3(1), 91–109. Réaume, Denise (1991). “The Constitutional Protection of Language: Survival or Security?”. In D. Schneiderman (Ed.), Language and the State. The Law and Politics of Identity / Langage et État. Droit, politique et identité (pp. 39–57). Cowansville: Les Éditions Yvon Blais. Réaume, Denise & Green, Leslie (1989). “Education and Linguistic Security in the Charter”. McGill Law Journal / Revue de Droit de McGill, 34, 777–816. Toury, Gideon (1995). Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 14:20

F: BTL5810.tex / p.1 (40-109)

Theatre and translation Unequal exchanges in a supermarket of cultures Eva Espasa

Translation could be defined as an unequal mediation, or transaction, between the global and the local, or even between the local and the local, following Eugenio Barba’s economic metaphor which serves as the subtitle of this article. This author has commented on the asymmetrical flux between Eastern and Western stages, with the following words: “there remains an undeniable embarrassment: that these exchanges might be part of a supermarket of cultures” (1990: 31). Following this metaphor of the supermarket of cultures, this article reviews interculturalism in stage translation over the last twenty years, with views of translation either as enrichment or as appropriation.1 In the eighties, the first monographs on stage translation were published, and they largely emphasized the cultural dimension of translation. Thus, Ortrun Zuber, in her pioneering anthology of 1980, defines theatre translation as scenic transposition, i.e. the transposition of a drama text into another language, and into another cultural background (1980: 103). Most texts in that anthology emphasize the acculturation process involved in all translation – with examples of translations from and into English – even though some articles show some nostalgia for the alleged integrity of the original text, and alert about the “hazards” of cultural adaptations. Also in the eighties, Descriptive Translation Studies avoided the sterile debate about fidelity in translation and attempted, instead, to understand translation from the perspective of the target culture, studying, for example, why specific plays have been translated in a specific cultural context. In a second anthology by Zuber (1984), the function of translation in national theatrical repertoires is examined, and translation is seen as a means of enriching autochthonous stages (Pulvers 1984). Within the theoretical framework of Descriptive Translation Studies, we could highlight the writings by André Lefevere about postcolonial translations, such as the adaptations by Wole Soyinka of Western plays. The Nigerian playwright

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 14:20

F: BTL5810.tex / p.2 (109-162)

 Eva Espasa

subverts the presumed superiority of original classics by introducing in his versions elements of African cultures, as a form of resistance against imperialism (Lefevere 1980 and 1984). It is in this latter writing where Lefevere proposed his well-known view of translation as refraction, a metaphor which widens restrictive notions of translation: a refraction is the rewriting of a text carried out according to different linguistic, cultural, ideological, and poetic requirements, so that this text may be acceptable to a new audience (Lefevere 1984: 191, 192). Towards the end of the eighties, in 1989, an anthology was published whose very title specifies the cultural transfer involved in theatre translation: “The Play Out of Context: Transferring Plays from Culture to Culture”, coedited by Hanna Scolnicov and Peter Holland. Scolnicov considers theatre as a privileged mechanism for overcoming differences, for approaching other cultures; translation is seen as a dialogue among non-shared beliefs of two or more cultures (Scolnicov 1989: 1– 2). In this light, stage translations may become a meeting point, but also a site for conflict. This emphasis on what is not shared, on theatre as dialogue with the unreachable other, may be interpreted as a change of paradigm in theatre translation studies: from the optimism of the eighties, as regards interculturalism, to a growing pessimism as the end of the millennium drew nearer. The limits of interculturalism were then questioned, in the following aspects: (1) the limits of understanding, (2) the position of the translator, and (3) the type of exchange. As regards the limits of understanding the other, we could highlight the view of misunderstanding as the only possible way of understanding the other: “misunderstanding [. . . ] is the only way one can understand, because it implies transmission from someone else’s realm of experience to our own” (Shaked 1989: 8, his emphasis). What, at first sight, might seem a pessimistic view of the possibility of intercultural exchange, is optimistic in that it explicitly highlights the differences among peoples and times, as a paradoxical starting point for drawing closer what is remote in time or in space. Secondly, the position of the translator is challenged. He or she is in a difficult situation, belonging to the target culture but also to the source culture, even though translation is a transaction which largely affects the target culture. Attention to the target culture had been vindicated in theatre studies (Pavis 1989: 26) and Translation Studies (Toury 1980: 16, 28, 83), and when it appeared it was a breath of fresh air for the analysis of translation, which had until then focused on the relations of fidelity between original and translation, and had invariably criticised translations. Instead, Translation Studies examined the cultural contexts framing translations. But this can also be too rigid if only the cultural background of translations is examined, if translations are seen as facts exclusively of the target culture. These views were challenged, from an ideological perspective, in the nineties. Certainly, there are notable exceptions to translations as facts of the target culture alone: for example, bilingual editions distributed in the source

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 14:20

F: BTL5810.tex / p.3 (162-227)

Theatre and translation 

culture, as well as texts translated in colonised cultures, which have their origin in the dominant source culture (Hermans 1995: 218, 1999: 40–41). In fact, few cultures are hermetically monolingual (Chesterman 1996: 198). Therefore, a binary distinction between source and target cultures is no longer tenable, and the translator is uncontrovertibly in a complex position. Thirdly, some authors question what kind of exchange is involved in theatre translation. For example, Patrice Pavis defines it as an appropriation of one text by another text, in a specific ideological, ethnological and cultural inscription. In a monograph of 1992, Pavis examines the relations between theatre and culture, and proposes a “materialist theory of intercultural appropriation” (Pavis 1992: vi). To speak about appropriation may suggest the asymmetry of cultural relations, where the dominant culture appropriates the other. But, for Patrice Pavis, this appropriation may be subversive. To illustrate his point, Pavis uses the metaphor of an hourglass, where each compartment has elements – grains of sand – of each culture, grains which are mixed in cultural exchanges. In a subversive appropriation, this hourglass can be inverted so as to challenge every element, to relocate every grain of sand from the source culture. This appropriation of the other culture is never definitive [. . . ]. It is turned upside-down as soon as the users of a foreign culture ask themselves how they can communicate their own culture to another target culture. The hourglass is designed to be turned upside-down, to question once again every sedimentation, to flow indefinitely from one culture to the other. (Pavis 1992: 5)

In a similar vein, Erika Fischer-Lichte questions the symmetry of cultural relations: Does interculturalism in theatre indicate national, continental or world culture? Does it guarantee and confirm cultural identity, or does it metamorphose and even dissolve identity? Is it a question of the attempt to propagate awareness of a foreign culture, or is it rather cultural exploitation? Does theatrical interculturalism today support and provoke intercultural communication and mutual understanding, or does it deny fundamental differences between cultures and make any communication impossible, if one is deceived into believing in a shared community, which actually does not exist? (Fischer-Lichte 1990a: 18)

This author co-edited in book form the proceedings of a conference on interculturalism and theatre. In her introduction, in her own paper and in her conclusions of the conference, we may see different, even contradictory, views of the benefits of interculturalism. These possible contradictions may be read as symptomatic of a change of paradigm in the nineties: from the benefits of interculturalism to the realisation of the asymmetrical power relations involved. It is more a symptom than a

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 14:20

F: BTL5810.tex / p.4 (227-278)

 Eva Espasa

mistake that in the same volume, even in the writings of one author, these tensions are revealed. In the above-mentioned introduction, the view is critical of interculturalism. In the conclusions of the conference, however, Fischer-Lichte argues that intercultural theatre practices are instruments of recreation of traditional theatres and tools for consolidating and enriching established theatres. She talks of “cross fertilisation” between Western and Eastern stages (Fischer-Lichte 1990b: 277). But, also in the conclusions, and voicing the opinions of some conference contributors, she expresses doubts about the socio-cultural function of interculturalism in contemporary theatre. Interculturalism is seen as evidence of the tension between modernisation and tradition in the theatre. She questions the possibility and opportuneness of a universal or cosmopolitan theatre; although this may oppose cultural imperialism and enrich autochthonous cultures, it may also be an opportunist return of exploitation and cultural imperialism: [T]he demand for universality negates the demand by the non-Westernized, non-industrialized cultures for an own identity (their culture is plundered in the search towards universality), so that the intermelting of all differences is legitimised by a “universally valid” centralized culture, which is actually defined and dominated by Western culture. (Fischer-Lichte 1990b: 280)

It is in the same volume where Eugenio Barba compares cultural exchanges with economic transactions in a global context, in a “supermarket of cultures”: The influence of Western theatre on Asian theatre is a well-recognized fact. The importance that Asian theatre had, and still has in Western theatre practices, is equally irrefutable. But there remains an undeniable embarrassment: that these exchanges might be part of a supermarket of cultures. (1990: 31; my emphasis)

At this point, I would like to digress and dwell on the metaphor of the supermarket, as applied to cultural exchanges. When I was preparing this article, I discovered, by chance, a volume of essays entitled El mundo como supermercado, by Michel Houellebecq. Specifically, the essay entitled “El mundo como supermercado y como burla” (2000: 64–69) drew my attention. Even though Houellebecq uses the terms “supermarket” and “mockery” in a completely different sense,2 what interested me was the strange juxtaposition of these two terms, which made me think about their possible association: to contextualise cultural exchanges within a global supermarket involves questioning and laying bare the terms regulating those exchanges; it involves unmasking, sometimes in an explicit mocking tone, their unequal situation in a socioeconomic, ideological context. Let us go back to research on theatre and culture which, in the nineties and at the turn of the millennium, unmasked ideology. It reminds us that we cannot leave aside the unequal power relations present in intercultural stage practices. Do these

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 14:20

F: BTL5810.tex / p.5 (278-334)

Theatre and translation

foreground foreign elements? Or do they solve theatrical questions from one’s own culture? And, in either case, with what aim? Interculturalism starts from the needs of a culture’s own theatre: this is something which is explicit in the writings of the eighties; but in the nineties ideology was exposed, and towards the end of the millennium this was further emphasized: cultural exchanges were seen as egotism or as expropriation (a term which suggests a more violent act than appropriation). As examples of research on theatre translation at the turn of the millennium, we will comment on the most recent publications, a monograph by Sirkku Aaltonen and an anthology edited by Carole-Anne Upton, both of 2000. We will relate both to the earlier writings of Annie Brisset (1989 and 1990). Conflictive cultural exchanges in contemporary multicultural and multiracial Great Britain have been labelled as cultural expropriation by Derrick Cameron (2000: 18). He finds Patrice Pavis’s definition of interculturalism, as a “dialectic of exchanges of compliments among cultures” naïve (Pavis 1992: 2). Cameron is sceptical about interculturalism from his research into different stage practices which examine the strangeness and otherness of European theatre for black and Asian communities, as well as that of black and Asian productions for British white audiences. Translation may be considered as egotism, as a mode of defence of one culture’s values, rather than those of the Other, as Sirkku Aaltonen reminds us: translation is a mirror reflecting one’s own culture, rather than a window open to foreign cultures (Aaltonen 2000: 52). The source culture exists only in so far as it can serve the purposes of the target culture: what is more, the source culture and text are construed, by means of translation, by the target culture (Aaltonen 2000: 49). This author applies to theatre translation an image which is related to that of the supermarket: the metaphor of translated theatre as time-sharing. This metaphor comes from the comparison drawn by French philosopher Michel De Certeau between texts and rented apartments, in which the tenants may introduce changes in their homes. Similarly, translators, as readers, “redecorate” texts when they move into them. Aaltonen studies stage translations from this approach: Translated texts can [. . . ] be approached and studied in relation to their tenants, who have responded to various codes in the surrounding societies and through this response integrated the texts (or failed to do so) into the entire socio-cultural discourse of their time. (Aaltonen 2000: 9)

This image of time-sharing is similar to that of the supermarket. And, when faced with the “supermarket logic” (Houellebecq) of the asymmetrical relations between cultures, one way out can be mockery, understood as a subversive mask which one culture uses to confront another. Following this line of thought, we can comment on another image, that of translation as a perruque, a periwig as a disguise, an image which Aaltonen has borrowed from the writings of Michel De Certeau. This



JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 14:20

F: BTL5810.tex / p.6 (334-384)

 Eva Espasa

philosopher created the concept for cultural studies, and defined perruque as the practice which enables the individual to distance him/herself from institutional hierarchic models, by pretending that rules are abided by, when they are in fact subverted. In her application of this to stage translation, Aaltonen considers that a translation may become la perruque, a play which is presented in disguise as if it were “the master’s” – in this case a superior author and of a superior culture – but which in reality is subverted for one’s own purposes. In theatre, la perruque describes the integration of a foreign text in the repertoire of the target culture so that it is compatible with that culture, usually as tacit subversion, through new readings (Aaltonen 2000: 80–81, 106–107). The mocking subversion represented by la perruque is parallel to the different translation modes proposed by Annie Brisset in connection with Quebec stage practices in the late eighties and early nineties. Brisset sees translation as “Québécisation”, as reaffirmation of national identity (1990: 32–33). She examines how otherness is represented in translation and proposes three translation modes: iconoclastic, perlocutive and identity. Iconoclastic translation lies between creation and translation, and can adopt the form of adaptation, imitation, and parody; in this mode, the original is subversively used to reinforce the creative side of translation (see Brisset 1988). Perlocutive translation is akin to propaganda, and Brisset exemplifies this with the translation of Macbeth by Michel Garneau, where there is symbiosis between translation and the engaged writing of the sixties. Lastly, identity translation assumes that translating into Québécois reinforces the literary status of this target language versus the French of France (Brisset 1990: 35–36). Annie Brisset illustrates this emphasis on identity with an example from publishing in Quebec. On the cover of Michael Garneau’s version of Macbeth, we can read “traduit en québécois” (translated into Québécois). This inverts the conventional publishing practice, which tends to inform readers of the original language from which the work was translated. This new reterritorialising formula signs the birth certificate of a language which will be fostered by means of translation. Translating into Québécois implies constructing the presumed difference between this language and the French of France, with the paradoxes and inconsistencies which might arise in different translation practices in Quebec (Brisset 1989: 14). As we will also see below in connection with Scotland, interdialectal translation is favoured in Quebec, for example from substandard English to joual, Urban Québécois (Brisset 1989: 19). Thus, dialectal translation has contributed to institutionalising a national theatre which is constructed as different from French models (Brisset 1989: 20). When texts are retranslated into Québécois, intermediary translations, into French, or into English, are used. These are not functional retranslations, due to the lack of direct translation from lesser known languages; they are, rather, a symbolic act of autonomy from French culture (Brisset 1989: 21– 22). Québécisation of translations is found in the characters’ dialogues, but not

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 14:20

F: BTL5810.tex / p.7 (384-448)

Theatre and translation 

in stage directions or in commentaries on the translations or productions, which remain at a level of referential language use (Brisset 1989: 24–25). In Scotland, Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay have defended the dissident practice of translating into Scots, the Scottish dialect, a practice which goes beyond introducing isolated lexical, grammatical or syntactic characterisation; it defines a specific geographical, national(istic) reality (Bowman, Findlay 2000). Bowman defends translating between Québécois and Scottish dialects. Findlay goes one step further and argues for the translation of standard dialects into non-standard dialects. He exposes the asymmetry of conventional translation norms, which allow translating from non-standard into standard dialects, but which reject the opposite practice: it is this practice which is defended by Findlay, who translated Raymond Cousse’s Enfantillages, written in standard French, into Scots, with the title Bairn Bothers. This article has examined the changing views of interculturalism in stage translation, as reflected in the research published over the last twenty years. The benefits of interculturalism are challenged, in that power relations at work are not the same in national, continental, or world contexts. The term interculturalism is symptomatically replaced by cultural appropriation and even expropriation. The images of “supermarket of cultures”, or “supermarket logic”, suggestively used by Barba and Houellebecq, are especially apt for theatre translation. If we interpret “supermarket of cultures” to mean the unequal arena of cultural (global/local) exchanges, in the domain of visual arts such as drama, this image is apt in that each and every sign on stage has to be marked in a specific cultural adscription. Thus, the use of strategies such as dialectal translation or cultural adaptation is much more visible than in written artistic forms. As for the supermarket logic, Houellebecq denounces with this image the dispersion of senses, of the will, in contemporary cultural productions, by massively introducing metalinguistic signs in stage productions, as though they were supermarket items carelessly picked out. For Houellebecq, this has the risk of transforming artistic practices into pure rhetoric. However, supermarket appropriation and expropriation on stage can also serve specific ideological goals: intercultural performances may question – in the shape of local mockery of the global supermarket – the conventional views of translation as fluid, transparent mediation among cultures.

Notes . For a more complete state of the art on theatre translation, see Espasa (2001: 25–46).This article is a transversal reading of that, from the standpoint of interculturalism.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 14:20

F: BTL5810.tex / p.8 (448-530)

 Eva Espasa . Houellebecq considers that history no longer follows one lineal will, but rather follows what he calls “the supermarket logic” (2000: 4), which “perforce involves the dispersion of the senses; the supermarket man [sic] cannot be, organically, a man of one will, of one desire [. . . ]; it is not that [contemporary] individuals have fewer wishes, on the contrary, they have more and more wishes; but their wishes are coloured by a striking note; they are not pure simulacrum, but they are largely the product of external decisions which might be broadly called publicitary [. . . ] Representation, deeply infected by sense, has completely lost its innocence [. . . ] The massive introduction of references, of mockery, of double entendre, of humour, in stage production, has quickly undermined philosophical and artistic activities, transforming them in widespread rhetoric” (2000: 65).

References Aaltonen, Sirkku (2000). Time-Sharing on Stage: Drama Translation in Theatre and Society. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Barba, Eugenio (1990). “Eurasian Theatre”. Trans. by Richard Fowler. In Fischer-Lichte et al. (Eds.), 31–36. Bowman, Martin (2000). “Scottish Horses and Montreal Trains: The Translation of Vernacular to Vernacular”. In Upton (Ed.), 25–33. Brisset, Annie (1988). “Translation and Parody: Quebec Theatre in the Making”. Canadian Literature, 117, 92–106. Brisset, Annie (1989). “In Search of a Target Language: the Politics of Theatre Translation in Quebec”. Trans. by Lynda Davey. Target, 1(1), 9–27. Brisset, Annie (1990). Sociocritique de la traduction: Théâtre et altérité au Québec (1968– 1988). Longueuil: Les Éditions du Préambule. Cameron, Derrick (2000). “Tradaptation: Cultural Exchange and Black British Theatre”. In Upton (Ed.), 17–24. Chesterman, Andrew (1996). “Review of Toury 1995”. Target, 8(1), 197–201. Espasa, Eva (2001). La traducció dalt de l’escenari. Vic: Eumo. Findlay, Bill (2000). “Translating Standard into Dialect”. In Upton (Ed.), 35–46. Fischer-Lichte, Erika et al. (Eds.). (1990). The Dramatic Touch of Difference: Theatre, Own and Foreign. Tübingen: Gunter Narr. Fischer-Lichte, Erika (1990a).“Theatre, Own and Foreign. The Intercultural Trend in Contemporary Theatre”. In Fischer-Lichte et al. (Eds.), 11–19. Fischer-Lichte, Erika (1990b). “Staging the foreign as cultural transformation”. In FischerLichte et al. (Eds.), 277–287. Hermans, Theo (1995). “Toury’s Empiricism Version One”. Review of Toury 1980 and Toury 1995. The Translator, 1(2), 215–223. Hermans, Theo (1999). Translation in Systems: Descriptive and System-oriented Approaches Explained. Manchester: Saint Jerome Publishing. Houellebecq, Michel (2000). El mundo como supermercado. Trans. by Encarna Castejón. Barcelona: Anagrama.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 14:20

F: BTL5810.tex / p.9 (530-582)

Theatre and translation 

Lefevere, André (1980). “Translation: Changing the Code: Soyinska’s Ironic Aetiology”. In Zuber (Ed.), 132–145. Lefevere, André (1984). “Refraction: Some Observations on the Occasion of Wole Soyinka’s Opera Wonyosi”. In Zuber (Ed.), 191–198. Pavis, Patrice (1989). “Problems of translation for the stage: interculturalism and postmodern theatre”. Trans. by Loren Kruger. In Scolnicov & Holland (Eds.), 25–44. Pavis, Patrice (1992). Theatre at the Crossroads of Culture. Trans. by Loren Kruger. London: Routledge. Pulvers, Roger (1984). “Moving Others: The Translation of Drama”. In Zuber (Ed.), 23–28. Scolnivov, Hanna & Holland, Peter (Eds.). (1989). The Play Out of Context: Transferring Plays from Culture to Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shaked, Gershon (1989). “The play: gateway to cultural dialogue”. Trans. by Jeffrey Green. In Scolnicov & Holland (Eds.), 7–24. Toury, Gideon (1980). In Search of a Theory of Translation. Tel Aviv: Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics. Toury, Gideon (1995). Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Upton, Carole-Anne (Ed.). (2000). Moving Target: Theatre Translation and Cultural Relocation. Manchester: Saint Jerome Publishing. Zuber, Ortrun (Ed.). (1980). The Languages of Theatre: Problems in the Translation and Transposition of Drama. Oxford: Pergamon. Zuber, Ortrun (Ed.). (1984). Page to Stage: Theatre as Translation. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.1 (41-130)

Obscured cultures The case of sub-Saharan Africa Anna Aguilar-Amat and Jean-Bosco Botsho

Approaching our subject from the neurobiological point of view, in this paper we reflect on the cognitive processes of adaptable individuals and translators, based on the contributions of those who participated in the First Series of Lectures on sub-Saharan Africa.

.

Multiculturalism, cognitive science, translation

. Multiculturalism and the decentralisation of culture In an article entitled “A pesar de la ira” (recalling a poem of the same title by Pablo Neruda) published in El País on 12 August, 2001, the Chilean writer Jorge Edwards explained that the name Cuzco means “navel” in Quechua. The name is charged with significance. For its inhabitants, Cuzco was the centre of America and, therefore, the navel of the known world. Ali Farka Toure, the singer-songwriter from Mali, expresses a similar idea when he says “for many people, Timbuktu is the other side of the world, but as someone who comes from Timbuktu, I can tell you that we are at the heart of the world”. This topocentrist idea (i.e., considering our own place as the centre of the world) is a moving example of the importance of context in the development of individual and national character. The bond which exists first between mother and child, and later between the individual and others of its species is, as has been shown in experiments carried out in primates, indispensable for social development. When monkeys were isolated in an attempt to protect them against infections, it was discovered that individuals who were separated from others of their own species from infancy ultimately showed neurotic behaviour. Similarly, at a higher level of development, identifying with a human group and the culture of that group is decisive in the development of personality. In 1911, Georg Simmel

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.2 (130-149)

 Anna Aguilar-Amat and Jean-Bosco Botsho

(p. 175) defined culture as the process whereby individuals are perfected thanks to the spirit objectified by the efforts of the human species throughout history. Getting values such as custom and knowledge, art and religion, social groups and internal forms of expression is what distinguishes the individual as cultivated. Multiculturalism and intercultural relations, which have increased greatly as a result of the progress in communications and migratory movements, have led to a situation in which cultivated individuals – the fruit of different historic efforts toward objectivation carried out by different groups – have to question the exclusiveness or the supposed or misunderstood superiority of their own culture. The process whereby we understand the historic effort of other peoples to perfect their individual members by teaching them that people’s culture, as well as the process whereby we are able to identify in this effort results that are different from our own, consists of a differentiation phase and a subsequent recognition phase. For example, when we come across the initiation rites which in some African cultures coincide with puberty, we identify them as processes involving the acquisition of values different from ours. But in a second phase, we are also able to identify rites of our own (the Christian first communion, for instance) as initiation ceremonies marking puberty and the passage of the adolescent into the world of the sexually adult individuals within a given community, the individual thereby expressing acceptance and respect for that community’s rules. We are also, perhaps, able to understand that there has been a process of dissociation of the rite and the pubescent motivation. Thus, knowledge of a different culture can give us a more global understanding of some of the aspects of our own culture, which sometimes we accept and sometimes we reject without being fully aware of our motives. Similarly, the process of cognition as a means toward recognition forms an essential part of the process of translating a text: “Traduire, c’est d’abord connaître pour pouvoir reconnaître. Car il faut premièrement comprendre pour traduire, c’està-dire pour égaler”1 (Truffaut 1992: 3).

. Cognition: To re-cognize is to re-learn In addressing the issue of interculturality and translation, we have decided to use a metaphor relating to the cognitive perspective, approaching the field of neurobiology through a work by Semir Zeki, A Vision of the Brain (1993 in 1995: 156). The parallel between cultural vision and physical or neurobiological vision, as analysed in Zeki’s book, might appear a little far-fetched, but, we believe it can shed some light on human behaviour in the face of otherness and the crisis which is sometimes caused by contact with other cultures, as well as the negative attitude that may ensue. Moreover, such attempts to establish parallels between the humanities and research in the pure and natural sciences is one of the aims

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.3 (149-215)

Obscured cultures 

of the so-called Third Culture (Brockman 1996), which advocates communication between intellectuals from the worlds of the arts and the sciences. The attitude of neurobiology and other scientific disciplines toward the higher functions of the brain and the problems of knowledge, understanding, experience and awareness is extremely cautious, because such matters belong to the private, unobservable sphere of subjective mental states. They naturally prefer to concentrate on measurable, observable problems affecting the cerebral cortex. However, in the introduction to his book, Zeki argues that the observations made concerning the visual cortex may also apply to other zones of the cerebral cortex, as confirmed by hypotheses which argue for the fractal structure of the brain (MacCormac & Stamenov 1996). It should be pointed out that the pre-eminence attributed to the sense of sight as compared to the other senses of perception is not a factor in our comparison between the senses of perception and the paradigms of different cultures, and that we shall be concerned only with the learning process in which they are involved. Zeki refers to the case of various patients who were born blind and who later underwent surgery to restore their sight. These patients, who had learned to live through touch and the other senses, did not experience the joy one might have expected when, thanks to the operation, they were given the gift of light and colour. On the contrary, they were deeply disturbed by what they saw and frequently expressed the wish to return to their former blind state. To explain this phenomenon, Zeki reproduces the following quotation from George Berkeley’s An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision, in which the latter cites a problem first posed by Molyneux and which is discussed by John Locke in his Essay on Human Understanding: “Suppose a man born blind and now adult, and taught by his touch to distinguish between a cube and a sphere of the same metal, and nighly [sic] of the same bigness, so as to tell, when he felt one and t’other, which is the cube and which the sphere. Suppose then the cube and sphere be placed on a table, and the blind man be made to see: quare, whether by his sight, before he touched them, he could now distinguish and tell which is the globe, which the cube?” To which, the acute and judicious proposer answers: “Not. For though he has obtained the experience of how a globe, how a cube, affects his touch, yet he has not attained the experience that what affects his touch so or so must affect his sight so or so: or that a protuberant angle in the cube that pressed his hand unequally shall appear to his eye as it doth in the cube.” (page unknown)

The conclusion drawn from this fact, which is frequently observed following operations on patients born with congenital cataracts, is that perception through sight is a process which has to be learned, and that “restoring a patient’s sight is the job of the educator rather than that of the surgeon” (Zeki 1993: 254). We

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.4 (215-272)

 Anna Aguilar-Amat and Jean-Bosco Botsho

think it is therefore legitimate to draw a parallel between this cognitive problem and the problem that arises when we perceive cultural objects which have their origin in other systems; in other words, customs, knowledge, art and religion, social groups, internal forms of expression, etc., belonging to other cultures. The process of conceptual sifting which has enabled us to perceive and understand reality must be replaced by another, and we have to learn to identify afresh the various expressions of culture, even though we might at first be unable to identify them with our own, just as a blind person whose sight is restored must build intellectual bridges between what he or she previously knew through touch and what is now known through the sense of sight. The task of the translator confronted with multiculturality is to carry out this process of recognition, and that of the academic is to ensure that this process does not go unnoticed. By this, we do not mean, of course, that there are some cultures which can “see” while others are still “blind” or perceive the world through touch and sound. Rather, we mean that the group of things that we can “see” from the perspective of one culture and the group of things that we “touch” do not necessarily coincide with those groups of things which are seen and touched from the perspective of another culture. We are not referring here to the semantic level, although the semantic level is included within our scope, but to the conceptual, pragmatic and semiotic levels, in general. We find examples of this in the work of the African conceptologist Marcel Diki Kidiri (1997), based on questionnaires, which shows how some symbols completely lose their significance as a result of a change in cultural context: such symbols are those for high tension cables, non-potable water and poisonous substances. Other examples arising from the work of Diki Kidiri are discussed in AguilarAmat and Santamaria (2000), such as the differences in entomological classification. Africans classify insects in two major groups, those which walk and those which fly, a fact which has a bearing on the marketing and use of pesticides. Many of the scientific classifications that we take for granted as standard are radically different in other cultures (Aguilar-Amat 2002). In traditional African medicine (as in Chinese medicine), the fundamental principles are as different as they are complementary. The reason behind Western medicine’s official refusal to complement its practice with the knowledge gained from the accumulated empirical knowledge of centuries can only be understood from a perspective of power. Cesar de la Pradilla (see Section 3 below) was twice expelled from Burkina Faso and was eventually forced to leave the White Fathers Mission because he researched and treated his patients using a combination of Western and traditional African medical knowledge. What made matters worse, of course, was the fact that his method enjoyed considerable success. When it comes to the translation of a concept such as “human rights”, an expression which is simple in linguistic terms but complex from the political point

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.5 (272-314)

Obscured cultures

of view, the difference in perception of different cultures is patently obvious. Like Hindi, the Sangö language spoken in the Central African Republic clearly differentiates between various concepts relating to human beings: yingö, (the eternal human essence which remains through all the several lives of a human being, regardless of whether that being takes the form of a man or a woman, and which is strengthened or weakened, depending upon the acts of the individual), torö (which animates the body during a particular life cycle, and may be either masculine or feminine), and terê (the physical body). Such differentiation means that the translation of the concept “human rights” can give rise to all kinds of misunderstanding. Since international agreements on what we might call moral values are always reached through the vehicle of the international language of English, we shall very often encounter problems of equivalence. In Africa, differences between people are seen as traits of complementarity (the fingers of the hand are all different and it is by virtue of that fact that they constitute the hand). From the African point of view, the concept of equality between men and women is a profound contradiction in terms and therefore constitutes an untranslatable sequence. Similar problems arise with other culturemes: as Papa Sow points out (see below in Section 3 of this article), in African cities, the richest, and therefore the most admired men are those who cannot read or write, because they have been able to avoid going to Western-type schools and thus remain within the traditional oral culture. This leads to the identification of economic power with a lack of education (the latter being understood in the Western sense), an equation which is contrary to what we, from the point of view of our culture, might expect.

. Translation or the respect for difference We have already said that the task of the translator when confronted by multiculturality is to carry out a process of recognition, but more needs to be said on this point. The cognitive process whereby we understand after having re-cognised what we have come to know, does not mean that interpretation, as part of the understanding process, must inevitably lead to the domestication of the concept or text. In other words, although it is possible to establish an identification between the African initiation rite at puberty and the Christian rite of first communion, it would be utterly absurd to substitute one for the other in translation, because, given the complexity of each cultural paradigm, the relation of the whole to the parts would become completely distorted. When translating between languages which are culturally close, it is easier to discern the intention of the author or of the translation when it comes to interpreting any one particular factor, although of course this is not always the case. Thus, to take an example from Santamaria



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49



F: BTL5811.tex / p.6 (314-362)

Anna Aguilar-Amat and Jean-Bosco Botsho

(2001), we cannot translate the English “pancakes” (which do not exist in the Catalan language and culture) as “crêpes” (a French loan-word) when a roughand-ready, lower-class character expresses the urge to eat one. In this case, it might be preferable to make the character say that he fancies a bacon butty. In the case of mutually remote or unfamiliar cultures, however, this type of conceptual substitution is not an option. The inaccuracy to which we are prey when we establish the skopos, the importance of a concept within a given culture, within a given text, together with its function, is extraordinary. From the work of Sapir and Whorf and the idea that the universe of human relations, as well as the relationship of man to his environment, is shaped by language, it is possible to discuss translation problems from the perspective of power relations. If a language is the basis on which a society experiences itself and others, the colonisation carried out by Western cultures against non-Western cultures implies an economic, political and linguistic domination of the societies concerned. Here, we might add conceptual and cognitive domination. Domestication in the case of cultures in a colonial context means that the discourse of Western institutions is perpetuated in the colonised structures and institutions (that is why the seminar discussed below here was entitled “Obscured Cultures”). Lawrence Venuti (1992) attempted to show this interdependence in translation. Basing his argument on Foucault’s theory of the exercise of power, Venuti advocates that the process of acculturation and subsequent domestication to which texts are subjected should not result in the other ceasing to be the “other”, and that translation should be seen as a locus for heterogeneity rather than homogeneity. Moreover, this respect for otherness, both from the cognitive point of view and the political point of view of power relations between cultures, does not mean that we have to confine ourselves to the perception of the difference which obtains between them, simply taking pleasure in the exotic, but rather requires, as stated earlier, a process whereby the cultural paradigms of the other are recognised in relation to our own, the intellectual juggling act of seeing different types of conceptual apparatus as answers to the same fundamental questions, as processes involving the “historical improvement of the individual thanks to the efforts of the species”, according to our definition of culture, in agreement with Simmel. How is this possible if it has never been done before, if our ignorance is absolute, as in the case of sub-Saharan Africa? Only when we have learnt to appreciate and teach these cultures, the good aspects of these cultures, can we know which elements should be respected, and why, as well as when substitution will be necessary. The translator’s decision-making process is a linguistic, cognitive, and political process. We believe that it is no mere chance that the media’s discourse centres on the conflicts and miseries of Africa. Just as it is it is no mere matter of chance, as Vázquez Montalbán pointed out in an article in the newspaper Avui on

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.7 (362-416)

Obscured cultures

22 September, 2001, that there were no stark television images of the thousands of corpses recovered from the ruins of the twin towers in Manhattan. We would like to conclude this section by stressing the importance of the translator’s role, which is commensurate with his or her responsibility, like that of the media in their selection of news items, in constructing historical stereotypes. The sequence “holy war”, which we have heard so often of late, is a cognitively suspect translation of the term “jihad”. According to Joan Vernet, an Arabist and translator of the Koran, the meaning of “jihad” is “struggle”, and the concept of “holy war” does not exist (El País, Saturday, 29 September, 2001). Jeffrey Goldberg (New York Times, El País, Sunday, 16 September, 2001) also writes that in Islam there are two kinds of jihad, the greater and the lesser. The greater jihad is the inner struggle, the struggle of every human being to become better and more just. The lesser jihad is that which is carried out by Muslims in defence of their religion when it is under attack. The greater jihad is so called because it is indeed considered to be a much greater struggle than that of the lesser or outer jihad. Nevertheless, the Spanish translation of Goldberg’s article is entitled “La universidad del fanatismo” (the university of fanaticism), the original English published title being “The Education of a Holy Warrior”. This leads us to believe that perspective is always a fundamental issue in the search for “truthful” translation, and that the term “holy war” is more likely to be the fruit of Western observers’ recognition of the Christian crusading spirit. At this point, the attentive reader will say “Isn’t the case of the translation of “jihad” as “holy war” due to a process of recognition, of re-learning, and therefore cognitively correct according to the terms of this article?” Going back to our cognitive metaphor, we need to bear in mind the direction of the translation, on the one hand, and whether or not the process of acculturation has preceded the recognition process. In the case of an adaptable translator or reader, the recognition process will follow that of acculturation, with the result that his or her own culture will not be projected onto the other culture and thereby undervalue or minorise it. This argument is supported by Josep Maria Colomer’s description (1996) of the difference between adaptable and non-adaptable individuals. In the case of adjacent languages, these two types of individual can be identified according to whether they adapt to the language of the interlocutor (and so achieve less utility and satisfaction) or whether they apply a dominant strategy and decide to use only their own mother tongue. As for the recognition of concepts or culturemes, we believe that the same situation occurs. Non-adaptable individuals and cultures apply their own models in the processes of recognition of otherness, and they do so in a dominant way so as not to lose (or not allow the other to gain) satisfaction and utility. This latter attitude can also be explained in the light of the cognitive metaphor of sight as a learning process (Zeki). The blind person who gains his or her sight often experiences a rejection of this faculty, since it is initially experienced



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.8 (416-468)

 Anna Aguilar-Amat and Jean-Bosco Botsho

as something painful, a sudden scrambling of the reference points which had enabled him or her to relate to the world. Unfortunately, a non-adaptable attitude poses a serious hurdle to understanding between cultures.

. Is sub-Saharan Africa an academic subject? As part of this endeavour, studies on sub-Saharan Africa constitute an invaluable paradigm of contributions regarding the problems of linguistic diversity, language standardisation, the classification of knowledge, the world of concepts and the cognitive process of the acquisition of knowledge, the ideological imposition of colonialist interculturality, the perception of otherness and the necessary culture inversion of the communicative approach, as well as the desacralisation of Science in the acquisition of knowledge generated by other cultures. Remote from the historical evolution of European culture and separated from it by the natural border of the Sahara desert, undervalued so that its people could be used as free labour in the building of the new world and its assets used to line the pockets of nineteenth-century industrialists, sub-Saharan African culture has been so excluded as regards the acceptance of its models (unlike the case of North African culture, one of the cradles of Western civilisation – a fact which is sometimes overlooked) that it is now the alien par excellence, that neglected part of ourselves that we have always tried to ignore and which is indispensable if any reawakening is to come about. Academic subjects include traditional knowledge accumulated by a culture about medicine, about philosophy, about the economic structures that ensure its survival, its social organisation, its creative literature, its architecture and urban development. So, too, is the cultural overlap, the transcription of orally transmitted knowledge, the interpretation of modernity and modernity’s disinterpretation of the continent of Africa. Also a legitimate academic subject is the necessary and inevitable change in government, in language, in public investment as a priority at a time when immigrants are turning to our labour market in search of work. Moreover, studies on sub-Saharan Africa as a representative of the many other minoritised or ignored cultures around the world, bring home to us the fact that the inevitable opening up of markets, which we hope can be achieved in a non-violent way, must involve concerted international business measures that will take into account both multiculturalism and multilingualism, or, at the very least, multiconceptualism (we may lack knowledge about a certain culture or language, but nevertheless understand that there is a complex conceptual structure that we

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.9 (468-538)

Obscured cultures

are unable to interpret properly, precisely because we do not know the language). The translator then becomes the sole facilitator of productive understanding. With regard to the role of the translator and the interpreter, it may be illuminating to quote the following story told by the Chilean writer Jorge Edwards in the previously mentioned article: During those years when I was a diplomat in Lima, there was a tragic earthquake in the north of Peru, in Yungai and Callejón de Huaylas [. . . ] and Eduardo Frei Montalva’s government decided to send emergency aid to the victims in Peru. With surprising efficiency, a Chilean military hospital was set up with the latest equipment near Casma. There was intense helicopter activity between the affected mountain valleys and the hospital. The injured, the crushed and the dying were like a horrifying scene out of Dante. It finally dawned on us that we had thought of everything except one crucial element: the need for a Quechua interpreter at the hospital. The battered bodies arrived, bruised and huddled in their blankets, and they couldn’t understand or answer the doctors’ questions. We hadn’t realized that Peru was a diverse collection of poorly integrated peoples, and the Peruvians of Casma seemed not to have realized the fact, either. (Edwards 2001)

It should be said that, in devoting part of our academic energies as well as public money to the study of knowledge generated by other cultures, we are contradicting the premises of the Spanish University Reform Law in relation with the own culture (Ley Orgánica de Reforma Universitaria): The functions of Spanish universities at the service of society are as follows: a.

The creation, development, transmission and critique of science, technology and culture. b. Preparation for the exercise of professional activities requiring the application of scientific knowledge and methods, or for artistic creation. c. Scientific and technical support for cultural, social and economic development, both at the national level and at the level of the Autonomous Communities (regions of Spain). d. The dissemination of university culture. What do we understand by culture in the above-mentioned points? Do they refer to all cultures or a single culture? Is it possible to study Translation and Interculturality if we confine ourselves to our own culture and the perspective that it gives us?



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.10 (538-581)

 Anna Aguilar-Amat and Jean-Bosco Botsho

. Main contributors and contributions in the series of lectures After having discussed some relevant questions and theories in the above essay, we would like to present a selection of key items from the contributions included in the First Series of Lectures on sub-Saharan Africa. What follows is an arbitrary collection which leaves out much more than it includes. For example, it is impossible to reproduce here the recipes and the symbolism of the various foods, as analysed by Agnès Agboton, and indeed the actual sample of ingredients that she brought along for the audience to touch, smell and taste. It is also impossible to reproduce the detailed information and slides on plants and their properties presented by Cesar de la Pradilla. Many other speakers, including Papa Sow and Alfred Bosch based a large part of their presentations on slides, which are also impossible to reproduce here. The list of aphorisms selected by Manuel Serrat spoke for itself. We have therefore summarised, in alphabetical order of speakers, some of the comments which were illustrative of the discussion in Section 2 on interculturality or other relevant aspects: Alfred Bosch (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), who is well known as a writer and also because he was, for many years, the director of the African Studies Center in Barcelona (Centre d’Estudis Africans or CEA), said that the history of Africa has been misrepresented. In a sense, we have been misled and continue to be misled by the media and by historians. In Africa there are monuments and works of art that are the equal of what has been regarded as sublime art according to Western criteria. But we have never been shown these things. Rosa Correia (known as a writer and member of the Camoes Institute) talked about how Portuguese is changing due to the influence of immigration and writers from Portuguese-speaking colonial Africa. These Portuguese-speakers are introducing a large amount of new vocabulary, as well as new rules governing word formation. Their influence is so great that the changes will have to be accepted at an institutional level. Rafael Crespo (current director of the Centre d’Estudis Africans) said that it should be pointed out that many immigrants work toward integration in the host society, or participate from abroad in cooperation or development projects relating to their area of origin (as in the case of various Senegalese associations in France). Cesar de la Pradilla (traditional therapist or healer), who has worked in Burkina Faso for a long time, said that Western knowledge and African wisdom on the healing power of plants can be conversant and used together to aid the patient’s recovery. Pharmaceutical companies manipulate the sector for their own financial gain and prevent the development of alternative medicines which have no side-effects. He said, “before we could teach the children who came to the schools of the White Fathers, we had to make them well. So I started to combine and apply

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.11 (581-649)

Obscured cultures

the plant remedies of African healers’ lore with my own knowledge of medicine and biology.” Marcel Diki-Kidiri (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris) made us note that the Christian view of the human being does not always correspond to the traditional ontology of the ethnic peoples of the Central African Republic. This discrepancy often results in contradictory behaviour. There is an isomorphism between the body and the soul. Thus, when the body is sick, we have to heal not only the body, but also the soul, because the source of the sickness is believed to lie in the soul. Seán Golden (of the International and Intercultural Studies Centre of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) said that there is a social demand for courses in inter-ethnic communication because today’s world is interconnected. That demand comes from the business sector, from government and from society at large (artistic and cultural interest). The study of “others” goes by the name of Cultural Studies in the UK and Area Studies in the U.S. We need to promote studies which are non-ethnocentric and non-Eurocentric. Rafael Grasa (Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, UAB) considers African cultures opaque. They are cultures which have been misrepresented by the other according to a phenomenon that we might call “constructive ignorance”. Africa needs the kind of work that Edward Saïd has carried out with respect to Eastern cultures. Intercultural studies must begin, first of all, with the study of language, followed by the study of the economy and society, literature and art, and then, practical skills. Felicity Hand (Department of English, UAB) said that African literature should be considered as an art form, not a collection of works on anthropology. As well as being an art form, literature in Africa plays a social role. For example, Ngugi wa Thiong’o wrote his Devil on the Cross in prison, in 1978. African literature should be judged according to African and not European criteria. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presents a degrading view of Africa, which finds its antidote in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Besides being an art form, African literature fulfils a social role in the author’s commitment to the problems of his or her society. Carme Junyent (Universitat de Barcelona) believes that the subordination of traditional African languages to European languages, as manifested in the decision to choose European languages (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish) as official languages, is one of the causes of the opacity of African cultures. We should stress that African cultures are opaque; in other words, the African culture which reaches us is not the authentic African culture, but rather the one that its interpreters – its writers and westernised intellectuals – convey to us. Africa’s authors may communicate in English, but they cannot express themselves in it. The official languages of Africa, that is to say, the languages which are accorded prestige, are the languages of a small elite minority. The latter uses its



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.12 (649-693)

 Anna Aguilar-Amat and Jean-Bosco Botsho

knowledge of the official European language as an instrument to achieve power and control the country. Linguistic unity is necessary to ensure that the oppressed can communicate with their oppressors. The phenomenon of multilingualism means that the Western concept of language as an entity that is easily distinguishable from another language does not exist in Africa. African languages are rich and can be used for abstract thought, as well as for expressing various situations, etc. As education in Africa is conducted through the medium of European languages, the world view and the sciences imparted are those of the West rather than African. That explains the failure of African schoolchildren when it comes to learning mathematics, for example. In fact, many African peoples have no knowledge of the decimal system of numbers, but use other systems such as the five-number system. African literature is the literature of a diaspora. Mbuyi Kabunda (International Relations, University of Lubumbashi) affirms colonialism drew up artificial divisions in Africa. These divisions gave rise to the various countries that are now distributed over the territory from north to south; but cultural distribution in Africa is from east to west. Thus, people from the north of one country have more in common with their neighbours from the north of the adjacent country than with the inhabitants of the south of their own country. When people talk about tribes and tribal wars, they forget about the tribes of Western society. Adriano Mixinge (historian and art critic) said the invention of the other is often the result of Machiavellian motives. There are five tendencies in contemporary African art: 1. The sublimation of war and the dead (if the war dead are not properly buried, the wars will continue). 2. Myths and the cosmos. 3. Portrayal of subjects and nature. 4. Time totalities. 5. Cyberspace (Luo Gibe). Gustau Nerín (Bronce Publishing House) said African writers write what Western publishers in Paris, London and Lisbon tell them to write, catering to the tastes of European readers. Nowadays, the fundamental problem with African literature is how to “normalise” it. In other words, since there are many good writers, how can people be encouraged to read African literature without prejudice, just as they would read any other literature? Lluís Recolons (MigraStudium) said that the numerical magnitude of the phenomenon of migration has been exaggerated. In Spain there are only 12,730 sub-Saharan immigrants, of whom 38% are to be found in Catalonia, usually in a migratory situation. There is also an over-insistence on the dramatic images of African “boat people” coming ashore along the southern coast of Spain. This gives people the feeling that they are being “invaded” by immigrants. The ultimate aim of all these immigrants is to return to their own country when they have enough money to do so. However, researchers in the field of migration are faced with a total lack of statistics on immigrants who have finally returned to their own countries. It

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.13 (693-751)

Obscured cultures

takes three generations for families to be rebuilt in a new country. The integration of immigrants’ children often entails an unruly adolescence. Josep Ribera (CIDOB, Barcelona Documentation and Information Center) said there is an aspect of the rapprochement between peoples which clearly involves the cooperation and internationalisation of governments. There is a high degree of interdisciplinarity among those people who have expert knowledge about Africa (they include engineers, doctors, veterinary surgeons). The main problem affecting cooperation is that a specialist must be funded for three years in order to learn an African language. This is a poor investment because when that person has children, he or she no longer wishes to go to Africa. Pathé Sidibé (translator) explained that in the past, polygamy meant that a rich man could have several wives; at the same time, these wives were allowed to have lovers, while the husband provided for all the children of his wives. His heirs, however, were the children of his sister. That is why there are many taboos and jokes about the paternal aunt, which are found in several idioms and puns. Remei Sipi (CIDOB) explained that in sub-Saharan Africa, women’s work (especially in the informal sector) is often the only source of family income. In traditional, pre-colonial Africa, there was (partial) complementarity between men and women. Such complementarity no longer exists. One of the areas in which this complementarity could be seen was in the fact that women shared public power with men, particularly through their role in the “Talking House” (a kind of parliament). The female members were elected by other women. It should be stressed that, despite appearances, the situation of women in Africa today is not homogeneous. We can distinguish various cases: women who belong to matrilineal ethnic groups and those belonging to patrilineal ethnic groups; women living in rural areas and those living in cities. The latter may be distributed among various categories, such as: women associated with power; women traders such as the famous “Nana Benz”; women living in the poor districts. One important contribution made by African women to the economy is through the tontines, groups which provide interest-free loans to their members on a rota basis. Papa Sow (Faculty of Human Geography, UAB) explained that the models of modern African architecture are European. Nigeria is the African country with the highest number of cities. In Africa, the wealth of a king or of any person lies not in the buildings or palaces that he owns, but in his personal warmth and relations, and in the number of wives that he has. There is a lot of discussion about the failure of the post-colonial African state. It is forgotten that there was also a failure of the colonial state, which was unable to control the human groups within its territory. In colonial Africa, African cities were built and inhabited according to the principle of apartheid: a city for whites separate from a city for blacks. Now, the cities suffer from “monomacrocephaly”, meaning that the cities are growing out of all control in relation to their surrounding areas (The case of Dakar makes an embargo on Mali



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.14 (751-843)

 Anna Aguilar-Amat and Jean-Bosco Botsho

very simple. All that needs to be done is to close the port of Dakar). Of course Africa is free to accept or reject development and pay the cost: we see a mimetic effect even when it comes to food; for example, despite the promotion of its consumption, bread is not an African food. But there are also important breaks with mimesis: rich people are those who cannot read or write: those who have been able to avoid going to Western schools. Inongo vi Makomé (writer) The most serious problem affecting African immigrants is that the younger generation are neither Europeans nor Africans, and their parents are always talking about Africa, which they left so long ago and to which they will possibly never return. Strangely enough, those who talk about integration are the same people who in Europe reject immigrants and in Africa exclude themselves, refusing to live with Africans. Most priests sent to Cameroon as missionaries cease to be priests once they live there.

Note . Translation is to get to know a thing in order to recognise it. One must first understand before one can translate, which could also be called equating.

References Aguilar-Amat, Anna & Santamaria, Laura (2000). “Terminology policies, diversity, and minoritised languages”. In A. Chesterman, N. Gallardo & Y. Gambier (Eds.), Translation in Context (pp. 73–87). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Aguilar-Amat, Anna (2002). Traducción, computación, utopía. Terminologie et Traduction, Office des publications officielles des Communautés européennes. Brussels. Brockman, John (1996). The Third Culture: Beyond Scientific Revolution. Blackwell Science. In Spanish translation La tercera cultura. Más allá de la revolución científica, 1996, Ambrosio Garcia (Trans.). Barcelona: Tusquets. Colomer, Josep Maria (1996). La utilitat del bilingüisme. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Diki Kidiri, Marcel (July 1997). Personal communication at First Summer School on Terminology and Cultural Models, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Barcelona. Dumont, René (1989). En favor de África, yo acuso. Madrid: Jucar Universidad. Edwards, Jorge (2001). “A pesar de la ira”. El País. 12 Aug. Goldberg, Jeffrey (2001). “The Education of a Holy Warrior”. New York Times. 16 Sept. In Spanish translation “La universidad del fanatismo.” El País. 29 Sept. Griaule, Marcel (1987). Dios de agua. Barcelona: Altafulla. Junyent, Carme (1994). Las lenguas del mundo. Una introducción. Valencia: Prometeo. MacCormac, Earl & Stamenov, Maxim I. (1996). Fractals of Brain, Fractals of Mind. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:49

F: BTL5811.tex / p.15 (843-888)

Obscured cultures

Mallart Guimerà, Lluís (2001). Okupes a l’Àfrica. Barcelona: La Campana. Matthews, Stephen (1996). “Development and Spread of Languages”. In The Atlas of Languages (pp. 75–83). New York: Facts on File. Santamaria, Laura (2001). Subtitulació i referents culturals. La traducció com a mitjà d’adquisició de representacions socials. Dissertation. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Simmel, Georg (1911). “Weibliche Kultur”. Reproduced in Cultura femenina y otros ensayos, 1999, Genoveva Dieterich (Trans.). Barcelona: Alba. Truffaut, Louis “Quest-ce donc que traduire?”. Inaugural lecture marking the commencement of the academic year 1992–1993, Facultat de Traducció i d’Interpretació, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, p. 3. Plaquette. Vázquez Montalbán, Manuel (2001). Avui. 22 Sept. Venuti, Lawrence (Ed.). (1992). Rethinking Translation Discourse, Subjectivity, Ideology. London/New York: Routledge. Vernet, Joan (2001). “La Yihad”. El País. 29 Sept. Zartman, William (1971). The Politics of Trade Negotiations Between Africa and the European Economic Community: the Weak Confront the Strong. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Zeki, Semir (1993). A Vision of the Brain. In Spanish translation Una visión del cerebro, 1995, Joan Soler (Trans.). Barcelona: Ariel Psicología.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:6/10/2004; 15:28

F: BTL58P3.tex / p.1 (41-63)

P III

Translating from less translated cultures and languages

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.1 (42-106)

African literature in colonial languages Challenges posed by “minor literatures” for the theory and practice of translation Goretti López Heredia

.

Introduction

In his article “The misery and the splendor of translation”, Ortega y Gasset argued the following: The stupendous reality, which is language, will not be understood at its root if one doesn’t begin by noticing that speech is composed above all of silences. [. . . ] And each language is a different equation of statements and silences. All peoples silence some things in order to be able to say others. Otherwise, everything would be unsayable. From this we deduce the enormous difficulty of translation: in it one tries to say in a language precisely what that language tends to silence. ([1937] 2000: 57)

The abilities required by the discipline of translation consist precisely of understanding which issues are silenced and which are explicitly referred to in both the language of emission and that of reception. In other words, a good translator is the one who has the ability to reveal the specific equation of silences and statements that she confronts in each language. The apparently simple argument offered by Ortega y Gasset brings out one of the issues that has attracted most attention among the theorists of translation along the 20th century; namely, the impossible exact concordance between two linguistic or cultural systems, regardless of their closeness. The chief concern in this paper is to show that the translation of literary creation by African writers written in colonial languages is mainly a process of translating silences. In the first place, following the line of Ortega y Gasset’s assessment, we review different kinds of silences that are important in translation, as Georges Mounin pointed out in his work, Les problèmes théoriques de la

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.2 (106-168)

 Goretti López Heredia

traduction. In the second place, we define the concept of “minor literatures” to understand the particularities of the postcolonial African literature in colonial languages. Finally, we illustrate the role of a translator of silences in a postcolonial context by analysing the novel Allah n’est pas obligé by Amadou Kourouma (Côte d’Ivoire).

. Linguistic silences, cultural silences In 1916 Ferdinand de Saussure stated a most important principle for the discipline of translation in his Cours de linguistique générale. By dividing the linguistic sign into two units, signifier and meaning, one can see that words do not necessarily cover the same conceptual range in different languages. This amounts to scientific proof that word for word translation does not produce satisfactory results. Fifty years later, in 1963, Georges Mounin in his study Les problèmes théoriques de la traduction, emphasised the two specific ways in which any two different languages may represent the world: Cette idée, que chaque langue découpe dans le réel des aspects différents (négligeant ce qu’une autre langue met en relief, apercevant ce qu’une autre oublie), et qu’elle découpe aussi le même réel en unités différentes (divisant ce qu’une autre unit, unissant ce qu’une autre divise, englobant ce qu’une autre exclut, excluant ce qu’une autre englobe), est devenue le bien commun de toute la linguistique actuelle.1 (1963: 48)

The study of Georges Mounin, undertaken after Ortega y Gasset proposed the postulates mentioned above, tried to analyse the causes of the distances or silences that separate any two languages. A first obstacle that concerns the relationship between an individual and language impedes a totally effective symbiosis of these two: language does not totally and precisely capture objective and subjective experiences. On one hand, an individual’s objective knowledge of the world varies over her lifetime since the bites of reality that she may grasp change in size and number over time. On the other hand, language is not always able to represent the subjective experience of the world and emotions. A second obstacle that affects the inherent differences among cultures emphasises that any language is apparently impervious to the influence of any other language: On admet, aujourd’hui, qu’il y a des “cultures” (ou des “civilisations”) profondément différentes, qui constituent non pas autant de “visions du monde” différentes, mais autant de “mondes” réels différents.2 (1963: 59)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.3 (168-221)

African literature in colonial languages 

If we admit, as Mounin does, that there exist realities so diverse that they apparently do not have any feature in common, we are led to think that differences among languages exist because a language represents actions, expressions, phenomena that other languages omit because they do not exist in their culture and, consequently, it is not necessary to name them. Returning to Ortega y Gasset’s statement, the difficult task in the discipline of translation is building bridges that allow any two different worlds to comprehend one another. From this point of view, an essential part of the work of a translator is to understand the silences of a language to represent them in another one. Before the 1950’s, the field of linguistics showed us the extent to which language shapes our perception of reality and distinguished the visible and invisible components that operate in any act of language. Mounin recovered the postulates of linguistics to build a theory of translation and insisted on deconstructing the theoretical assumption of the impossibility of translation, pointing to the success of its practice: Le vrai danger qui guette maintenant cette thèse linguistique solidement établie, selon laquelle notre langue oriente, prédispose, prévient, préfabrique et limite la façon dont nous regardons le monde, c’est que cette thèse soit formulée de manière fixiste. [. . . ] A force d’insister sur le côté méconnu des phénomènes par où la langue empêche de voir le monde, elle oublie le côté par où le monde de l’expérience vainc les empêchements que lui oppose la langue.3 (1963: 275)

Certainly, the task of a translator has always been to make comprehensible what seems not translatable, and to establish a dialogue between different views of the world. Unveiling all information that the writer transmits in a veiled way about her personality, her geographical origin, her state of mind and emotions and her intentions – what linguistics defines as connotations –, is part of the job of the translators, that, thus, become “unveilers” of silenced contents. As we will see in what follows, some postcolonial writers appeal to the world of their experience as multicultural persons, as individuals who belong to one or several traditional cultures and to a Western culture, to “translate” their original cultures to colonial languages. The African writers who have chosen to write in colonial languages support Ortega y Gasset’s postulate: they, more than anybody else, reveal or even assert by means of their writing cultures that have been silenced, hidden and disregarded by imperialism. They are, in this sense, translators of silences. In the following section we argue why the African literature written in colonial languages is a minor literature and analyse the work by the postcolonial writer Ahmadou Kourouma from the point of view of a translation of silences.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.4 (221-282)

 Goretti López Heredia

. African literatures, minor literatures We turn to the quotation of Deleuze and Guattari’s words and define “minor literature” in the following way: “une littérature mineure n’est pas celle d’une langue mineure, plutôt celle qu’une minorité fait dans une langue majeure” (1975: 29).4 We want to stress two important features of this definition. On one hand, these two philosophers refer to minor and major languages and literatures, which are different from minority and majority languages and literatures. The authors seek to differentiate languages and literatures according to their political weight (the extent of their area of influence) rather than in quantitative terms (the size of the group of individuals that speak a particular language or share a specific literature). This line of reasoning is essential to draw a map of those less translated languages and of the issues that govern the contacts between cultures. On the other hand, it is usually thought that a minor literature is one written in a less-translated language. The African literatures written in colonial languages represent an interesting paradox, since they are considered minor literatures while they are written in major languages like English, French, or Portuguese, which have an undisputed weight in the international context. Some African writers, however, have shaped those major languages in particular ways and transformed them into vehicles of minor literatures. In this sense, the postcolonial phenomenon has drawn a separating line between the literature produced in the Western country, French, English and Portuguese literatures, and their colonial counterparts, which play a minor role: French, English and Portuguese postcolonial literatures. A way of measuring the variable importance of each category of literature, that produced in the Western country and that produced in the former colonies, could be to quantify the number of published works that belong to each category. Unfortunately, there are no disaggregated data about the geographical origin of the works written in English, French, or Portuguese that have been translated, for instance, into Spanish. That is why in this paper we have had to merely assume that the relative importance of postcolonial literature, that is to say literature written in major languages but classified in the minor category, is relatively small in comparison to its Western counterpart in the Spanish market of translated foreign literatures. This hypothesis could lead to a comparative study of the reception of the translated language depending on its origin: the Western country or the former colony. The findings of such a quantitative study would probably lead us to consider the postcolonial literatures as belonging to a category of texts that, because of extraliterary motives, are written in minor languages and, consequently, little translated. Our aim in this section is to suggest new lines of research in the field of postcolonial languages and the theory of translation. The fundamental idea we should keep in

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.5 (282-330)

African literature in colonial languages 

mind is that postcolonial literature written in colonial languages falls fully into the category of minor literatures defined by Deleuze and Guattari, mainly because in any postcolonial environment an act of literary creation is a political act. Writing from the point of view of an individual born in a former colony implies taking a stand with respect to the legacy of imperialism. As we will show in the following section, in Allah n’est pas obligé, Ahmadou Kourouma offers a critical view of postcolonial Africa precisely by means of a character who uses a minor version of the French language. The linguistic conflict revealed by the main character in the account of his life in standard French, local French, Pidgin and Malinké is a reflection of the conflict of interests that even nowadays permeates the biased look that the West throws over the continent.5

. Ahmadou Kourouma, translator of silences The Mozambican writer Mia Couto had in mind the difficulty of telling in any language (Portuguese in his case) precisely what that language tries to silence (we could even say tries to ignore) when he commented on his communication problems with the Mozambican people who live in the inner part of his country:6 Quand ils me racontent des histoires, il y a des problèmes qui ne sont pas seulement linguistiques, il y a des problèmes qui sont différents systèmes de pensée. Par exemple, il y a des catégories pour lesquelles nous n’avons pas de mots en portugais, en français ou en anglais, pour nommer certaines relations de parenté ou pour nommer par exemple le fantôme. Au Mozambique, il y a plus de sept mots différents pour nommer un fantôme. [. . . ] Nous n’avons pas de mots pour cela.7 (1994: 54)

According to this quotation, cultural silences are those that stem from cognitive distances, differences that all cultural communities have in their way of seeing the world. The postcolonial writer for whom the local cultures are his sources of inspiration, becomes in some sense a translator of silences, since she attempts to recount in a colonial language realities or views of the world that are inherent to another very distant language in terms of culture. By means of literary creation she fills gaps or hides silences in the language in which she writes. This meaning of translation related to the act of literary creation has attracted the attention of some researchers of postcolonial literature, like Moradewun Adejunmobi. In her article “Translation and Postcolonial Identity. African Writing and European Languages”, she characterises the works of certain African authors written in colonial languages as compositional translations:

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.6 (330-387)

 Goretti López Heredia

I will identify as compositional translations texts which are published in European languages and which contain occasional or sustained modification of the conventions of the European language in use, where ‘versions’ or ‘originals’ in indigenous African languages are non-existent. [. . . ] It should be noted, furthermore, that the modification of European languages in these texts generally results from a deliberate intent to indigenise the European language. (1998: 165)

The work by the writer Ahmadou Kourouma, from Côte d’Ivoire, falls into this category of compositional translations. According to his own words, his process of literary creation cannot be dissociated from the process of translating the Malinké language: J’ai pensé en malinké et écrit en français en prenant une liberté que j’estime naturelle avec la langue classique. . . J’ai donc traduit le malinké en français en cassant le français pour trouver et restituer le rythme africain.8 (in Koné 1992: 83)

In his novel Allah n’est pas obligé the main character and narrator of the story, a child soldier from Côte d’Ivoire, takes to the extreme the practice of compositional translation. This character experiences all the linguistic conflicts to be found in any postcolonial individual. French is the language in which he recounts his vicissitudes in the wars that devastate various countries in Western Africa (Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone). The character’s use of this language is incorrect, as he himself acknowledges, due to his origin and his poor education, as it is sprinkled with expressions in Malinké and in Pidgin. The originality of this text is the awareness of the narrator of the mixture of linguistic registers and variants enclosed in his manner of speech (the entire novel simulates an oral autobiography) which reveals from the very beginning his aim to make comprehensible his multicultural and multilingual reality. As an improvised translator, he helps himself with four dictionaries to define any word or expression that may pose any comprehension difficulty to a reader unrelated to his postcolonial and multilingual universe: Le Larousse et le Petit Robert me permettent de chercher, de vérifier et d’expliquer les gros mots du français de France aux noirs nègres indigènes d’Afrique. L’Inventaire des particularités lexicales du français d’Afrique explique les gros mots africains aux toubabs français de France. Le dictionnaire Harrap’s explique les gros mots pidgin à tout francophone qui ne comprend rien de rien au pidgin.9 (2000: 11)

This paragraph shows the comprehension barriers dividing the various social groups that share the same geographical area: on one hand, the French people and the black African natives, and, on the other hand, any French-speaking individual and any speaker of Pidgin (who belongs to the English tongue area of influence).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.7 (387-465)

African literature in colonial languages

First, we will classify the terms of the different linguistic variants mentioned by the narrator. (In spite of the narrator’s declared aim, the words in Pidgin are so scarce that we will not include them in our study). Secondly, we will explain the motivation guiding our selection of terms. A first category of definitions is comprised of words related to the traditional culture of Birahima, the narrator. The numerous expressions in Malinké are part of this category (such as faforo, sex of the father, gnamokodé, bastard, walahé, in the name of Allah) and the terms in African French defined in the Inventaire des particularités lexicales du français d’Afrique. For instance, the term gnama: (Gnama est un gros mot nègre noir africain indigène qu’il faut expliquer aux Français blancs. Il signifie, d’après l’Inventaire des particularités lexicales du français en Afrique noire, l’ombre qui reste après le décès d’un individu. L’ombre qui devient une force immanente mauvaise qui suit l’auteur de celui qui a tué une personne innocente).10 (2000: 12)

Other words defined are: (1) canari: handcrafted pot of baked clay. (2) koroté: poison that acts over someone at a distance. (3) mangeur d’âmes: devourer of souls, perpetrator of killing who supposedly has consumed the vital principle of his victim. (4) cola: edible grain of the colatier, eaten because of its stimulating effects, ritual gift in traditional society. (5) septième jour et quarantième jour: seventh day and fortieth day, ceremonies in memory of the deceased. (6) ouya-ouya: disorder. (7) doni-doni: little by little. (8) se ceinturer fort: to take something seriously. Besides the definitions taken from the dictionaries, Kourouma includes some descriptions of the culture of those called by him noirs nègres africains indigènes (literally, black negro native Africans). On page 43 he explains that in local villages the children are divided in groups according to their age for their games and their initiation rituals. All these efforts to explain the original terms from the culturally traditional universe of Birahima are addressed to a reader who is totally outside the African reality of the novel, identified as the white French individual. A second category includes terms in standard French, explained to black natives, who use improper French. The narrative starts with the self-introduction of the child narrator who is going to tell his own biography:



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.8 (465-536)

 Goretti López Heredia

M’appelle Birahima. Suis p’tit nègre. Pas parce que suis black et gosse. Non! Mais suis p’tit nègre parce que je parle mal le français. C’é comme ça. Même si on est grand, même vieux, même arabe, chinois, blanc, russe, même américain ; si on parle mal le français, on dit on parle p’tit nègre, on est p’tit nègre quand même. Ça, c’est la loi du français de tous les jours qui veut ça.11 (2000: 9)

Biharima’s assertions in these first lines have extra-linguistic consequences: there exists correctly spoken French and incorrectly spoken French. He identifies himself as a speaker of the second type of French. Interestingly, he will call any person who speaks incorrect French petit nègre, regardless of his origin or skin colour. What attracts our attention is that, in spite of his being a petit nègre and, consequently, a marginal individual, this poor, uneducated black child is able to recount his story using, when needed, a more proper level of the French language (showing the ironical criticism of Kourouma). In some parts of the novel, the main character resorts to the Larousse and the Petit Robert to correct his improper French. Referring to the expression en plume, for instance, Birahima corrects himself: (Ce n’est pas en plume qu’il faut dire mais en prime. Il faut expliquer en prime aux nègres noirs africains indigènes qui ne comprennent rien à rien. D’après Larousse, en prime signifie ce qu’on dit en plus).12 (2000: 12)

The two dictionaries mentioned also help the narrator to define terms of standard French apparently unknown to the community of black native Africans, such as administrer: “(Pour les noirs africains indigènes qui comprennent pas bien le français, administrer signifie faire prendre un médicament.)” (2000: 140).13 Other words so defined are: (1) sans ambigüité: without ambiguity. (2) à la queue leu leu: queueing in rows. (3) affluer: to flow. (4) sinistre: sinister. (5) décence: decency. As a general rule, an individual with an intermediate level of French knows the terms mentioned. Likewise, the fragment we quote next makes starkly clear an inconsistency of the French spoken in France when applied to black cultures: Les enfants-soldats étaient en colère, rouges de colère. (On doit pas dire pour des nègres rouges de colère. Les nègres ne deviennent jamais rouges: ils se renfrognent.)14 (2000: 59)

In exploring the motives that led the narrator to define some terms and to ignore others, we should first comment on the general impression the text gives the reader. The effect sought by Kourouma consists of telling a story according to the patterns

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.9 (536-597)

African literature in colonial languages 

of an oral narrative (repetitions, recursivity, apparent deconstruction) reproducing different linguistic registers (ranging from words in standard French, the oral petit nègre French, the expressions characteristic of African French, to the terms in the Malinké tongue that name culturally traditional realities and the rudest expressions in that language). The intricate result of this particular exercise of style gives us an idea of the complexity involved in the use of colonial languages combined with the local tongues in a postcolonial context and the social and cultural functions associated with each of them. Additionally, by means of the exaggerated translation effort made by the main character to make his story comprehensible, Ahmadou Kourouma reconstructs and ridicules the rigid system of prejudices prevailing during colonial times that portrayed African cultures as savage and ignorant, as opposed to the civilised standards of the Westerners who subjected them. This is the main message of the novel. The character created by Kourouma, a child soldier addicted to hard drugs, successively hired by the cruellest African local tyrants to fight in the wars that broke out after independence, is a victim of the social decomposition brought by colonialism in Africa. By assuming the role of translator, the narrator shows his acute intelligence: although he describes himself as a black native African speaker of petit nègre, as the story unfolds we become aware of a much more complex individual. Birahima not only knows, since he has grown up with them, the traditions of his Malinké culture and other cultures specific to the geographical area where his experience as a child soldier develops, but he is also perfectly conscious of the marginal role that those cultures play in the mentality of the former colonist. His incorrect manner of speech only confirms in a grotesque way the prejudices of the white man about the savagery and ignorance of the African communities. In summary, the narrator shows he has understood so deeply the extent of the simplistic view that the white man holds of the African reality that he is even able to reproduce the portrait of the ignorant black native, stretching it into a caricature. In some sense, the narrator, in the role of a translator, measures the linguistic and conceptual distance that separates the French and English speaking African communities from the Western communities. Precisely by constantly interrupting the flow of the story to include the definitions of the words used, Ahmadou Kourouma reminds the reader of the problems of comprehension among several worlds in conflict in postcolonial Africa. Birahima operates as a translator of silences in two directions: from the traditional universe to the Western world and vice versa. Along with the ironic review of the relationships of inequality that link the different linguistic variations coexisting in postcolonial Africa, in Allah n’est pas obligé, the narrator-translator delivers a new message: not only do African cultures have to understand Western man, but Western culture also contains silences for the African man.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.10 (597-632)

 Goretti López Heredia

. Final comments The first conclusion of the article is that postcolonial literature has enriched the debate about the various meanings of the act of translation. Beyond the three definitions stated by Jakobson in the 1950’s (interlingual translation, intralingual translation and intersemiotic translation) postcolonial literature has brought the work of translation closer to literary creation. Some Lusophone writers, like Mia Couto and Suleiman Cassamo (Mozambique), Pepetela and José Craveirinha (Angola) often add a glossary to their literary works to explain words in national languages or even traditions linked to the culture of those countries. These clarifying procedures resemble those used by the interlingual translators who use footnotes. In the analysis of Allah n’est pas obligé, however, we have seen a different example of compositional translation or translation of silences by a postcolonial writer. The originality of this text is that it turns the narrator into the translator between linguistic communities that don’t understand one another because of political reasons. The second conclusion that our research leads us to, corroborated by the practice of translation, is that the major variants of French and Portuguese do not contain the same structure of silences and explicit references as the variants used by postcolonial African writers. The relationship between translation and minorities has become the centre of attention of translation studies since the 1990’s. As an example of this attention we could mention the special issue of the journal The Translator published in 1998 and edited by Lawrence Venuti entitled “Translation & Minority”. The theory of translation has begun to consider the translation of literature written in colonial languages a special case in the history of translation. Thus, since the 1990’s, a new area of research has developed under the label Postcolonial Translation. The study of postcolonial literature from the point of view of translation opens the range of interest of the theory of translation towards other disciplines such as the theory of culture, and the comparative study of literature. We can think of the translation of texts written in colonial languages like French and Portuguese as a paradigmatic example of translation of less-translated languages, which opens a very broad research field to the theory of translation, which is far away from having exhausted its possibilities. (Translated by Antonia Díaz)

Notes . “This idea, that every language cuts out different aspects in the reality (putting aside what another language brings out, showing what another would miss) and also that every

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.11 (632-695)

African literature in colonial languages

language cuts out the same reality in different units (dividing what another language unites, unifying what another divides, including what another would exclude and excluding what another would include) has become the basis of present linguistics.” . “Nowadays it has been admitted that there are deeply different ‘cultures’ (or ‘civilizations’) that contain not simply different ‘visions’ of the world, but real different ‘worlds’.” . “There is a real danger threatening this strongly established linguistic theory, according to which our language guides, predisposes, anticipates, frames and limits the way we look at the world. The danger is that this theory could be expressed in a fixed way. [. . . ] If we keep on stressing the unknown part of the phenomena through which the language prevents us from seeing the world, this theory leaves out the way through which the world of experiences overcomes the obstacles that language sets against it.” . “Minor literature is not a literature of minor language but it is rather a literature made by a minority in a major language.” . Pidgin is the variant of English spoken by the black natives in Ghana and Liberia. The Encyclopaedia Britannica categorises it as a speech variant rather than a language due to its limited vocabulary and simplified grammar. Malinké is an African language spoken in West Africa. . Conference held by Mia Couto in French. . Whenever they tell me stories, there are not only linguistic problems but also problems related to different systems of thoughts. For instance there are categories of words that have no equivalent in Portuguese, French or English. This happens for example when we want to name some family’s relationships or a ghost. In Mozambique there are more than seven different words to name a ghost. [. . . ] We have not got any word for this.” . “I think in Malinké and write in French, taking what I consider to be natural liberties with the classical tongue. I have thus translated Malinké into French by breaking up the French language so as to recreate an African rhythm.” . “The Larousse and Petit Robert dictionaries enable me to search, check and explain French swear-words from France to the black African natives. The Inventory of the lexical particularities of the African French language explains the African swear-words to French people from France. The Harrap’s dictionary explains the Pidgin swear-words to any Frenchspeaking people who do not understand a single word of the Pidgin language.” . “(Gnama is a black African native swear-word that has to be explained to the white French people. According to the Inventory of the lexical particularities of the African French language it means the shadow that remains after someone’s death. The shadow that becomes a bad and immanent strength that follows the author of an innocent person’s murder.)” . “My name’s Birahima. I’m a petit nègre [literally, young negro]. Not ’cause I’m a black child. No! But I’m a petit nègre ’cause I don’t speak French correctly. That’s just the way it is! Even when you’re big, even old or Arab, Chinese, white, Russian, even American, if you don’t speak French well, you speak petit nègre. You are petit nègre anyway. That’s the daily French norm.” . “You can’t say en plume [in feather] but en prime [in addition]. En prime has to be explained to the black African natives who do not understand nothing at all. According



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 15:13

F: BTL5812.tex / p.12 (695-749)

 Goretti López Heredia

to Larousse, en prime means something you add to your speech.” In French the expressions en plume and en prime have very closed sonority and it’s quite easy to make the confusion. . “To black African natives who do not understand French quite well administer means make you take some medication.” . “The children soldiers were angry, red with anger. (Red with anger cannot be said about black people. Black people never get red: they get sullen.)”

References Adejunmobi, Moradewun (1998). “Translation and Postcolonial Identity. African Writing and European Languages”. The Translator, 4(2), 163–181. Deleuze, Gilles & Guattari, Félix (1975). Kafka. Pour une littérature mineure. Paris: Editions de Minuit. Koné, Amadou (1992). “Le romancier africain devant la langue d’écriture: problèmes des relations entre la langue et l’identité”. Francofonia, 22, 75–88. Kourouma, Ahmadou (2000). Allah n’est pas obligé. Paris: Seuil. Mounin, Georges (1963). Les problèmes théoriques de la traduction. Paris: Gallimard. Ortega y Gasset, José (1947). “Miseria y esplendor de la traducción”. In Obras completas: Tomo V (1933–1941) (pp. 427–448). Madrid: Revista de Occidente. (First paperback, 1937) [in English] In Lawrence Venuti (Ed.) (2000), The Translator Studies Reader (pp. 49–63). London/New York: Routledge. Saussure, Ferdinand (1995). Cours de linguistique générale. Paris: Editions Payot & Rivages. (First paperback, 1916) Venuti, Lawrence (Ed.). (1998). The Translator. Special Issue: Translation & Minority. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:50

F: BTL5813.tex / p.1 (41-102)

Translating Mia Couto A particular view of Portuguese in Mozambique Andrés Xosé Salter Iglesias

.

Introduction

The main aim of this study is to present the reader with a number of reflections on the translation difficulties found when writing the Spanish version of one of the first and finest works by the Mozambican author Mia Couto, Vozes Anoitecidas (which was translated into English with the title Voices Made Night). The linguistic and geographic proximity of Portuguese does not prevent this language from being virtually unknown for a considerable part of the population of the Spanish state, which certainly encourages the translation into Spanish of different literary works written in this language. However, if we add the postcolonial situation, which has left an indelible print on the language and culture of the Mozambican people, the task can actually become a hard but luring challenge. Mia Couto, who likes showing off the fact that he writes for the simple pleasure of disorganising the language, is considered to be one of the most important names in the new generation of African authors who choose Portuguese as a vehicle to express their thoughts. Although, in his particular case, we should talk about a unique process of miscegenation between the so-called standard Portuguese and the multiple dialectal varieties introduced by the people of Mozambique. This is accompanied by a highly personal endeavour to rediscover and to coin new words, which turns him into a sorcerer that manages to appropriate Camões’ language and force it to move in unexpected directions. In the country where Couto was born, there is a strong tradition of oral transmission of literature and knowledge, in a culture where there is the belief that each elderly person who dies is a library that burns down. The author combines in his written production this African oral tradition with the Western literary tradition. As a biologist, he mixes his knowledge of Mozambican flora and modern

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:50

F: BTL5813.tex / p.2 (102-172)

 Andrés Xosé Salter Iglesias

ecology with the elderly people’s ancestral knowledge of the spirits that dwell in trees and plants. Nevertheless, the real engine that triggers and feeds his creative thought is the description of relationships, in their deepest essence. He focuses on the relationship between man and the land that shelters and protects him, but which also suffers when it is abandoned or hurt by him. He also describes the relationships between a man and others pertaining to his own species, even under the most extreme conditions. He thus creates a unique literary style compared, on many occasions, with that of the great Brazilian writer, João Guimarães Rosa. This style is endowed with a special vividness and an incredible ability to stimulate the reader’s creative and reflective imagination.

. Mia Couto’s reinterpretation of Portuguese For the translator, working with languages that are so close to each other may easily lead him to fall into the temptation of literality. However, as usually happens in those places or contexts where a foreign language is imposed on another, Portuguese has undergone a process of alteration and simplification in Mozambique. These changes, apart from modifying verbal conjugations and reconfiguring syntactic rules, have particularly enriched the semantic sphere. Prefixation and suffixation become powerful weapons that are used with skill and intelligence in order to incorporate into the different grammatical categories semantic nuances which would necessarily have to be expressed by means of adverbs or other modifiers in continental Portuguese. In this process, we must not forget about the pre-existing lexical substratum, which is incorporated into Portuguese in order to designate realities that are unknown (or not) in the old metropolis; in other words, that which, adequately or not, has come to be known as exoticisms. However, as has been previously stated, the creativity of Mozambican Portuguese is particularly and exhaustively exploited by Mia Couto, the master of neology, who provides each of his characters with particular idiolects and goes even a step further by combining lexical units or modifying invariable grammatical categories. The urge for exoticisation therefore turns into the leitmotiv and connecting theme of the work of this Mozambican, who likes to express the feelings and uniqueness of his people and who forces the translator to face a number of problems that actually stem from the endeavour to shy away from standard language (Adanjo-Correia 1997). In the following lines, our main aim will be to comment on, without excessive detail, the main difficulties we were faced with when translating the short-story collection Vozes Anoitecidas, taking into account the basic levels of speech analysis.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:50

F: BTL5813.tex / p.3 (172-207)

Translating Mia Couto 

. Translation difficulties: Phonetic level We will start with the phonetic level, which could appear to be irrelevant in a written text, but which for Mia Couto is another tool for the psychological and linguistic characterisation of his surrealistic heroes. This dimension is particularly notable in the story De como se vazou a vida de Ascolino do Perpétuo Socorro (How Ascolino do Perpétuo Socorro’s life was depleted), whose main character is an emigrant from the Indo-Portuguese colony of Goa who struggles to pretend he has a high level of erudition by recurring to complicated and derision-drawing formulae. These expressions are even funnier since he is never able to hide a peculiar accent that combines the features of the Portuguese spoken in Mozambique with those that appear in the dialects spoken in Eastern colonies. The abundance of vocalic sounds in Portuguese, in comparison with Spanish, and the utterance variations that can be observed according to the vowel position in a word, allow Mia Couto to intentionally point out the pronunciation mistakes of the character from Goa. This is done by means of darkening final syllables, reducing vowel sounds or by frequently using epenthesis. Our problem in the translation is how to find one or more features indicating the deviation from standard pronunciation, without specifying his dialect from a geographical point of view. In our opinion, the least risky option would consist of sprinkling speeches, in an alternative or simultaneous fashion, with changes of “c” for “s” and vice versa (some Spanish dialects, including all South American countries, say /s/ instead of /θ/. Some Andalusian dialects do the contrary), while also misspelling some words as a means of solving the problem of vocal vacillation.

. Morphology and semantics Nevertheless, most difficulties found could be classified on the three levels of morphological, lexical and semantic analysis, which we have decided to join into one category in order to size up to what extent the use of certain forms (morphology) can actually determine the expressed referent (semantics). The imagery and creativity that Couto unravels in his neologisms oblige the translator to face a disjunctive: either to follow the indications of authors like Newmark (1987: 193–297), who chooses to adapt new terms by amplifying or explaining them, or to fall into ethnocentrism. The latter refers to the natural tendency that leads us, as members of a social group, to believe that all that we know or consider part of our culture, which logically encompasses linguistic aspects, is the best option preferable to any other (Margot 1979: 280). The more or less pretentious adaptation of those elements we consider foreign, or at least

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:50

F: BTL5813.tex / p.4 (207-277)

 Andrés Xosé Salter Iglesias

curious, marks our influence as translators in the final text and keeps us far from invisibility (Venuti 1995), although determining if this is negative or positive for an author’s literary creation will be a matter of further discussion. The creation of new words can be observed, above all, in the field of verbs, in which Mia Couto recurs to prefixation and suffixation to obtain denominal or deadjectival forms. Due to the considerable number of examples, we could highlight the group of verbs generated by means of privative prefixes, namely desand its allomorphs, like happens with the synonyms deslograr (not to achieve) and desconseguir (not to be able to). However, it is important to distinguish the forms that are widely used in Mozambique, such as desconseguir (example of a long series of terms created by the indigenous population that above all pursue a simplification of the communicative process by breaking down the complex structures of continental Portuguese) from those that have actually been invented by the writer, even if he does it through morphological analogy, like deslograr. In both cases, we thought that the most adequate solution was to calque these forms in the translation into Spanish, because if the author’s intention were not to create some kind of effect, nothing would have prevented him from recurring to the anteposition of a negative adverb to the verbal form known by the language. Another interesting group consists of certain verbs that Couto makes up from the lexical basis of a species name, in order to describe human behaviour patterns parallel to the behaviour of certain animals, like peixando (from peixe, fish), toupeirando (from toupeira, mole) or caranguejando (from caranguejo, crab). As translators, we have to search for more idiomatic and suitable forms in Spanish, which may lead us to calque these neologisms and then proceed to naturalise them in the target language, or we could even recur to more explicit turns of phrase. Thus, in the translation of “não estão a ver que Deus nos quer peixando?” (can’t you see that God wants us to behave like fish), we thought it was adequate to recreate the form “¿es que no veis que Dios nos quiere peceando?” while in “haviam de o adivinhar subterrâneo, toupeirando a réstia de vida que lhe faltava?” we did not find that topeando was idiomatic enough and therefore we recurred to an explicitation “¿podrían adivinarlo, subterráneo, cual topo buscando el suspiro de vida que aún le quedaba?” (would they be able to find him, underground, searching like a mole for his last breath of life?). Notwithstanding the aforementioned, the lexical productivity of the Mozambican writer is not limited to verbal forms. Many nouns and adjectives can be found that have been created from previously coined words or by combining preexisting lexical roots (composition and parasynthesis), although the most common formula consists of the use of restrictive or negative prefixes. On the other hand, Couto is not only a transgressor when forming words, but also deliberately violates the rules of plural formation or the invariability of certain adverbs or indefinite adjectives. Thus, it should not surprise us that

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:50

F: BTL5813.tex / p.5 (277-324)

Translating Mia Couto

from the distributive indefinite adjective cada qual (each and everyone) the adverb cadaqualmente is created, or that the writer does not have any problem with pluralizing the existential indefinite pronoun alguém (somebody). In these cases, we are not talking about the coinage of new words that may not be intelligible in the target language, but about using detours that pursue an aesthetic aim and that must be reproduced in the translated text. Since the invariability of adverbs and indefinite adjectives is a common feature in both languages’ grammar, the impact on the reader is the same in both cases.

. Other lexical issues Neologisms and norm detours stand out amongst the translation problems due to the peculiar style Mia Couto has. This does not prevent us from finding issues that are common to other authors as well, like the presence of polysemous words. Lexical polysemy, as opposed to synonymy, is an extremely important linguistic phenomenon whose consequences in translation are notable, since they can hinder the transfer of meaning(s) from source to target text (García Yebra 1982: 97). A very peculiar and illustrative example of what we are trying to explain is the word caneco, which is used in the previously mentioned story, De como se vazou a vida de Ascolino do Perpétuo Socorro, which tells us of the life of an emigrant from the old Portuguese colony of Goa. It appears in the following sentence: “a única coisa que você tem cruzadas são as pernas, essas perninhas de caneco” (translated below). Contextualisation is essential to understand the connotations conveyed by this term, so it would be advisable to first of all explain the plot. The story takes place in a local bar where Ascolino used to go and drink and where he was also well known for always getting drunk to forget his dreadful and almost ascetic marriage. Taking this into account, we can now say that one of the popular meanings of caneco is drunk and can be found in expressions like pintar o caneco, which could be translated into English as “to make a scene”, or “to cause an uproar”. But caneco is also a synonym of canarim, a word used to designate somebody from India, which would be marking its use as a xenophobe swearword or offence. However, in certain contexts, it may be used to refer to a tall person with disproportionately long legs, which would explain the insisting reference to the legs of the emigrant from Goa. As can be readily deduced, it is very complicated to find a Spanish word encompassing all of these values and nuances in such a synthetic fashion. Despite risking the loss of some of the connotations involved, we decided to recur to an amplification whereby we could preserve the most important referents. In our opinion these are the despising treatment applied to those who emigrate from Asian



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:50

F: BTL5813.tex / p.6 (324-379)

 Andrés Xosé Salter Iglesias

colonies and, additionally, the comical reference to the main character’s physical appearance: “La única cosa que tienes cruzadas son las piernas, esas piernecillas de indio larguirucho” (The only thing you have twisted are your legs, those lanky Indian leggies). In the translation of literary works, one of the most frequently conflictive points is the issue of anthroponyms and lexicalised proper names. In our case, the generally pursued and applied strategy consisted of adapting proper names by translating them, if there actually was an equivalent, or orthographically adapting them. This decision was not random, but based on the existence of a great amount of anthroponyms coined by the author with a view to satirising certain habits of Portuguese-speaking countries, such as the belief in the fact that extremely complicated surnames are equal to belonging to a high social standing, or probably just endeavouring to draw derision from the reader. Nevertheless, higher complexity levels can be attained when talking about nicknames or aliases. In fact, most of those appearing in the text by Couto are indigenous terms applied to an individual in order to ridicule their physical appearance or habits. With this particular type of term, we preferred to recur to an orthographical adaptation to Spanish, adding an explanation in a translator’s footnote. We are aware of the fact that this is a highly criticised and commonly rejected procedure, but that does not mean that it cannot become necessary in certain contexts, like in this case to explain the nature of the aforementioned alias.

. Dealing with exoticisms in translation If we try to delve a little deeper into the lexical sphere, we will then enter the area of exoticisms and how to deal with them in a translation. In order to infuse a colourful spirit into the narration and to produce stories that are totally imbedded in Mozambican culture, Mia Couto has a penchant for frequently using terms that pertain to the indigenous languages in the country. However, it is important to distinguish between those which hamper the communicative process and those which, despite being exotic because of having different morphology from most words in standard Portuguese, have been incorporated into the language and are not unintelligible to peninsular speakers. Within the latter group, we can find the great set of words related to nature which designate species or landscapes not known on the European continent before the age of discoveries. Some examples could be machamba (sometimes also machimba), mangueira and cajueiro. While the latter two have their equivalents in Spanish, mango and anacardo (cashew), the first designates a type of landscape from Mozambique: wide extensions of arid land with scarce bushy vegetation used

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:50

F: BTL5813.tex / p.7 (379-436)

Translating Mia Couto 

for agricultural purposes. Although there is not an exact equivalent in Spanish, we did not think it was necessary to recur to the original term and explain its meaning by means of a footnote. In fact, due to its frequency and the author’s tendency to use it as a generic hyperonym for any kind of planted plot of land, we thought it was adequate to simply translate it as campo (field). This does not involve a semantic loss regarding the original word because our reader will supposedly be aware of the fact that natural landscapes in southern Africa are different from those in Europe. However, certain forms should be considered independently. We are referring to those words that even the author considers complicated for the average Portuguese reader, and therefore explains by means of footnotes indicating their meaning and relevance in the context where they are used. In order to overcome this obstacle, we have recurred to two different techniques: on the one hand, socalled translation labels (Newmark 1987: 127), always trying to ensure that the explicitation of the word’s semantic content did not alter the context or reduce its fluency; and on the other hand, we also used translator’s footnotes, to which we seldom recurred, and always aiming at avoiding a loss in fluency and intelligibility. In fact, most footnotes used by the author to explain a word or coinage were reconverted into labels, especially if they were words which could be easily defined or synthesised in just one word. However, on certain occasions, the use of footnotes was inevitable, like, for instance, to explain the meaning of capulana, a piece of clothing that Mozambican women use to cover their bodies from waist to knees. The previous notwithstanding, it is important to observe that introducing a label in the following context does not involve a substantial alteration of the original text: “sentiu o cheiro dos mitombos espalhando espantos.” The author indicates in a footnote a couple of synonyms of mitombo, remédio and mezinha and our solution was to slip one of them into the target text: “sintió el olor de los mitombos, de esos remedios que esparcían espantos” (He felt the smell of mitombos, those remedies spreading fear). There is an additional problem in the author’s tendency to create neologisms from words that are exoticisms themselves. This phenomenon can be identified in the word timbilar, which was created as a denominal derivative of timbila. We did not consider it necessary to search for an equivalent, since Mia Couto explicitly indicates in the original text, by means of a footnote, that timbila is a wooden xylophone, which has led us to use the same procedure to clarify the meaning of this word.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:50

F: BTL5813.tex / p.8 (436-492)

 Andrés Xosé Salter Iglesias

. Sociolinguistics and translation To finish this brief view of Mia Couto’s literary world and of the problems of translating him into a different cultural and linguistic sphere, we would like to make reference to variations regarding the user, that is, dialect and idiolect. The stories written by the Mozambican author seek to recreate, as faithfully as possible, the nature of the Portuguese spoken in his native land, focusing above all on the phonetic and grammatical features that diverge from peninsular and standard Portuguese. However, translating a linguistic variety is always a hard and tiring effort on the part of the translator, which can begin with documentation work and the location of examples that may help to deduce a number of general properties. The role of such a glossary of words and features will be to work as a pattern to follow when trying to homogenise the linguistic characteristics of the main characters in the translated version. The second step consists of deciding which variety of the target language suits the original communicative intention the most (if these varieties actually exist, since not all languages have user-related varieties that are defined enough to allow us to distinguish them from a normative core). Our last resort will be to conclude that there is no point in translating this aspect from the original text, if it does not pursue a concrete aim and the standard variety of the language we are translating the text into is, in this case, the most appropriate choice. It may even happen that the dialect was used as metalanguage, that is, exemplifying a concrete type of language (Newmark 1987: 262–263). Apart from emblazoning the geographic dialect, Mia Couto goes a step further and tries to help his reader to locate the main characters in the social pyramid, polishing as much as possible their personality profiles and the environment where they live, highlighting linguistic peculiarities as “a consequence of social stratification within the language community” (Hatim & Mason 1990: 60). Regardless of the barriers that may appear as a result of linguistic problems, the fact that Mia Couto endeavours to define his characters in such a precise fashion, allowing the reader to envision the key elements of the plot in very few lines and in a more or less stereotyped manner, obliges the translator to overcome an additional user-related difficulty: idiolects. By the notion of idiolect, one can understand the importance of the user’s or the speaker’s individuality (in our case, that of the characters created), encompassing multiple unique aspects related to personal manners reflected in the person’s use of language. This can be observed in certain phonetic patterns or in the excessive recurrence to specific syntactic structures or the use of favourite expressions (Muñoz Martín 1995: 39–40). Once the most important characteristics of each speaker have been identified, it is the moment to weigh the actions to be implemented in order to satisfactorily solve this translation problem.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:50

F: BTL5813.tex / p.9 (492-530)

Translating Mia Couto

On this occasion, we thought that probably the least important variety was the geographic one, in other words, certain phonetic and syntactic patterns that are typical of Mozambican Portuguese. The richness of exoticisms in the original text and the temporal and spatial location of stories recreate a foreign reality, generally unknown to the target language reader (and even to most readers in Portugal). It is much more interesting to try and transmit the social reality where these characters develop, and how this reality not only determines their way of thinking, but also their linguistic choices. Therefore, in our translation, we have tried to reproduce syntactic and most phonetic vulgarisms, without stereotyping the kind of variety or ascribing it to a concrete social group in the target culture. We have simply tried to reproduce the linguistic features of a person that has not had access to academic training and whose vocabulary mainly consists of words associated with the world of nature, which this character exploits for a living, along with the domestic sphere, centre of development of the main social and leisure activities.

. Concluding remarks: The issue of invisibility In conclusion, it is not always easy to make the translator’s presence unnoticeable to the reader, but the success of this task lies, to a great extent, in the search for idiomatic expressions in the target language. This endeavour involves all the expressions that seem to contradict the rules of language or are simply not natural enough, which must be adapted or transformed, while trying not to violate their content. Mozambican culture and social reality are sprinkled throughout Mia Couto’s work, and they materialise by means of linguistic turns of phrase and semantic referents which are carefully chosen by the author in order to reproduce the identity of his native land as faithfully as possible. The stories, on a referential although not a thematic continuum, create a world of subtropical colour and superstition which must be somehow taken to the target reader. In this regard, Vázquez Ayora claims that (1977: 152): Translations are not only made [. . . ] from one language into another, but also from one culture into another, which, in turn, determines the fact that in each culture, the contents of experiences differ in magnitude and perspective and these contents are structured in different ways, which is the reason why each segment of a language does not correspond to the same equivalent in a different one.

For all these reasons, in our endeavour to conceptually grasp Mia Couto’s world, we have tried to analyse all matters related to situational and cultural contexts. Amongst them we could highlight register and pragmatic elements, especially



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:50

F: BTL5813.tex / p.10 (530-582)

 Andrés Xosé Salter Iglesias

regarding the knowledge shared by the writer and his possible readers in order to achieve a better understanding of the text. Once again we are questioning the pertinence of the translator’s invisibility. Should we respect the author’s creativity and reproduce it in the target version, even if we have to recur to footnotes or other formal procedures in order to clarify certain things to our readers? Or should we choose to perform a cultural adaptation of the text? In this case, our aim was to achieve an intermediate result. In other words, the exoticising urge of Mia Couto’s work is one of the keys to his success and the reason for its originality, so shying away from it would be a glaring mistake. At the same time, overloading our translation with footnotes or any other explicative procedure would certainly work to the detriment of the quality and fluency of the target text. By trying to naturalise Couto’s deviations from standard language, we somehow contradict Venuti’s reflections (1995) on the so-called ethnocentric violence, which he considers practically inevitable and therefore he urges translators to oppose the prevailing canons in their culture and to conduct a foreignising intervention in their translation. In our view, there is nothing against attempting to promote the acceptance of cultural differences amongst nations, which are materialised in linguistic divergences, but it is not that obvious that we should deliberately underline them in our translation, transforming the hierarchy of cultural values in the target language. In other words, we have tried to find a balance between the linguistic and literary peculiarities that are so uniquely displayed by this author and our understanding that an overloaded text would certainly make its understanding harder for the target reader, whilst attempting not to completely disregard another of Venuti’s controversial concepts, originality. Sometimes Venuti’s efforts to claim the need to accept foreign cultures appear to have an exclusivist nature, which renders the foreign inaccessible if it does not undergo a process of transformation and adaptation to contemporary canons. Ethnocentric violence is certainly a difficult obstacle, but it could eventually contend with a new type of aggressive behaviour: we are talking about egocentric violence. Overcoming the cultural restrictions of an individual working in the field of translation may be as difficult as requiring them to get rid of their idiolectical traces in their textual production. An excess of originality, of visibility, would contribute to dethroning the individualistic concept of authorship, but only to make it dual.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:50

F: BTL5813.tex / p.11 (582-664)

Translating Mia Couto 

References Adanjo-Correia, M. (1997). “El “exotismo” del portugués de Brasil y Angola: reflexión fragmentaria sobre un problema de traducción”. Livius, Revista de estudios de traducción, 4, 1–9. Alarcos Llorach, E. (1995). Gramática de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. Beaugrande, R. A. & Dressler, W. U. (1990). Introduction to Text Linguistics. London: Longman. Bomder, C. (1944). The Loom of Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cunha, C. & Cintra, L. (1996). Nova gramática do português contemporáneo. Lisbon: João Sá da Costa. Delisle, J. (1984). Analyse du discours comme méthode de traduction: initiation à la traduction française de textes pragmatiques anglais. Théorie et pratique. Ottawa: Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa. García Yebra, V. (1982). Teoría y práctica de la traducción. Madrid: Gredos. Halliday, M. A. K & Ruqaiya, H. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Hatim, B. & Mason, I. (1990). Discourse and the Translator. New York: Longman. Malone, J. L. (1988). The Science of Linguistics in the Art of Translation. Some Tools from Linguistics for the Analysis and Practice of Translation. New York: Suny Press. Margot, J. C. (1979). Traduire sans trahir: la théorie de la traduction et son application aux textes bibliques. Lausanne: L’Âge de l’Homme. Muñoz Martín, R. (1995). Lingüística para Traducir. Barcelona: Teide. Newmark, P. (1988). A Textbook of Translation. New York: Prentice Hall. Nord, Christiane (1981). Textanalyse und übersetzen: theorische Grundlagen, Methode und didaktische Anwedung einer übersetzungsrelevanten Textanalyse. Heidelberg: Julius Groos. Oiticica, J. (1942). Manual de análise (sintáctica e léxica). Rio de Janeiro: Francisco Alves. Said Ali, M. (1971). Gramática histórica de la lengua portuguesa. Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Acadêmica. Vázquez Ayora, G. (1977). Introducción a la traductología: curso básico de traducción. Washington: Georgetown University. Venuti, L. (1995). The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London/New York: Routledge. Vinay, J. P. & Darbelner, J. (1977). Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais: méthode de traduction. Paris: Didier.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.1 (42-124)

Translational passages Indian fiction in English as transcreation? Dora Sales Salvador

Literature is transactional. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1993: 228) . . . translation [. . . ] is a route, a voyage if you like, through which a writer/translator may seek to reconcile fragments: fragments of texts, of language, of oneself. More than a moment of interpretation, translation is a (w)rite of passage. Suzanne Jill Levine (1992: 85)

.

Introduction: Literature and translation in a multilingual context

In spite of its belief in generating and advocating equality for all, globalisation powerfully stresses differences at all levels: social, cultural and also linguistic. To be a member of a multilingual society means that translation, as negotiation between the asymmetrical relationships between languages, is a necessary part of the daily chain of communication. The centrality of translation in India, and, in general, in multilingual and multicultural places, is a matter of fact, and plurilingual writers creating either in the language of the ex-coloniser or in the regional languages are challenging and redefining many accepted notions in translation theory. Taking these general issues into account, the purpose of this paper is to observe how Indian narrative written in English is an echo of multilingualism and interculturality in fiction, without forgetting that the use of English as a literary language is part of a complex and open national debate. India is linguistically fragmented and translation becomes the main daily communicative medium. Multilingualism is all-pervading in the subcontinent, where more than 1,600 languages are spoken, and eighteen are recognised in the Constitution. In India, after all, pluralism is organic and translation is an inevitable way of life.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.2 (124-174)

 Dora Sales Salvador

Seen in this light, it is not surprising that India has a rich tradition of translation theory and practice. Sujit Mukherjee (1981: 127) believes that translation occupies a natural place and plays a pivotal role in the literary sphere and daily speech of the country. At the same time, G. N. Devy (1998: 154–55) speaks about translation as origin in the context of Indian literature written in English. Indeed, Devy (1997, 1999) poses that Indian literary traditions are essentially traditions of translation, while G. Gopinathan (2000: 165) posits that literary translation in India, since ancient times, has never been considered something different in kind from creative activity. Also, from a broader vantage point, Devy believes that in postcolonial spheres many literary traditions have their genesis in acts of translation. In his view, there are communities, such as the Indian, that possess what he names “translating consciousness”, which exists in multilingual places where a dominating colonial language has acquired a privileged status, though this does not mean the negation of the different indigenous languages, nor their communicative and creative possibilities and functions. Nonetheless, in spite of the constant presence of translation in Indian reality, as Shantha Ramakrishna (1997a, 1997b) has put forward, in India there is no explicit and well-defined policy of translation, which obviously should be part of broad linguistic planning. In any case, though there is much to be done, it is worthwhile mentioning the existence of some projects in this respect, such as the translations published by the Sahitya Akademi, or, more recently, the Macmillan Series of Modern Indian Novels in Translation. In recent years, with the financial support of a non-governmental entity, Macmillan India publishing house has been editing translations from diverse Indian languages (mainly from Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu) into English.1 After the Raj, that is, the British rule in India (1858–1947), many plurilingual literary authors have adopted the former colonising language as a vehicle for mediation and creative writing. Being conscious of the fact that English means empowerment, they choose to write in the dominant language and literary genres, but trying to interpret their culture and experiences in order to render them into the global lingua franca. Creation is conceived as a cultural translation and translation as an activity of cultural creation. This transcultural writing could be regarded as a translational act, a “transcreation”, using the critical concept put forward by P. Lal (1996) in 1972. If Paul St-Pierre (1998) alludes to this notion of “transcreation” to demonstrate how translation into English can often be a way of reinforcing rather than weakening different language identities in India, our contention will be that the literature written originally in English is also a sort of transcreation where languages and cultural forms that are usually “minorised” survive, somehow, as a constant substratum at the intersection between diverse linguistic and literary systems.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.3 (174-227)

Translational passages

. The translingual route: English in India, Indian fiction in English The multi-ethnic and plurilingual country of India, after gaining independence in 1947 and after much debate and often violent agitation, retained English as an associate official language while Hindi was declared the official one. In addition, the major regional languages had to be recognised as national tongues. English had been used as a powerful tool by the coloniser, though Indian languages had had their own individual identities and rich literary traditions even before the British advent. So, English landed as part of imperialism and repression, but it arrived to stay, and now it is part of the Indian environment and has become another of the many Indian languages, playing different major roles: chiefly as a medium of instruction, as a link language and as an international language. However, as Annamalai states: The debate in India on whether English is an Indian language, is as much political as it is historical. It is a debate about native status to English in India. Nativization of English in India is argued not only on the basis of indigenization of its linguistic features but also on the basis of its social and cultural use. (Annamalai 1998: 155–156)

Nativise, Indianise, decolonise or dehegemonise, as Kachru (1983), Dissanayake (1985), Rama Rao (1991) and Spivak (1994) pose, so as to attempt to render the deeper structure and configurations of Indian languages, using the English medium to serve Indian communicative needs. Regarding the translingual choice of language, many writers from different contexts, such as Nabokov, Beckett, Cioran, Conrad and Kundera, to name just a few, have indeed shown that creative effort is possible for a writer in a language other than the mother tongue. However, in the Indian case, due to the deeprooted plurilingualism and also the three-language formula (regional-nationalinternational)2 usually recommended or actually applied in the Indian education system, “a further difficulty [. . . ] is that of providing a clear definition for the notion of “mother tongue”: is it the first language acquired and still spoken, the language of education, or the language of everyday transactions?” (St-Pierre 1998: 48). In a recent study devoted to literary translingualism, Steven Kellman (2000) defines translingual literature as that created by authors who write in more than one language (ambilinguals) or in a language other than their primary one (monolingual translinguals). In any case, a translingual is “a writer who resides between languages” (Kellman 2000: 9). Nearly all the Indian creative writers in English are, at least, bilingual. For them, to write in a language other than the first language is sometimes an option, sometimes a necessity, because though they speak an Indian language as their mother tongue, most of them have been



JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.4 (227-280)

 Dora Sales Salvador

primarily educated in English. In any case, the choice of a literary medium is never made without forethought; beyond aesthetic perceptions, it is a political choice: the authors want to be heard, they want to transmit their Indian cultural ethos and milieu to the world, to tell their stories beyond their borders. Their personal battle is to render all their experiences and perceptions in a language that will communicate and reach a wide audience, but which also has its limitations. Their conquest is to make it contain and express what they feel, carrying the memento of another tongue’s worldview, that somehow survives and beats, in that translational passage. Perhaps, “it is precisely because they recognize the power of particular languages that they attempt to transcend them” (Kellman 2000: 23–24). In this context, the position of Indian fiction written in English within the broad scope of Indian literature is complex, being the object of constant debate. In fact, it is important to acknowledge that Indian literature written in English is just one piece in the mosaic of Indian literature. But the much greater visibility of writers writing in English – a world language with worldwide readership – lends a sharper edge to the discussion. Though Indian fiction in English is now more than a hundred and ninety years old, it is still intensely questioned by Indian critics, mainly because it is written originally in English and, thus, it seems to be intended primarily for the Western market. In Shashi Tharoor’s words (2001): “yet Indian critics still suggest that there is something artificial and un-Indian about an Indian writing in English”.3 While many critics contend that English is not an Indian language, remembering its imposed arrival, others defend the “Indianness” of English, assimilated onto the Indian soil. Some consider that the adoption of English for creative purposes is linguistic treason, and a potential threat to the development of indigenous regional languages and cultures. The discussion (in which the policy of publishing is playing a major role) centres on concepts such as “authenticity” and “Indianness” and “nationality” of Indian fiction written in English, forgetting that, though translingual, it is Indian literature. In any case, the point is not to ask whether there is a “proper” way to write literature in India, but to acknowledge that Indian narrative created in English is playing a very significant cultural and communicative role. To locate Indian fiction in English in terms of literary and translation theory, it will be helpful to regard the framework provided by the polysystemic view (Even-Zohar 1990) and the metaphor of Brazilian cannibalism (de Campos 1981). The Polysystem theory considers that there is a vast multiplicity of intersections between systems, and that, indeed, the literary system’s dynamics develops in the patterning of the intra- and intersystemic interactions. Taking into account that colonisation in literature can be seen as the imposition of norms and models, the polysystemic viewpoint clarifies how post-colonial cross-cultural or multicultural literatures, being installed at the intersection of literary systems from East and West, re-adapt forms and genres. Within the transcultural polysystem, any binary

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.5 (280-329)

Translational passages 

polarisation of periphery and centre is rejected, replaced by a transfer dialogue which is literally and figuratively boundless with reference to both time and space. Surrounded by an intercultural reality, interference seems unavoidable. So, the polysystemic theory reveals its usefulness regarding the exploration and study of the cultural dynamics in multicultural and multilingual societies, where, most times, the very opposition between central and peripheral, official and unofficial, coloniser and colonised, represents one of the main generative forces of literature and culture. Even-Zohar (1990) argues that literary systems differ from culture to culture, thus, intersystemic interactions are also intercultural, and the transfer between systems enters into the realm of transculturation. On the other hand, the image of Brazilian cannibalism, coming from the Modernist movement of the 1920s and the writings of Oswald de Andrade, nurtures one of the most interesting and subversive postcolonial translation theories. This cannibalistic contention challenges both the traditional hierarchy and the boundaries between source and target. As we know, the metaphor of cannibalism expresses the experience of a colonised people who devour what is imposed on them by their colonisers (e.g. language, literary genres), without swallowing it whole: they eject and dismiss what is harmful to them, but what they keep is appropriated and seized by altering and changing it to accommodate their needs (e.g. interspersing their own cultural worldview, reshaping the coloniser’s language and literary genres). Altogether, Indian literature in English is very much an intersystemic creation, where the flow of interactions and transfers is constant, while, at the same time, the English language and literary models that India “ate” long ago are now being creatively reshaped and replenished from their own cultural reality and perspective. Indeed, within Indian fiction in English, it is considered that the birth of the Indian novel in English is in fact an act of translation,4 a transcultural elaboration that springs out of the dialogue with Western forms, previously swallowed. This literature enacts a two-way transfer: it emerges from the translation and reshaping of exogenous models and forms, and also from the insertion of Indian modes into these models, taken up to articulate their own perceptions of cultural space and experience. And the result is not really a definitively finished product, a fusion of elements, but a constant passage, an on-going process of negotiation. It is a literary creation that tries to exploit the potentialities of the different languages being used: the tongue in which the fiction is consciously being written (English) and also, and most importantly, the Indian tongue(s) that the author also has in his or her frame of mind. However, in any case, it is not possible to generalise and think about overall explanations to account for the discourse of Indian writers who create in English. Since its very beginning, Indian fiction in English has been extremely diverse, so that the authors develop their own ways of writing in very different, and sometimes even opposed ways. Some, like Rao or Rushdie, engage in a very conscious linguistic experimentation at several levels. Others, like Narayan

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.6 (329-376)

 Dora Sales Salvador

or Chandra, perhaps more interestingly, simply try to accommodate their stories and modes of feeling in English, using this language to tell and demarcate an Indian cultural space, defined by its own traditions, beliefs and practices; creatively writing from the pit of the stomach, though aware of their linguistic and literary medium. All in all, what Indian writers do, in diverse manners, is to transcreate into English, that is, use English as a medium of creative expression, trying to transmit their stories, cultural values and worldview in this language.

. Transcreation: Revisiting an Indian notion5 The concept of “transcreation” was introduced in Indian criticism by P. Lal, a well-known Calcutta-based poet, translator and publisher, who in 1972 produced Transcreation. Two Essays. More recently, in 1996, he published an enlarged Transcreation. Seven essays on the art of transcreation,6 in which Professor Lal reflects on his experience in transcreating Hindu sacred texts and the great Indian epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. In spite of the fact that Lal has not provided a specific definition for transcreation, it is possible to understand the concept through reading his essays. To begin with, it is important to point out that Lal (1996: 28) believes that the quality of the translator’s participation – or rather empathy, we would say – is reflected in the quality of the translation. As he poses, regarding one of his own translations-transcreations, “the thing to do is to attempt to preserve not the Sanskrit language but the Hindu tradition which it enshrines” (Lal 1996: 43). Not the language itself but the tradition it holds. In his view, the important work that is required of the translator is that he or she be able to comprehend the spirit of the text, the effect that the author was trying to create, and then communicate it, that is, “attempt to recreate it with the resources of the English language” (Lal 1996: 44). With this purpose, the translator-transcreator will have to work out equivalents of meaning, levels of vocabulary and imagery, syntactic emphasis, sound patterns, and so on. The challenge is to create a discourse that is able to capture and reproduce the tone and atmosphere of what one wants to tell, trying to refract, somehow, the cultural source. Above all, literary translation is not merely a transposition of significance or signs; the transfer is not only a linguistic one: it is an aesthetic enterprise that has a relevant bearing on the field of literary history, theory, criticism and reader response. The competence required is cultural and sensitive rather than merely linguistic. The concept of transcreation is audience-oriented because Lal believes that, in translation, with very rare exceptions, one is always translating only for one’s contemporaries. For him, above all, what is crucial is the epiphany of the passage – its emotional heart. This is the real problem before the translator or transcreator or transformer, and

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.7 (376-456)

Translational passages 

conveying it accurately is what translation or transcreation is all about. We all have different notions of accuracy. (Lal 1996: 64)

Regarding the critical echoes to Lal’s concept of transcreation, we will take into account Mukherjee’s and St-Pierre’s contributions. First, in Sujit Mukherjee’s (1981: 6) words, an extreme example of the liberty claimed by a translator of ancient texts may be seen in the practice of P. Lal, who habitually refers to his method of seeking maximum readability within the confines of faithful rendering as ‘transcreation’ [. . . ] Lal’s practice mingles translation with large measures of interpretation in his endeavour to modernize an ancient text.

Mukherjee also acknowledges that other Indian translators have criticised this concept because it allows, or it seems to allow, excessive divergence from the original. On the other hand, St-Pierre (1998: 54) alludes to the “vagueness inherent in the notion [of transcreation], which has not yet received a clear definition.” In his view, “[. . . ] Lal does not define the notion but rather situates it within a context in which the emphasis is squarely placed on the target audience, and more particularly on the translator.” What interests St-Pierre is how, in a sense, transcreations have their own lives, taking a certain degree of autonomy from the original. Therefore, as we can observe, both Mukherjee and St-Pierre mainly discuss Lal’s transcreation in relation to translation faithfulness, though Lal (1996: 14) himself acknowledges that there are examples where transcreation becomes “transcorruption” and “transmogrification”, and also that, in some cases, accuracy is the most important thing. In our own reading, the transcreator is self-conscious of the fact that literary translation is mainly a matter of understanding and getting involved with the original, because it is also a sort of creative writing. The challenge is to create with the resources of another language. Thus, transcreation could be defined as the artistic discourse developed in the transitivity or translational passage between languagescultures, in which the important thing to render and preserve is the effect, the tone, the atmosphere, the emotion. In G. Gopinathan’s (2000: 171) words: it can be said that transcreation is a conscious act of aesthetic recreation, in which the translator makes use of all possible aesthetic devices and deviations for communicating the ideas of the original text effectively to the target audience. In this way, transcreation can be said to be a target-oriented, aesthetic recreation.

Above all, transcreation reminds us that the act of translation always involves much more than language. For transcreation, the essence is to keep and transfer the cultural ethos, through the alchemy (Kachru 1986) of a global language, English in this case. In transcreation, creative writing meets translation, for communicative

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.8 (456-496)

 Dora Sales Salvador

purposes. Our rendering is that the notion of transcreation has been basically understood and thus criticised in terms of its deviation from fidelity to the original, in a primarily linguistic sense, though the whole issue of fidelity is a controversial one.7 However, from a communicative and interpretative perspective on the process of translation, transcreation tries to be honest both to the message and the audience, while acknowledging the translator’s subjectivity. And, indeed, the concept of transcreation is very useful in order to account for the practice of intersystemic literatures, such as Indian fiction in English, where, somehow, the less translated languages and cultures are creatively transmitted, transcreated, into English. Because this translingual-transcultural fiction, written “originally” in English, is already a translation. Somehow, it resembles the image of a palimpsest, where one “cultural text” is superimposed upon another that it does not completely conceal. More than serving as a bridge between already and clearly established cultural entities, translation becomes an activity of (trans)cultural creation. In fact, these narratives are not monolithic constructions, but rather the sum of all the languages-cultures that have been necessary for their birth. At the interface of cultural-linguistic-literary systems, there is translation and also formal experimentation, the necessity to develop new forms that are neither part of the dominant receptor system nor part of the cultural source, forms that emerge from the dialogic juxtaposition of narratives, languages and cultures. In the field of translation studies, the closeness between translation and creative writing in the post-colonial sphere has lately been mentioned by Maria Tymoczko (1999), who posits the relationship between postcolonial literature and literary translation, as intercultural writings where different literary systems intersect. As Tymoczko states, both the translator and the postcolonial writer act as mediators, though there are significant divergences: The primary difference is that, unlike translators, post-colonial writers are not transposing a text. As background to their literary works, they are transposing a culture – to be understood as a language, a cognitive system, a literature (comprised of a system of texts, genres, tale types, and so on), a material culture, a social system and legal framework, a history, and so forth. (Tymoczko 1999: 20)

Here, Tymoczko is indeed echoing the essence of transcreation: the translation of a whole cultural world. Nonetheless, Tymoczko continues (1999: 21), a more significant disparity in these two literary activities has to do with the “parameters of constraint”. Thus, while the translator is faced with the dilemma of faithfulness to the text that has to be rendered, the post-colonial writer – as transcreator, we would say – has more freedom to choose the cultural elements that will be transposed to the receiving audience. In any case, we believe that this freedom is indeed highly intricate and

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.9 (496-545)

Translational passages 

problematic, precisely because the “cultural text” that the writer has in mind is huge and unlimited, a full culture, an entire world and universe of reference, so that he or she is aware of the fact that this liberty of choice will inevitably imply a certain degree of loss. The writers-transcreators have to negotiate the linguistic and cultural differences, and it is easy to imagine the complexity of this process. To maintain the cultural references when moving from one linguistic system to another is extremely difficult, because we cannot forget that language is the repository of inherited values, belief systems, and modes of experience and sensibility. From another viewpoint, G. J. V. Prasad (1999) also relates writing and translation precisely in the case of the Indian novel in English. However, in his concluding remarks he states that Indian writers in English are not so much translating Indian language texts into English as using various strategies to “make their works read like translations” (Prasad 1999: 54), by defamiliarising the English language and thus making the process of reading as complicated as the process of writing. From our viewpoint, given the diversity of contemporary Indian fiction written in English, a generalisation of this sort does not seem to be very helpful. It is true that some Indian authors have a highly planned formal project regarding their narratives, but for others the whole process of writing in English flows in a way that is more felt than strictly constructed. Dealing with the degree of loss, the complexity of the transfer and the parameters of constraint that may be faced by a translingual-transcultural author, it may be interesting to take into account Antoine Berman’s and Lawrence Venuti’s arguments. For his part, and accounting for the necessity of an ethics of translation, Antoine Berman (1985) explains how translation sometimes “deforms” and “naturalizes” what is foreign, preventing translation from being a “trial of the foreign”.8 Also, Venuti (1992) has aptly explained how in the process of translation the texts have been traditionally shaped in order to “domesticate” the other, to eliminate-disguise difference, taking into account that from a Eurocentric perspective, translation, which is a cultural political practice (Venuti 1992: 9), works in search of fluency, smoothness, elimination of foreign traces, and translator’s invisibility, all of which is seen negatively by Venuti (1995). In an acute way, Berman’s and Venuti’s contributions make us reflect on one of the great challenges of translingual-transcultural transcreation: How to write in English without “deforming”, “naturalising” or “domesticating” the cultural source? How to preserve the cultural essence and not surrender completely to the parameters of the English language, but to appropriate it communicatively and creatively to make it say what they want and need to convey, to take liberties with it, to bend and change it and even re-invent it so that it becomes their own expression, make it a language they can relate their identity to? In their fiction, Indian authors try to overcome this intricacy, this tendency to “naturalise” or “domesticate” the other (which in this case

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.10 (545-598)

 Dora Sales Salvador

is indeed the own self), trying to bring the “foreign” with them, the Indian way of telling, inserting it into a major language, another tongue, a different system, from their cognitive and emotional location in the Indian culture. However, of course, it is not a smooth transition. Translation-transcreation is a complex (w)rite of passage in which something gets lost, though hopefully something remains, while, at the same time, new creations, detours and practices are born.

. Some voices from Indian literature in English At this point, and just to grasp a slight taste of Indian fiction in English, let’s observe some selected literary fragments from three very diverse Indian authors in English: Raja Rao, who, together with Mulk Raj Anand and R. K. Narayan, pioneered the emergence of the Indian novel in English in the 1930s; Shashi Deshpande, a much appreciated feminist woman writer, and Vikram Chandra, one of the main voices of contemporary Indian fiction in English. All of them, in very different ways, are highly concerned with language, consciousness, the linguistic and literary channel being used and the cultural sphere that is being conveyed through that route. In any case, the narrative voices they display are very visibly transporting a whole cultural world, in form, content or meaning. (1) Raja Rao, from Kanthapura (1938) Our village – I don’t think you have ever heard about it – Kanthapura is its name, and it is in the province of Kara. High on the Ghats is it, high up the steep mountains that face the cool Arabian seas, up the Malabar coast is it, up Mangalore and Puttur and many a centre of cardamom and coffee, rice and sugarcane. Roads, narrow, dusty, rut-covered roads, wind through the forests of teak and of jack, of sandal and of sal, and hanging over bellowing gorges and leaping over elephant-haunted valleys, they turn now to the left and now to the right and bring you through the Alambè and Champa and Mena and Kola passes into the great granaries of trade. There, on the blue waters, they say, our carted cardamoms and coffee get into the ships the Red-men bring, and, so they say, they go across the seven oceans into the countries where our rulers live. (Rao 1938: 1) Kanthapura, Rao’s best-known novel, is an account of the non-violent resistance against the British, seen from the perspective of a small South Indian village. In a very conscious way, as is shown in this quote, Rao tries to modify and adapt the language structurally. He wants to capture the imagination of Indian peasants and their speech rhythms in English. But the act of writing in English is not only dealing with translation of an Indian milieu or text, and indeed, as Prasad

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.11 (598-658)

Translational passages 

(1999: 42) points out, Rao sees writing as a struggle for a space created by the transformation of the Indian text, the context and the English language, advocating both Indian narrative strategies and Indianisation of the English language. Rao’s literary endeavour centres on the re-creation of the Indian oral storytelling style, the stylisation of writing overlapping with the patterns of oral narrative, which he seeks by means of hyperbatons, long sentences, simple coordination, abrupt shifts to direct speech, visual descriptions, and allusions to the “listening” audience, among other devices. In Kachru’s opinion (1986: 49), Rao has been successful in transferring the “rhythm” of Kannada, his mother tongue, into his English. (2) Shashi Deshpande, from That Long Silence (1988) But it is no longer possible for me. If I have to plug that ‘hole in the heart’, I will have to speak, to listen, I will have to erase the silence between us. While studying Sanskrit drama, I’d learnt with a sense of outrage that its rigid rules did not permit women characters to speak Sanskrit. They had to use Prakrit – a language that had sounded to my ears like a baby’s lisp. The anger I’d felt then comes back to me when I realise what I’ve been doing all these years. I have been speaking Prakrit myself. But why am I making myself the heroine of this story? Why do I presume that the understanding is mine alone? [. . . ] We don’t change overnight. It’s possible that we may not change even over long periods of time. But we can always hope. Without that, life would be impossible. And if there is anything I know now it is this: life has always to be made possible. (Deshpande 1988: 192–193) As in the rest of Deshpande’s overtly feminist narrative, this novel does not call attention to the prose itself, but to the characters and the textures of their inner lives. Hers is very much a woman’s writing, deeply rooted in the reality of Indian women’s social and cultural living experiences. That Long Silence recounts the life of a woman, spurred by her unhappy marriage to embark on a long process of selfdiscovery and awareness, in which the recovery of language and the act of writing will be essential. The protagonist and main narrator looks for her own voice, and, at the end, she draws a comparison between her language and Prakrit (a regional or vernacular dialect of classical Sanskrit), whose use in ancient Indian drama was determined chiefly by gender, and also class constraints. To tell this story about how to break silence, to transcreate in English the contents of an Indian woman’s mind, Shashi Deshpande’s writing style is characteristically transparent, straightforward, and marked by an absence of flamboyance or flourish. She has acknowledged that it is because she writes in the English she uses in daily communication, in a natural way. Her “parents’ tongues” are Kannada (from her father) and Marathi (from

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.12 (658-696)

 Dora Sales Salvador

her mother), but she was educated exclusively in English, and thus, in spite of her trilingualism, she felt that English was her choice as a creative writer. (3) Vikram Chandra, from Red Earth and Pouring Rain (1995) Sanjay moved his head, shut his eye, tried to speak, but found his throat blocked tightly by something as hard as metal; he did not know what it was he wanted to say but knew he couldn’t say it, what was possible to say he couldn’t say in English, how in English can one say roses, doomed love, chaste passion, my father my mother, their love which never spoke, pride, honour, what a man can live for and what a woman should die for, how in English can one say the cows’ slow distant tinkle at sunset, the green weight of the trees after monsoon, dust of winnowing and women’s songs, elegant shadow of a minar creeping across white marble, the patient goodness of people met at wayside, the enfolding trust of aunts and uncles and cousins, winter bonfires and fresh chapattis, in English all this, the true shape and contour of a nation’s heart, all this is left unsaid and unspeakable and invisible, and so all Sanjay could say after all was: “Not”. (Chandra 1995: 344) In a novel that defies any specific genre, being Indian epic storytelling at its best, Chandra takes the reader across multiple times and places, from the battle paths in nineteenth-century India to twentieth-century roads in the States. In this text, located in-between the poetics of Indian aesthetics and contemporary postmodern fiction, the author – whose mother tongue is Hindi, though he was educated in English – displays his powerful use of language, by means of his carefully constructed sentences, which express complex thoughts and deep emotions with startling clarity. In this fragment, a long sentence chiefly characterised by the flow of parataxis, we observe an explicit meditation on (un)translatability. During the time of the British colonisation, Sanjay, one of the main characters and narrators in the novel, tries to speak with Markline, embodiment of the Empire’s power. But he cannot. The narration creates its discourse out of the movement of Sanjay’s thought, wondering about the limits of enunciation in a tongue that is not one’s own. Chiefly, though the fiction is written in English, the idea is that Sanjay is thinking in Hindi. What he indeed voices in the coloniser’s tongue is only a word: an absolute negation that contains his painful acknowledgement of the communicative limits of an alien language. However, being fictionalised in English, this is, above all, an instance of the overcoming of such limits.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.13 (696-741)

Translational passages 

. Concluding points: Translatability, the way forward The telling has not been easy. One has to convey in a language that is not one’s own the spirit that is one’s own. One has to convey the various shades and omissions of a certain thought-movement that looks maltreated in an alien language. I use the word ‘alien’, yet English is not really an alien language to us. It is the language of our intellectual make-up – like Sanskrit or Persian was before – but not of our emotional make-up [. . . ] We cannot write like the English. We should not. We cannot write only as Indians. We have grown to look at the large world as part of us. (Raja Rao 1938: v, foreword to Kanthapura)

All in all, a main point that could be seen to underlie the translingual work referred to in these pages is that of decentring monolingualism and, by extension, any sort of monolithical conception. In the twenty-first century, in our paradoxical era of globalities and particularities, this sort of fiction stands out as an instance of the possibility of communication, the ability to overcome incommensurable differences, the need for translatability, the relevance of negotiation, dialogue and pluralism, together with the preservation of differences, which, in fact, mean enrichment for us all. And yet, a main question is how to preserve the non-global languages, remembering that, as Indra Nath Choudhuri (1997: 28) acknowledges, in a multilingual society, the total range of modern sensibility, the whole cultural milieu and area of human experience can be expressed neither through English alone nor through any single Indian language, but by all the languages of Indian people. (emphasis added)

Indian literature written in English is not the answer to the multilingual network of the subcontinent and the asymmetrical relationship between tongues. But, certainly, it is a reality that contributes to the understanding of Indian plural culture and society. It is a communicative bridge between India and the rest of the world. Indian fiction in English is articulated across the hyphen, the transition, the passage between, in order to transmit and render particular languages, cultures and traditions, also displaying a dialectical and dialogical interplay between language and consciousness. Located at a junction, shifting and crossing borders between systems, this is a literature created in the traffic of forms, languages, poetics, representation. It deals with the creation of new forms that challenge the established assumptions of contemporary literary, linguistic and translation studies, thus defying our understanding of literary, linguistic and cultural frames. These translingual-transcultural-translational creations lead to the rethinking of the binary opposition between original and translation, source and target, self and other. This is also an intercultural endeavour that helps to revitalise literary paradigms, forms and models. Literature, as a living production of culture, echoes the fact

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.14 (741-795)

 Dora Sales Salvador

that the work of the twenty-first century, our present, is indeed about the coming together of diverse identities, cultures, and tongues. Though, as Shashi Tharoor (2001) has beautifully stated, “as long as translations exist, language is a vehicle, not a destination”, in the case of Indian fiction in English the vehicle and the destination become one. The authors imbue their creative forms with their own cultural translation, showing that in spite of losses or concessions to the global language, the communicative gain is important, and translingual-transcultural aesthetic production is possible. Above all, Indian fiction in English signals intercultural aesthetic translatability, though we know that cultural differences are not always translatable, and can remain dramatically distinct.9 Difference cannot and should not be erased, but it can be negotiated. And also, it can encourage in us an attempt to seek a response, and a responsibility. Being hopefully open to futurity, intercultural literature such as Indian fiction in English evinces that creation cannot be contained and fenced in by frontiers of any kind, because there is always a way forward, a communicative translational passage between and beyond borders.

Notes . It may be interesting to listen to the following fragment of the editorial statement about the sponsors: “Macmillan India’s Translation Project is entirely funded by the M.R.A.R. Educational Society, Madras, and it is a shining example of the constructive role a nongovernmental organisation can play in promoting literature. The translation project was particularly chosen as the trust sees it as a means of introducing Indian authors and culture to the outside world, not forgetting that it also makes possible inter-state exchanges for the furtherance of national integration at an imaginative level.” . About this policy, see Sujit Mukherjee (1981: 37) on what he calls the “three tiers of communication”: regional, national and international. . On this open debate about how Indian critics consider Indian fiction in English, see a recent paper by Chandra (2000), where we will find the view of a creative writer. . In this sense, see, among others, Devy (1997, 1998, 1999), Meenakshi Mukherjee (1985), Sujit Mukherjee (1981) and Prasad (1999). . Interestingly, the concept of “transcreation” also appears in the Brazilian theories of translation, in Haroldo de Campos’s (1981) critical thinking. For the Brazilian theorist, transcreation is a re-creation, a trans-textualisation, an in-depth critical reading, a hermeneutic activity that takes into account both the audience and the translator. . I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Prof. P. Lal, without whom I would not have had access to the 1996 copy, and to my friend Tripti Vyas (S.N.D.T. Women’s University and University of Bombay), who started the chain of communication.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.15 (795-879)

Translational passages  . See the monograph by Hurtado (1990), where the author develops her views on the “fidélité au sens”, that, somehow, could be related to Lal’s notion of “transcreation”. In this sense, Gopinathan (2000) speaks about the holistic nature of equivalence in transcreation as being cultural, aesthetic and communicative. . In a very readable way, Berman (1985) distinguishes twelve ways of naturalising the foreign in the system of textual deformation; namely: (1) rationalisation, which for instance can be done by means of punctuation, rearranging the sequence of sentences according to a certain conception of discursive order that the original text may be challenging; (2) clarification, expanding some idea that according to the translator may not be understood by the readers; (3) expansion, which would be, in part, a consequence of the previous two; (4) ennoblement, which, Berman states, in poetry would mean “poetisation”, while in prose it would be “rhetorisation”; (5) qualitative impoverishment, that is, the replacement of terms, expressions and figures in the original with terms, expressions and figures that lack their sonorous or iconic richness; (6) quantitative impoverishment, which refers to a lexical loss; (7) the destruction of rhythms, for instance through punctuation; (8) the destruction of underlying networks of signification, (9) the destruction of linguistic patternings; (10) the destruction of vernacular networks or their exoticisation; (11) the destruction of expressions and idioms, and (12) the effacement of the superimposition of languages, which indeed could occur in Indian literature in English, where any Indian language may be under the surface of English prose, at a certain level. . On the complex issue of translatability, see the compilation of Budick and Iser (1996), which primarily centers on the limits and problems of translatability between cultures.

References Annamalai, E. (1998). “Nativity of language”. In Rajendra Singh (Ed.), The Native Speaker. Multilingual Perspectives (pp. 148–157). New Delhi/London: Sage. Bassnett, Susan & Trivedi, Harish (Eds.). (1999). Post-colonial Translation. Theory and Practice. London/New York: Routledge. Berman, Antoine (1985). “Translation and the trials of the foreign” (translated by Lawrence Venuti). In Lawrence Venuti (Ed.), Mona Baker (advisory Ed.) (2000), The Translation Studies Reader (pp. 284–297). London/New York: Routledge. Bharucha, Nilufer E. & Sarang, Vilas (Eds.). (1994). Indian-English Fiction 1980–1990: An Assessment. Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation. Budick, Sanford & Iser, Wolfgang (Eds.). (1996). The Translatability of Cultures. Figurations of the Space Between. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Campos, Haroldo de (1981). “De la traducción como creación y como crítica”. Quimera. Revista de Literatura, 9–10, 30–37. Chandra, Vikram (1995). Red Earth and Pouring Rain. London: Faber and Faber. Chandra, Vikram (2000). “The Cult of Authenticity. India’s Cultural Commissars Worship ‘Indianness’ Instead of Art”. Miscelánea. A Journal of English and American Studies, 22, 175–200. Deshpande, Shashi (1988). That Long Silence. Delhi: Penguin India.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.16 (879-977)

 Dora Sales Salvador

Devy, G. N. (1997). “Literary history and translation: An Indian view”. In Paul StPierre (Ed.), Translation and Postcolonialism: India. Numéro spécial. Meta. Translator’s journal, 42(2), 395–406. Devy, G. N. (1998). Of Many Heroes. An Indian Essay in Literary Historiography. New Delhi: Sangam Books/Prestige. Devy, G. N. (1999). “Translation and literary history- an Indian view”. In Susan Bassnett & Harish Trivedi (Eds.), Post-colonial Translation. Theory and Practice (pp. 182–188). London/New York: Routledge. Dissanayake, Wimal (1985). “Towards a decolonized English: South Asian creativity in fiction”. World Englishes, 4(2), 233–242. Even-Zohar, Itamar (1990). Polysystem Studies. Poetics Today, 11(1) (special issue). Gopinathan, G. (2000). “Ancient Indian Theories of Translation: A Reconstruction”. In Marilyn Gaddis Rose (Ed.), Beyond the Western Tradition. Translation Perspectives XI. (pp. 165–173). New York: Center for Research in Translation, State University of New York at Binghamton. Hurtado Albir, Amparo (1990). La notion de fidélité en traduction. Paris: Didier Érudition. Kachru, Braj B. (1983). The Indianization of English. The English Language in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Kachru, Braj B. (1986). The Alchemy of English. The Spread, Functions, and Models of Nonnative Englishes. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press. Kellman, Steven G. (2000). The Translingual Imagination. Lincoln/London: University of Nebraska Press. Lal, P. (1996). Transcreation. Seven Essays on the Art of Transcreation. Calcutta: A Writers Workshop Publication. Levine, Suzanne Jill (1992). “Translation as (sub)version: On translating Infante’s Inferno”. In Lawrence Venuti (Ed.), Rethinking Translation. Discourse, Subjectivity, Ideology (pp. 75–85). London/New York: Routledge. Mukherjee, Meenakshi (1985). Realism and Reality. The Novel and Society in India. Delhi/Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mukherjee, Sujit (1981). Translation as Discovery. Delhi: Allied Publishers. Naik, M. K. (1982). A History of Indian English Literature. Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. Nath Choudhuri, Indra (1997). “Plurality of languages and literature in translation: The post-colonial context”. In Shantha Ramakrishna (Ed.), Translation and Multilingualism. Post-Colonial Contexts (pp. 25–33). Delhi: Pencraft International. Prasad, G. J. V. (1999). “Writing translation. The strange case of the Indian English novel”. In Susan Bassnett & Harish Trivedi (Eds.), Post-colonial Translation. Theory and Practice (pp. 41–57). London/New York: Routledge. Rama Rao, Vimala (1991). “Decolonization Not Disinheritance: English in India Today”. In K. Ayyappa Paniker (Ed.), Indian English Literature since Independence (pp. 144–148). New Delhi: The Indian Association for English Studies. Ramakrishna, Shantha (1997a). “Functions of translation in post-colonial India”. In Paul StPierre (Ed.), Translation and Postcolonialism: India. Numéro spécial. Meta. Translator’s journal, 42(2), 444–449. Ramakrishna, Shantha (Ed.). (1997b). Translation and Multilingualism. Post-Colonial Contexts. Delhi: Pencraft International.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/12/2004; 8:48

F: BTL5814.tex / p.17 (977-1023)

Translational passages 

Rao, Raja (1938). Kanthapura. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty (1993). Outside in the Teaching Machine. London/New York: Routledge. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty (1994). “Bonding in difference” (Interviewed by Alfred Arteaga). In Alfred Arteaga (Ed.), An Other Tongue. Nation and Ethnicity in the Linguistic Borderlands (pp. 273–285). Durham/London: Duke University Press. St-Pierre, Paul (Ed.). (1997). Translation and Postcolonialism: India. Numéro spécial, Meta. Translator’s journal, 42(2). St-Pierre, Paul (1998). “Theory and Practice: Translation in India”. In Lynne Bowker, Michael Cronin, Dorothy Kenny & Jennifer Pearson (Eds.), Unity in Diversity? Current Trends in Translation Studies (pp. 47–56). Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Tharoor, Shashi (2001). “Expanding Boundaries with a Colonial Legacy.” The New York Times. 30 July. . Tymoczko, Maria (1999). “Post-colonial writing and literary translation”. In Susan Bassnett & Harish Trivedi (Eds.), Post-colonial Translation. Theory and Practice (pp. 19–40). London/New York: Routledge. Venuti, Lawrence (1992). “Introduction”. In Lawrence Venuti (Ed.), Rethinking Translation. Discourse, Subjectivity, Ideology (pp. 1–17). London/New York: Routledge. Venuti, Lawrence (1995). The Translator’s Invisibility. A History of Translation. London/New York: Routledge.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.1 (41-108)

The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara A Buddhist treatise translated into Western languages Nicole Martínez Melis

The European invasion of the East was a deed of violence on a grand scale, and it has left us the duty – noblesse oblige – of understanding the mind of the East. This is perhaps more necessary than we realise at present. (Jung, in Wilhelm and Jung 1962: 137)

.

Introduction

In this article I offer the initial findings from my research on translations in the ´ antideva. The West of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara, an 8th century Buddhist treatise by S¯ orientation of this study falls within the field of descriptive translation studies (Holmes 1988) and presents a descriptive analysis of some of the translations from Sanskrit and Tibetan and their socio-cultural function. In contrast to the numerous scholarly studies on Buddhism itself in the West since the 19th century (Jong 1987; Webb 1974; Schwab 1950; Takugai 1942), studies on Western translations of Buddhist texts are scarce and have only appeared in very recent years. From those publications more directly related to my research which discuss the translation of Buddhist texts from Sanskrit and Tibetan, I would like to make particular mention of the following: the article by Ruegg (1992) “Some Reflections on Translating Buddhist Philosophical Texts from Sanskrit and Tibetan”, published in an Asian studies specialist journal; and the book Buddhist Translation. Problems and Perspectives (Doboom Tulku 1995), a collection of papers read at an international seminar on this theme in New Delhi in 1990. My own particular interest in Western translations of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara arose from a significant publishing event; this being the appearance of seven translations of this text in the space of just five years, between 1992 and 1997:

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.2 (108-168)

 Nicole Martínez Melis

two in French, two in Spanish, and three in English. This Buddhist treatise, which enjoys a privileged position in Mah¯ay¯ana Buddhism, particularly in the Tibetan tradition, has never awoken such curiosity in the West since it was first translated by La Vallée-Poussin (1907).1

. The author ´ antideva, disagreeThere are various Tibetan documents that describe the life of S¯ ing only on a few details. The oldest is by the great Tibetan scholar and encyclopaedist Buston Rinchen (bus ton rin chen) (1290–1364). The version that I give below is that by Khenpo Kunzang Pelden (mkhan po kun bzang dpal ldan), who lived at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in the monastery of Guemang, in eastern Tibet.2 This story is included in the commentary of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara, The Drop of Elixir, Words of the Master Madjushri (byang chub sems dpa’i spyod pa la ‘jug pa’i tshig ‘grel ‘jam dbyangs bla ma’i zhal lung bdud rtsi’i thig pa). ´ antideva is one of the last great Indian masters who lived at the peak of S¯ Mah¯ay¯ana Indian Buddhism. He was born in the 7th century in India, in the ancient province of Saur¯astra where his father was king, and given the name of ´ antivarman (Armour of Peace).3 From an early age he demonstrated a profound S¯ respect towards the spiritual masters and performed charitable acts among the poor and the sick. When his father died he was supposed to take on the position of king, but on the eve of his coronation he had a dream which led him to renounce the comforts of the court and enter the illustrious Buddhist university ´ antideva (Divinity of N¯aland¯a. Upon becoming a monk he was given the name of S¯ of Peace). Very quickly, and apparently without anyone realising, he studied and assimilated the teachings of Buddha. However, his attitude resulted in his fellow monks regarding him as a lazy monk and he became known as Bhusuku, meaning “he who only knows how to eat, sleep and relieve himself ”. The other monks were angry because they considered it immoral to provide support for a monk they considered to be a parasite with donations from the faithful. So, they decided to put him to the test so that they could rid themselves of him. He refused to accept this ´ antideva finally agreed to challenge; however, due to the intervention of the abbot, S¯ speak on some teachings that he had to improvise. This was the moment when the ´ antideva, without anyone being able assembly of monks began to marvel at him. S¯ to explain how, was suddenly sitting on the throne that the others had placed high up with the objective of making fun of him. This was how he began to expound his Bodhicary¯avat¯ara. Towards the end of his discourse he rose up towards the sky and slowly disappeared until only his voice could be heard. His discourse was

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.3 (168-214)

The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara 

written down from memory resulting in two versions: the version by the scholars of Magadha, and the version by the scholars of Kashmir.4 They record that during ´ antideva had recommended the reading of his two works, that all his discourse S¯ ´ asamuccaya (Compendium of the Instructions), and the were unaware of, the Siks¯ ´ antideva for S¯utrasamuccaya (Compendium of the Su¯ tras). After searching for S¯ a long time they finally found him in the south of India whereupon he stated that the true version was the one by Magadha scholars, explaining that the two ´ antideva continued travelling compendiums were hidden in his cell in N¯aland¯a. S¯ around India, practising the life of the perfect bodhisattva, performing miracles and helping others: multiplying food to save thousands of people from hunger, healing the sick, and proclaiming his faith to others.5

. The Tibetan translations When Buddhism came to Tibet in the 7th century, the first concern of the Tibetans was to gain access to the canonical texts, most of them written in Sanskrit although some were written in other Indian languages. A royal decree ordered the transcription of the originals in Sanskrit before their being translated into Tibetan. Snellgrove (1995: 637) states that the only cultural undertaking in the Western world comparable to this monumental task was the translation from Greek into Latin of all the early Christian literature and of all the writings of the Early Church Fathers. In the same way that there are two parallel versions of these Christian works, in Greek and Latin, the Indian Buddhist canon was translated in its entirety into Tibetan. Snellgrove adds that one can even say that the task of the translators in Tibet was more complicated as they had to create many philosophical and Buddhist terms in Tibetan, on a few occasions preserving the Sanskrit word. Under the reign of Relpachen (ral pa can) (815–838) an inventory was made of this new lexicon, thus creating a specialist Tibetan-Sanskrit dictionary (The Mahavyutpatti) with various thousands of entries. The three successive revisions of the terminology used in the translations, the last at the beginning of the 11th century, allowed for creating stable and appropriate equivalences to the degree that those studying Buddhism have used the Tibetan versions to correct the Sanskrit texts, or as substitutes when they do not have access to the original Sanskrit version.6 The translations, which were always the result of a team of translators, an Indian and a Tibetan, were painstakingly revised and corrected. It should be noted that the names of the translators and proofreaders were included at the end of the manuscripts. There was a new wave of diffusion of Buddhism in the 11th century as a result of the large number of translations. These were new texts, but also there were revisions of texts translated during the first period of diffusion of Buddhism.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.4 (214-264)

 Nicole Martínez Melis

Buston Rinchen (bus ton rin chen) (1290–1364) gave the almost definitive form to the two collections of the Kanjur (bka’ ’gyur) and the Tenjur (bstan ’gyur).7 This compilation was the result of a colossal work of exegesis by scholars and corresponds to the nucleus and model of all the philosophical Tibetan literature. Very strict criteria of authenticity were determined based on Buston for the s¯utra (“thread”, teachings of the Buddha), the tantra (“weave of the cloth”, secret teachings of the Buddha or of the bodhisattvas for advanced practitioners) and the ´sa¯ stra (treatises by the Indian masters). As regards the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara, the Tibetan translators used various Sanskrit versions at the same time to translate and verify their translation. Three translations were produced, always the result of the collaboration between an Indian scholar and a Tibetan monk. The first was in the 8th century based on a manuscript from Kashmir. This was the version by the Indian scholar Sarvajñadeva and Kawa Paltsek (ka ba dpal brtsegs), the Tibetan monk who was one of the twenty-five principal disciples of Padmasambhava8 and one of the great translators, or lotsawa (lo ts’a ba), who took part in the Tibetan translation of the Buddhist canon in the 8th century. The second version, at the end of the 10th century and beginning of the 11th century, was a revision of the first version using a manuscript from the Madyadesh, and was the work of the Indian scholar Dharmashribhadra and the Tibetan monk Rinchen Zangpo (rin chen bzang po).9 Later on, the team Sumatikirti and Loden Sherab (blo ldan shes rab)10 produced a final revision, considered the definitive version of the Tibetan canon, although Wallace (1997: 8) states that it is not based on the Sanskrit version we have access to today.

. The text The are two variations of the title in Sanskrit: Bodhicary¯avat¯ara or Bodhisattvacary¯avat¯ara. The title is rendered in Tibetan as byang chub sems dpa’i spyod pa la ‘jug pa. As regards the interpretation of the title there are a number of translations.11 André Bareau (1995: 392), who held the chair in Buddhist studies at the Collège de France, translates it as Descente dans la carrière de l’éveil (Descent into the path of awak´ antideva 1993) explains in the preface to his edition ening). Georges Driessens (S¯ that the literal translation in French is, Entrée dans la pratique des héros pour l’éveil (Entry into the practice of the heroes who seek the awakening). Isidro Gordi (Shantideva 1995), in his introduction translates it as Guía a la forma de vida del Bodhisattva (A guide to Bodhisattva’s way of life). Anne Ansermet (Sh¯antideva 1985) renders it as Une méthode pour s’engager dans les actes du Bodhisattva (A method for engaging in the acts of the Bodhisattva). Yet another translator, Dokusho Villalba (Santideva 1993), gives the following title for his translation La Marcha hacia

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.5 (264-352)

The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara

la Luz (The Advance towards the Light), justifying this translation of the Sanskrit based on the analysis of key words.12 The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara occupies a privileged position in Mah¯ay¯ana Buddhism, as does the Dhammapada for Hinay¯ana Buddhism and the Bhagavad Git¯a for Hinduism. The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara is one of the principal texts in Mah¯ay¯ana Buddhism because it contains the essence of all the teachings. It has been described as a gem that adorns the diamond crown of Buddhism (Shantideva 1995: 6) and numbers among the most studied texts by the four Tibetan schools. Masters from all over the world have always used it for their teachings. This short but significant work contains the essential points of Mahayana Buddhist practice and for over a thousand years has acted as a guide for people throughout India, Tibet, China and Mongolia who have wished to follow this path. (Shantideva 1979: 7)

Driessens (Sh¯antideva 1993) makes the comment that this work has a universal appeal despite its religious and cultural context, and has been a source of inspiration for many people throughout the centuries. Today it is one of the preferred texts among contemporary masters at a time when Buddhism is becoming more and more visible in the West. Il fut au cours des siècles, le texte de prédilection des aspirants au plein épanouissement d’un Eveillé, une source d’inspiration intarissable, et reste, à l’aube du Bouddhisme en Occident, l’un de ceux que chérissent de nombreux maîtres contemporains.13 (Sh¯antideva 1993: 7)

This text concerns the altruistic attitude that characterises the bodhisattva14 and, according to the Dalai Lama (1996b: 65), from all the literature that deals with ´ antideva is the most accessible text. In all the teachings this theme the text by S¯ of the Buddha there are different methods for training and transforming the mind, the objective being to bring about a radical change in our way of thinking and consequently in our life. Historically in Tibet, practices and literature were developed with this purpose in mind, inspired by the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara.15 For this ´ antideva text is to instruct in a reason it is clear that the main function of the S¯ spiritual practice and is not simply a literary text. In fact we should bear in mind that within the Buddhist tradition the practitioners need to receive the text through oral transmission (Dalaï-Lama 1996: 21). ´ antideva text, originally in four-line verses, comprises ten chapters.16 The S¯ The first chapter explains the benefits of the bodhicitta (translated as awakening mind, or heart of awakening mind) which is to experience the continual desire and sincere, spontaneous and living determination to reach the Enlightenment (the Awakening), with the sole objective of liberating all beings from their suffering and guiding them towards the state of Buddha. This chapter is oriented towards



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.6 (352-375)

 Nicole Martínez Melis

establishing the necessary growing interest in achieving this state. In Chapter ´ antideva gives advice on how to develop the bodhicitta: how to cleanse two, S¯ oneself of negative energy and enrich this energy through the accumulation of merits. Chapter three then goes on to discuss accepting this undertaking, how to formulate it, and to take the decision to achieve this altruistic mind. Chapter four encourages the conscious application of the bodhicitta, the need for constant effort, and enumerates the disadvantages of abandoning this path. In Chapter five, having established now that all that is negative and positive depends on the mind, it goes on to explain how to protect the mind by being constantly and consciously alert. These verses speak of the ethical discipline to be applied, distancing oneself from what is negative, practising that which is positive, and benefiting others. In Chapter six, the author encourages the practice of patience to counteract hatred, and introduces the concept of three types of patience: to accept suffering, to keep the teachings ever present in the mind, to not engender the desire for vengeance. Chapter seven explains why perseverance is of primary importance and warns ´ antideva breaks down into three kinds: against the dangers of laziness which S¯ laziness that comes from apathy, laziness that comes from being attracted by what is negative, and laziness that comes from being discouraged. Chapter eight deals with the benefits of meditation or contemplation, which trains the mind to remain calm. Chapter nine is the most difficult and one of the most complex texts in Buddhist philosophy. It concerns wisdom, or transcendent knowledge, that is to know and experience the absence of the inherent entity of objects (which includes beings) and phenomena. This absence corresponds to the concept of emptiness ´ unyat¯a). Finally, in Chapter ten S¯ ´ antideva dedicates the accumulated merits, that (S¯ is the positive energy, created whilst composing this work so that all beings can fulfil their desires and learn to think for the benefit of others.

. The translations into Western languages So far my research into the translation of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara into Western languages shows that there are at least seventeen complete translations. The first of these, by Louis de La Vallée Poussin, was published in 1907 in Paris. We know that he made an earlier attempt to translate Chapters 1–4 and 10, published in 1892, and later on, in 1896, a translation of Chapter 5. The largest number of translations are in English, there being documentary evidence of eight translations, although one of them appears to be an abridged version of the original text. There are five translations into French, one of which is possibly a translation into French from an earlier English translation. There are two translations into Spanish, one of which is in fact a translation from a previous French translation. There are also references

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.7 (375-441)

The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara

to two translations into German, one into Italian, and research still needs to be done regarding two further translations, one published in Copenhagen and the other in Poland. In the next section I offer an introduction to six translations of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara which I have had access to: two in Spanish, two French and two English. I present them in chronological order from the earliest to the most recent.

. Stephen Batchelor The edition by Stephen Batchelor, translated into English, was published in 1979 in Dharamsala (India) by The Library of Tibetan Works & Archives.17 On the first page he presents the reader with the title in Sanskrit (for which he uses Bodhisattvacary¯avat¯ara) and in Tibetan, and he introduces the author as acarya ´ antideva. In a brief introduction by the translator written (master in Sanskrit) S¯ ´ antideva. He goes in Switzerland, Batchelor provides a brief overview regarding S¯ on to explain that the Bodhisattva ideal in Mah¯ay¯ana Buddhism attempts to reach liberation for the good of all beings (see Notes 1 and 5), as opposed to the Arhat of Hinay¯ana Buddhism which focuses on a search for one’s own liberation. He then ends by offering a summary of the contents of the work. The translator signs the introduction using the name he adopted when he became a monk (Gelong Jhampa Thabkay) alongside his lay name, and leaves the reader in no doubt as to the purpose of his translation and the religious spirit with which it was undertaken. In the autumn of 1974, in response to the request of several Western Buddhists studying in Dharamsala, India, His Holiness the Dalai Lama encouraged and gave his blessing to the undertaking at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives of a project to translate Shantideva’s Boddhisattvacharyavatara. (Shantideva 1979)

In addition, in a preliminary note by the director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, it is quite clear that this translation was not made with academic purposes in mind. He comments that, with this English translation, the work ´ antideva will inspire readers with the highest of Bodhisattvas ideals and will of S¯ allow them to apply them to daily practice. At the end of the book there are ten pages containing 59 notes, a glossary of 65 Sanskrit terms with translations in Tibetan and explanations in English, and translation solutions in English with their equivalents in Tibetan, Sanskrit and comments in English. There is an index of Chapter 9, and finally a colophon with a chronology of the three versions of the ´ antideva text into Tibetan. translation of the S¯ As regards the translation process, the author explains that, on the advice of the Dalai Lama, the text was translated based on a Tibetan version following the oral transmission of the Venerable Gueshe Ngawang Dharguey based on the commentary of a lama from the 12th century, Ngultchu Gyalse Thogme Zangpo



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.8 (441-498)

 Nicole Martínez Melis

(dngul chu rgyal sras thogs med bzang po).18 This had been published in 1974 under the title, The Ocean of Good Explanation, a Commentary to (Sh¯antideva’s) Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Byang chub sems dpa’i spyod pa la’jug pa’i ‘grel pa legs par pshad pa’i rgya mtsho). It does not specify which Tibetan edition was used, however in the small bibliography (9 entries) he cites the Peking edition of the Tibetan Tripitaka Bodhicary¯avat¯ara, published in 1956 in Tokyo. The translation of Chapters 1–8 and 10 is in verse form, following the original text with some additions in parenthesis where considered appropriate, to quote Batchelor, “in verse form corresponding to the stanzas of the root text. Where necessary, words have been added in brackets from the commentary” (p. 6). Chapter 9 is translated into prose and accompanied with comments to help the reader interpret the text which is often difficult to follow, in the words of Batchelor, “most of the Commentary of T’og-me Zang-po has been included for the sake of clarifying the often cryptic style of the root text” (p. 7). Stephen Batchelor has published a number of books on Buddhism that are both historical as well as philosophical, such as: The Awakening of the West. The Encounter of Buddhism. He was formerly a Buddhist monk and at present lectures on Buddhism at the Université bouddhique européenne (UBE) in Paris.

. Comité de Traduction Padmakara This French translation, published in 1992 by the team from the Comité de Traduction Padmakara, bears the title La marche vers l’Éveil. The preface, written by the Tibetan master who signs himself “Pema Wangyal, un natif du Tibet insignifiant et dénué de toute qualité spirituelle, à qui fut donné le titre de Tsetrul Rinpotché comme on donne parfois à un vieux chien le nom flatteur de Lion”,19 explains that this translation was based on the teachings of the Dalai Lama in Dordogne (France) ´ antideva text. The author of this preface ends by in 1991 that were based on the S¯ urging readers to make an effort when reading this text and to pray for an end to disease, famine, and the wars that afflict an infinite number of beings. The life ´ antideva which follows the preface is detailed covering some four pages and of S¯ comes from the commentary on the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara by Khenpo Kunzang Pelden (see section The Author). This commentary comprises 741 pages and is titled The Nectar of Madjushri’s Speech (byang chub sems dpa’i spyod pa la ‘jug pa’i tshig ‘grel ‘jam dbyangs bla ma’i zhal lung bdud rtsi’i thig pa). At the end of the book there is a section including 125 notes, some of them quite detailed, followed by a glossary of 57 entries in French and Sanskrit. It also includes an extensive bibliography with 45 entries, one of which refers to a xylograph. ´ antideva text, the translators explain which texts In a section prior to the S¯ were used as the basis for this translation. They began with the French version

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.9 (498-540)

The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara

by Louis Finot from Sanskrit and revised the text with the Tibetan text whilst at the same time attempting to preserve the style employed by Louis Finot. They do not specify which of the Tibetan texts they used, but the reader is left to understand that it is the most recent, the one by Sumatikirti and Loden Shérab (blo ldan shes rab) (see section The Tibetan Translations). They also made use of a number of Western translations from Sanskrit and Tibetan, those by: Louis de La Vallée Poussin, Marion L. Matics, Stephen Batchelor, and Anne Ansermet. They also cite the autographed manuscript of the English translation of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara (To Follow the Virtuous Life) written in Darjeeling during the 1940s by one of the great contemporary specialists in Tibetan philosophy, Guendun Tchöpel (dge ‘dun chos ‘phel) (1902–1951). They consulted a number of Tibetan commentaries, mainly those by Khenpo Kunzang Pelden, a disciple of Patrul Rinpotché.20 The translators state that when they encountered certain difficulties with Chapter 9 (see section The Text), they had to reformulate it in its entirety with the help of an exegesis and five Tibetan commentaries on the same; these references are given in the bibliography. Finally, they conclude by acknowledging the respectful use they made of several commentaries and their debt to Louis Finot. The French Padmakara publishing house is devoted to restoring (mainly into French or English) the essence and profundity of the great Tibetan texts. The translation committee is comprised of translators and proofreaders from various countries who are practising Buddhists, both religious and lay. The team responsible for this French translation of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara comprised the following members: Khyentsé Jigmé Rinpotché, Konchog Tenzin (Matthieu Ricard21 ), Héléna Blankleder, Christine Fondecave, Pascal Gérard, and Yahne le Toumelin.

. Georges Driessens The translation into French by Georges Driessens entitled Vivre en héros pour ´ antideva l’éveil, was published in 1993. In the preface the translator explains who S¯ was, situating him within the history of Buddhism, then going on to discuss his translation. He explains that it is based on the Tibetan text, without specifying which version. However, at the end of his bibliography he states that he used the edition published in Dharamsala (India) by The Tibetan Cultural Printing Press (no publication date given). He says that his work is a new complete translation which he based on the commentary of Ngultchu Gyalse Thogme Zangpo (see previous section on Stephen Batchelor) and that he consulted the translations from Sanskrit by Louis Finot and Louis de La Vallée Poussin. Although he notes that they contain a number of inaccuracies, he acknowledges the qualities of these two translations, particularly the version by Louis Finot. The latter he considers to be brilliant, above all for its beauty of expression, although he confesses that he found



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.10 (540-585)

 Nicole Martínez Melis

it necessary to completely rewrite the translation (“refonte complète” p. 8). As regards the process used, the translator points out the difficulties he encountered when translating and his efforts to preserve the verse form of the original, or at least maintaining a certain rhyme scheme. As regards Chapter 9, Driessens notes that he presents verses 44 to 51 according to the order in the commentary by Ngultchu Gyalse Thogme Zangpo, which differs from the order in the root text. ´ antideva inspired The translator’s preface is followed by a description of the life of S¯ by Buston Rinchen (see section The Author), and then a brief introduction to the ten chapters that make up the text. Georges Driessens was a Buddhist monk (Sherpa Tulku) from the Tibetan tradition and has translated other Buddhist texts, among which we can mention: Le grand livre de la progression vers l’éveil, by Tsongkhapa;22 La lettre à un ami and Le traité du milieu, by N¯ag¯arjuna.23 This last translation, although a short text, is considered to be the fundamental work in which the author, N¯ag¯arjuna, reveals his doctrine. There are still extant versions in Sanskrit, and a Tibetan and a Chinese translation.

. Dokusho Villalba The Spanish version published in 1993 is the work of a Zen Buddhist monk, Dokusho Villalba.24 It is the first Spanish translation of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara, however it is not based on the original Sanskrit text or the Tibetan version. Instead it is a translation of the French translation by Louis Finot, which in turn is a translation of the Sanskrit text. This edition, which has a beautiful ´ antideva text itself; and an cover, comprises two parts: the translation of the S¯ introduction in a separate 14-page booklet. This first Spanish translation by Villalba was done keeping in mind a religious context, as the author himself makes clear by stating that it was written “in the Temple of Serene Light”. He goes on to explain the meaning of the title, offers some explanatory details concerning the author, and provides some historical references concerning the translation of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara. He then goes on to offer an introduction to each chapter, providing illustrative commentaries with elements from the Zen tradition.

. Isidro Gordi The translation by Isidro Gordi was published in 1995. It does not mention the ´ antideva on the cover and is the first Spanish translation based on the name of S¯ original text, in this case the Tibetan text.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.11 (585-659)

The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara 

Me siento afortunado de poder contribuir a que las personas de habla hispana tengan acceso, por vez primera, a esta versión original, considerada una joya del pensamiento de la humanidad.25 (Shantideva 1995)

Gordi bases his translation on the last Tibetan version revised by Sumatikirti and Loden Sherab (blo ldan shes rab), following the commentary of his master Gueshe Tamding Gyatso published as Tesoros de la meditación. In the brief prologue the translator explains the three stages of the translation into Tibetan from Sanskrit. Then, in a section titled “Introducción al Budismo y al Texto Raíz” (Introduction to Buddhism and the Root Text), the translator dedicates eight pages to an introduction to Buddhism with the purpose of clarifying some key concepts for understanding the text: a definition of Buddhism, an explanation of what meditation is, a section on the different forms of suffering, and another on the sams¯ara (“eternal erring”, the cycle of the existences). Later, on pages 13 to 29, he introduces the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara chapter by chapter, offering many details that prove beyond a doubt it was orally transmitted to him by a master. Isidro Gordi is a Buddhist instructor. He has translated a number of books, among which are the teachings of Geshe Tamding Gyatso and the book by Batchelor Alone with the Others. He is also the author of El arte de meditar (The Art of Meditation) and Dharma y Meditación, (Dharma and Meditation) (Ediciones Amara).

. Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace The English translation by Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace is the most recent translation into a Western language to date and is dedicated to the memory of the Venerable Geshe Ngawang Dharguey.26 It was published in 1997 and comprises a prologue where the translators situate the text within the Buddhist tradition and specify which original texts and commentaries were used. This is followed by an ´ antideva and an introduction to the text introduction with a brief biography of S¯ chapter by chapter. At the end they include a very comprehensive bibliography arranged by theme. The first section deals with the editions in Sanskrit, not only of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara and commentaries on it, but also of another text by ´ antideva, the Siks¯ ´ asamuccaya (Compendium of the Instructions). The second S¯ section discusses the translation in Eastern and Western languages of the works ´ antideva, the two already mentioned and the S¯utrasamuccaya (Compendium by S¯ of the s¯utras). The third section deals with the commentaries and a summary of ´ antideva, the fourth includes two indices of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara, the works by S¯ ´ antideva himself. and the fifth section deals with S¯ The peculiarity of this translation lies in the fact that it is the only English translation based on both the Sanskrit text (and the commentary by Prajñakara-

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.12 (659-699)

 Nicole Martínez Melis

mati27 ) and the Tibetan text (and two commentaries). When these two do not differ in content, the translation bases itself on the two texts, and where the Tibetan text differs significantly, the English translation of this is given in a footnote on the same page. The two Sanskrit editions used are those by Louis de la Vallée Poussin (1901) and P.-L. Vaidya (1960). For the Tibetan text they used the Derge edition, the Bodhisattvacary¯avat¯ara by Sarvajñadeva and Kawa Paltsek (ka ba dpal brtsegs) (see section The Tibetan Translations). They consulted the two Tibetan commentaries: spyod ‘jug rnam bshad rgyal sras ‘jug ngogs, by rgyal tshab dar ma rin chen; and byang chub sems dpa’i spyod pa la ‘jug pa’i’grel bshad rgyal sras rgya mtsho’i yon tan rin po che mi zad ‘jo ba’i bum bzang, by thub bstan chos kyi graps pa. Explanations are given in the form of footnotes. As regards the translation process, the translators point out the inherent difficulties noting that many of the Sanskrit stanzas are concise and at times cryptic using complex syntax. In contrast, they acknowledge the fact that they have been obliged to take certain liberties in order to provide an intelligible English version. At the end they express the desire that their translation may contribute to an understanding of the text, help to better appreciate it, and inspire future studies into the same. Allan Wallace is a practising Buddhist, Doctor in Philosophy and Religion at Stanford University, and also one of the Dalai Lama’s interpreters, particularly during meetings with Western academics. He has published a number of articles on the epistemology of science and religion, and has translated and commented on a number of Tibetan texts, among which are: Transcendent Wisdom (edition and translation of Chapter 9 of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara, with a commentary by the Dalai Lama).

. Conclusion One can conclude from what has been discussed so far in this initial research into ´ antideva was the translation of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara in the West, that the text by S¯ available in a Western language from the beginning of the 20th century and two eras of translation become apparent that respond to different objectives. During the first period the objective was academic. One could say that these translations have a research function within a university context, as understood from a Western perspective. What La Vallée Poussin and Finot tried to do, although they may well have had a genuine interest in the book and Buddhism in general, was to provide access to an ancient text.28 Their important and painstaking work would be most comparable to the work of cultural archaeologists. In the second era, beginning in the 1970s,29 we can see that many of these translations are the work of practising Buddhists (it remains to be seen if they all are), who received direct

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.13 (699-742)

The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara 

oral transmission of the text and who, with the exception of one, follow the Tibetan tradition. The translation by Batchelor is no doubt an important milestone in the history of the translation of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara because from this moment on this Buddhist treatise is no longer seen from the West as a mere object of historicalcultural study and has become more a living source of inspiration. This study clearly shows a very promising tendency as regards the history of the translation of Buddhist texts. By this I mean the degree of research work that is becoming more and more evident in new translations, and the endeavour to translate again what has already been translated taking into account many important sources, as much with regard to editions as translations into other languages and commentaries from great Buddhist Masters. ´ antideva leaves us with This initial study into the translation of the text by S¯ a number of issues that still need to be addressed. First, we need to draw up an exhaustive list of Western translations and a descriptive account of them, as has been done for the six translations discussed in this article. Second, we also need to study the development of translation in the West in the light of the following hypothesis, “How is the changing function of these translations reflected in Western texts?”. Looking further ahead, it would be interesting to see to what degree the translation of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara is representative of what has happened with other great Buddhist texts. (Translated by Roland Pearson)

Notes . The Mah¯ay¯ana, or “great vehicle”, reform movement which was born out of a reaction to the first Indian schools (called Hinay¯ana, or “small vehicle”), is the path of the bodhisattvas (see Note 8). It consists of the practice of universal compassion and cultivation of the wisdom of emptiness, the ultimate nature of self and all the phenomena. Based on the motivation and wish to deliver all beings without exception from the suffering of the unenlightened state, it leads to the attainment of buddhahood for the sake of others (Sh¯antideva 1997: 200). . According to the version given by the Comité Padmakara, Sh¯antideva (1992). . The dates (690–760) are a source of dispute. See Mudiyanse, N. Mah¯ay¯ana, Monuments in Ceylon. Colombo, 1967. Cited by Padmakara, Sh¯antideva (1992). . Dokusho Villalba (Santideva 1993) speaks of three versions but does not mention his sources for this claim. . Bodhisattva: someone who frees himself from the cycle of existences and realises all the qualities of the Awakening, but at the same time moved by compassion, he decides to appear

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.14 (742-805)

 Nicole Martínez Melis

in order to help beings. He never works for his own personal interest; all of his actions, words, and thoughts are devoted to the well-being of others (S¯antideva 1992: 142). . It is possible to reconstruct almost word for word an original Sanskrit text from the Tibetan translation (Snellgrove 1995: 637). . The Kanjur (bka’ ’gyur: Word of Buddha translated), comprises 100 printed volumes of the teachings of Buddha, and the Tenjur (bstan ’gyur: Treatises Translated), is a collection of 250 printed volumes of treatises, commentaries, traditional teachings, hymns, and sacred poems, in all a total of 4,569 texts (Guillon 1995: 103). . Padmasambhava: second half of the 8th century, philosopher of tantric Buddhism. According to hagiographic literature he was responsible for introducing Buddhism to Tibet. . Rinchen Zangpo (958 o 957–1055): famous translator, the first of the translators from the new school of translation (gsar ma pa, according to Blondeau 1995). Under his direction a great number of canonical texts were translated with their corresponding extensive commentaries. He lived in India on three different occasions totalling 17 years. Upon returning to Tibet he founded a significant number of temples and monasteries. . Loden Sherab (1059–1109). . See the list of Translations of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara which follows the list of references. . “Bodhi is the Enlightenment, the Awakening, the ultimate state of conscience, the most elevated during human life: the state reached by a Buddha as a result of spiritual practices. Carya is the collection of practices, attitudes, (the path or the advance that leads to the state of Enlightenment. The Advance towards the Light is a poetic and didactic hymn that teaches us the practice and attitude to follow with a view to attaining this Supreme Good. It is also an epic hymn to those who undertake the Path of Awakening” (Santideva 1993: II). . For many centuries it was the privileged text of those who aspired to the complete development of an Awakening, an unceasing source of inspiration, and today is one of the texts that is preferred by many contemporary masters. . See Note 5. . Tenzin Gyatso (1998). . This summary of the ten chapters is mainly based on my reading of the introduction by Isidro Gordi (Shantideva 1995: 13–29). . Residence of the 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual and political leader), the exiled Tibetan government, and some of the Tibetans who escaped after the Chinese invasion. . Ngultchu Gyalse Thogme Zangpo (1295–1369). . “Pema Wangyal, an insignificant Tibetan completely lacking in any spiritual qualities who was given the title of Tsetrul Rimpoche, in the same way that an old dog is sometimes given the flattering name of Lion”. . Among those masters who helped to keep the teachings of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara alive was Patrul Rinpotché, Patrul Orgyen Jigmé Tcheukyi Wangpo (dpal sprul o rgyan ‘gigs med chos kyi dbang po), also known as Dzogtchen Palgué Tulku (rdzogs chen dpal dge sprul sku) (1808–1887), who was an outstanding figure. He was born in the province of Kham (eastern Tibet) and after studying under some of the most illustrious masters of the period he became

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.15 (805-867)

The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara  ´ antideva, lived in caves a wandering hermit. This wise man, considered the reincarnation of S¯ and woods and never had a house nor belonged to a monastery. When he died his only possessions were a begging bowl and a copy of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara. His teachings on the ´ antideva text were many and he inspired the majority of commentaries that originated S¯ from the second half of the 19th century (Shantideva 1992: xii–xiii and 124). . Matthieu Ricard, after receiving his doctorate in Biology at the beginning of the 1970s, abandoned his promising academic career as a scientist and researcher to become a Buddhist monk. He has translated various works from Tibetan and, along with his father the philosopher Jean-François Revel, published Le moine et le philosophe, and with the astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan, L’infini dans la paume de la main: du Big Bang à l’éveil. He is the Dalai Lama’s translator and lives in the monastery Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling de Boudhanat in Nepal. . tson kha pa, historical Tibetan master from the 15th century, founder of the Gelugpa line. . N¯ag¯arjuna was one of the most important Buddhist philosophers whose commentaries on relative truth and absolute truth are the basis of the M¯adhyamika (school of the Middle Way). His works are still considered the most authoritative regarding the number of philosophical concepts. Dates vary from the 2nd to the 3rd century. . Zen (Japanese) or Ch’an (Chinese) is a Mah¯ay¯ana sect (see Note 1). . “I am most fortunate to have been able to contribute by allowing Spanish speakers access, for the first time, to this original version which is considered to be a jewel among human thinking” (Prologue). . The master who taught on the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara en Dharamsala in 1972 and 1973 as noted by Batchelor and Driessens. . Author of a commentary on the difficult points in the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara, Bodhicary¯avat¯ara-pravjik¯a (byang chub gyi spyod pa la ‘jug pa’i dka’ ‘grel, Tenjur 3872). . I have not taken into account the 1909 translation by Barnett as this appears to be an abridged version and I have not been able to ascertain which original text he used. Nor have I taken into account the 1923 version by Schmidt as at present I have not been able to consult this. . With the exception of the manuscript of Guendun Tchöpel, preserved in the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (Dharamsala, India), which for obvious reasons is not very accessible to Western readers (see 5.2).

References Bareau, André (1995). “Littératures et écoles bouddhiques”. Encyclopaedia Universalis, Vol. 4 (pp. 390–393). Batchelor, Stephen (1983). Alone with Others: An Existencial Approach to Buddhism. New York: Grove Press. (translation and adaptation by Isidro Gordi, Sólo con los demás. Un acercamiento existencial al budismo. Ciutadella de Menorca: Ediciones Amara, 2000).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.16 (867-986)

 Nicole Martínez Melis

Baumann, Martin (1996). “Buddhism in the West: Phases, Orders and the Creation of an Integrative Buddhism”. Internationales Asienforum, 27, 3–4. Blondeau, Anne-Marie (1995). “Textes canoniques et littérature scolastique”, “Ecoles et doctrines” in “Bouddhisme tibétain”. Encyclopaedia Universalis, Vol. 4 (pp. 413–414). Buston (1986). The history of Buddhism in India and Tibet (translation by E. Obermiller). Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications (1st edition, Heidelberg 1932). Dalaï-Lama (1996a). Tant que durera l’espace. Paris: Albin Michel, Spiritualités vivantes (translated from Tibetan). Dalaï-Lama (1996b). Le monde du bouddhisme tibétain. Paris: La Table Ronde. (The World of Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995). Guillon, Emmanuel (1995). Les philosophies bouddhistes. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Jong, J. W. De (1987). A Brief History of Buddhist Studies in Europe and America (2nd ed.). Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications. Morel, Hector V. & Dali Moral, José (1989). Diccionario Budista. Buenos Aires: Kier. N¯ag¯arjuna (1981). La lettre à un ami (Suhrllekha). St Jean Le Vieux: Editions Dharma (translation by Georges Driessens). N¯ag¯arjuna (1995). Le traité du milieu (M¯adhyamaka-´sa¯ stra). Paris: Editions du Seuil (translation by Georges Driessens). Ngultchu Gyalse Thogme Zangpo (1974). The Ocean of Good Explanation, a commentary to (Sh¯antideva’s) Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of life. Sarnath, India: The Pleasure of Elegant Sayings Printing Press (new edition in 1983). Ricard, Matthieu & Revel, Jean-François (1997). Le moine et le philosophe. Paris: Nil éditions/Fayard. (The Monk and the Philosopher. London: Thorsons, 1998.) Ricard, Matthieu & Thuan, Trinh Xuan (2000). L’infini dans la paume de la main : du Big Bang à l’éveil. Paris: Nil éditions/Fayard. (The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers where Science and Budhism Meet. London: Crown Publishing Group, 2001.) Ruegg, D. Seyfort (1992). “Some Reflections on Translating Buddhist Philosophical Texts from Sanskrit and Tibetan”. Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques, 46(1), 367–391. Schwab, Raymond (1950). La Renaissance Orientale. Paris: Payot. Snellgrove, David (1995). “Le bouddhisme savant”, “Deuxième tentative de propagation du bouddhisme” in “Tibet”. Encyclopaedia Universalis, Vol. 22 (p. 637). Takugai, S. (1942). The Buddhist Scholars of Europe and America. Obei-Bukkyoo-GakushaDen, Japan. Tenzin Gyatso (1998). Comme un éclair déchire la nuit. Paris: Albin Michel, Spiritualités vivantes, édition de poche (translated from Tibetan, 1st edition 1992). Tsongkhapa (1989). Le grand livre de la progression vers l’éveil I. Hauterive: Dharma. Tsongkhapa (1992). Le grand livre de la progression vers l’éveil II. Hauterive: Dharma. Wallace, B. Alan (1988). Transcendent Wisdom. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion. Webb, Russell (1974). “Buddhist Studies in the West”. Buddhist Quarterly, 6(4), 10–17. Wilhelm, Richard & Carl Gustav Jung (1962). The Secret of the Golden Flower. A Chinese Book of Life. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.17 (986-1080)

The Bodhicary¯avat¯ara 

Translations of the Bodhicary¯avat¯ara into Western languages (in chronological order) La Vallée Poussin, Louis (de) (1892). “Bodhicary¯avat¯ara. Introduction à la pratique de la sainteté bouddhique”. Muséon, 11, 87–115 (translation of Chapters 1–4 and 10). ´ antideva Bodhicary¯avat¯ara. Exposition de la pratique La Vallée Poussin, Louis (de) (1896). “S¯ des Bodhisattvas”. Muséon, 15, 306–318 (translation of Chapter 5). La Vallée Poussin, Louis (de) (1907). “Bodhicary¯avat¯ara. Introduction à la pratique des futurs Buddhas”. In Revue d’histoire et de littérature religieuses, Vol. 11–12. Paris: Librairie Bloud et Cie. ´ antideva (1909). The Path of light. New York: Grove. London: John Murray (translation by S¯ Lionel David Barnett, abridged version). (2nd edition in 1947, London: John Murray.) ´ antideva (1920). La Marche à la lumière. Paris: Editions Bossard, Les classiques de l’Orient S¯ (translation by Louis Finot). (New edition in 1987. Paris: Les deux Océans.) ´ antideva (1923). Der Eintritt in den Wandel in Erleuchtung (Bodhicary¯avat¯ara). Von S¯ ´ antideva. Ein buddhistisches Lehrgedicht des VII. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. Aus dem S¯ Sanskrit übersetzt. Dokumente der Religion, Vol. 5. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöning (translation by Richard Schmidt). ´ antideva (1940s). To Follow the Virtuous Life. Dharamsala (India). Original manuscript at S¯ the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (translation by Guendun Tchöpel (dge ‘dun chos ‘phel). ´ antideva (1970). Bodhicary¯avat¯ara. Entering the Path of Enlightenment. New York: S¯ Macmillan (translation by Marion L. Matics). ´ antideva (1975). Il Bodhicary¯avat¯ara di S¯ ´antideva. Bologna: Egidi (translation by Amalia S¯ Pezzali). Shantideva (1979). A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Dharamsala (India). Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (new edition in 1981, 1985) (translation by Stephen Batchelor). Shantideva (1980). Przewodnik na sciezce Bodhisttawy [Bodhicaryavatara]. Kraków. ´ antideva (1981). Eintritt in das Leben zur Erleuchtung (Bodhicary¯avat¯ara). Lehrgedicht des S¯ Mah¯ay¯ana aus dem Sanskrit übersetzt von Ernst Steinkellner. Diederichs Gelbe Reihe. Vol. 34. Düsseldorf: Eugen Diederichs. Sh¯antideva (1985). Bodhisattvacary¯avat¯ara, Une méthode pour s’engager dans les actes du Bodhisattva. Mont Pélerin: Tharpa Choeling (translation by Anne Ansermet). Santideva’s Bodhicharyavatara (1990). New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan (translated into English by Parmanada Sharma, with the original Sanskrit). Sh¯antideva (1992). La marche vers l’éveil. Peyzac-le-Moustier: Editions Padmakara (translation by the Comité de traduction Padmakara). Sh¯antideva (1993). Vivre en héros pour l’éveil. Paris: Editions du Seuil. Points Sagesses (translation by Georges Driessens). Santideva (1993). La Marcha hacia la Luz. Madrid: Miraguano Ediciones (translation by Dokusho Villalba). Shantideva (1995). Destellos de sabiduría. El Bodhisatvacaryavatara de Shantideva. Ciutadella de Menorca: Ediciones Amara (translation by Isidro Gordi).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:53

F: BTL5815.tex / p.18 (1080-1094)

 Nicole Martínez Melis ´ antideva (1996). Bodhicary¯avat¯ara. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. The S¯ World’s Classics (translation by Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton). Sh¯antideva (1997). The Way of the Bodhisattva. Boston/London: Shambala Publications (translation by Padmakara Translation Group). ´ antideva (1997). A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. New York: Snow Lion Publications S¯ (translation by Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:55

F: BTL5816.tex / p.1 (43-106)

Regional Indian literature in English Translation or recreation? Leticia Herrero

.

Introduction

In 1985, James Holmes regretted that, compared to the fifties and the sixties, the percentage of translations within the total production of major publishing houses was constantly declining, and those translations that achieved publication were frequently of texts that had been written in a dominant language (Holmes 1985: 103). To this he added that it was smaller publishers, usually university presses or independent publishers, who were offsetting the failure of major publishing houses by taking over the latter’s former task: issuing novels from strange places, written in languages usually unpopular within translation, as well as poetry and any other literature that excelled in quality rather than in profitability. Regrettably, this had the effect of reducing the translator’s wage. Fortunately, two decades later, the scenario is not the one described by Holmes in the eighties. Nowadays, within major publishing houses there is also room for literature that is not best-selling and also for translations of original texts written in languages that have traditionally been ignored in translation policies. Nevertheless, the gap between literature translated from English and that translated into English is still huge. The reluctance to translate into major languages (into English, in particular) the literature written in minor languages, rather than vice versa, is particularly noteworthy. Regarding fiction, while many texts by English-speaking authors (particularly those by British and American ones) are translated into many languages and find their place within international markets without any difficulty, foreign literature translated into English is usually received by readers in the Anglo-American culture with a certain lack of interest. These data led Lawrence Venuti (1995) to point out the self-sufficient attitude of the United States and the United Kingdom, which are willing to be translated but reluctant to welcome translations. As Venuti indicates,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:55

F: BTL5816.tex / p.2 (106-158)

 Leticia Herrero

this fact is much more than a simple statistic: it is a clear sign of the single direction in the influence and expansion of the Anglo-American culture over the rest. Ethnolinguistic researchers affirm that around 15,000 to 20,000 different languages may have been spoken throughout the inhabited history of the planet, just a simple third of which remains today. Partly responsible for this loss are the evolutionary processes of languages, related at the same time to social and political processes; on the other hand, the omnipresence of English we have commented on is also responsible. Of the languages currently spoken – that remaining third of the former number of languages – there are some spoken by hundreds of millions people, whilst others do not have more than a small number of native speakers. However, we should not forget that the importance of a language is not related to the number of speakers that identify it as their mother language, but rather its significance depends on the degree to which this language acts as a tool for communication between people of different nations. Thus, the case of Mandarin, Cantonese and Hindi, which are spoken by hundreds of millions of people, but the repercussions of which are very limited beyond their own geographical borders. As a matter of fact, from an anthropological perspective, all languages should enjoy equal importance inasmuch as they are all transmitters of a culture, be it one of millions of people or of just a few. Moreover, every single language contributes to enrich the global culture and, thus, each one of them deserves the same attention. In the spreading of lesser-known languages and cultures, the translator has a prominent role. Sometimes, for these languages, the figure of the translator mingles with that of an anthropologist who may prove to guarantee the preservation of a language in time and space. The following pages provide an instance in which translators play a role that goes beyond that of a linguistic mediator and involves them in the diffusion among the Western readership of a language and a culture that is virtually unknown: Tamil, which is a language spoken in the state of Madras, in southern India.

. Lamps in the Whirlpool: The positive aspects of the foreignising translation The translation at issue is part of a series of translations into English of Indian novels that, in turn, belong to an interesting project supported and edited by the subsidiary in India of a prestigious publishing house that is known worldwide, Macmillan. The aim of this collection of books is, as the Project Editor Mini Krishnan explains, to show through their translation into English the legendary “Indian tradition which is believed to be one of humankind’s most enduring attempts to

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:55

F: BTL5816.tex / p.3 (158-226)

Regional Indian literature in English 

create an order of existence that makes life both tolerable and meaningful” (M. Krishnan 1995: v). Thus, both the translation itself and the translators are of the utmost importance in this project. The fact that the editors, all of them Indian, demanded that the translators also be native Indians shows the clear intention guiding this project. This policy, far from being whimsical, was argued by the editors themselves with sound logic: the objection to a British translator is that s/he, when facing words, expressions or references with a strong link to the Indian setting and thus, with no possible translation into other languages, would end up getting discouraged and doing what is known as domesticating the text, in other words, substituting what is strange in the source text with something familiar to the target reader (Venuti 1995). Since the ultimate goal of this programme of translations is precisely to explore and promote Indian traditions, translating the text in this way would effectively be a betrayal of the original. Furthermore, the editors wished to avoid the “confusion” that might occur between the act of being respectful towards the source culture (foreignising) and its recreation according to the stereotypes of the source culture held by the target one (Venuti 1995). This well-known phenomenon in translation is as hostile to the original text as domestication itself. In keeping with these aims, the editors and the translators of this project set about making some texts whose destinies had sheltered a very limited readership accessible to a group of readers countless times larger and more ignorant (thus possibly more eager to learn) of Indian reality. In order to achieve their literary and cultural goals, the texts for the series have been carefully selected from the global corpus of fiction Indians have created since achieving independence in 1947. The translations include texts written originally in regional, even local languages such as Tamil, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Bengali, and Marathi, among others. The hope of the editors is that, along with their literary value, these novels will express most of the ideas, customs, unquestioned assumptions and the persistent doubts that have characterised Indian life for at least a thousand years, and, more recently, after the impact of western ways of thinking on it. (M. Krishnan 1995: v)

It is clear that the goals guiding this project are quite ambitious. After so much questioning of the translatability of cultures, this translation and the collection itself have raised the academic interest and the professional curiosity of many related to the field of translation. What comes below is a short analysis of the English version of the Tamil novel Suzhalil Mithakkum Deepangal (1987) by Rajam Krishnan. The title in English is Lamps in the Whirlpool (1995) and the two translators in charge of this edition were Uma Narayanan and Prema Seetharam. We should start off by commenting on the fact that the translation is presented as a product in itself, that is, as a book which is not an original but rather comes

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:55

F: BTL5816.tex / p.4 (226-279)

 Leticia Herrero

from an original. From the very first glance, the reader finds signs indicating the importance given by the promoters of this project to translation as a process of widening the borders of Indian culture. The only way to let Western people look inside the Tamil culture is through the rendering of it into a major language like English, and thus translation plays an essential role. Therefore, whereas in translated editions it is a rather unusual practice to advertise the fact that a book is a translation, in this work the reader is informed from the very first moment (book cover) that it is indeed a translation into English from a Tamil original. In addition, the series logo – a symbolic “t” (for “translation”) – highlights the importance the editors want to give to translation as a useful tool in the diffusion of cultures. The second page of the book (the first one contains exclusively the title of the novel in English) continues this policy of not disguising the fact that it is a translation by showing the original title in Tamil and the name of the translators. The font in which this information is printed, its size and the central position it occupies on the page are other hints of the professed advocacy of translation. The book includes a detailed introduction written by C. T. Indra, the Chief Editor in charge of the translations from originals in Tamil (there is a chief editor for each one of the Indian languages included in this programme). This introduction acts as an extra-textual note for the Western reader to understand the social and cultural space within which the novel is set, and thus some of the specific cultural references that appear in the novel. Without the introduction, the network of meaning of the book would be difficult to penetrate; even with it, the reading remains a challenge. Thus, for instance, the explanation about the family core in an orthodox Brahmin community is essential to understand the behaviour of the protagonist all throughout the novel. The introduction effectively makes transparent the cultural opacity of the text and lightens the translators’ difficult task. In fact, it is a way to make up for the drawbacks or inconveniences of the strategy of foreignising. If the Western reader is given some previous knowledge, his/her understanding of the text is likely to be more complete. In addition to some explanations of greater or lesser relevance, like the one casting light on the imagery of the lamps in the sacred River Ganga (Ganges), the introduction explains two recurrent terms in the novel that are at the centre of its material imagery, and whose understanding is therefore of vital importance to grasp the plot. One of these concepts is madi, which designates all the rituals and observances that constitute the social ideology of a Brahminical household. Madi controls and determines the identity and role of every person in the family, and although it is not anything dreadful or obnoxious, it hovers over the members of a family at all times, directing their behaviour in daily life. Almost two pages of explanation and instances are provided to help the Western reader to get a sense of this concept, since as the Editor herself states, the word madi “can be paraphrased rather than translated, for to translate it would

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:55

F: BTL5816.tex / p.5 (279-343)

Regional Indian literature in English 

amount to depriving it of its cultural force in the novel” (Indra 1995: xi). For example, the food is to be cooked by a person who strictly observes the austere rules implicit in the madi, and if anyone not conforming to the rituals touches it, the food is believed to be sullied. This example and others allow the translators to avoid translating the word madi inside the text, and the reader to get an idea of what is in play. Thus, the first time the word madi appears in the text, (1) Two different meals had to be prepared; first, one for her husband and children, and after another bath, the second, a madi meal for her Mamiyar. (R. Krishnan 1995: 2) the translators include a brief footnote that explains madi is a ritual purity, and then refer the reader to the introduction. Moreover, as said before, the frequent appearance of the concept madi all through the novel makes its explanation very useful even for those moments in which it is not overtly mentioned. For instance, sentences like the following would be rather difficult to understand were it not for the supporting explanations: (2) Though fully aware that touching the filling would pollute it, she grabbed a handful and dashed to the terrace. (R. Krishnan 1995: 1) (3) Mamiyar had decreed that the rubbish bin . . . should not be allowed inside the house, since it was a receptacle for the remains of meals . . . all considered ‘polluted’ by the orthodox. (R. Krishnan 1995: 1) The other recurrent concept referred to earlier is mamiyar. Although it denotes the familiar link between the husband’s mother and the wife, its connotations go beyond the Western concept of mother-in-law by introducing nuances of authority and extreme severity: (4) Patti was the children’s grandmother and Girija’s mother in law – her Mamiyar. (R. Krishnan 1995: 1) Even though the neighbouring information in the context helps to infer the meaning of mamiyar, the implications of power and harshness of the word in its original cultural background are impossible to convey, so that the information included in the introduction is essential. Obviously, it is not possible to find any term suitable to replace either of these in any Western culture without the text losing part of its original force. With the guidance of the preceding explanation, the translators can present the terms to the reader in their Tamil form, thus promoting an acquaintance with the Indian reality, which is the raison d’être of this collection of translations. In translation practice, if a foreignising method is carried out, the effort to conceal the work of the translator ceases to be of primary importance. In fact,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:55

F: BTL5816.tex / p.6 (343-399)

 Leticia Herrero

when the purpose is to take the reader to the source text and not the other way round, the opposite will be true, and the shadow of the translator will constantly be seen in the text. This is what happens in the translation at issue: the reader is aware of the company and goes hand in hand with the translators most of the time. The process of interpretation implied in that of reading becomes an act of two or, in this case, of three, the reader and the translators. In the Project Editor’s and the Chief Editor’s introductions, the fact that the method in this translation is going to be one of foreignising is made clear. On the one hand, both editors in turn insist on the goal of promoting the regional Indian traditions and show their determination to give an exact account of those cultures; on the other, some hints about the tools used to achieve the aim warn the reader that this time his/her reading is not going to be smooth or fluent since no mediator will pick out the way. Throughout the novel, the number of footnotes proves the choice not to Westernise the novel and the rejection of domesticating rules (which aim to avoid footnotes on the grounds that they disturb the reader). In less than eighty pages, the translators provide the reader with 115 footnotes, which try to undo the potential loss of information that could result from leaving original Tamil words in the text. At times, three or four words with footnotes follow one another, as in the example below: (5) It was Krithigai so she served payasam in addition to rice, dal, ghee, curds, brinjal thuvayal,footnote rasam,footnote green plantain, poriyal. . . footnote (R. Krishnan 1995: 9) Often the footnotes are tied to those terms identifying items that best account for the cultural burden of a community, such as meals and food, clothes and accessories, beliefs and customs, and which, as a general rule, are the elements that are most reluctantly named in other languages. Still, some might argue that many of these words are not that difficult to associate with a Western counterpart, but the fact is that kootu is “kootu” and not just “a mix of lentils and vegetables” as the Western translator may conclude in his/her work. Here we have the original term in the text and a close definition of it in the footnote. Other examples are: food (payasam, dhal, nelikkai, halwa, paneer, puri), beliefs (kolam, viboothi, japam, darshan, theertham, Shastras, pada puja), clothes and accesories (narmandi, parvadi, thali, zari, pavadi davani), household (madikol, chembu, choola), and other items (Thai, Margazhi, Adi, Krithigai). In view of this proliferation of footnotes, the Project Editor admits in her introduction that some of the notes may seem excessive and apologises for it but confirms – once again – that they have deliberately been prepared with non-Indian readers in mind (M. Krishnan 1995: v). It is important to highlight the fact that these terms appear integrated in the text with no special feature that reveals their different nature, save for the footnote

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:55

F: BTL5816.tex / p.7 (399-460)

Regional Indian literature in English 

number. This choice of the translators to not accentuate the strangeness of the word by using, for instance, italics to transcribe them, insists on the intention to present the Indian source culture in its purest condition. As we have seen so far, two effective strategies have been used to ensure that the rendering of the Tamil version into English does not spoil its cultural force. Footnotes and introductory notes – which this time are presented under the title of “Introduction” and signed by the editors, though other times are in the preface or translator’s (or) editor’s note – are both strategies to supply some extra help to the non-Indian reader when dealing with cultural issues. Likewise, in some instances one finds a helping hand within the English text, so that the Western reader can bridge the cultural gap. These times the word that may be difficult for the non-Indian reader is surrounded in the text itself by some information that dispels the opacity, thus making it easier to grasp. This information may have been provided in the same manner in the source text, or may be an insertion of the translator. In the first case, it is a narrative strategy used by the writer, who, unwilling to remove from his/her text a difficult term includes a sort of explanation of it within the text. As a consequence, the translators’ work becomes easier. However, in other cases, the translator him/herself adds that information to the target text, so that the reader finds the help needed without being disturbed by a footnote, thus making the reading smoother. Unfortunately, it has not been feasible to show the distinction between the two potential sources of a gloss in this book. Thus, without reference to the original text or contact with the translators, it is impossible to determine whether a specific explanation is part of the original text or an insertion of the translator. However, there is one reason to believe that these glosses are at the initiative of the writer herself and not the translators’; the number of interventions of this kind is rather limited, and if it were a strategy used by the translators, it is very likely that they would have balanced the number of footnotes and glosses. Some examples of the instances in which the explanation is found in the text itself are: (6) Mamiyar had decreed that the rubbish bin referred to as the ‘kacchada dabba’. . . (p. 1) (7) It annoyed Vandana to be addressed as ‘jamedarini’, the sweeper woman. (p. 2) (8) Mamiyar had told him to make payasam to offer as naivedyam, the votive offering of food for the Gods. (p. 7) (9) We call him assattu pitchu, the nitwit. (p. 43) (10) The whole group . . . had walked across Lakshman Jhoola, the suspension bridge over the Ganga. (p. 47)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:55

F: BTL5816.tex / p.8 (460-522)

 Leticia Herrero

(11) The very same marriage often strips a woman of her shakti, her life force. (p. 48)

. Lamps in the Whirlpool: The negative aspects of the foreignising translation So far, we have looked at the successful efforts of editors and translators to turn the source text into a more familiar place for the target reader without assaulting its foreign status. From now onwards, we will consider the less felicitous choices that, despite the intention of the editors and translators to help the reader, actually have an inharmonious effect. The reader’s reaction to the translators’ performance throughout the novel is double. Initially, used to the frequent easiness and smoothness of other readings, attributes that derive from the practice so widespread in the West of turning the strange into familiar (domesticating the text), the reader may be exasperated by the long explanations in the introduction and the huge amount of footnotes. The reader may find it annoying to have to interrupt the fluency of the reading to look down and search for the information explained in the footnote. However this soon becomes part of the reading and interpreting processes and, in fact, s/he manifests an opposite reaction to the first one in cases where s/he realises the translators have left him/her on his/her own. Despite the work of the translators and the editors to overcome the cultural distance between Eastern writer and Western reader, some occasions remain when the meaning becomes confusing or simply impenetrable. For example: a.

On page 1, we read “Patti was the children’s grandmother.” From this one can infer that Patti is the proper name of the grandmother. However, the next time the term appears (“My patti is a difficult Mamiyar, isn’t she?”, p. 7), patti is written with a small letter and preceded with a possessive adjective that invalidates the category of proper name given earlier. There are other occurrences of this term such as when Girija, the main character, addresses an elderly woman also as patti (p. 49). b. The person in charge of looking after the grandmother is called “Rama Roja”, but sometimes she is called “Roja Mami” (p. 14). This second term, “mami”, appears also in other moments such as when Girija addresses another woman sitting by her in the bus (“I prefer to stay in a choultry. It doesn’t worry me, Mami.”, p. 35). The translators’ help arrives late (p. 39) and misinforms the reader in a footnote that mami is a friendly and respectful term of address to an older man (sic) not necessarily related to one.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:55

F: BTL5816.tex / p.9 (522-580)

Regional Indian literature in English 

c.

On page 15, Ratna feels sorry for her aunt Girija and exclaims “Poor Chitti!”. In order to understand this, the reader must recall, on the one hand, that many pages before (p. 7) there was a footnote indicating that Chittappa is the father’s younger brother, and on the other, that if Amma (as explained in the first footnote of the book) means “mother”, appa, Chittappa should be “father”. After all these memory exercises, the reader must try to deduce an assumption and infer what Chitti might mean when referring to Girija. d. The reader soon finds out there is a suffix that goes with several nouns or proper names, without being aware of what it adds to the element. Thus, auntiji (p. 4), didiji (p. 6), dadaji (p. 39), behenji (p. 57), and also Gangaji (p. 46) and Mataji (p. 53). The footnotes of some of these references are not always of great help; it is very clear with dadaji, a term of respect to refer to the paternal grandfather. However, the explanation given to didiji, for instance – a term of respect for the young women of the house, meaning “sister” – is not always the most suitable for the context in which this word appears and, even more puzzling is the fact that, according to a footnote, behenji also means “sister”.

On some other occasions there is not even the comfort of the footnote. The reader who is now used to having those notes at the end of the page, will miss them, as in the following instances: (12) There is a Spic Mackay programme of Sound Indian music today. (p. 32) (13) She bought a ticket and squeezed herself into a space beside an obese Sardarji. (p. 32) (14) The bus gradually filled up: plump Gujarati matrons. . . (p. 34) (15) A cry of “Rishikesh Rishikesh” announced the imminent departure of a nearby bus. (p. 45) (16) When I came, a Swamiji was occupying this ashram. (p. 50) (17) Milk for khoya bubbled in a vessel placed over a coal choola.footnote (p. 57) (18) A boy in dirty clothes served puris and ladled the potato sabji floating in oil and chilli powder. (p. 57) At other times, however, the footnote is more or less redundant, such as in “The banks of the Thamarabaranifootnote River” (p. 47), where there is a footnote indicating that the Thamarabarani is a river in Southern India. On the other hand, there are some instances when the Western reader might believe the footnote is not necessary and indeed it is essential such as in the case of “She wore a saffronfootnote coloured sari” (p. 49), where, in spite of perhaps knowing what colour saffron is,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:55

F: BTL5816.tex / p.10 (580-641)

 Leticia Herrero

the Western reader might well not be aware that in India it is a colour associated with renunciation, sacrifice and spartan religious life. And, of course, there are many occasions that recall the (in)translatability of cultures. As seen in the following instances, there are numerous times when the linguistic form, though understandable, lacks meaning for the Western reader. The footnotes are inadequate to enable a full grasp of the concept, which remains very remote from Western civilisation: (19) The old woman had been conditioned to believe that the purusha,footnote the husband, was both the sthulafootnote and sukshama sarira,footnote the perceived and unperceived form of God, who gave refuge to his wife who was like a wisp of straw in the waves of the ocean. (p. 37) purusha = the male energy. sthula = the perishable body. sukshama sarira = the imperishable inner being. (20) akshadai = unbroken rice used to invoke God’s blessing. (p. 44) (21) Sugriva = a monkey whom Lord Rama crowned king of the monkey army. (p. 22) The footnotes on these occasions become mysteriously impenetrable. The reality they describe is so distant from Western cultural references that the reader’s mind can hardly imagine it.

. Conclusion In this text we have seen the effort it entails to bring the Western reader close to the Indian source culture. The editors and translators have tried to locate in one language – English – a reality that occurs in another – Tamil. To do this, they have needed long introductions and countless footnotes, and even so, it seems, they have only touched upon the original meaning. But if we recall Goethe, this may not be a failure at all; rather, it is a victory. Because as the German claimed, only by reaching the untranslatable do we become aware of the different nation and the foreign language. For those who are the most demanding, citing Goethe may seem a very evasive way to conclude. However, this paper proves unmistakably the efficiency of the translators’ achievement in going beyond merely acknowledging the limits of translation. From the very beginning, the editors declared their concern for respecting the cultural originality of the text (which is why they rejected working with British translators). On accepting the untranslatability of many terms and admitting the limits of linguistic transfer (knowing that, by doing this, their profes-

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 13:55

F: BTL5816.tex / p.11 (641-669)

Regional Indian literature in English 

sionalism would be called into question), editors and translators have reached their primary goal of sharing – however incompletely – the Tamil source culture with the non-Indian reader. And even though there will be some who do not conceive of it as a translation, at least not as the most suitable translation for commercial aims, no doubt the translation is consistent with its initial goal – which is far from being commercial. In this sense, it is a very laudable translation that permits a national literary work to reach international markets.

References Holmes, J. S. (1988). Translated!: Papers on Literary Translation and Translation Studies. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi. Indra, C. T. (1995). “Introduction”. In Rajam Krishnan (Ed.), Lamps in the Whirlpool (pp. vii–xv). Madras: Macmillan India. Krishnan, Mini (1995). “Foreword About the Series”. In Rajam Krishnan (Ed.), Lamps in the Whirlpool (p. v). Madras: Macmillan India. Krishnan, Rajam (1995). Lamps in the Whirlpool (translation by Uma Narayanam and Prema Seetharam). Madras: Macmillan India. Venuti, L. (1995). The Translator’s Invisibility. A History of Translation. London: Routledge.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.1 (41-107)

What do we leave behind when failing to translate a Chinese dead metaphor? Sara Rovira-Esteva

.

Introduction

Almost everyone agrees that the mastering of Chinese measure words is a difficult point within the teaching and learning of Chinese. But what seems to be even more challenging is grasping and accurately translating them into other languages. The fact that they do not exist as an independent category in Western grammars probably explains why linguists have neglected them for so many years. We also believe that the different linguistic approaches used so far have failed to provide satisfactory data relevant to translation purposes. Nowadays, there are three facts jeopardising good translation practices concerning Chinese measure words, namely, the widespread belief that they are unique to Chinese and thus cannot be translated into Western languages, the habit of providing only one word in a foreign language for a given Chinese measure word, as if there was a fixed linguistic equivalent, and the idea that they are redundant. From our point of view, these approaches are too simplistic, but unfortunately are too common. Just recently a few works highlighting the importance of this linguistic phenomenon have been published:

This completely new approach is a promising one, since it sets up the basis for a more holistic approach including all levels of language and aspects related to discourse, instead of considering this phenomenon as a superfluous, merely morphological one, as many uninformed people do. Zhang Xiangqun (1995) adds:

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.2 (107-154)

 Sara Rovira-Esteva

In this paper we will show with numerous examples in Catalan and English how measure words are used in Chinese discourse and why more attention should be paid to them, both in teaching and in translating.

. A cognitive and linguistic tool for categorisation All languages categorise in one way or another and there is usually more than one overlapping classification system at work. What is intriguing about Chinese is the fact that nouns are further categorised by measure words. That means that a given entity, besides belonging to the category “table”, for example, belongs also to the category of objects with a flat surface, so we often combine it with (zhang1). What is even more interesting is that this second categorisation is not fixed, but depends on circumstances: From a semantic, cognitive, and cultural point of view, the function of classifiers is to communicate a few especially important classes that objects fall into by virtue of the way we interact with them. (Denny 1976)

Each category of measure words embraces items apparently very different from each other (especially in the eyes of an outsider). For example, (dào, way), categorises nouns such as crevice, ray, eyebrow, river, line and wrinkle. Although they all look very different to us, we can still find similarities among them, such as the fact that they all have a long and slender shape. This means that the formation of the category (dào) is not arbitrary but there is a semantic motivation. If we don’t know cultural data or historical changes, then they might look arbitrary to us: Linguistic categories are typically complex: they group together, and treat as equivalent for certain purposes, a variety of distinct and sometimes quite disparate elements. Though similar to varying extents, these elements are not always susceptible to a uniform characterisation affording absolute predictability of class membership: i.e. it is not always possible to find a description valid without qualification for all class members and inapplicable to all non-members. Hence it cannot in general be presumed that membership in a

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.3 (154-213)

Chinese dead metaphors 

linguistic category is a predictable, all-or-nothing affair. Membership is commonly a matter of degree, resistant to strict delimitation, and subject to the vicissitudes of linguistic convention. (Langacker 1987: 369–370)

According to cognitive linguistics, then, categories are fuzzy and membership depends on the degree of family resemblance with the prototype. The association lines among category members are not necessarily drawn between the entities and the prototype, but between one entity and another which is similar and has something in common with it. Since there are not clear boundaries between categories, some members are prototypical and others are peripheral, and thus their membership is dubious or vacillating. Thus it is not necessary that all members in one category share a common characteristic, or even that they share a common characteristic with the prototype. Association possibilities are multiple, which explains the lack of homogeneity within a category. Tai and Wang (1990) studied the association processes underlying the creation (tiáo, long and slender object) and its relationship with other of the category (yú, fish), (kùzi, categories cognitively similar. According to their study, trousers) and (tui3, leg) are central members of this category; on the other (jie1, road), (hé, river), (lù, way) and (ying3zi, shadow) are hand, members by natural extension, that is, they belong to this category because they are similar or have something in common with the central members. Finally, (xin1wén, news), (yìjiàn, opinion) and (li3yóu, reason) are members by metaphorical extension. This research is very interesting because it shows how, starting from a set of prototypes and following the principle of family resemblance, other new members have joined the category. Another important aspect we should take into account is the possibility of categorising the same entity in a variety of different ways. The fact that we often feel dubious about the best categorisation of an entity shows that the same entity allows different kinds of categorisation, which means that categorisation is not a matter of true or false. It also shows that categories are not well defined and that boundaries among them are fuzzy. As we can see, the objects in the following examples are categorised according to different parameters (shape, function, etc.): (1)

a [one of a pair] chopstick vs. a [long and thin entity] chopstick

(2)

a [entity with a handle] chair vs. a [entity with a flat surface] chair

We should be aware of the fact that every entity has many different characteristics and can be seen from very different points of view. Thus different situations can also reveal the different aspects of this entity, which can be conveyed with different measure words. Therefore, there is no one measure word that is better than

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.4 (213-282)

 Sara Rovira-Esteva

another, it all depends on the context and the speaker’s personal point of view. The different choices we make when creating a text reflect specific aspects of the entity in question: [. . . ] our present concern is with a broader phenomenon of which variable designation is only a special case: the ability of speakers to construe the same basic situation in many different ways, i.e. to structure it by means of alternate images. The contrasting images imposed on a scene amount to qualitatively different mental experiences. Consequently, the image embodied by a linguistic expression – the conventionally established way in which it structures a situation – constitutes a crucial facet of its meaning. [. . . ] Grammatical structure is based on conventional imagery, which reflects our ability to construe a conceived situation in alternate ways. The full conceptual or semantic value of a conceived situation is a function of not only its content [. . . ] but also how we structure this content with respect to such matters as attention, selection, figure/ground organization, viewpoint, and level of schematicity. In regard to all of these we are capable of making adjustments, thereby transforming one conceptualization into another that is roughly equivalent in terms of content but differs in how this content is construed [. . . ]. (Langacker 1987: 138)

Let’s see some examples from literary works where the moon is categorised in many different ways. Some of these expressions invoke the same domain (i.e. reality) but contrast by choosing alternate profiles (images) within this common base:3 (3) a.

b. Les seves celles són igual de punxegudes que les fulles d’un salze, les teves, en canvi, són com una lluna creixent. (Ye Junjian, El Poblet de la Muntanya) c. Her eyebrows are just as sharp as the leaf of a willow; yours, on the other hand, look like a crescent moon. (Ye Junjian, The little mountain village) (4) a. b. Aquell dia al vespre, sobre el mar hi brillava una lluna creixent corbada com una cella. (Ba Jin, La Família) c. That evening, there was a crescent moon curved like an eyebrow shining above the sea. (Ba Jin, Family)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.5 (282-341)

Chinese dead metaphors 

(5) a.

b. El cel era d’un blau maragda, amb una lluna daurada i tensa com una corda. No gaire lluny, enfront la part còncava de la lluna, hi havia suspesa una gran estrella. (Bing Xin, Carta als joves lectors) c. Emerald blue sky, with a golden moon tense like a string. Not far away, there was a big star hanging in front of its concave side. (Bing Xin, Letter to Young Readers) (6) a. b. Al cel ja s’havia enlairat una lluna nova com una cella. (Wei Wei, Orient) c. A new eyebrow-like moon had already risen in the sky. (Wei Wei, The East) (7) a.

b. A les copes del bosc sense límits, quan ja havia caigut el sol, una rodanxa de lluna nova justament penjava de la punta de les muntanyes nevades dels Alps. (Xiao Qian, Tardor avançada a l’Alemanya del sud) c. At the top of an endless forest, when the sun had already gone down, a slice of new moon was barely hanging from the summit of the snowy mountains of the Alps. (Xiao Qian, Late Autumn in Southern Germany) (8) a. b. Va veure un salze sinuós a la ribera i la llum nebulosa d’un pètal de lluna. (Jia Pingwa, Inquiet) c. He saw a waving willow by the shore and the nebulous light of a petal-like moon. (Jia Pingwa, Rash) (9) a.

b. Va emergir mig arc de lluna, flotaven mil capes d’ones platejades, no sentia ni un brogit ni un soroll, entre el clar i fosc de les muntanyes a banda i banda de la ribera discorregué cap a l’est. Era el lloc on pescaven amb canya els ermitans de la dinastia Han de l’Est. (Yu Dafu, El malalt que torna a la terra natal)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.6 (341-430)

 Sara Rovira-Esteva

c.

A half-bow moon emerged, thousands of layers of silver waves were floating, there was not a sound, and in between the darkness and brightness of mountains on each side of the shore, it rolled to the East. That was the place where hermits used to fish with a rod during the East Han Dynasty. (Yu Dafu, Ill Because Missing His Birthplace)

(10) a.

b. En aquell moment, els núvols es van obrir i van deixar al descobert una lluna com un disc, centellejant i freda com el gel. (Qu Qiubai, Anals de Vila-gana) c. At that moment, the clouds parted and revealed a disk-like moon, shining and cold as ice. (Qu Qiubai, Annals of Hungry-village) (11) a.

b. Una lluna plena i mercúrica va rodolar silenciosament d’est a sud i després del sud al cel de l’oest. (Wang Lin, Èxit) c. A full mercuric moon rolled silently from East to South and then from the South to the Western sky. (Wang Lin, Success) (12) a.

b. Abans d’un quart d’hora, ja es van veure una immensitat d’ones blau marí i raigs platejats que brollaven d’una bola de lluna freda, que mirava altiva el cel. (Chen Hengzhe, Una altra visita a Beidaihe) c. Before a quarter of an hour had passed, countless dark blue waves could be seen, and the cold ball of the moon, pouring silver rays and looking down on the sky. (Chen Hengzhe, Visiting a New Beidaihe) (13) a.

b. Una lluna com una pinta, que semblava una nena que encara no hagués crescut, però que ja no s’avergonyia en presència d’estranys. La seva llum i perfil frescos i penetrants a poc a poc inundaren el paisatge nocturn. (Qian Zhongshu, La ciutat assetjada) c. A moon like a comb, similar to a girl that has not yet grown up, but who no longer blushes at the sight of strangers. Its fresh and sharp light and profile slowly flooded the night landscape. (Qian Zhongshu, Besieged town)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.7 (430-457)

Chinese dead metaphors 

Among all these examples there are dead metaphors and creative metaphors. For example (yi1 gou1 yuè), a [hook] moon, (yi1 lún yuè), a (yi1 wan1 yuè), a [curved] moon, can all be [disc/wheel] moon, and considered dead metaphors, since they are the usual ways of referring to the moon in Chinese. The first underlines the sharp edges of a crescent moon, the second refers to a full moon and the last underlines the rounded profile of the moon rather than the edge. The first and the third examples may refer to the same reality, but the point of view or pinpointed characteristic are not the same. Nevertheless, they all belong to conventional imagery. As we have just said (wan1) is an adjective meaning curved and, as a measure word, it is used basically for eyebrows (especially women’s) and the moon. (gou1, hook) is a measure word exclusively for a crescent or waning moon. On the other hand, (wán, ball), (pán, plate) and (yá, tooth) are used for many round or sliced objects, but these are usually smaller. Nevertheless, these metaphors are easily interpreted and in the process of becoming dead metaphors. We cannot say the same about the rest, since their use is unusual: (xián, string/cord) (bàn, petal), (gong1, arch) and (méi, eyebrow). Except for the second example, none of these characters have the official status of measure words, so they are personal creations of these authors or creative metaphors (maybe in the process of becoming dead metaphors).

. A powerful tool for the creation of metaphorical expressions We often associate metaphor and metonymy with literary style but actually they are present in our everyday thought and speech, since they are a cognitive device to process abstract and complex information through more concrete, simple and familiar concepts. In Chinese, there are metaphors and metonymies used in a similar manner as in English or Catalan. Nevertheless, if we analyse the discursive use of Chinese measure words, we will realise that they are also a cognitive tool for the creation of powerful and concise metaphorical and metonymical expressions, sometimes of great beauty:

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.8 (457-545)

 Sara Rovira-Esteva

If we use a part to refer to the whole, we have a metonymy. This transfer takes place because there is physical contiguity and the goal is to underline one of the objects’ characteristics. Measure word use is often the result of a metonymic cognitive process. Let’s look at some examples with their literal English and Catalan equivalents, very few of which coincide with expressions in these two languages: – Using one part to categorise the whole: (14)

(tóu) head:

(15)

(kou3) mouth:

(16)

(ding3) ceiling:

(17)

(wei3) tie:

/ a head of cattle / un cap de bestiar / a [mouth] pig / un [boca] porc / a [ceiling] hat / un [sostre] barret / a [tie] fish / un [cua] peix

– Usage of a contiguous object to categorise the whole: (18)

(bi3) brush:

/ a [brush] good calligraphy / una [pinzell] bona cal·ligrafia

(19)

(dao1) knife:

(20)

(chuáng) bed:

/ a cut of meat / un tall de carn / a [bed] sheet / uns [llit] llençols

Let’s look at more examples from several prestigious Chinese writers: (21) a.

b. En aquells temps, la mare estava al càrrec d’una gran família, amb grans i petits hi havia més de vint boques. (Bing Xin, Pel que fa a les dones) c. In those times, my mother supported a big family; all together there were more than twenty mouths. (Bing Xin, Concerning Women) (22) a.

b. A més, no sabíem si la senyora Wang havia pogut oblidar-se de tancar el batent d’una porta o d’una finestra en anar-se’n a dormir. (Ye Shengtao, El senyor Pan en dificultats) c. We didn’t know whether Mrs. Wang could have forgotten to shut the leaf of a door or of a window when she went to sleep. (Ye Shengtao, Mr. Pan in trouble)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.9 (545-602)

Chinese dead metaphors 

As we have previously mentioned, when speaking of metaphors, we should distinguish between two very different usages. The first are called dead or conventionalised metaphors. Speakers are very seldom aware of them. The second are invented, which are the result of creativity, and need to be decoded. The use of dead metaphors is quite automatic, similar to the choice of grammatical genre in Catalan or Spanish. Creative metaphors, on the other hand, need both a creative effort from the author and a decodification effort from the receiver of the message, as with any other literary form. In any case, metaphor is a mechanism of subjectification, since it underlines some traits and hides others. It includes the speaker’s point of view, which we should take into account when translating a text. Let’s see with examples taken from literature how authors handle dead and creative metaphors to express their meanings inside their work: (23) a.

b. A la seu de la borsa de valors, també se’l pot considerar tot un heroi. (Mao Dun, El senyor Zhao no ho entén) c. In the stock-market headquarters, he can also be considered a hero. (Mao Dun, Mr. Zhao Does Not Understand) (24) a.

b. Nosaltres no érem més que una barqueta que, talment com una fulla, havia de seguir la voluntat de les ones que ens portarien a algun lloc. (Ba Jin, Esperits – Les experiències d’una persona sola) c. We were only a little boat, forced, like a leaf, to go where the waves would take us. (Ba Jin, Spirits – The Experiences of a Single Person) (25) a.

b. Va ser també després del 1 de setembre que no es va tornar a sentir ni un fil de veu dels literats nacionalistes i sí un riure fred i desconfiat. (Lu Xun, Nova medecina) c. It was also after September the 1st that there wasn’t the slightest sound coming from the nationalist literati, except for a cold and distrustful laugh. (Lu Xun, New Medicine) (26) a.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.10 (602-675)

 Sara Rovira-Esteva

b. Al principi, només vaig sentir enmig del silenci el so suau dels rems fregant l’aigua. Després, en canvi, vaig veure enmig de la foscor una bola de fum que sortia de la llarga pipa que fumava el barquer. (Yu Dafu, Quadre de primavera al moll) c. At the beginning I heard in the silence only the soft sound of the rowing in the water, but afterwards, I saw a ball of smoke coming from the boatman’s long pipe in the middle of the dark. (Yu Dafu, Spring Picture at the Pier) (27) a. b. Un fil de veu desolada va interrompre el curs del seu pensament. (Li Yingru, L’incendi a la planura i el vent de primavera colpegen la vella ciutat) c. Her train of thoughts was interrupted by a low desolate voice. (Li Yingru, The Fire and the Wind Struck the Old City) (28) a.

b. Malgrat que viuen immersos en la brutícia i la pobresa, només que algú els porti un bri d’esperança, creuran que tenen la llum davant dels seus ulls. (Ba Jin, Lina) c. Although they live surrounded by filth and poverty, if someone would only bring them a ray of hope, they would believe there was light before their eyes. (Ba Jin, Lina) (29) a.

b. Un llençol de calma embolicava tota la muntanya, els camps, el cel i la terra que estava donant a llum. (Xu Chi, Nit de luxúria) c. A sheet of calm wrapped the entire mountain, the fields, the sky and the life-giving earth. (Xu Chi, Lustful Night) (30) a.

b. Un gran nombre d’immenses papallones vermelles de seguida van sortir volant de la cresta de les eriçades ones de l’avui negra cascada tot batent les ales. (Kong Jiesheng, La riba del sud) c. A large number of huge red butterflies immediately flew from the rough waves of the now black waterfall beating their wings. (Kong Jiesheng, Southern Shore)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.11 (675-721)

Chinese dead metaphors 

(31) a.

b. La Fangying en aquell moment li va semblar que sentia unes emocions que no podia explicar, a la comissura dels llavis se li va dibuixar lleugerament l’arc d’un somriure fred. Els seus ulls miraven l’ombra de les flors de la finestra, que continuaven balancejant-se amb el vent. (Zhang Ailing, Bevent te) c. Fangying felt then a kind of emotion she could not express. At the corner of her mouth appeared the slight arc of a cold smile. Her eyes were looking at the shadow of the flowers on the window, which were still waving with the wind. (Zhang Ailing, Drinking tea) (32) a.

b. Dos anys enrere el cor de l’esposa havia estat com una esponja, cada gota del seu pensament, tan bon punt hi entrava en contacte, era absorbida. (Mao Dun, Creació) c. Two years ago, his wife’s heart had been like a sponge, each drop of her thoughts absorbed upon reaching it. (Mao Dun, Creation) (33) a. b. En Xiaohe, tan bon punt va tancar els ulls, va furgar dins del seu cor i en va treure un petit tros de saviesa. (Lao She, Quatre generacions sota un mateix sostre) c. As soon as Xiaohe shut his eyes, he searched his heart and took out a small piece of wisdom. (Lao She, Four Generations Under the Same Roof ) (34) a.

b. Al moll hi havia ancorada una barqueta de pescadors, a través de la vela passava una llum ben vermella que deixava veure una espatlla de color coure vell que protegia un niu de somnis dolços. El fill del pescador, que estava somiant, es regirava com una anguila negre. (Shu Ting, Fins a la fita de pedra) c. There was a little fishing boat anchored at the pier. An intense red light soaked through the sail and a shoulder, tanned the colour of old copper, protecting a nest of sweet dreams, could be seen. The

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.12 (721-793)

 Sara Rovira-Esteva

dreaming fisherman’s son was tossing like a black eel. (Shu Ting, To the Milestone) (35) a.

b. Ell m’esguardava amb uns ulls com un estany d’una calma excepcional, com la clara llum de lluna d’aquell vespre. (Zhang Dachun, El dibuix de plumes de gall) c. He was staring at me, in his eyes the look of a tranquil lake, just like the moon’s bright light that evening. (Zhang Dachun, The Picture of a Cock’s Feathers) (36) a. b. Quan el cotxe va passar de llarg el riu Song, el paisatge es va omplir de l’olor d’una vista pacífica. (Yu Dafu, Diari de tornada a casa) c. When the car drove past the Song River, the landscape was filled with the smell of a peaceful view. (Yu Dafu, Going Home Diary) The use of (tiáo, branch), for long and narrow things, with hero (23) might be related to the fact that in our collective imagery, we think of a hero as a handsome man, one who is probably strong and has a slender figure. (yè, leaf) in (24) underlines the fragile aspect of the little boat, since the image it evokes is that of a tree leaf floating on the water and led by the stream. (si1, thread), (lü3, thread) and (xiàn, thread), in (25), (27) and (28) respectively are, in fact, synonyms. They all refer to very small or thin things, especially if they are abstract entities. The use of (xing1, star) in (26) is a creative metaphor to describe the shape of the smoke coming from the boatman’s pipe. (piàn, slice/extension) in (29), on the other hand, when used metaphorically refers to things that cover a big surface. The use of (shan1, fan or leaf) with butterflies in (30) implies a metaphor, where the butterflies’ wings are compared to a fan, underlying their flapping movement. The use of (hú, arc) in (31) is an example of creative metaphor, since the girl’s smile is compared to an arc, thus offering the image of a pair of curved lips. Especially shocking is the use of (di1, drop) and (kuài, bit) with intangible entities, such as thought and wisdom in (32) and (33), respectively. The association of (wo1, nest) in (34) with dream gives the idea of a very sweet feeling, since we usually dream in our beds, when we feel comfortable, warm and protected. The use of (wang1) in (35), used for liquids, and (wèi) in (36), used for smells or tastes, with calm and landscape, respectively, are cases where there has been a shift in the sensory domain, which is in fact what creates the special rhetorical effect. All these examples show that there are different possible ways of interpreting reality, which can be explained with different images, according to

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.13 (793-855)

Chinese dead metaphors 

communicative needs. Thus there is a dynamic element linked to the action of the speaker towards the message transmitted. Chinese has many resources to create metaphorical and metonymical images but none as perfect, from the point of view of linguistic economy, as Chinese measure words. These images are often conventionalised and the word’s metaphorical strength is weakened, so speakers are rarely aware of them, as is the case with (yè, leaf), (si1, thread), (xiàn, thread), (lü, thread) and (piàn, slice/extension). We have to be aware of the fact that this categorisation system is flexible enough to allow speakers to use it according to their own abilities and needs: Classifiers – unlike noun classes – may vary in use between different styles within a speech community: It is generally the case that higher, more formal (often, written) registers will feature the most extensive set of classifiers, with informal speech using a smaller number of classifiers, and perhaps also employing them less often. (Dixon 1986: 110)

According to cognitive linguistics, semantics is linked to pragmatics, i.e., denotative aspects cannot be analysed separately from connotative ones. Both the situational context and the cultural context are necessary to understand a text. Besides, since cognitive linguistics assumes that the speaker is involved in the message produced, the choice of the measure word in each case is not automatic but subjective, motivated by the intention and conditioned by the message intended. The choice of one measure word or another is thus explained by the need to communicate; it is not arbitrary. If the speaker’s point of view is neutral, i.e., (s)he does not want to underline any specific aspect of the entity, then (s)he will choose the most handy option, according to personal usage (idiolect) or social usage (dialect), which will probably be a prototypical measure word for that entity and the one we will teach to our language students. There is a dynamic aspect linked to the speaker’s action regarding his or her messages. There are different factors involved, such as associations, impressions, feelings that are part of the speaker’s experience. Nevertheless, not all the associated elements have the same value or importance, so what we express are, in fact, those parts of the event that attract our attention. Our conceptual system is organised according to our inner poetry and this is reflected in the figurative conceptions we express through language. These conceptualisations are often wholly conventional. As we have seen, metaphor and metonymy are very much related to linguistic structure and play an essential role in many categorisation processes, as well as in the articulation of certain grammatical phenomena.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.14 (855-902)

 Sara Rovira-Esteva

The culture-specific words and grammatical constructions of a language are conceptual tools which reflect a society’s past experience of doing and thinking about things in certain ways. As a society changes, these tools may be gradually modified and discarded. In that sense the outlook of a society is never wholly ‘determined’ by its stock of conceptual tools, but it is clearly influenced by them. Similarly, the outlook of an individual is never fully ‘determined’ by his or her native language, one’s conceptual perspective on life is clearly influenced by his or her native language. Much the same can be said about communicative style. An individual’s communicative style is not rigidly determined by the cultural scripts which he or she internalizes while growing up in that culture. There is always room for individual and social variation, and for innovation. But the communicative style of both society and individual cannot escape the influence of the ‘cultural rules’ of communication. (Dirven; Verspoor 1998: 155)

This means that we will have to teach our language and translation students that each culture organises reality differently, each entity can be categorised in a variety of different ways, and that conventional imagery can potentially be enriched by the creation of new personal metaphors.

. Translation of measure words Although neither Catalan nor English are considered classifier languages, we often find words and syntactic structures that can be considered equivalent when translating a measure word from Chinese. The fact that our grammars do not have a special category called classifiers or measure words because they are included in other categories, such as nouns, adjectives or verbs, does not mean that we cannot compare them to Chinese in this respect and try to find equivalents. We will often need to use different linguistic resources to convey the meaning of a Chinese expression using a classifier; sometimes we’ll find a similar vehicle, sometimes we will express the same meaning with a different rhetorical form and, sometimes, we simply won’t find a way, as in any other translation context. Below is a list of English expressions that can be equivalent to Chinese measure word constructions (just as an example): a cluster of houses, a clamour of voices, a stream of pedestrians, a bundle of belongings, a few strings of cash, the crowds of onlookers, a bowl of tea, a few drops of rain, rays of candlelight, the red disk of the sun, a lock of hair, two ingots of silver, paths of sentiment, tendrils of smoke, a wave of feeling, patches of weeds, piles of roof tiles, hunks of rotting wood, stands of bamboo, a stitch of clothing, a thick coat of dust, a wisp of chill air, shreds of sound, a kind of chant, a layer of earth, a kind of tranquillity, clusters of jade-green

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.15 (902-973)

Chinese dead metaphors

bamboo, herds of cows and sheep, a speck of dust, stalks of green bamboo, a riot of blossoms, a basin of cold water, clouds of dust, a full moon, a few strands of hair, etc. As we have seen in the previous section, measure words are not redundant but, in fact, can be very challenging from the translation point of view. Sometimes we will be able to translate the Chinese expression quite literally as in: (yi1 (yi1 di1 yu3), a drop of rain. Sometimes shù huar1), a bunch of flowers, or we will have to find the accurate equivalent according to the context, as in the following examples, since the same measure word in Chinese can have numerous equivalents in English and Catalan, depending on the noun they precede, because of collocation patterns: → a shoal of sardines / un banc de sardines

(37)

→ a pride of lions / una manada de lleons

(38) (39)

→ a herd of cows / un ramat de vaques → a gang of thieves / una banda de lladres

(40) (41)

→ a drove of horses / una cavallada

(42)

→ a flock of wild ducks / una colla d’ànecs salvatges

(43)

→ a swarm of bees / un eixam d’abelles

(44)

→ a group of girls / un grup de noies

Most of the time, though, we will have to find other expressive means to convey the same meaning, as in the examples of creative metaphors we have seen above. Finally, we will encounter some cases where we will not succeed in finding a way of expressing the same meaning, mostly in the cases of metonymies and dead metaphors.

. Conclusion Measure words have undergone a continuous dynamism throughout Chinese language history. In the beginning their use was optional but gradually became compulsory. The number of measure words and their co-occurrence with nouns have changed: many are not in use any more, others are used differently. We should assume that this dynamism and grammaticalisation process will continue in the future. A translator simply cannot afford to ignore this language phenomenon. When we translate between languages there are always things that can be translated easily and things that are difficult to translate. In the case of measure words, we have seen that there is a great variety of situations and functions, so we should analyse case by case to see how much information we are losing if we do not



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.16 (973-1024)

 Sara Rovira-Esteva

translate a measure word. Sometimes the loss in meaning will not be significant, sometimes we will find an equivalent structure or word and sometimes we will need to express the same idea in a different way. In any case we cannot say that Chinese measure words cannot be translated, as is often done. Measure words can make a sentence vivid and descriptive and greatly enhance the effectiveness of the writing, but not every measure word in Chinese should or must be automatically rendered into its dictionary equivalent in another language. The translator should deal with them in a flexible way, trying to avoid a mechanical translation, since he or she always has the choice of creating his/her own metaphorical expressions. [. . . ] Rather, it [language] emerges organically from the interaction of varied inherent and experiential factors – physical, biological, behavioral, psychological, social, cultural, and communicative – each the source of constraints and formative pressures. Because many of these factors are the same or very similar for all speakers, language structure evidences considerable universality and is quite amenable to prototypic characterization. At the same time, every language represents a unique and creative adaptation to common constraints and pressures as well as to the peculiarities nonetheless sensitive and individually tailored. (Langacker 1991: 1)

In this paper, we have shown with illustrative examples that the widespread belief that measure words are unique to Chinese and thus cannot be translated into Western languages is not true; that the habit of providing only one word in a foreign language for a given Chinese measure word is misleading, since the equivalents are not one to one; and, finally, that the idea that they are redundant disregards their cognitive and pragmatic role in communication as well as the fact that they are linked to both a given culture and the speaker’s subjective way of seeing and experiencing facts. As far as we know, Zhang Xiangqun is the only author so far that has approached Chinese measure words from the stylistic point of view. In this paper we have intended to go further by offering a completely new approach to studying them, which mainly integrates Cognitive Linguistics and Translation Studies. We believe that within both the field of Translation Studies and Sinology this new approach can be revealing in understanding how Chinese language works in the creation of metaphorical images, on one hand, and how we should transfer them into other languages, on the other.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.17 (1024-1097)

Chinese dead metaphors 

Notes . Chinese has a category of words with special expressive functions. With them, images are more vividly described; with them, expression of emotions is deeper; with them, colors are brighter; with them, the writer’s style appears even more concise. (Zhang Xiangqun 1995) . Measure words are a class of words which have an artistic value. They mainly enhance the brightness of the language, vividly showing Chinese elegance through their own artistic strength, which is why their rhetorical functions cannot be underestimated. If we want to speak and write correctly, we should give them the importance they deserve. Obviously, taking them into account does not mean they should be used indiscriminately, since their indiscriminate use might lead to confusion and to the overall impoverishment of the language. If we use them correctly, our language will be expressed more accurately, graphically and vividly. (Zhang Xiangqun 1995) . I would like to thank Jennie Vest for helping me translate the literary examples into English. . When we speak about rhetoric, there will probably be people who will immediately think of metaphor, personification, exaggeration and other rhetorical figures; at the same time a great number of adjectives, verbs and nouns will come to mind, but they will often forget about the rhetorical function of measure words. In fact, if we examine them in detail, in certain linguistic contexts, the rhetorical effects of measure words are not less important than those of other grammatical categories and, what is more, certain rhetorical phenomena have a very close relationship with measure words. (Zhang Xiangqun 1995)

References Anderson, Elna (1999). “Some Remarks on the Productivity of the Numeral Classifier System in Modern Standard Chinese”. Lund University. [Manuscript] Denny, J. Peter (1976). “What Are Noun Classifiers Good for?”. In Papers from the 12th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society (pp. 122–132). Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. Denny, J. Peter (1986). “The Semantic Role of Noun Classifiers”. In C. Craig (Ed.), Noun Classes and Categorization (pp. 297–308). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Lakoff, George (1986). “Classifiers as a reflection of mind”. In C. Craig (Ed.), Noun Classes and Categorization (pp. 13–51). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Lakoff, George (1987a). “Image and Metaphors”. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 2(3), 219–222. Lakoff, George (1987b). Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, George (1995). “Reflections on Metaphor and Grammar”. In M. Shibatani & S. Thompson (Eds.), Essays in Semantics and Pragmatics (pp. 133–144). Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:09

F: BTL5817.tex / p.18 (1097-1155)

 Sara Rovira-Esteva

Langacker, Ronald W. (1987). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Theoretical Prerequisites, Vol 1. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Langacker, Ronald W. (1990). Concept, Image and Symbol. The Cognitive Basis of Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Langacker, Ronald W. (1991). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Descriptive Application, Vol 2. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Lee, Michael (1988). “Language, Perception and the World”. In J. A. Hawkings (Ed.), Explaining Language Universals (pp. 211–246). Oxford: Blackwell. Lehrer, Adrienne (1986). “English Classifier Constructions”. Lingua, 68, 109–148. Loke, Kit-Ken (1997). “The Grammaticalisation and Regrammaticalization of Chinese Numeral Classifier Morphemes”. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 25(1), 1–20. Rovira, Sara (1998). Diccionari de Mesuradors Xinesos: Ús i Traducció al Català. Bellaterra: Servei de Publicacions Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Rovira, Sara (2002). “El paper dels mesuradors xinesos en la pragmàtica del text”. Departament of Traducció i Interpretació, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona. [Doctoral dissertation] Shao, Jingmin (1993). “Liangci de yuyi fenxi ji qi yu mingci de shuangxiang xuanze”. Zhongguo yuwen, 3, 181–188. Tabakowska, E. (1993). Cognitive Linguistics and Poetics of Translation. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Language in Performance, 9. Tai, James & Wang, Lianqing (1990). “A Semantic Study of the Classifier Tiao”. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, 25(1), 35–56. Zhang, Xiangqun (1995). Liangci xiuci shenmei lun. Xi’an: Shanxi Renmin Jiaoyu Chubanshe.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 10:54

F: BTL58P4.tex / p.1 (41-67)

P IV

Catalan Translating into a less translated language

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.1 (40-111)

Translation from Spanish into Catalan during the 20th century Sketch of a chequered history Montserrat Bacardí

More than a few readers will, undoubtedly, wonder why translation from Spanish into Catalan should be necessary, since all Catalans understand both languages. On the other hand however, translation from Catalan into Spanish would seem logical, since the average Segoviano or Malagueño is not in a position to be able to read Camí de sirga, for instance. In contrast, Catalans are able to decipher the most abstruse subtleties of any text written in Spanish; the original or source language is completely accessible and intelligible to us. Therefore, the essential primary reason for translation – intelligibility – would not appear to be a motivating factor in translations from Spanish to Catalan. At least this is true of most of the 20th century, and especially so of its latter half. In earlier times, however, the situation was entirely different. In El català al segle XIX, Pere Anguera tells us that “At the start of the 19th century, all the evidence indicates that Catalan was the main, and almost the only language of the entire population,” and “until well into the 19th century, Catalan had maintained its pure structure, thus making it difficult for large sectors of Catalan society to understand Spanish” (Anguera 1997: 27, 91). This view is corroborated by August Rafanell in La llengua silenciada: “For a large part of the population of Catalonia, then, Spanish continued to be a language that had to be learned from books, as opposed to on the street” (Rafanell 1999: 117). Just one of the numerous examples reported by Anguera will be sufficient to illustrate this situation: “Between 1800 and 1860, the church published at very least 67 catechisms in Catalan (in fact, two of them were bilingual) as opposed to only eight in Spanish” (Anguera 1997: 76–77). Therefore, the Catalan-speaking areas were not always bilingual (with the exception of an elite, as also occurred in Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, the Scottish Highlands, Provence, Finland and countless other locations). For many centuries, translation from Spanish into Catalan was indeed necessary.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.2 (111-160)

 Montserrat Bacardí

However, a variety of factors led to the penetration of Spanish among the Catalan-speaking population: the spread of printing, political defeats, the creation of large modern states and successive legislation on the obligatory teaching of Spanish (1768, 1821, 1849, 1857, etc.), to mention a few. As a result, by the beginning of the 20th century, the enlightened minority that wished to read Buscón or La Regenta were in a position to do so directly in Spanish, and a significant body of the population was capable of understanding a pious book or one of Muñoz Seca’s humorous “astracanadas”: translation was no longer necessary. And clearly, when unnecessary, it loses part of its underlying justification and becomes in a sense delegitimised. When translation is delegitimised there are a number of questions to be raised. What gets translated when the need for translation has disappeared? Who does the translation and why? On what criteria? Who reads the translated work? These are just some of the preliminary questions. A response would require wider and more detailed research than can be described here. Firstly, it might be helpful to mention some of the earlier translations, so as to obtain a general overview of the historical development. In the Middle Ages, during the 50-year reign of Pere el Cerimoniós from 1336 to 1387, conditions were optimum for the laying down of foundations for translation from Spanish into Catalan: firstly, the King himself encouraged translation of mainly Latin works into Catalan; secondly, his fascination with the thriving Castilian historiography of the 13th and 14th centuries led to him commissioning the prothonotary Mateu Adrià to carry out the daunting task of translating Alfonso X’s Partidas, with a view to establishing similar laws “which could be truly called ours” (Rubió i Balaguer 1984: 144), and he also commissioned a version of General Estoria: Libre historial compilat de diversos autors per D. Alfons dit lo Savi. The work undertaken during this period however was not to continue at the same level of brilliance in the 15th century, which was one of the high points of Catalan literature. Apart from a number of random translations of religious works, the main contribution was the translation by the poet Bernardí Vallmanya of three new works in Castilian: an anonymous Revelació de Sant Pau which had been translated into Spanish, also anonymously; Cordial de l’ànima, by Dionysius the Carthusian, translated to the “style of Valencian prose” (Wittlin 1995: 161), not from the anonymous Latin original, but from the Spanish version by Gonzalo García de Santa María; and, two years later, in 1493, Vallmanya’s translation of the famous sentimental novel Cárcel de amor by Diego de San Pedro. The 16th century marked the beginning of the rise of Spanish literature and the decline of Catalan. This decline was more in terms of quality than quantity, and the language itself began to lose prestige in the face of Spanish, which was the language of the court and was undergoing a literary upsurge. Examples of this phenomenon are the Catalan adaptation of Nebrija’s Latin-Spanish lexicon by the

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.3 (160-221)

Translation from Spanish into Catalan during the 20th century 

Augustinian Friar Gabriel Busa, published in 1507 and reprinted in 1522, 1560 and 1585. Some years earlier, in 1497, the grammar master of the Estudi General in Barcelona, Martí Ivarra, had translated Nebrija’s Introductiones latinae, which had “already been printed for the use of Catalans at least 100 times between the 15th and 19th centuries” (Colon & Soberanas 1991: 61). The works translated in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were all religious in nature. A great volume of such work was also originally written in Catalan and many were reprinted on numerous occasions; however, there was also a great demand for translation, which is not surprising – these works were largely didactic in purpose and no risks could be taken with linguistic uncertainties. This need for translation was echoed in the words of the “devout priest of the Casa d’Exercicis of the city of Girona” who translated Veritats eternas by the Italian Jesuit, Carlo Gregorio Rosignoli in 1761, working from the Spanish version which had appeared three years earlier, because, he said “if they read books in Castilian, they understand neither the sense of the clauses nor the meaning of the expressions” (Rubió i Balaguer 1986: 54). At the same time, in Menorca (under the English crown, with its paternalistic tolerance for the local language), Vicenç Albertí translated works for the stage by Moratín and Rodríguez de Arellano for almost the entire duration of the 18th century. The Renaixença or Catalan Renaissance led to restoration of Catalan as a literary language, but this was to be a slow process and we do not find substantial use of Catalan in literary output until well into the 19th century. In other words, it was not until the 19th century that favourable conditions – essentially the cultural and social prestige of the target language – existed for translation of Spanish into Catalan. Ironically, this coincided with the period when Spanish began to become intelligible for large sections of the Catalan population, a paradox if ever. The men of learning of 19th century Catalonia paid special attention to Quixot or Don Quijote. Six fragments and two almost complete translations dating from within nine years of each other have come to light. These were by the historian and lawyer, Eduard Tàmaro, the first part of whose translation was printed in leaflet form in 1882 in El Principado newspaper for which he wrote, and the other in 1891 by the bibliographer and grammarian Antoni Bulbena i Tusell. The enthusiasm for Cervantes’ novel was to survive into the early years of the 20th century: in addition to some other partial translations, the Majorcan presbyter Ildefons Rullan, author of a number of paroemiological works, completed a full new two-volume translation which appeared in 1905 and 1906 – the year of the third centenary of the first volume of the original. This was the third version of this long and complex work in 24 years. As the historian, geographer and scholar Francesc Carreras Candi pointed out in a series of articles entitled “Lo cervantisme a Barcelona” published in La Veu de Catalunya in 1894, Barcelona was going through a veritable “Cervantes mania”:

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.4 (221-272)

 Montserrat Bacardí

During the 17th and 18th centuries, a time of decadence for our language, in which our writers saw it as a language to be scoffed at, it is not at all surprising that no one saw the point of translating a work, whose publication was only carried out to provide assistance to those reading the original. However, in the 19th century, due to the bold rise of Catalan literature, and the growing “Cervantes mania”, translation of don Quixote into Catalan was necessary, albeit a difficult task owing to the numerous challenges. (Carreras Candi 1895: 34)

The translations are but one of many testimonies to this enthusiasm for Cervantes and his work, which was seen as exemplary: there were numerous press and literary articles, a Cervantes Society, specialised libraries, exhibitions, debates and a whole range of social activities. Antoni Bulbena is deserving of a chapter to himself in the history of translation from Spanish into Catalan (and in the history of Catalan translation in general: having translated Homer, Dante, Shakespeare and Zola). Fascinated by the work of Cervantes in general, he was especially devoted to Quixot. In addition to the 1891 version, he undertook a “New abbreviated translation for the young” in 1894 and retranslated over the following 50 years a number of passages which were never published (as was the case with many of his works). Indeed, he translated all of Cervantes’ Novelas Ejemplares, although only three of them were actually published: Raconet e Talladell (1895) and Lo casori enganyador seguit del col.loqui dels cans Scipió & Bergança (1930). He was also tempted by two of the great 15th and 16th century classics of Castilian literature: Comedia de Calist & Melibea (La Celestina) (1914) and La vida de Llàtzer de Tormes (1892), which he attributed to Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, and also by La dança de la mort as contained in a 15th century manuscript in the library of El Escorial Palace. Bulbena never considered himself bound by Pompeu Fabra’s spelling and grammar rules,1 and he himself paid for the publication of a number of these books, the editions of which were limited to some few hundred copies. The inevitable question is what drove him to persevere in this apparently useless task with such a limited readership? The answer, of course, was idealism, as he himself said in his unpublished diary, written during the Civil War: . . . in the challenge of placing it [the Catalan language] at the literary level of the languages that I knew, it was most natural that, just as I wished to de-Castilianise Catalan, I should strive to Catalanise Castilian. To this intent I took together the four classic highpoints of this language which has so damaged ours, namely, Llatzer de Tormes, La Celestina, Don Quixot and the Novel.les of Cervantes, all of which I rendered literally into Catalan. (Bulbena 1937: 74)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.5 (272-334)

Translation from Spanish into Catalan during the 20th century 

Revised and shorn of Castilianisms, Bulbena’s anonymous translation of Don Quijote was reprinted twice in the 20th century: in 1928, in a popular edition, and in 1936, just before the outbreak of the Civil War, in a deluxe format, which could not possibly have been within the reach of more than a handful of persons in the 1940s, by when it began to be distributed. A number of versions for young people also appeared, and in 1969, a complete new version by Joaquim Civera i Sormaní was published. Civera had been a journalist before the war and the challenging translation task served to lighten somewhat his enforced silence in the post-war period. The work was published posthumously and was not widely distributed; however, the translator was entirely aware of these limitations when undertaking the challenge. Educated Catalans can read Cervantes’ main work in the original Spanish. Why then have we dared to make Don Quixot speak in the language of our fatherland? Because we wish to render homage to this great writer who said beautiful things about Catalonia and praised the Catalan language. If Don Quixote has been translated into all the languages of culture, then it should also be translated into the language in which our people express themselves. (Cervantes 1969: 1)

More than 60 years had elapsed then, between Rullan’s Quixot (1906) and Civera’s version (1969). This inactivity reflects the overall situation of translations from Spanish into Catalan. The target language, Catalan, now enjoyed a new-found prestige, though the source language, Spanish, had fallen into disfavour (in Catalonia). A cultural renewal movement such as Modernisme, with its emphasis on importing new cultural models, hitherto unknown in Catalonia, could not possibly be seen to promote translation from Spanish to Catalan. Joan Fuster summarised the atmosphere of those times: Promotion of Catalan literature in Europe came into its own at the turn of the century. The two servitudes which threatened this aim, the fascination with Castilian literature and French literature, were shaken off. [. . . ] The only solid base for Catalan affirmation was a European one. (Fuster 1988: 27)

The concern with becoming part of Europe, and joining the train of the rich and prosperous cultures was to remain intact until the Civil War. Translation from Spanish to Catalan (which must still have been viewed as a pseudo-Renaixença phenomenon), had little space in this agenda. Once the sudden blaze of enthusiasm for Quixot had abated, translations of Spanish literature into Catalan in these decades were few and far between, and in the rare cases in which it did occur, the motivation for translation – the cause, genesis and circumstances – is always abundantly clear.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.6 (334-390)

 Montserrat Bacardí

Let us examine some examples. Shortly after the turn of the century, the works of Jaume Balmes, the well known priest and philosopher from Vic began to appear in Catalan. First to appear was a religious manual: La rel.ligió demostrada al alcans dels noys, translated by Joan Just i Gelpí (1903); then came the emblematic El criteri, translated by Canon Jaume Collell, also from Vic (1911). Later, in the post-war period, El criteri was to be translated again by Josep Miracle (1948). Before this, as part of the Biblioteca Popular Barcino collection, La civilització had also appeared in Catalan, translated by Josep M. Capdevila (1930). This same collection was to bring a considerable number of 19th century works by Catalan writers back “to their own intrinsic and natural medium” in the 1930s (Maseras 1935: 14). These were Catalan writers who had, for one reason or another, written in Spanish. The translator in practically all cases was Alfons Maseras, who also translated a great number of writers from other languages (mainly French, including Gogol, Tolstoy, Leopardi, Maeterlinck, Shakespeare, Benoit, Dumas, Musset, and Zola, not to mention the complete works of Molière). However, only in one case (the anthology of Manuel de Cabanyes’ poetry) did his name appear; the others he translated under the pseudonym J. dels Domenys, considering the work a mere source of income rather than literary enterprise. The majority of authors and works selected for translation can be seen as within the sphere of the Renaixenca influence (many were published around 1933, the centenary of the appearance of Aribau’s ode, La pàtria, generally considered to be the starting shot of the Renaixença): Art i política (Assaigs diversos, extrets de “El Europeo”) by Bonaventura Carles Aribau (1932), Records i belleses de Barcelona and Records i belleses de Catalunya by Pau Piferrer (1932 and 1934), Poesies completes by Manuel de Cabanyes (1935), Història de la meva joventut by the astronomer Francesc Aragó (1937) and L’antiga marina de Barcelona, L’antic comerç de Barcelona and Els antics oficis de Barcelona (1937), shortened versions of Memorias históricas sobre la marina, comercio y artes de la antigua ciudad de Barcelona by Antoni de Capmany. Each volume was prefaced by a brief and rather didactic note on the writer and the work, as was thought to befit a “popular” collection. The preface usually included justification of the translation. In the preface to the poetry of Cabanyes, he wrote at more length, perhaps seeing the poet’s role as central. Cabanyes was, he says, a singer without a language (in the well-known phrase of Miquel Costa i Llobera). In this way, it seemed that by translating him Maseras was returning the poet to the tradition from which he should never have been parted: It is clear that the Catalans failed in their effort to incorporate their poetry into the rather murky waters of Castilian lyricism. And they failed for two essential reasons: a lack of understanding, sometimes bordering on hostility, but even more so, for reasons of their own incompetence, if the truth be told. There is a painful pang in the work in Spanish by these Catalan poets. One

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.7 (390-463)

Translation from Spanish into Catalan during the 20th century 

notices that they are working in a language which is not theirs. One notes that their song, no matter how profound, how sincere, suffers from some sort of artificiality. No matter how true the work, there is always something false: the sound. This was true in Catalonia, when they wrote in Spanish, but also in Castile, when they wrote in Spanish with a Catalan accent: an accent which was evidence of another soul and another personality. And this other soul, this other personality, needed a change of language, and if it was to manifest itself fully and seek new horizons, it needed a setting where it would find sustenance and warmth, where it could expand and grow in the light of day, freely, in a glorious ascension. (Maseras 1935: 12–13)

Maseras also accompanied the appearance of these and other of his translations with press articles on the authors of the original works. This was a sort of highbrow publicity drive, but also an indication that he shared the ideals of the authors regarding cultural and patriotic progress – aspects which he dwelt on at length. Finally, the 1930s also provided us with another noteworthy wave of translations; plays by fashionable authors of the day who, it goes without saying, tended to write popular comedies or melodramas guaranteed to fill the theatres. It is clear that the motivation for translation in these cases was not intelligibility, but rather to make them more natural, and thus more successful. It must be remembered that in 1930s Catalonia, a grocer, a nun or even a marquis and marquess speaking Spanish on stage would have struck a strange note with the working class audiences which went to see such productions. These texts were only published after staging in local and neighbourhood theatres, such as the Orfeó Gracienc, the Gran Teatre Espanyol, Teatre Escola, Teatre Nou, Teatre Talia and the Ateneu Familiar in Sant Boi de Llobregat. The translations themselves were published in two collections, Catalunya Teatral and La Escena Catalana, both of which had a loyal public, eager to consume the reasonably priced product. In chronological order the main works were L’adroguer del carrer Nou (El último mono) by Carlos Arniches (1930), Els marquesos del Born (Los marqueses de Matute) by Luis Fernández de Sevilla and A. C. Carreño (1932), Marianela by Benito Pérez Galdós in the stage adaptation by the Álvarez Quintero brothers (1934), Mare Alegria by Luis Fernández de Sevilla and Rafael Sepúlveda (1935), L’honra dels fills (1935) and Esclavitud (1937) by José López Pinillos, La nostra Natatxa by Alejandro Casona (1936), El secret by Ramón J. Sénder (1937) and El vell albrit (El abuelo) by Galdós (1937). In practically all cases, translation into Catalan was by comediògrafs, comic authors who had cultivated the same genre, at least to some extent. These included Amichatis, Antoni Carner, Agustí Collado, Francesc Payàs i Planas, Antoni Pejoan, Manuel Valldeperes and Joan Vila i Pagès. The works appearing after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 “could be read as political allegories of the social and revolutionary process taking place in Catalonia” (Gallén 2001: 65).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.8 (463-518)

 Montserrat Bacardí

The many novels of Galdós, so widely read over the years, also attracted the interest of dramatists and publishers. In 1930, J. Burgas translated into Catalan the only of his “episodios nacionales” to be set in Catalonia: Girona. To avoid any possible misinterpretations, the author’s name was reduced to B. Pérez Galdós and a Catalan flag or senyera occupied the full cover. Once again, translation from Spanish to Catalan was presented as a restoration. Just as it almost certainly was too in the case of works by the Valencian novelist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. By 1914, the journal El Cuento del Dumenche had published two anonymous translations of Blasco Ibáñez’s El últim lleó and Corpus valensiá in its editions 6 and 24, respectively. The editorial of number 25, entitled També nosaltros. Prop de la reivindicasió rechional, proclaimed: “El Cuento del Dumenche has the honour of heralding in all movements which stand for independent Valencianism and practical regionalism within the ample and unsheltered field of literature.” In the 1920s, two of Blasco Ibáñez’s novels were translated into Catalan: Flor de maig (1926) and La barraca (1927) (reprinted 70 years later in 1997). The translator was the Valencian journalist and writer Miquel Duran i Tortajada, who signed under the pen name of Miquel Duran de València and who was at that time director of the Mentora publishing house’s Biblioteca Europa collection. According to the catalogue publicity, Duran intended to translate a further four works by the famous novelist, A l’ombra dels tarongers, Arròs i tartana, Contes valencians and Un drama a l’albufera. This ambition was never realised since the publisher closed down (Ugarte 2002: 46). In literature as in all else, the Franco dictatorship was an interruption. As is all too well known, the censor rejected all requests for permission to publish translations into Catalan, with such blunt statements as “They are translations from other languages into Catalan” and “Rejected since it is a translation from another language” (Gallofré 1991: 262, 263) until in 1948 Riba and Sagarra were granted permission to publish their versions of The Odyssey and The Divine Comedy, although under one condition: that the works were published in highly limited and costly deluxe editions. One year earlier, in 1947, Lluís Deztany (pseudonym of the soldier and scholar Lluís Faraudo i de Saint-Germain) had managed to publish his translation of Les dues donzelles by Cervantes (a writer who, like others, the regime manipulated for its own ends); yet the edition was limited to 359 copies. However, these few swallows did not make a summer. Who could possibly have wished to translate works from a language of imposition into an oppressed language? Almost another 20 years would have to pass, until the mid-sixties, before a significant number of translations from Spanish to Catalan began to appear again. Two different factors contributed to this: on one hand, the relaxation of the censorship laws against translations into the “other” languages of the state; and on the other, the rise of the realistic novel in Spanish and the outstanding popular success of a number of authors who were on good terms with the regime.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.9 (518-557)

Translation from Spanish into Catalan during the 20th century 

Among the latter, Ramon Folch i Camarasa translated a number of works by J. L. Martín-Vigil: Morin els capellans (1965), La vida ens ve a trobar (1965) and Un sexe anomenat dèbil (1970), and Bartomeu Bardagí, the prestigious corrector, translated José Ma Gironella’s trilogy on contemporary Spanish history set in Catalonia, Els xiprers creuen en Déu (1967), Un milió de morts (1967) and Ha esclatat la pau (1968). Among the new novelists, it was Camilo José Cela who drew practically all the attention, with four of his novels being translated into Catalan. The first to see the light of day was La família d’en Pascual Duarte published in Majorca in 1956, translated by Miquel M. Serra i Pastor and prefaced by Llorenç Villalonga. Some ten years later in 1966, his book describing travels in the Catalan Pyrenees Viatge al Pirineu de Lleida appeared, translated by another Majorcan who worked with Cela at the journal Papeles de Son Armadans, Josep M. Llompart. Llompart also wrote a penetrating prologue, justifying his translation in an epoch when it was no longer necessary to translate from Spanish into Catalan: “How can this work I have undertaken be justified? What reasons of necessity or simple utility can justify it? Quite simply, none.” The reason for the translation was, according to the translator, the author’s insistence; Cela is “determined to see his book published in Catalan” (Llompart 1966: 8). Shortly after, there arrived El rusc (1969) and, finally, Barcelona (1970), both of which were translated by Folch i Camarasa and published by Alfaguara in the same rather deluxe collection Ara i Ací, in which the earlier Viatge al pireneu de Lleida had also appeared. The vigour of the markedly ideological essay genre around Europe at that time, arising mainly from the events in France in 1968, led to Catalan versions of some of the books having an impact in Spain, including works by José Luis Aranguren, Manuel Sacristán, Alfonso Comín, Esteban Pinilla de las Heras, Carlos Castilla del Pino and Francesc Candel (practically all of whose work has been translated into Catalan with the translation sometimes even appearing before the original). To the fore among the translators rendering these writers into Catalan is writer and playwright Ramon Folch i Camarasa, one of the first, if not the first of the “professionals” in Catalonia. Translator from English to Spanish with the World Health Organisation (1973–1986), he has translated numerous works from English, French and Italian into Spanish (anonymously or under a pseudonym) and Catalan. His translations into Catalan number more than 100, thirteen of which were from Spanish: works by Aranguren, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Candel, Cela, Martín-Vigil, Sacristán and other more technical works, in addition to Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz, a translation he was commissioned to do despite the fact that he spoke not a word of Polish. Even the briefest of surveys would be incomplete without mention of the poetic translations of the works of Rubén Darío and Aleixandre by Miquel Forteza (1960); the translations of Pablo Neruda by Xavier Benguerel (1974); of Góngora, Quevedo, Alberti, Cernuda, Claudio Rodríguez and Antonio Colinas by Marià

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.10 (557-618)

 Montserrat Bacardí

Villangómez (1991); and the translations by Miquel Àngel Riera of Rafael Alberti’s Poemes de l’enyorament (1972). With the exception of this last case, none of these translations has been published in a self-contained book form, since the translations were of individual poems in keeping with the taste and interest of the translators. Similarly, mention must be made of the abbreviated version of Blanquet i jo by Juan Ramón Jiménez, translated by Miquel Solà i Dalmau in 1976, photocopied as a Christmas greeting for his friends and family and published posthumously in 1989 by the Centre d’Estudis Comarcals d’Igualada. This particular translation continues to be largely unknown. The explosion of Latin American literature – the famous boom – spurred Folch i Camarasa to translate El senyor president by Miguel Ángel Asturias (1968) (winner of the Nobel Prize in 1967) and Avel.lí Artís-Gener, who had lived in Mexico for 26 years and worked with García Márquez, to translate Cent anys de solitud (1970) and Crònica d’una mort anunciada (1982), L’Aleph by Borges (1983) and a collection of stories, Els cadells i altres narracions, by Vargas Llosa (1984). Artís-Gener explained that he became involved in translating Latin American authors to Catalan at the request of García Márquez: “Antoni López-Llausàs [of Edhasa publishers] asked García Márquez what present he would like to mark the sale of the millionth copy of Cien años”, the author’s response was “Translation into Catalan. I find it intolerable to have the book available in 15 languages but not in the language of the city where I have chosen to live” (Artís-Gener 1982: 19). One would imagine that the underlying motivation must have been quite different in the case of Enric Martí i Muntaner, a Catalan who went to seek his fortune in Buenos Aires at the turn of the century, when he translated José Hernández’s seminal poem Martín Fierro, maintaining its metric form. The translation was not published until 1977, although the prologue is dated “January 1936”. The year 1973 saw the publication of Qüestió de nassos by the Mexican writer originally from Barcelona, Maruxa Vilalta, translated by Josep M. Poblet, writer and politician who was also in exile in Mexico after the Spanish Civil War. In 1982, Fulgor i mort de Joaquim Murieta by Pablo Neruda appeared in a controversial translation by the poet Miquel Martí i Pol, which was staged for two seasons at Teatre Lliure. Finally, mention must be made of the publisher Max Cahner’s initiative to follow in the footsteps of Barcino’s 1930 work with Catalan translations of early Renaixença novels from the mid-19th century on Catalan subject matter but originally written in Spanish by such writers as Víctor Balaguer, Joan Cortada, Ramon López Soler, Pere Mata and Abdó Terrades. These were published towards the end of the eighties and several were translated by renowned writers such as Maria Àngels Anglada and Jesús Moncada. At the close of the century, the Valencian publisher Tàndem presented “three renowned writers in Spanish, translated by three of our writers”; these were

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.11 (618-677)

Translation from Spanish into Catalan during the 20th century 

“Manuel Talens translated by Albert Sasi”, “Pilar Pedraza translated by Adolf Beltran” and “Susana Fortes translated by Rosa Serrano” (according to the advertisement in no. 785 of El Temps, on 29 June). The novels were Venjances, Els ulls blaus i altres contes inquietants and Estimat corto maltés, respectively, all three loosely falling within the crime fiction category. This was almost certainly the first time since the Spanish postwar period that the original works for translation were chosen not so much for the consideration in which they were held as for the fact that they were likely to generate tangible income without sacrificing literary quality. As Isabel-Clara Simó pointed out in the same magazine some months later (no. 832, 23 May 2000), “there is a Catalan market [...]. And, since books in Catalan seem to have their own circuit, someone has decided to carry out the experiment. Let us wait and see what comes of it.” Since then, a number of other books have been translated from Spanish into Catalan, usually on the basis that they are guaranteed to sell well. Examples include essays by Carmen Alborch, Juan Luis Cebrián and Fernando Savater, adventure novels by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, La ciutat dels prodigis by Eduardo Mendoza (2000) and, an even clearer example, the Planeta Prize-winning Mentre vivim by Maruja Torres (2001) and La cançó de Dorotea by Rosa Regàs (2002), L’ombra del vent by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2002) and Soldats de Salamina by Javier Cercas (2003), all highly successful in the original language and mainly written by authors of Catalan origin. Once again, as if nothing had changed over the years, we find a process of linguistic and cultural re-integration via translation. This brief survey has not dealt with children’s books, books for young people or modern religious literature – fields which are all ruled by entirely different governing factors, and in which translation from Spanish has been a regular feature in recent years, almost always on the basis of guaranteed profits. Long gone are the days of the Renaixença ideals – and the amateur translations of Quixot into Catalan. Today, it is market forces which rule the roost. With a little determination however, even this situation might eventually work in our favour. (Translated by Carl MacGabhann)

Note . Published at the end of the 19th century and mostly at the beginning of the 20th century, Pompeu Fabra’s spelling and grammar rules and dictionary came to form the basis of the standards used in modern Catalan.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 11:43

F: BTL5818.tex / p.12 (677-776)

 Montserrat Bacardí

References Anguera, Pere (1997). El català al segle XIX. De llengua de poble a llengua nacional. Barcelona: Empúries. Artís-Gener, Avel·lí (1982). “Crònica d’una traducció anunciada”. Avui, 5 Sept. 1982, 18–19. Bacardí, Montserrat (2001). “Traduir el Quixot al català: més enllà de la intel·ligibilitat”. Revista de Catalunya, 165, 70–78. Bacardí, Montserrat & Estany, Imma (1999). “La mania cervàntica. Les traduccions del Quixot al català (1836–50?–1906)”. Quaderns. Revista de Traducció, 3, 49–59. Bulbena i Tusell, Antoni (1937). Dietari. Barcelona: Biblioteca de Catalunya. Carreras Candi, Francesc (1895). Lo cervantisme a Barcelona. Barcelona: Estampa “La Catalana” de J. Puigventós. Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1969). Don Quixot de la Manxa. Barcelona: Tarraco. Colon, Germà & Soberanas, Amadeu-J. (1991). “L’aportació lexicogràfica del Nebrija català”. In Panorama de la lexicografia catalana (pp. 60–79). Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana. Corretger, Montserrat (1995). Alfons Maseras: intel·lectual d’acció i literat (Biografia. Obra periodística. Traduccions). Barcelona: Curial/Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat. Fuster, Joan (1988). Literatura catalana contemporània. Barcelona: Curial. Gallén, Enric (2001). “Traduir i adaptar teatre a Catalunya (1898–1938)”. In Luis Pegenaute (Ed.), La traducción en la Edad de Plata (pp. 49–74). Barcelona: PPU. Gallofré i Virgili, Maria Josepa (1991). L’edició catalana i la censura franquista (1939–1951). Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat. Llompart, Josep M. (1966). “Pròleg del traductor”. In Camilo José Cela, Viatge al Pirineu de Lleida (pp. 7–13). Barcelona: Alfaguara. Maseras, Alfons (1935). “Introducció”. In Manuel de Cabanyes, Poesies completes (pp. 5–14). Barcelona: Barcino. Rafanell, August (1999). La llengua silenciada. Una història del català del Cinccents al Vuitcents. Barcelona: Empúries. Romaguera i Ramió, Joaquim (1988). “Traduccions entre llengües de l’Estat espanyol”. Revista de Catalunya, 21, 135–142. Rubió i Balaguer, Jordi (1984). Història de la literatura catalana I. Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat. Rubió i Balaguer, Jordi (1986). Història de la literatura catalana III. Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat. “També nosaltros. Prop de la reivindicasió rechional”. In Gonzalo Cantó, La princesa Hulda. El Cuento del Dumenche, 25, 490. Ugarte, Xus (2002). “Esbós de les traduccions d’editorial Mentora i Llegiu-me: la literatura de consum”. Quaderns. Revista de Traducció, 8, 41–49. Wittlin, Curt (1995). “La “valenciana prosa” del traductor Bernardí Vallmanya”. In De la traducció literal a la creació literària (pp. 157–179). València/Barcelona: Institut Interuniversitari de Filologia Valenciana/Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.1 (41-103)

Translation between Spanish and Catalan today* Cristina García de Toro

.

Introduction

The restoration of democracy in Spain witnessed the (re)birth of translation between the different languages spoken in some regions of the country (Catalan, Galician and Basque) from and into Spanish and also among themselves. The creation of regional governments and the progressive recovery in the use of regional languages made possible the recovery of this translation practice. Focusing our attention on translation between Spanish and Catalan, and on the period from the restoration of democracy (1975) up to the present day, we can see important changes in this short period: the publishing output has progressively increased in volume, scientific and technical translation together with audiovisual translation are beginning to appear, and the translation of administrative documents is being done on a fairly widespread basis. These changes can be explained by the new political circumstances in Spain and by the backing that the Catalan language is now beginning to receive in the different areas in which it is used. This support is helping the Catalan language to recover from the many years of dictatorship during which it was banned (1936–1975). Both writing in Catalan and the translation of documents and texts that were written only in Spanish for over fifty years have been playing a decisive role in this process of recovery and standardisation of the Catalan language. However, this is not the only reason that justifies translation between Spanish and Catalan, and it does not take place in only one direction, from Spanish to Catalan. At present we find that translating in the opposite direction (from Catalan into Spanish) is also becoming as common. In the sections below we will review the main areas in which translation between these two languages (in both directions) is carried out, while examining the regularities and reasons governing this type of transfer. We will focus our attention on the four chief areas in which translation is performed, i.e. literary, legal and administrative, scientific and

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.2 (103-294)

 Cristina García de Toro

technical, and audiovisual, each of which displays its own specific characteristics and circumstances. We will start by looking at the data on publishing output, which will provide us with a general view of everything that is published, and will therefore include data on literary translation. We will then go on to examine other areas, which are more difficult to classify because in most cases the translations are not published and often the name of the author does not even appear at the end of the text. Our aim is to offer just a preliminary, general exploration of each of the areas described above.

. Publishing output One of the first works to collect statistical data about publishing output and the number of translations carried out in Spain is that of Julio César Santoyo (1985). Taking El libro español, (no. 242, 255, 267, 278 and 289–290) as the source of his information, the author presents the data corresponding to translations done between 1977 and 1981. These data can be seen in Table 1 below. The table shows the early part of the period under study and the data seem to show that the translation into Spanish of works originally written in Catalan either did not exist or, if it did, was included in the last group “other.” It seems more likely, however, that it was ignored (as that from other languages of Spain) because the study was probably not aimed at examining this particular phenomenon. If we move forward two decades, however, and look at the figures for the period between April 2002 and March 2003 in Table 2, significant differences with Table 1 are to be found. It is important to note, however, that the two tables do not measure exactly the same phenomenon. The first table measures only translations into Spanish (which does not appear as a source language) and the second table measures all translations into any language. Be that as it may, it can still be seen that all the official languages in Spain are now included in the table, and that Catalan is now in a leading position ahead of languages like Russian and Greek. In addition to that, there has been a significant increase in the total number of translations: over a oneyear period the number of pieces of work being translated rose from about 7,000 in 1981 to 18,000 in 2002–2003. The inclusion of the other official languages of Spain and the prominent position which Catalan now occupies show the great change that has taken place in the sphere of translation. Although this process had already begun almost twenty years earlier with the re-established liberties that accompanied the arrival of democracy, it was not consolidated until the enactment of the statutes of autonomy for the different communities in Spain, and the respective laws on language policy,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.3 (294-295)

Translation between Spanish and Catalan today 

Table 1. Translated books published in Spain between 1977 and 1981 (Santoyo 1985: 132) Source Language

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

English French Italian German Russian Greek Swedish Dutch Latin Portuguese Danish Japanese Arabic Hungarian Chinese Hebrew Polish Slovene Romanian Czech Hindi Norwegian Sanskrit Finnish Turkish Afrikaans Slovak Other TOTAL

2831 1595 887 636 102 64 47 31 28 28 24 18 9 9 8 5 5 3 3 2 2 1 1 – – – – – 6339

2916 1533 593 755 130 46 14 35 54 42 19 9 36 3 5 3 7 1 3 1 – 1 4 2 1 – – 52 6265

3164 1696 593 695 63 50 31 33 47 28 12 7 17 8 7 5 13 1 1 4 – 15 – 3 – – – 118 6638

3465 1782 681 804 90 60 24 40 65 63 20 36 20 3 13 15 9 1 1 2 4 8 – 1 – 2 1 147 7330

3925 1732 757 779 73 69 21 20 49 53 22 12 19 4 13 9 8 1 1 7 8 – – 2 127* 1 – 120 7833

“*The figure is excessively high; perhaps it is a mistake in the source used to obtain these data: El libro español, 242 (p. 81), 255 (p. 136), 267 (p. 148), 278 (p. 61) and 289–290 (p. 6)” (Santoyo 1985: 132) [my translation]

which have encouraged and guaranteed the use of Catalan as well as translation into this language.1 Their influence and the results obtained can be clearly seen in Table 2.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.4 (295-322)

 Cristina García de Toro

Table 2. Evolution of publishing output according to languages translated (April 2002–March 2003) (source: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte: http://agora.mcu.es/libro) Number of ISBNs April–June July–September October–Dec. Jan.–March Total 2002 2002 2002 2003 April 2002– March 2003* English Spanish French German Italian Catalan Portuguese Latin Greek Galician Russian Basque Other languages TOTAL

2,571 781 540 317 194 133 67 74 49 19 23 12 73 4,853

1,668 599 427 299 176 127 56 22 32 30 16 8 53 3,513

2,345 574 543 291 244 107 49 35 33 38 23 30 149 4,461

3,102 744 639 397 294 130 33 47 50 17 21 15 118 5,607

9,686 2,698 2,149 1,304 908 497 205 178 164 104 83 65 393 18,434

*I have added the last row, “Total April 2002–March 2003”

. Literary translation According to the Index Translationum (UNESCO 2000), literary translation accounts for about 50% of the books published in the world. The figures, however, offer no solid information about what kind of texts are translated or about the tendencies that can be observed. My analysis will be based on the study by Joaquim Romaguera (1988), who makes use of a less numerical approach to go deeper into these matters. The author first highlights the importance of differentiating between the language direction of translation, since the translation of works from Catalan into Spanish and from Spanish into Catalan does not occur in a parallel fashion. It is not always necessary to translate books from Spanish into Catalan (or from Spanish into Basque or into Galician) because many of the speakers and readers in these regions are bilingual, thus they can read Spanish and translation is not needed. But the situation in the other direction (from Catalan, Galician or Basque into Spanish) is quite different: speakers from the monolingual areas of Spain, who can only speak or read Spanish, do need translations from these other languages into Spanish. In line with these criteria, more novels, poetry and essays are translated

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.5 (322-379)

Translation between Spanish and Catalan today 

from Catalan into Spanish than in the opposite direction. In the following sections we will examine these differences according to language direction.

. Literary translation from Catalan into Spanish According to Romaguera (1988: 136–138), the books that are translated in this direction are usually endorsed by good sales figures in the original language; having won some important prize or, simply, the author’s reputation also come to bear on the decision to translate or not. This is the case of the publishing company Plaza y Janés, which usually publishes Catalan best-sellers translated into Spanish, such as the works of Salvador Espriu, Terenci Moix, Joan Perucho, Manuel de Pedrolo, Isabel-Clara Simó, and so on. The publishing house Planeta usually brings out a Spanish version of the winner and finalists of its Ramon Llull literary prize some time after they appear in Catalan. Editorial Anagrama also includes Catalan authors translated into Spanish in some of its collections shortly after they appear in Catalan. In this translating practice there are clear links to be found between publishers (Quaderns Crema, for example, provides Anagrama with its original versions) and there are even cases of subsidiary publishing companies that bring out Spanish translations of books that have previously appeared in Catalan. They are consolidated firms that have published in Catalan since they were founded, such as Edicions 62, Columna and Bromera among others. These publishing houses have never abandoned their initial policy of publishing solely in Catalan, but after some years of intense production involving very popular books, have given up the rights on these works so they can be translated into Spanish – and other languages. Ediciones Península, Ediciones del Bronce and Editorial Algar, respectively, are the firms that publish them in Spanish. As Romaguera (1988: 138) states, the trend that is observed is “positive and logical, and should be far more widespread. It should not be limited to just novels and to poetry, apart from, of course, textbooks [. . . ] and books for children and teenagers, a field in which the number of publications is already quite significant” [my translation]. The trend has not only continued throughout this last decade but has also reached fields that have seen how their output has undergone a considerable increase. This is the case of literature for children and teenagers.

. Literary translation from Spanish into Catalan Fewer translations are made in this direction than in the case we have just considered, even though the market was given an extraordinary boost in the

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.6 (379-427)

 Cristina García de Toro

eighties as a result of the urgent need for children’s and teenagers’ literature to be used in primary and secondary schools. This need arose because an essential part of the syllabi in Catalan language classes included pupils’ having to read several books each year, and at first many of these books were translations. The Index Translationum lists 350 books for children and teenagers that were translated from Spanish into Catalan over the period 1978 to 1996, out of a total number of 853 books. Apart from the particular case of children’s and teenagers’ books, however, literature in general finds itself in a very different situation. According to Romaguera, throughout the seventies and the eighties an average of only one or two books were translated from Spanish into Catalan each year. This trend also continued into the nineties.2 In spite of the scant number of titles, publication has been steady and regular. Francesc Parcerisas (1997) points out the importance of the subsidies and other financial aid both public and private institutions assign to the translation of literary works. For example, the aid coming from institutions such as the Servei del Llibre de la Generalitat de Catalunya, together with the backing of the bank “la Caixa”, are what have made some of the most reputable collections in Catalonia possible. This was the case of MOLU and MOLUXX (Les millors obres de la Literatura Universal and Les millors obres de la Literatura Universal segle XX, meaning The Best Universal Literary Works and The Best Universal Literary Works of the 20th Century) by Edicions 62. For example, with the help of the Diputació de Barcelona, Edicions del Mall brought out the bilingual collection of narratives “Marca Hispánica.”3 Finally, bilingual Catalan-Spanish editions are not very numerous and are mainly restricted to editions of poetic texts, and more specifically to anthologies of the works of highly reputed authors (Joan Maragall, Salvador Espriu, Ausiàs March, etc.). All in all production is limited.

. Audiovisual translation Audiovisual translation is a recent development in the practice of translating. In Spain itself, its beginnings were tied up with a historic event that came about just as this new mode of translating was getting off the ground – the Spanish Civil War and the post-war years. The audiovisual sector in Spain had got translation for dubbing off to a strong start in 1932, but very soon the outbreak of war was to cut that activity short. It did not return to normal again until 1940. Nevertheless, this idea of “normal” was relative because from then on the film industry had to comply with the regulations of the law “Orden de 23 de abril de 1941,” which expressly

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.7 (427-486)

Translation between Spanish and Catalan today 

forbade the use of both foreign languages and those of the autonomous regions in Spain. Hearing any other language that was not Spanish was out of the question. Moreover, subtitled versions also disappeared. It was easy to apply the censorship imposed by the regime to dubbed versions, but not to those with subtitles. With the enactment of this law, dubbing into Catalan was no longer allowed, and neither was the production of films in Catalan. No films were shot in Catalan until the latter days of Franco’s regime. The first to recover such a tradition were Laia in 1970 and El Judes in 1972 (Izard 2001: 207). Translating between Spanish and Catalan, then, was a late development that did not begin with the birth of dubbing but had to wait until 1975, when it set off slowly along a path full of obstacles to be overcome, the most important of which was the weighty tradition of dubbing exclusively into Spanish. Fifty years of listening only to Spanish in the cinema and on television was a tradition that could not be changed overnight. The essential difference between the audiovisual field and other fields is that it reaches a far greater number of citizens. The ban on regional languages led to Spanish being accepted and identified as the language of mass-media. Changing the way such a large number of viewers think was harder than in other spheres, indeed it could be said that this was not really achieved until regional television channels appeared. This is why we believe that audiovisual translation between these two languages only really started when TV3 (a Catalan TV channel) appeared in 1983, or when Canal 9 (a Valencian television channel) was set up in 1989. The final consolidation of these channels was accompanied by the later appearance of their second channels: Canal 33 (the second channel of Catalan television) and Punt 2 (the second Valencian TV channel), during the next decade. The regional television companies were set up with the aim of standardising and disseminating the language of the region in question. In the case of Catalonia the regional government’s determination to regulate audiovisual programming by means of a legal framework played a key role.4 One of the most important points included in the 1998 law on language policy was section 3 of chapter 28, where specific mention is made of screen and distribution quotas according to languages: In order to guarantee a significant presence of the Catalan language among the films that are shown, the Govern de la Generalitat [regional government] can establish by law screen and distribution quotas according to languages for cinema products that are distributed and shown in versions that are dubbed or subtitled in a language other than the original. The quotas established for cinema productions that are dubbed or subtitled in Catalan shall not be more than fifty percent of the annual number of productions offered by distributors and shown in cinemas, and must be based on objective criteria. [my translation]

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.8 (486-537)

 Cristina García de Toro

This is no more than an example, but it is a very thorough set of regulations that has had notable effects on translating into Catalan. The need to reach a sufficiently high degree of diffusion of Catalan in cinemas, but also the need to fill the regional television networks’ programming time, has favoured and encouraged both their own productions and translating.5

. Audiovisual translation from Spanish into Catalan In both cinema and television the criteria determining whether or not to translate from Spanish into Catalan are very similar to those we have mentioned above with regard to the translation of literary works. The Catalan-speaking public understands Spanish, thus translation is not necessary. Nevertheless, as was the case with literary translation, some films have already been translated from Spanish and dubbed in Catalan. There are certain prevailing criteria that weigh against dubbing, namely: (a) the weight of tradition, which would advise against translating into Catalan because Catalan people have been listening to the voices of Spanish actors in Spanish for fifty years and have got used to doing so, (b) economic criteria – the increased expenses involved in duplicating versions, or even (c) aesthetic criteria – people who advocate the original versions. Yet, it seems there are other reasons somewhere in the background that make these translations possible, and these reasons have to do with language policy. On the one hand, certain broadcasting quotas in Catalan have to be met, and on the other hand the media must fulfil the standardising function they have been assigned. Translating from Spanish into Catalan, although in a selective manner, is a solution that ensures these two goals are met. Among the films televised by TV3 and Canal 33 from the moment they began broadcasting (1983) until 1997, we find about fifty films that have been translated into Catalan (Televisió de Catalunya 1997: 110–208). A number of these titles are exclusively Spanish productions, others are co-productions with other countries, while still others are films for children and cartoon films. It can be said that very few are films that can be considered classics or myths in cinema history, and none of the great Spanish directors are included, with perhaps the odd exception. This leads us to conclude that, although this audiovisual language policy has exerted a heavy influence, aesthetic criteria, like the preference for original Spanish versions with Spanish actors’ voices, have not been completely dismissed, and that explains why classic Spanish films have not been translated. If we turn to productions for the cinema, the list of films that have been translated is much shorter: Hotel y domicilio: Hotel i domicili (Ernesto del Río 1995); El porqué de las cosas: El perquè de tot plegat (Ventura Pons 1994); El cartero y Pablo Neruda: El carter i Pablo Neruda (1995); Actrices: Actrius (Ventura Pons 1996); or

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.9 (537-601)

Translation between Spanish and Catalan today 

Gracias por la propina: Gràcies per la propina (Francesc Bellmunt 1997) (Generalitat de Catalunya 2003, http://www.gencat.es/llegcat/cinema/video.htm and Generalitat de Catalunya 2003, http://cultura.gencat.net/llengcat/cinema/docs/v_adults.pdf).

. Spanish as an intermediary language Another group of films that has been translated from Spanish into Catalan consists of foreign productions that had previously been translated into Spanish and later translated again from that language into Catalan. This solution is usually adopted when they are to be shown on television rather than in the cinema. These are a few examples of this strategy: – – – –

El gato con botas: El gat amb botes (Nagagutsu o haita neko) (Japan, 1969, K. Yabuki) Papaíto Piernas Largas: Papà Cames Llargues (Daddy Long Legs) (USA, 1955, Negulesco) Violetas imperiales: Violetes imperials (Violettes imperiales) (France, 1932, H. Roussell) La vuelta al mundo en 80 días: La volta al món en 80 dies (Around the World in 80 Days) (USA, 1956, M. Anderson)

These films come from a great variety of sources, ranging from co-productions in which Spain is also involved to solely American or Japanese productions. The latter are often productions aimed at children or are cartoon films. This confirms the theory put forward by Toury (1995) about the frequent use of intermediary languages – what he calls indirect translations.

. Audiovisual translation from Catalan into Spanish Although translations into Catalan have generated a bigger market for the reasons explained above, there are two genres that are currently being translated into Spanish: series and films (including short films). In this direction, audiovisual translation is justified in those cases in which the original Catalan language productions are sold to be broadcast in the rest of Spain or any other Spanishspeaking territory. But first there must be a series of home-grown products that could be of interest to audiences outside Catalonia.

Series It is clear that Catalonia has encouraged and supported in-house productions. The results are especially apparent on television, where nearly fifty percent of screen time is given over to in-house productions (Chaume 2003: 18). Over the past few

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.10 (601-663)

 Cristina García de Toro

years a large part of this percentage of home production has been made up of television series and serials (very popular in certain audience slots). Some of the most notable of these include: Poble nou (1992), Plats bruts (2000), Veterinaris (2000), and the children’s cartoon series Les tres bessones (1997). These series have been translated into Spanish and broadcast by state television networks throughout the rest of Spain: – – – –

Poble nou → Los mejores años, Tele5, 1995 Plats bruts → Platos sucios, Vía Digital (Canal Gran Vía), 2000–2001 Veterinaris → Veterinarios, Vía Digital (Canal Gran Vía), 2000–2001 Les tres bessones → Las tres mellizas, TVE2 2001–2003

The tremendous popularity of the original Catalan versions of these series when shown in Catalonia justified their being translated. Veterinaris (35.7% audience share figure, with an average of one million viewers) and Plats bruts (an audience share figure of 35% with an average of more than 900,000 viewers) have been the first and second-most popular programmes in the history of TV3, respectively (Isardo 2000). As can be seen, none of these translations is very old, which means this practice is a recent development. These are just the first few tentative steps along a path that has just been opened up. If we heed the opinions of Mayoral (1999) on the inevitable growth of dubbing and the other modes of audiovisual translation, then we can foresee an even brighter future. According to this author the rapid technological progress in which society finds itself immersed also has an effect on the audiovisual world. This can be seen by the arrival of new forms of media that develop at an incredible pace and will continue to need ever more professional, efficient, fast and high quality translations.6

Films Natàlia Izard (2000: 210) states that “Since 1975 an average of between 10 and 15 films have been produced every year in Catalan”. These films are usually translated into Spanish after they are shot in Catalan, although very often they are projected at the same time in both languages but in different kinds of cinemas. The Catalan version is usually shown in less popular arts cinemas, whereas these films are shown in Spanish in more commercial cinemas. Some examples of films translated into Spanish in this way are Carícies: Caricias (Ventura Pons 1997); Amic/Amat: Amigo/Amado (Ventura Pons 1999); Els sense nom: Los sin nombre (Jaume Balagueró 1998); or L’illa de l’holandés: La isla del holandés (Sigfrid Monleón 2001). To sum up, from the data we have offered we can state that the linguistic tendency in audiovisual translation is beginning to invert itself. At first, we found translations from Spanish into Catalan (for reasons linked with language policy),

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.11 (663-720)

Translation between Spanish and Catalan today 

but at present, aesthetic reasons (such as considering a film as a work of art that should not be manipulated) and economic motives (there is no need to translate from a language everyone can understand) seem to have curbed this practice. On the other hand, the commercial success of certain audiovisual products together with the promotion and fostering of audiovisual productions in Catalan (where the quality of the films is getting better and better) have brought about the need to start translating in the opposite direction – from Catalan into Spanish.

. Legal and administrative translation The translation of legal and administrative documents from Spanish into Catalan has played an essential role in the process of standardising the language and continues to do so. In a study published in the journal Senez, Marta Xirinachs (1997) analysed the importance of this type of translation in the process of standardisation of Catalan. She also presented very significant data on the current situation of translation between these two languages. Carles Duarte also dedicated many pages and a lot of effort to this matter both in his regular contributions to the journals Llengua i Administració and Revista de Llengua i Dret and in the book Llengua i administració (1993). The following data is a synthesis of the work of these two researchers. The first issue we find in this field is the inequality that exists between the two constituent parts – the administrative area and the legal field. In the administration, translation between Spanish and Catalan has reached a fairly high degree of consolidation, as can be seen by the fact that it is present in all the regional public institutions, for example. The same is not true, however, for the legal domain, where Catalan is much less common than Spanish and hence translations carried out between pairs of languages involving Catalan are also fewer. The degree of consolidation within the administrative field is a direct result of the application of a legal framework drawn up by the regional authorities that regulates and ensures that both languages (Catalan and Spanish) are accepted as official in the Catalan linguistic domain. The aim of this legal framework is to guarantee that all the texts (i.e. administrative documents) required for normal public use of the Catalan language are made available. And this aim is fulfilled by creating texts in the two official languages and translating all documents and papers from one into the other. We cannot then separate this domain from the legal framework that sustains it (see Note 1).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.12 (720-767)

 Cristina García de Toro

. The direction of translation What this legal framework did not consider was the source language of the documents: Catalan or Spanish. And given the fact that both are official languages, it became necessary to first decide which was to be the source language for the documents. Deciding on which was the source language meant determining the validity of the different versions of a legal text and the criteria to be used to decide which would prevail, should there be any doubt or contradiction. It was necessary to establish a procedure that could be used to resolve cases of disparity between texts whose interpretation was ambiguous. The laws governing linguistic standardisation in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands attempted to resolve this dilemma by inserting the following (for all texts produced in the region but not ones coming from the central Spanish government): “Should there be any doubt concerning the interpretation, the text in Catalan shall be taken as the authentic version”. Nevertheless, in both communities the Spanish Constitutional Court (in rulings 83/1983 and 123/1988), declared the above-mentioned amendments unconstitutional due to the fact that they established the primacy of the Catalan texts, which was deemed as unacceptable within the parameters set down by the Spanish Constitution (the recognition of both Catalan and Spanish as official languages). On declaring them null and void, the ruling referred to Article 3.1 of the Civil Code as the regulation to be followed: “The regulations must be interpreted in accordance with the meaning of the words themselves, in relation to the context, historical and legislative background, and the social reality of the period in which they are to be applied, taking essentially into account their spirit and their purpose”. Nevertheless, the Civil Code actually leads to the same conclusion, albeit in different words. The context and historical and legislative background bring us back, at least as far as the regional legislation in Catalonia is concerned, to the text in Catalan, which is the one used by members of parliament in all their proceedings. This means that it is the text in Catalan that is taken as pre-eminent in cases of doubt or contradiction (Duarte 1993: 106–107). Another factor that comes to bear on the direction of the translation is the type of documents involved. Carles Duarte (1993: 91) explains that the system employed is the following: 1. Laws and provisions in Catalonia are translated from Catalan into Spanish. 2. State laws and provisions to be applied in Catalonia are translated from Spanish into Catalan (e.g. the Catalan version of the Spanish Constitution). 3. European Community provisions that affect Catalonia are translated from the working languages of the European Communities into Catalan.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.13 (767-823)

Translation between Spanish and Catalan today 

In addition to these types of documents we also find a large amount of translating of public texts used by the regional administration, such as the copies of documents written in Catalan by the Generalitat that must be sent to administrations outside the Catalan-speaking areas, or the forms used by the Generalitat, in case a citizen wishes to exercise his or her right to be informed in Spanish (Xirinachs 1997). As regards the procedure the Administration must follow in order to translate all these texts, Xirinachs claims that each department in the regional organisations has its own language service. Parallel to this, the Generalitat de Catalunya set up the Register of Sworn Translators and Interpreters (RTIJ), which started to work in 1994, and at the end of 2001 had a total of 564 people registered (Salvador 2001).

. The justice administration The judicial field constitutes a completely different case. Josep Peñarroja (2001) claims that translation between the two languages we are considering here is practically non-existent, especially as regards sworn translation, where it does not even account for one percent of all the sworn translations requested in Catalonia. In 1985 the provisions of the framework law on the Judiciary allowed judicial bodies to express themselves in a language other than Spanish. In 1983, the law of language policy had also provided for the validity of documents written in Catalan to be used in court proceedings. Nevertheless, Marta Xirinachs (1997) considers the standardisation of the Catalan language in these areas at present as not very satisfactory. In her opinion the causes are: the well-known historical developments, the education received by professionals in Spanish, the lack of knowledge of the Catalan language in most cases, and the fact that they belong to a single state body and are not required to have any knowledge of Catalan.

It is only logical that, faced with a panorama like this, many of the proposals for linguistic standardisation have to do, first and foremost, with professional training and translation. In 1993 the Generalitat introduced a linguistic standardisation programme for the Justice Administration. One of the basic objectives of the programme was to offer the 417 courts in Catalonia, which employ about 6,000 people, a single documentary database with models of all legal procedures in Catalan. To achieve this aim a computer application called Temis, which contains the Spanish version of several judicial documents together with their translation in Catalan, has been made available. However, only 4% of all the requests on the system are made in Catalan; and of the 200,000 documents that are produced every year using Temis, only 5,000 are in Catalan (Xirinachs 1997).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.14 (823-871)

 Cristina García de Toro

In conclusion, this shows a very different situation in comparison to that of the administrative domain, in which every document is offered to the citizens in both languages.

. Scientific and technical translation For years within this field there has existed the following debate: What is the language of science? Should there be just one, English? Or perhaps the target audience’s language should be used? If the latter were the case, could we include Catalan within this group of target languages? Lluís Marquet (1993) and Carles Riera (1994) have examined this controversial point and claim that Catalan has again taken up its place within the scientific and technological fields, as it had done centuries before. According to Riera, the Catalan language has managed to keep its position within the scientific field thanks especially to the publication of the Gran enciclopèdia catalana (1969), a magnum opus that represents a milestone in the process of configuring modern scientific language. The encyclopaedia includes far more scientific information than any previous work in Catalan and indeed more than many encyclopaedias in other languages. If the publication of the encyclopaedia was the first important step towards consolidating Catalan as a language in which to express science, the second and final stage of the process was the enactment of the statutes of autonomy (as happened with other fields). From that moment on, education in Catalan was gradually standardised. The need arose for specialised books that would help to fix the terminology within the different areas of science so that professionals, researchers, teachers, students and the general public could use the language correctly. Thus, publishers, institutions, universities, and so on worked hard to supply the Catalan-speaking community with the materials it needed for study and reference. On the one hand, then, there was an increase in the publication of works on different specialities and the teaching of science.7 On the other hand, books on the terminology of the different areas of scientific knowledge also began to appear (monolingual or multilingual dictionaries, vocabulary lists and glossaries), above all after the creation in 1985 of TERMCAT, the Catalan Terminology Centre. TERMCAT was to be a stimulus and a reference point for terminological work carried out in Catalonia and plays a key role in fixing and standardising the language. The task performed by this institution is especially important because it always conceives of the pieces of work it produces as plurilingual instruments (the

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.15 (871-929)

Translation between Spanish and Catalan today 

formal standardisation of new terms is done in Catalan and then usually compared with Spanish, English, French, Italian and German).

. Scientific and technical translation from Spanish into Catalan The translation of books and other pieces of work from Spanish into Catalan has its origins in several different interests. On the one hand, there is the desire to popularise scientific findings and theories that are inherent to this field of knowledge, and on the other hand there is the interest in standardising the Catalan language which, as we have just claimed, was so necessary in this area. The list of terminological works that have been published is very long.8 There are works that only include Spanish to Catalan equivalents; others go both ways (Spanish–Catalan and Catalan–Spanish); and others are trilingual or even quadrilingual. Sometimes the production of teaching materials and specialised works is included within the framework of multilingual programmes funded by different institutions and organisations. An example of this is the subsidies that different universities allocate to the budgets of their own language and terminology services for the publication and translation of teaching materials and research papers in Catalan.

. Scientific and technical translation from Catalan into Spanish The demand for translations in this direction is lower than in the other. Of the two types of interests that upheld translation from Spanish into Catalan (popularisation and standardisation) the only one that now justifies translation from Catalan into Spanish is the first – the wish to popularise knowledge. This explains why it is present to a much lower extent and is generally limited to books whose market is outside the Catalan-speaking areas. Translation does occur, however, in work produced by plurilingual programmes; such is the case of the studies undertaken in accordance with the principles of the MAB Programme (Man and Biosphere) run by UNESCO. It is also to be found in journals such as that of the Catalan UNESCO Centre, Tots. Quadern d’Educació Ambiental, a monthly publication with versions in Spanish, French and English. It is originally written in Catalan and then translated into the other languages. Nevertheless, these kinds of activities are usually part of initiatives that set out with a publication in Catalan and from there translate into several languages, not just into Spanish. Again, this can but confirm the premise with which we started this section regarding the internationalisation of science, more than any other field.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.16 (929-975)

 Cristina García de Toro

. Conclusions From this overview of the current situation of translation between Spanish and Catalan we can conclude that, while it cannot be compared with translation from and to major languages, it undoubtedly exists in every field and domain, in either or even in both directions. We have also seen how, unfortunately, the statistics are always limited to the world of publishing houses; they do not include any of the different areas in which the name of the translator does not appear, even though this accounts for large quantities of words, pages, texts and books that have been translated. The statistical data has shown us that translation between these two languages has gone from being practically non-existent in 1977–1981 to its present-day situation as a tangible fact. Although it began with the recovery of social liberties that accompanied the arrival of democracy, this process wasn’t consolidated until almost twenty years later, after the results of the enactment of the different statutes of autonomy and the laws on language policy (which have fostered and ensured the use of Catalan). This progress can be seen in the publishing and translation of books and texts into and from Catalan, fifty percent of which are literary translations. The majority of translations into Catalan are books for children and teenagers. But in addition to the statistics on publishing and literary output, we have found that in the case of the scientific and technical fields, the use of Catalan is currently becoming more consolidated in the academic world, where its presence and use have been spurred on by the growing need for teaching materials and reference books. It has also been given a boost by the protection and support afforded by institutions such as the EU and UNESCO. All this has helped to reach a situation in which the translation direction in this field is almost exclusively towards Catalan. In the legal and administrative domain, the translation of documents from Spanish into Catalan has played a fundamental role in the process of recovering the social use of the language over the past few decades. It has also served to open a debate about issues such as the need to modernise this kind of language or the terminology to be used within the speciality, in comparison with the more archaic Spanish legal language (Duarte 1993: 25). On the other hand, a significant difference between the situation in the administrative field and in the judicial domain has been shown. In the administrative field the practice of translation between Catalan and Spanish is regular in both directions, whereas in the judicial domain translation practically doesn’t take place, because the language used is Spanish. Finally, in the audiovisual domain we have stated that translation from Spanish into Catalan is done with some reserves stemming from aesthetic reasons and

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.17 (975-1039)

Translation between Spanish and Catalan today 

because of the weight of tradition. Instead, translation from Catalan into Spanish has increased over the last few years. Its presence in this direction depends, however, on how many series, films, documentaries, and so on are produced in Catalan, as well as their quality and popularity. In general, translation between Spanish and Catalan has just begun to walk a path that still has far to be covered in order to recover lost ground. (Translated by Mark Andrews)

Notes * This research has been conducted as a part of the research project BFF 2002-01932 of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia and Fondos FEDER. . Three legal texts guarantee the use of Catalan: 1. The Spanish Constitution (1978), which, in article 3.2, provides for the official status of the Iberian languages other than Spanish; 2. The statutes of autonomy, which put the provisions of this article from the Constitution into practice by enacting the respective laws of language policy; 3. The language policy laws: (a) the new 1998 law on language policy of Catalonia; (b) the 1986 law on language policy of the Balearic Islands; and (c) the 1983 law on the use and teaching of Catalan in Valencia. All three legal texts ensure the normal use and official status of both languages while detailing the conduct to be followed by the institutions (Duarte 1993: 90). . Some examples could be: El senyor president (Miguel Ángel Asturias 1968); El Rusc and Viatge al Pirineu de Lleida (Camilo José Cela 1969); Don Quixot de la Manxa (Cervantes 1969); Lletra de batalla per Tirant lo Blanc (Mario Vargas Llosa 1969); Cent anys de solitud (Gabriel García Márquez 1970); Flor de romanços (Milà i Fontanals 1980); Contes (Clarín 1994); Borja, bòrgia (Manuel Vicent 1995). This tendency has continued these last years. . Marta Xirinachs (1997) also considers this aid as very important and adds that the financial support provided by the Generalitat, for example, is not restricted to subsidies to help publish literary works translated into Catalan, but also the translation of university manuals, the dubbing of films and videos, the production of IT software (such as Multiterm, a terminology management application with translation memory) or simultaneous interpreting. . The legal framework on audiovisual production can be consulted at: Generalitat de Catalunya . . It must be said, however, that the situation is not the same in all the autonomous communities. Although at the outset their aims (together with the subsidies they received) were to play a fundamental role in the process of linguistic standardisation, the results at this point in time are not at all the same for the different companies. Whereas TV3, Canal 33 and Punt 2 have maintained the same criteria since they began, and continue to produce, i.e. dub and subtitle wholly in Catalan, the case of Canal 9 Televisió Valenciana is very different. This channel has succumbed to the temptation of audience ratings and economic profitability

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.18 (1039-1118)

 Cristina García de Toro

and nearly all the foreign productions that are dubbed on this channel are broadcast in Spanish. Thus, while in Catalonia the use of the Catalan language by the television channels is fully guaranteed, this is not so in the case of this Valencian channel. Canal 9 has gradually included more and more Spanish in its programmes until it has reached the point where at present only about 50% of programmes broadcast on a daily basis are in Catalan and the number of films dubbed in the Catalan language is negligible. . In the field of written news media, this is also the case of the publication of newspapers like Segre or El Periódico de Catalunya. In the latter case, its being published in Catalan with the aid of technology was really a ground-breaking event in this language combination. Montoliu (2001) claimed that “In October 1997 El Periódico de Catalunya began publishing a daily edition in Catalan that was a clone of the one in Spanish. (. . . ) The entire Spanish version is translated into Catalan every day. The idea has turned out to be a success and with a figure of about 60,000 copies sold in Catalan daily, El Periódico is currently way ahead of any other newspaper in Catalan”. . For example, the journals Ciència [1980–present], L’Escaire [1979–present], Quaderns d’Enginyeria [1978–present], Qüestió [1977–present], Quaderns Tècnics [1985–1990], Tecno 2000 [1987–present], etc. . For a complete review of the literature, see Josep Maria Mestres (1996: 790–828).

References Chaume, Frederic (2003). Doblatge i subtitulació per a la TV. Vic: Eumo. Duarte, Carles (1993). Llengua i administració. Barcelona: Columna. Generalitat de Catalunya (2003a). “El català avui. Mitjans de comunicació i indústries culturals”. [Consulted 28 Jan. 2004]. Generalitat de Catalunya (2003b). “Cinema en català. Cinema en català doblat i subtitulat”. [Consulted 28 Jan. 2004]. Generalitat de Catalunya (2003c). “Cinema en català. En vídeo i DVD.” [Consulted 28 Jan. 2004]. Generalitat de Catalunya (2003d). “Recull de normativa legal sobre la llengua a Catalunya”. [Consulted 28 Jan. 2004]. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. “Cultura. Estudios sobre el sector del libro”. [Consulted 28 Jan. 2004]. Isardo, Elena (2000). “Via Digital ofrecerá ‘Platos sucios’ y ‘Veterinarios”’. El Mundo, 25 Oct. 2000. Izard, Natàlia (2000). “La traducció i la normalització de la llengua catalana: el cas de la televisió”. In A. Englebert (Ed.), Actes du XXIIe Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romane, Vol. III. Tubingen: Niemayer.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:15

F: BTL5819.tex / p.19 (1118-1191)

Translation between Spanish and Catalan today 

Izard, Natàlia (2001). “Doblaje y subtitulación: una aproximación histórica”. In M. Duro (Coord.), La traducción para el doblaje y la subtitulación (pp. 189–208). Madrid: Cátedra. Marquet, Lluís (1993). El llenguatge científic i tècnic. Barcelona: Associació d’Enginyers Industrials de Catalunya. Mayoral, Roberto (1999). “Nuevas perspectivas para la traducción audiovisual”. Conference given at the Universidade de Vigo, 7–10 July 1999. Mestres, Josep Maria et al. (1996). Manual d’estil: la redacció i l’edició de textos. Barcelona: Eumo. Montoliu, Carles (2001). “Informe sobre el sistema de traducción automática del Periódico de Catalunya”. Puntoycoma 51. [Consulted 3 Mar. 2001]. Parcerisas, Francesc (1997). Traducció, edició, ideologia. Aspectes sociològics de les traduccions de la Bíblia i de l’Odissea al català. Doctoral dissertation. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Peñarroja, Josep (2001). “Conferència de clausura del curs acadèmic 2000–2001 de la llicenciatura de Traducció i Interpretació”. Universitat Jaume I, 14 June 2001. Riera, Carles (1994). El llenguatge científic català. Barcelona: Barcanova. Romaguera, Joaquim (1988). “Traduccions entre llengües de l’Estat espanyol”. Revista de Catalunya, 21, 135–142. Salvador i Padrosa, Sever (2001). “Les proves d’habilitació per a la traducció i la interpretació jurades i el Registre professional de traductors i intèrprets jurats de la Generalitat de Catalunya”. Conference given at the Universitat Jaume I, 4 Apr. 2001. Santoyo, Julio César (1985). El delito de traducir. León: Universidad de León. Televisió de Catalunya (1997). Criteris Lingüístics sobre Traducció i Doblatge. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Toury, Gideon (1995). Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. UNESCO (2000). Index Translationun. París: Éditions, 6th edition, in CD-Rom. Xirinachs, Marta (1997). “La traducción como instrumento de normalización lingüística”. Senez. Itzulpen eta terminologiazko Aldizkaria, 19, 25–40.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.1 (42-98)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan A current assessment Irene Llop Jordana

.

Introduction

This article offers an overview of the situation of translation from a minority language, Hebrew, to another minority language, Catalan, through a review of the twentieth-century bibliography. It is structured in four sections. The first one has to do with the most important translators and their background. The second deals with the current situation of the studies and the students of Hebrew in Catalonia. The third section is about the main difficulties that translators have in translating a text from Hebrew into Catalan. The last section deals with the historical development of translation from Hebrew into Catalan from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present time. During this century, the political situation in Catalonia, the public status of Catalan, the type of translated books and the interest of the publishing houses has changed and has influenced the translations. At the end of this paper, there is an appendix containing the bibliography of the books which have been translated from Hebrew into Catalan from the beginning of the twentieth century to our days. It is divided into four chronological sections representing four types of translation, that of the Bible, medieval works, medieval documents and contemporary literature.

. Translators Translation of Hebrew works into Catalan has been done directly, without mediaton through other languages (except in the case of one translation from English). Since so few translations from Hebrew are published, translators have tended not to specialise. In biblical translation, one of the most important areas, translation

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.2 (98-161)

 Irene Llop Jordana

is characterised by teamwork. Given the large number of Bible scholars devoted to translation, we will deal only with the most notable ones here. Father Frederic Clascar (1873–1919) published a translation of the Gospel of Saint Mark in 1919; the Institut d’Estudis Catalans published his translations of Genesis, the Song of Songs and Exodus. He was one of the founders of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, writer for the newspaper Veu de Catalunya and one of the founders of Reseña Eclesiástica. Bonaventura Ubach (1879–1960), a Benedictine of Montserrat, studied at the Biblical School of Jerusalem and was professor of Hebrew and Syriac in the Pontificio Instituto Anselmiano in Rome. He promoted the Biblical Museum of Montserrat. In 1924 he returned to Jerusalem to work on a Catalan version of the Bible. He broke away from the Catalan Biblical Foundation due to discrepancies with Father Miquel Esplugues. In 1951 he returned to Montserrat. Guiu Camps, another Benedictine of Montserrat (1915–2000), studied at Montserrat, in Saint André les Bruges and Maredsous, at the Pontifical University of Salamanca, the Instituto Bíblico Pontificio of Rome, the Studium Biblicum of the Franciscans in Jerusalem, and the École Bibliques et Archéologue Française of the Dominicans in Jerusalem. He knew biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Greek and Latin. He was invested Doctor Honoris Causa in 1999 by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Josep Maria Millàs Vallicrosa (1897–1970) collaborated on biblical translation. He was professor of Hebrew at the Universitat de Barcelona, and wrote numerous books and articles about the history of Arab science and works by Hispanic Jews, studying the Muslim sources related to Catalonia. He also translated the Pentateuch (1928–1929) in collaboration with Carles Cardó, and the books of the prophets Isaiah (1935) and Jeremiah and Baruc (1946). He promoted the book collection Biblioteco Hebraico-Catalana together with Ignasi González Llubera. Ignasi González Llubera (1893–1962) was professor at Queen’s University in Belfast and member of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, the Academia de les Bones Lletres de Barcelona, and the Hispanic Society of America. He was the first president of the Association of Hispanists in Britain. He was also interested in medieval Hebrew literature. Translation activity into Catalan was interrupted after the Civil War (1936– 1939), except for the publication of biblical works. It wasn’t until the late sixties and early seventies that is was possible to return to the task of translation from Hebrew into Catalan. Eduard Feliu is currently the most prolific translator. He is the president of the Societat Catalana d’Estudis Hebraics, associated with the Secció HistòricoArqueològica of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. This association was created in 1995 to cultivate historical and philological studies related to the history of the Jewish people and Hebrew culture from biblical times to the present day;1 it publishes the

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.3 (161-219)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan 

journal Tamid. He has translated medieval and contemporary Hebrew works, and he has also translated articles dealing with Judaism written in Hebrew into Catalan. Josep Ribera, professor of Hebrew at the Universitat de Barcelona and director of the book collection Biblioteca Judaico-Catalana, focuses his work on medieval Hebrew literature studies and Targumim and Aramaic studies. Jaume Riera is an archivist at the Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó. He has translated medieval Hebrew texts and written the introduction to two works translated by Eduard Feliu. He has been president of the Associació d’Estudiosos del Judaisme Català. Manuel Forcano, poet and teacher of Hebrew at the Universitat de Barcelona, is an active translator. He has translated medieval Hebrew works, especially those related to the controversy on the study of philosophy in the Crown of Aragon, but also contemporary Hebrew poetry. Roser Lluch has translated David Shahar and Amos Oz into Catalan, and she has translated Saul Tchernichovsky, David Grossman, Emmanuel Sivan and Zeldah into Spanish. Yael Langella is notable for being the only author who writes in Hebrew and then translates her own work (poetry) into Catalan.

. Studies in and students of Hebrew philology Translators must know the two languages involved in their work, so Hebrew lessons are virtually essential. University degrees in Hebrew philology and theology include the study of Hebrew language in their curricula. The degree in theology focuses on biblical Hebrew, while the degree in philology provides a general view of the various periods of the Hebrew language and its literature. In Spain one can do Hebrew Studies at the universities of Barcelona, Madrid, Granada and Salamanca. At the Universitat de Barcelona the Hebrew philology studies programme has changed (2001), and there are now upper levels of Hebrew language (up to level six) and two levels of spoken Hebrew (intended for levels two to four). Apart from degree programmes, Hebrew may be studied in Catalonia at various cultural associations. The Centre Nahmànides of Girona organises courses in modern Hebrew (elementary level) and biblical Hebrew. One can also study modern Hebrew at the Associació de les Relacions Culturals Catalunya-Israel (elementary level, with 4 to 5 students per class and an ulpan or intensive course if there are more students), or at the Hebrew community Atid (elementary level in modern Hebrew and biblical Hebrew course, 8 to 9 students). Students who decide to study Hebrew philology do so for various reasons. It is a heterogeneous group because of the age and job expectations of the students. It

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.4 (219-274)

 Irene Llop Jordana

is worth mentioning that the number of students that register for the first time has decreased in recent years. I carried out an opinion poll of twelve students of Hebrew philology at the Universitat de Barcelona, those who that were studying the fifth level of Hebrew language and the second level of spoken Hebrew (the highest level). I asked them their mother tongue, their job expectations, languages to which they could translate from Hebrew, and if they held other degrees. Seven students stated that they were Spanish speakers (58.3%), and 5 were Catalan speakers (41.6%). Job expectations were as translators (3 students, 25%), working for publishers (2 students, 16.6%), teaching biblical Hebrew or studies related to the Bible (1 student, 8.3%). Another student thought there was no work related to the study of Hebrew (8.3%) and five students said that these studies were a continuation of their previous studies (41.6%): the latter students had degrees in history (3 of the 5), theology and Holy Scriptures (1 of them), special education and translation (1). Regarding translation, all of them stated that they could translate from Hebrew into Spanish or Catalan, but Catalan speakers preferably into Catalan, and Spanish speakers preferably into Spanish. Two students added Italian (16.3%), three of them added French (25%) and one, English (8.3%). When asked, students had not yet decided if they intended to register for the doctorate courses available. Since the Hebrew Department of the Universitat de Barcelona provides instruction for future Catalan translators, it seems positive that professors of the department are also active translators.

. Main translation difficulties Regarding translator training, translators must attain a rigorous knowledge of the Hebrew language, but they must know many other things as well. Jean-Claude Margot has analysed the specific problems of biblical translation: the sacred character of the original language, the cultural, linguistic and chronological distance, the wide diversity of literary genres and various language levels (Margot 1993). In the field of scholarly medieval translation, the translator has to reflect the ideas and conceptions of the original in a clear and accurate way. The vocabulary and the metrics of Hebrew authors make it very difficult. In the case of rhymed prose translation, Feliu has said that “the flowery and pompous rhetoric of this rhymed prose, which consists of basting one biblical verse after another in a sort of impressionistic language that is full of syntactic incoherences and subtle allusions, has discouraged possible translators”2 (Feliu 1997: 6).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.5 (274-328)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan 

The translation of poetry, be it medieval or contemporary, has the added difficulty of maintaining the rhyme and rhythm of a language that is very different from Catalan. Throughout the twentieth century, the Hebrew language has incorporated new elements into its literary language, and besides everyday words we find biblical and talmudic references. One of the major methodological shortcomings for translators is that we do not have a Hebrew/Catalan or Catalan/Hebrew dictionary, and the translation criteria are not consistently applied.3 Translators and publishers need to take into account who is going to read their works. The various translations of the Bible are designed for different kinds of readers: the Bible of Montserrat is scholarly, while the Bible of the Fundació Bíblica Catalana has a literary orientation, and editions have been revised for broad readership. In the case of medieval science translation, readers are supposed to be specialists in the subject or very interested in the history of science. Although contemporary literature has more readers, Forcano has reflected on cultural proximities and distances in poetry. He explains that the supposed cultural proximity to the Jewish world is untrue because we have a superficial knowledge of their culture. He gives an example: Amikhai’s poetry uses modern and secular language that makes him translatable, but he plays with biblical language and background, and readers cannot recognise the biblical references and the new sense he gives to them (Forcano 1998). We also need to take into account institutional interests and the commercial point of view. Political and cultural interests in the early twentieth century financed translations into Catalan, but this was interrupted after the Spanish Civil War. At the end of the century, the normalisation of Catalan and the entry into the European market should have opened new doors to collaboration (the Seminari de Farrera has the support of a European programme) and institutions (Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat, universities, and others) should make these works available in libraries and book shops. The prestige of Hebrew literature (authors and works) will foster its translation, but as Roser Lluch and Uriel Macías noted at a seminar on poetry and literature,4 the publisher wants to read what is going to be published, and if the writer has not been translated into other languages that the publisher can read, he or she will probably wait until this author becames well established in other countries. Most publications, especially poetry, have been published in journals, and few publishing houses were willing to risk publishing Hebrew authors’ works. It was not until the nineties that we found these works in the commercial mainstream.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.6 (328-377)

 Irene Llop Jordana

. Historical development of translation from Hebrew into Catalan The Hebrew works that have been translated into Catalan and published are of three types: Bible-related texts, medieval works and contemporary literature.

. The Bible The Bible is the sacred book on which the Jewish and Christian religions are based, but their biblical canon (list of sacred books accepted as authentic and inspired by God) is different. The Hebrew canon was fixed in Jamnia in the first century B.C. and includes only books written in Hebrew and Aramaic. The Christian biblical canon was promulgated in the Council of Trent (1546). The official version of the Roman Catholic Church is the Vulgata, the Latin translation of the Bible. This was carried out by Saint Jerome (347–420 A.D.), after Pope Damasus I entrusted the task to him in order to put a stop to the inaccurate transmission of the text and the multiplicity of versions that existed. Protestants use the Hebrew canon for the Old Testament and the Christian canon for the New Testament. The end of the nineteenth century in Catalonia brought a renaissance of biblical studies, related to the translation of the Bible from its original languages into Catalan. The earliest fruit of this was the early-twentieth-century translation by Frederic Clascar of Genesis (1914), the Song of Songs (1918) and Exodus (published after his death in 1925) by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. (This institution devoted to scholarly research was founded in Barcelona in 1907 by Enric Prat de la Riba.) In this translation Clascar takes into account the German and British biblical exegeses of the beginning of the century. In the twenties there was a major biblical movement. The Fundació Bíblica Catalana was founded in 1922 under the patronage of Francesc Cambó, who financed the collections Bernat Metge, Etnologia Ibèrica and Biblioteca HebraicoCatalana (Parcerisas 1997: 261). This institution, devoted to writing versions of and publishing biblical books in Catalan, published the Bible in fourteen volumes between 1926 and 1948. The translation features a literary aspect rather than a purely literal translation. Among the translators were Carles Cardó, J. M. Llovera, J. M. Millàs Vallicrosa and Nolasc de Molar. Father Miquel Esplugues justified the Catalan edition as follows: “Until this book, the first in the world, speaks our language (which is in some ways a child of the Bible), Catalan will not have all the honours it is due, not even the first honour of being an indigenous Christian language”5 (La Sagrada Bíblia. Vol. I. Gènesi. 1928: 4). In 1968 the Fundació published a new version in one volume, with the incorporation of new Bible scholars. The work was revised not only because of the evolution of the Catalan

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.7 (377-430)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan 

language, but also in view of the progress made in exegetical and theological studies (Biblia 1968: XIII). Translation of the Bible by the monks of Montserrat was begun in 1926 under the supervision of Bonaventura Ubach. The translators had to have studied in Jerusalem or Rome, know Hebrew and Greek (knowledge of Syriac was a further consideration) as well as German, English and French. They insisted on literal translation. In 1951 work was resumed again after the hiatus resulting from the Spanish Civil War’s outbreak in 1936. Between 1960 and 1969 this new version of the whole Bible was published in five pocket volumes, and was republished in a single volume in 1970. The first edition of the Bíblia Catalana Interconfessional was published in 1979. It was translated by Christians of different faiths, who received support from institutions such as the Conferència Episcopal Tarraconense, the Abadia de Montserrat and the Facultat de Teologia de Catalunya. The translation was carried out in groups; each biblical book had a translator or translators that established a base-text that was debated and discussed in work sessions with the rest of the translators. The Bíblia Catalana Interconfessional provides a Catalan biblical onomasticon, where the names have been translated straight from Hebrew and Aramaic, except for names with a conventional form in Catalan. The translation makes use of language that is “clear, unencumbered and precise [. . . ] half way between scholarly and popular”6 (Bíblia Catalana Interconfessional 1979). The Old Testament was translated from the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensie and its translators were members of the Associació Bíblica de Catalunya, an association that groups together Catalan biblical scholars.

. Medieval texts Among the first Catalan translations of Hebrew works we find medieval texts, especially Jewish-Catalan authors’ works. An article by Jaume Riera points out that 120 Jewish-Catalan authors wrote in Hebrew in the Middle Ages. In spite of speaking Catalan as their mother tongue, the language of culture of JewishCatalans was Hebrew; Catalan never prevailed as a language of culture among them. On the other hand, educated Jews knew other languages: Arabic in Muslim lands, Latin in Christian lands like Catalonia (Riera 1974: 33). In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Catalan Jews authored a considerable amount of works in Hebrew dealing with philosophy, the Bible, exegesis, law, science, mathematics and poetry (following the Arabic poetry model). The importance of these authors and their works constrasts with the fact that they are not considered “Catalan”. As Alsina says, “Catalan national consciousness, tied to Christianity, did not integrate Catalan Jews”7 (Alsina & Feliu 1985: 15–21). Perhaps

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.8 (430-488)

 Irene Llop Jordana

that is why the works of these Jewish scholars were ignored for so long. However, starting in 1929, a number of translations and studies of these texts has come to be published. The collection Biblioteca Hebraico-Catalana published four books between 1929 and 1933. The goal of this project was to provide translations of the most important works of medieval Catalan Jews. J. M. Millàs Vallicrosa and Ignasi González Llubera supervised the team carrying out the translation and research. In addition to the translation, each volume includes an introduction to the author. The collection was financed by the statesman Francesc Cambó, and was intended to complement the Greek and Latin works published by the Fundació Bernat Metge. The first and the third volumes of this collection were two works by Abraham Bar Hiia8 translated by Millàs Vallicrosa. The Llibre revelador (Abraham Bar Hiia 1929), written around 1120–1129, is a work dealing with messianic exegesis, based on the Bible and astronomy, while the Llibre de geometria (Abraham Bar Hiia 1931) is basically a practical book about geometry. The second title was a work by Josep ben Meir ibn Sabara,9 Llibre d’ensenyaments delectables, translated by González Llubera. This didactic work from the second half of the twentieth century consists of fifteen fables and tales written in rhymed prose using the mosaic style (this method consists of the insertion of tales into the framework of a novel; in this way the main story is interrupted by the different stories told by the main character). The last title of the collection is Tractat de l’assafead’Azarquiel (Profeit Tibbon 1933), an astronomy treatise dealing with the use of the assafea, an astronomical instrument created by the Muslim astronomer Azarquiel from the plane astrolabe. It was translated by Profeit Tibbon10 from Arabic into Hebrew around 1236, and later by Profeit Tibbon in collaboration with Joan of Brescia from Arabic into Latin. The translation of these Hebrew and Latin texts into Catalan by Dr. J. M. Millàs Vallicrosa follows the principle of literality and features two illustrations. This was the last book in the collection, despite the announcement of two forthcoming works: El príncep i el dervís, by Abraham ben Hasdai, and Llibres menors by Mossé ben Nahman. Mossé ben Nahman’s11 works had not been translated until the Biblioteca Judaico-Catalana collection (under Dr. Ribera) was initiated with the translation of some of his works. El llibre de la Redempció i altres escrits (1993) contains the translation of the Llibre de la Redempció (dealing with the date of the arrival of the Messiah, like the Llibre revelador of Bar Hiia), Excel·lències de la Torah (a didactic work) and Sermó sobre l’Eclesiastès (exegesis of a part of Ecclesiastes). These are considered minor works, as ben Nahman’s major work was a commentary on the Pentateuch. As the translator Eduard Feliu indicates, a critical edition of all of Mossé ben Nahman’s works has never been done. The second title of the Biblioteca Judaico-Catalana is the Seder d’Amram Gaó (1995).12 It is a description of the ritual (seder) indicating the order of prayers and blessings throughout the year, sent by

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.9 (488-554)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan 

the Gaon of Sura to the Jewish community in Barcelona. Josefina Ferrater i Mestre, the translator, explains she wanted a literal translation out of a wish to respect the Hebrew language and the logical thought of the author. The third volume of the collection is the Seder Divré Iossef (1996), by Iossef ben Isaac ben Sambari.13 Barjau translated this seventeenth-century work of Jewish historiography featuring a medieval structure. It is the first translation of this work into a Western language. This study is also available in microform.14 Moving on to publications besides these two series, J. Riera’s translation of La crònica en hebreu de la Disputa de Tortosa came out in 1974. It deals with a theological debate called for by Pope Benedictus XIII in Tortosa in 1412, between the Jew converted to Christianity Jeroni de Santa Fe and the rabbis living in the Crown of Aragon. Traditionally it was considered that two chronicles in Hebrew of the famous Judeo-Christian dispute existed: the anonymous and fragmentary Hebrew text published by Halberstam in 1868, and the narration included in chapter 40 of the book Shevet Yehuda attributed to Shlomo ibn Verga. Riera (Riera 1974) translated the two texts and considers that the text published by Halberstam is the original source: this text has words in Catalan and the text of Shlomo ibn Verga – written a century after the events – says that it is based upon the summary of the dispute written by Bonastruc des Mestre, rabbi of Girona. Two years later, an anthology of Hebrew poems by Catalan Jews was published. It is a selection of poems written in Hebrew by twenty Catalan Jews,15 including both religious and secular poetry, and Feliu, the translator, provides information about each author, which in several cases was previously unpublished. The poet Meshul·lam ben Shelomo de Piera16 has been an object of study of Ribera and Forcano, who both focused on his controversial poems that reflected the maimonist controversy. Their eight articles appeared in the journals Anuari de Filologia and Calls between 1982 and 1991. Mossé Natan17 wrote poetry in Hebrew and Catalan. Feliu and Alsina selected some poems by this author which were then translated into Catalan, accompanied by a critical commentary and published in the Constitució de l’Associació d’Estudiosos del Judaisme Català in 1985. In the introduction Alsina talks about the author’s language, saying it is: simple and made up of elements from the Bible and rabbinic literature, [. . . ] and everything is expressed with cleverness and irony. . . . We have tried to overcome linguistic obstacles by avoiding any temptation to imitate the original metre (the nature of Hebrew and Catalan do not permit it) and sometimes redistributing the poetic space in different strophic forms.18 (Alsina & Feliu 1985: 24)

The notable works of Mossé ben Nahman and the celebration of the eighthundred-year anniversary of his birth gave rise to new translations, all of them

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.10 (554-609)

 Irene Llop Jordana

done by Feliu from 1985–1994. The first translation was the text of the Dispute of Barcelona in 1263. Another was a book on sexual morality that is attributed to him, the Lletra Santa concernent a l’ajustament carnal de marit i muller (Mossé ben Nahman 1986). This book reflects Cabbalistic ideas at the end of the thirteenth century, and deals with the mystical sense of sexual relations. Feliu has also translated some fragments of Mossé ben Nahman’s most important work, the Comentari al Pentateuc, and four letters which are still preserved (Feliu 1994). Profiat Duran19 wrote a polemical letter to David Bonet Bonjorn between 1394 and 1394, where he told him “not to be like your fathers” (“al tehi kaavotekha”); his grammar book Ma’ase Efod proves a full knowledge of Semitic and Romance languages, and looks into traditional problems of Hebrew grammar. Both have been studied by Feliu and were published in journals in 1986 and 1991, respectively. Maimonides20 is a principle figure of Jewish history. He wrote in Arabic (except Mishné Torà, which was in Hebrew) but translations of his works into Hebrew became widespread. The latter established the philosophical and scientific terminology of Hebrew and were the basis for a subsequent Latin translation. An anthology which contains translated fragments of Capítol del Tractat de Lògica, Comentari a la Mixnà, Mixné Torà and the Guia dels Perplexos was translated by E. Feliu (1986). Els acords de Barcelona (Feliu 1987) brought about the constitution of an association of the aljamas in the Crown of Aragon to obtain bulls and privileges in the year 1354, in view of the situation after the Black Death of 1348 and the anti-Jewish assaults. These agreements are preceded by more than 130 verses in rhymed prose. The translation cannot reflect the original rhyme scheme, which was monotonous and reiterative. After the text of the agreements, there is a reader’s guide compiled by Jaume Riera, who also contributed some previously unpublished documents on this subject. The work El príncep i el monjo by Abraham ibn Hasday21 was translated by Calders and published in book form in 1987. Its remote origins go back to a story written in Sanskrit about Buddha’s childhood and youth. The text is written in rhymed prose with poems inserted, in the style of Arabic maqamas (a literary genre in rhymed prose which consists of a group of independent anecdotes with the same protagonist). In the framework of the Primeres Jornades de Filosofia Catalana, Feliu presented the translation of a Jewish antigospel, the Sefer Toledot Iesu in 1989. It refers to the legends that were circulating among the Jews on Jesus’ life. Les azharot de rabí Ishaq al-Bargeloní 22 are didactic liturgical compositions. The first sixteen azharot have been translated and were published in 1991.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.11 (609-669)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan 

Feliu, with the collaboration of Ferrer and of Ballester, researched and translated the Hebrew version of Arnau de Vilanova’s treatise on medicine (Arnaldi de Villanova. . . 1990, 1993). The letter-apology by Iedàia ha-Peniní of Besier (Forcano 1996)23 and the letters gathered by Abamari ben Mosse in a volume entitled Minhat Quenaot (translated by Feliu 1997) deal with the controversy in Occitania and Catalonia at the beginning of the fourteenth century over the studies of the secular sciences. In philosophy changes occurred in the thirteenth and fourteenth century, centering around Maimonides and the debate engendered by his books. Maimonides tended to replace literal and allegorical interpretations with an intellectual and rationalistic approach. This antagonised moderates and Cabbalists, who feared lest Maimonides’ teachings should encourage alien beliefs and weaken the faith. An aspect of the research on medieval texts by Jewish-Catalans that should be taken into account is the task of identifying documents written in Hebrew that are stored in various archives. The most prominent work to investigate Catalan archives is Documents hebraics de jueus catalans (Millàs 1927) where 33 Hebrew documents dating between 1096 and 1328, all preserved in the Arxiu de l’Hospici de Girona, the archives of the Cathedral of Barcelona and the Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó have been identified. Four documents have been fully transcribed, four partially, and the rest have been summarised. The publication features photographs of all the documents. González Llubera transcribed and translated a Jewish matrimonial contract (ketuba), a common type of Hebrew document that can be found in archives (González 1917). Millàs Vallicrosa transcribed the list of a Jewish moneylender (Millàs 1927) and identified two Hebraic manuscripts of supposed Catalan origin in the Vatican Library, and determined that one of them is a Portuguese manuscript written in Hebrew characters (Millàs 1936). Riera and Udina published an inventory of documents written entirely in Hebrew preserved in the Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó (Riera & Udina 1978). They are parchments dating between 1073 and 1355, eleven of which are unpublished. The documents have been photographed. Riera described and translated a superstitious prayer from the fifteenth century written in Hebrew on a parchment preserved in the Biblioteca de Catalunya (Riera 1971–1972). Cortès has described, identified and translated various fragments of medieval, biblical and talmudic manuscripts, on paper and parchment, found in the Arxiu Diocesà de Girona (Cortès 1982, 1984), an unknown Cabbalistic poem by Ibn Guiat conserved in the Arxiu Diocesà de Girona (Cortès 1983), a notarial document in Hebrew signed by Mosse Cabrit around 1340 from the Arxiu Històric Fidel Fita de Arenys de Mar (Cortès 1983), and an undated fragment of a ketuba from the Arxiu Episcopal de Vic in which he comments on the meaning of some legal expressions (Cortès 1984). In the same archive, another ketuba appeared in the year 2000, which was also translated (Llop 2001).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.12 (669-719)

 Irene Llop Jordana

Pujol published the translation of the tax table for tenants of Castelló d’Empúries’s aljama (Pujol 1990). It reports the historical and structural aspects of the manuscript, and provides an analysis of the document. Pujol translated it into Catalan from the Spanish translation by Dr. Díez Merino and Dr. Magdalena Nom de Déu of the Hebrew Department of the Universitat de Barcelona. Feliu has translated various fragments of Hebrew medieval manuscripts conserved in the Arxiu Històric de Terrassa (Feliu 2003).

. Contemporary Hebrew literature24 Contemporary Hebrew literature continues to be little known among Catalans, in spite of the fact that literary production in Israel is considerable and widely exported. The genre that has been most published is poetry, which in Catalonia is a minority genre but which is very important in Israel. The first Jewish contemporary poet to have been translated into Catalan is Yehuda Amikhai,25 a poet who revolutionised poetry in Israel in the mid-twentieth century with everyday, antimilitaristic, antiheroic poetry. In 1972 an anthology was published, and in 1995 Queda’t amb mi, a selection of poems from among all his works. In 1998 Forcano published two articles with a selection of poems collected between 1963 and 1989 in the poetry review Reduccions, and poems from Obert, tancat, obert, his last book of poems, in the Anuari de Filologia. In 2001, Forcano published Clavats a la carn del món. Another poet who has been translated is David Rokeah,26 in a bilingual Hebrew-Catalan edition in 1985. We also have the translation of six poems by Shlomo Avayou27 (Sariola 1993) and 39 poems from several works by Amir Guilboa28 (Barjau & Feliu 1997). An article in the journal Tamid offered a selection of poems by Ronny Someck29 in 1999. A year later, this author, together with Tamir Greenberg,30 was the object of study in the Second Seminar on Poetry Translation in Farrera (Someck & Greenberg 2000). The Institució de les Lletres Catalanes has organised seminars on translation in Farrera (a town in the Pallars district of Catalonia) since 1998, with the participation of these two Hebrew poets, while some ten Catalan poets and translators have discussed the selections and translations. Manuel Forcano contacted Ronny Someck and Tamir Greenberg with the help of the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature. Translators who contacted the authors were Roser Lluch, Montserrat Bartuí, Eulàlia Sariola, Bàrbara Vigil, Jordi Font, and Arnau Pons (all specialists in Hebrew); Xavier Lloveras, Paulina Ernest (an English translator interested in poetic translation); and Francesc Parcerisas and Iolanda Pelegrí (of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes). The results of these seminars

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.13 (719-783)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan 

appeared in a joint publication by Editorial Proa and the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes. The case of Yael Langella31 deserves special attention, since her poems were unpublished and she has translated them herself. The first publication of her poems was in the poetry review Reduccions in 1987 (Teresa Alsina revised her translation); in 2000 she published Retorn a Dahme in the collection Jardins de Samarcanda. Issue 3 of Tamid offers 42 translated poems of, and background information on poet Yona Wallack32 (Feliu 2000–2001). The last Jewish contemporary poet who has been translated is Pinkhas Sadé.33 In 2002 Forcano published El Déu abandona David, a selection of poems. In 1966 Shemuel Yosef Agnon34 received the Nobel Prize for Literature with Nelly Sack. Three years later Eduard Feliu translated one of his stories, El mocador. Reading his works is difficult, and so is translating them, largely because of the many biblical allusions. The narrative that has been translated is by authors that belong to the socalled “Generation of the State” or “New Wave”, where the prose reacts against earlier realism by following two currents: a narrative of expressionist type, where the characters and reality described are projections of the writer’s ego (Amos Oz, Yoram Kaniuk) and another more impressionistic style, where it is more important to describe the reactions to reality itself (David Shahar) (Varela 1992: 217–219). Two of Amos’ novels have been translated,35 El meu Mikhael (Oz 1973) and El mateix mar (Oz 2002). In El meu Mikhael, the personal crisis of Jana coincides with the national crisis of the Sinai War (Varela 1992: 225). Translations of other writers include Confessions d’un bon arab by Yoram Kaniuk36 (Kaniuk 1990) and Contes de Jerusalem by David Shahar37 (Shahar 1994). These authors exhibit a critical attitude toward present-day Israeli society. In Confessions d’un bon arab the present situation of Israel is criticised through its main character, the son of an Arab father and Jewish mother whose past was marked by the Holocaust. Children’s and young adult literature is highly regarded in Israel. Many major writers have written in these genres. In Catalona, seven children’s and young adult works have been published, four of them in the last two years. The first children’s book translated into Catalan was published in 1970 (Els meus amics del carrer Arnon, by Lea Goldberg38 ). After a long period without any further publications, this type of literature’s worth was eventually reevaluated, and Uri Orlev’s39 L’ illa del carrer dels ocells (recommended for children between 10 and 15 years of age) came out in 1998. Orlev was the first Israeli author to obtain the Hans Christian Andersen Author Award (in 1998). Four years later another book by Orlev was translated (Orlev 2002). Eulàlia Sariola translated and illustrated the two books. Two children’s books by Amos Oz have been translated: Una pantera al soterrani (Oz 1998) for children over 12 years of age and La bicicleta d’en Sumkhí (Oz 2003)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.14 (783-846)

 Irene Llop Jordana

for children over nine. Roser Lluch translated these texts. David Grossman40 is the author of El duel (Grossman 2002), for children over 12, and Les històries d’Itamar (Grosman 2003), for children over 7. Translation of these contemporary works has been done directly from the Hebrew, except in the case of Yoram Kaniuk, Confessions d’un bon àrab, which was translated from English. This work was also published in Spanish. The works of Amos Oz were translated into Spanish by other translators: El meu Mikhael was translated into Spanish by Eduard Planas for the same publisher, based on the Catalan translation; Una pantera al soterrani was also published in Spanish for the same publisher, translated by Marta Lapides, Sonia de Pedro and Raquel García Lozano; and El mateix mar was translated into Spanish by Raquel García Lozano. This work was translated into Catalan by Manuel Forcano and Roser Lluch. We hope the growing interest in Hebrew culture will result in an increase of students, translators and readers of Hebrew works in Catalan.

Notes . See http://www.iec.es/institucio/societats/SCEstudisHebraics/inici.htm . “La retòrica florida i ampul·losa d’aquestes lletres en prosa rimada, que consisteix en anar embastant versets bíblics l’un darrera l’altre en una mena de llenguatge impresionista, ple d’incoherències sintàctiques i subtils al·lusions, desanimava els possibles traductors”. . Pere Casanellas presents and criticises some of the transliteration and translation systems, makes some clear and concrete conceptual proposals, and deals with the phonetic adaptation and integration of Hebrew words into Catalan (Casanellas 1997). In 2002, a committee of the Societat Catalana d’Estudis Hebraics wrote a Proposal of Transcription from Hebrew into Catalan, following the standards of ISO 259 and ISO 259-2 (Proposta 2003). . Round Table on Contemporary Hebrew Poetry and Literature with Alícia Ramos, Uriel Macías, Roser Luch and Vicenç Villatoro. Centre Nahmànides de Girona, 28th June 2001. . “Mentre aquest llibre, primer del món, no tornés a parlar el nostre idioma, en bella part fill de la Bíblia, el català no tornarà a tenir tots els honors, ni el primer honor d’una llengua cristiana autòctona”. . “Clar, net, precís, no biblicista, per no ser arcaitzant ni poc natural [. . . ] a mig camí entre estudiosos i popular”. . “La consciència nacional catalana, lligada amb el cristianisme, no integra jueus catalans”. . Abraham Bar Hiia (1065?–1143?) probably came from the taifa of Saragossa, and lived in Catalonia and Provence, on the border between two cultures. Exegete, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, he collaborated with Plato of Tivoli on translations from Arabic to Latin. He contributed to science with religious, controversial and practical aims. His work Hegyon ha-Nefes was the first philosophical work in Hebrew, and he adapted the terminology and was studied and mentioned by later thinkers.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.15 (846-911)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan  . Josep ben Meir ibn Sabara carried out his literary activity in the second half of the twelfth century, probably in Barcelona. Two medical works and one hymn have been attributed to him. . Jacob ben Mahir ibn Tibbon, widely known by his Latin name Prophatius Judaeus or Profeit Tibbon lived in Montpeller in the second half of the thirteenth century. His works on astronomy are noteworthy, and he was mentioned by Copernicus and Kleiner. He translated books on astronomy and mathematics from Arabic into Hebrew. . Mossé ben Nahman (1194–1269), born in Girona, was the central figure of Catalan Judaism. He was rabbi, doctor, talmudist, poet and teacher. He opposed the ideas of Maimonides; he was antispeculative and traditionalist. He participated in the Dispute of Barcelona (1263) with Pau Cristià (a Jew converted to Christianity from Montpelier) about the arrival of the Messiah. In 1268 ben Nahman moved to the Holy Land. His most notable work is the commentary on the Pentateuch. . Rabbi Amram, Gaon of Sura in the ninth century, was an expert in Jewish prayer and liturgy. Gaon was a title given the heads of Talmudic Academies in Babylonia between the sixth and eleventh centuries. They were regarded as supreme authorities by Jews throughout the world. . Iossef ben Isaac ben Sambari (1640–1703), Egyptian Jew, wrote the Cròniques dels Savis, a general study from Adam to the savoraim rabbis, and the Crònica de Iossef, the continuation, from the beginning of Islam until the 17th century. . Publicacions de la Universitat de Barcelona has published PhDs in microform since 1987. The microform preserves the text, prevents copying, and is cheap and safe. The rights are reserved on the microform, so the author’s property rights are protected. . Ishaq ben Reuven ha-Barseloní, Zerahya ben Ishaq ha-Leví Gerundí, Beakya ben Ishaq ha-leví Gerundí, Iehudà ben Selomó al-Harizí, Ishaq ben Zedahya ha Leví Gerundí, Abraham ben Semuel ibn Hasday, Abraham ben Ishaq ha-Hazan Gerundí, Mossé ben Nahman, Selomó ben Ishaq Gerundí, Mesul·lam ben Selomó de Piera, Nahum, Iosef ben Hanan ben Natan ha-Ezobí, Iedaya ben Abraham ha-Peniní, Mossé Natan, Maimó Gallipapa, Ishaq ben Seset Perfet, Simeon ben Semah Duran, Selomó ben Mesul·lam de Piera, Selomó ben Reuven Bonafed and Mosse ben Ishaq Remós. . Meshul·lam ben Shelomo de Piera (first half of the thirteenth century) known as En Vides de Girona, innovated in poetic language, themes and composition. We have 49 of his poems, including love poems and controversial poems against the supporters of Maimonides (though he later he changed his opinion of the theologian). . Mossé Natan or Mose ben Natanel bar Selomo, Jewish poet from Tàrrega in the early fourteenth century. He was the representative of the Jewish community there. He wrote a collection of moral proverbs, an elegy and two piyyutim in Hebrew, and two works of rhymed proverbs in Catalan between 1330 and 1336. . “La llengua és senzilla, feta d’elements de la Bíblia i de la literatura rabínica, tot és equilibradament, tot és dit amb un punt d’enginy i ironia agradable [. . . ] hem intentat salvar l’obstacle lingüístic defugint qualsevol temptació d’imitar els metres originals (la natura de l’hebreu i el català no ho consent pas) i a vegades resdistribuint l’espai poètic en formes estròfiques diferents de les emprades per l’autor.”

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.16 (911-970)

 Irene Llop Jordana . Profiat Duran (1340–1414) signed his works with the acronym EFOD after the riots of 1391. He wrote a book about the Jewish calendar in 1395, two controversial books and one critique of the book on astronomy Or Olam by Josep ibn Nahmias. Feliu compiled the bibliography of his work and of writings about him (Feliu 1986: 63–65). . Mosse ben Maimon (1137–1204) was the son of a Cordovan rabbi. His family fled to North Africa because of the Almohades. He was a doctor, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher, and he founded a particular order of the Talmud. His works were considered dangerous for the Jewish faith and provoked a long controversy. . Abraham ibn Hasday (?–1240) lived the majority of his life in Barcelona. He translated diverse works from Arabic into Hebrew (Maimonides, Ishaq Israeli, al-Gazzali, etc.), and acquired fame with his version in rhymed prose of a legend of Buddha (El príncep i el monjo). . Rabbi Ishaq al-Bargeloni (1043–1113) belongs to the group of the five Ishaq, poets and commentators of the Talmud. . Iedàia ben Abraham ha-Penini was a poet, philosopher, moralist and doctor. After the expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306, he moved to Barcelona. . The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature was founded in 1962 in order to project modern Hebrew literature abroad. See http://www.ithl.org.il . Yehuda Amikhai (1924–2000) was born in Germany into a religious family, and he emigrated to Israel in 1935. He belonged to the “Generation of the State” or “New Wave”, and he started to publish in the journal Liqrat. His poetry has been translated into 33 languages, and he has also written two novels and a collection of short stories. He was awarded the Israel Prize in 1982. . David Rokeah (1916–1985) was born in Poland and moved to Israel in 1934. His first volume of poems was written and published in Yiddish, but he began writing exclusively in Hebrew. He was a Jewish poet following the school of Shlonsky. . Shlomo Avayou (b. 1939) was born in Turkey. He is a Sephardic poet with a degree in Arabic language and culture. The main theme of his poetry is the identity crisis of Israeli society (Sariola 1993: 7). . Amir Guilboa (1917–1984) emigrated to Israel from Ucraine in 1937 and lived in a kibbutz. He shifted away from poetic forms dominating the literary panorama of his day (Shlonsky, Alterman and Goldberg). He received several literary awards: the Bialik Prize in 1971, the Chomsky Prize in 1977, the Jacob Fichman Prize in 1980 and the Israel Prize in 1982. . Ronny Someck (b. 1951) was born in Irak, studied Hebrew literature and philosophy at the University of Tel Aviv. He collaborates with musician Elliot Sharp and artist Benni Efrat. . Tamir Greenberg (b. 1959) is an architect, poet, prose writer, and playwright, also appearing on radio and in the press. . Yael Langella (b. 1953) is a poet from a Jewish Tunisian family who lived in Paris. She studied Political Science, and Semitic and Hispanic Philology. She has published poems separately and is now working on a book of bilingual poems entitled Omer. She has also published articles on modern Hebrew and an introduction to Judaism. . Yona Wallack (1944–1985) was among the group of poets from Tel Aviv.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.17 (970-1048)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan  . Pinkhas Sadé (1929–1994) was born in Poland and emigrated to Eretz, Israel in 1934. He began writing in 1951. He translated and published novels, poetry and anthologised Chassidic legends. He received the Bialik Prize. . Shemuel Yosef Agnon (1888–1970) moved from Poland to Israel in 1909. He is the representative par excellence of fantastic realism in contemporary Hebrew literature. He obtained the Nobel Prize in 1966. . Amos Oz (b. 1939) is the best-known Israeli author abroad. He moved to a kibbutz when he was 15 years old and studied philosophy and literature at Hebrew University. He left the kibbutz in 1960. He has published many books on the Arab-Israeli conflict, has received several prizes, among which the Bialik Prize in 1986 and the Israel Prize in 1998 are the most noteworthy. . Yoram Kaniuk (b. 1930) is a prose writer. He has been translated into 20 languages. He lived in New York for ten years. . David Shahar (1926–1977) wrote novels, children’s literature, short stories and historic sagas of Jerusalem. Many of his works have been translated into other languages. . Lea Goldberg (1911–1970), born in Lithuania, emigrated to Palestine in 1935 after getting her PhD in Semitic Language at the University of Bonn. She was a member of the Shlonsky group of modern poets. She was a poet, theater critic, translator, writer and editor of children’s literature, and editor of Al Hamishmar, newspaper literary supplement. She received the Israel Prize posthumously. . Uri Orlev (b. 1931) emigrated from Poland to a kibbutz in Galilee after World War II. He has written children’s books and also prose, radio and television scripts. He translated books from Polish to Hebrew. In 1996 he received the Hans Christian Andersen Author Award. . David Grossman (b. 1954), born in Jerusalem, studied philosophy and theatre at the Hebrew University.

References Casanellas, Pere (1997). “Transliteració i transcripció de l’hebreu: eines, propostes, qüestions pendents”. Butlletí de l’Associació Bíblica de Catalunya, 58, 1–72. Díaz, Romuald (1962). Dom Bonaventura Ubach. L’home, el monjo, el biblista [Biblioteca biogràfica catalana 34]. Barcelona: Editorial Aedos. Díaz, Romuald (1970). “Balanç de l’activitat bíblica a Catalunya (1960–1969)”. Qüestions de vida cristiana, 51, 87–111. Faulí, Josep (1999). “Del no-res a la plenitud en 60 anys (1939–1998)”. In Marina Miquel (Ed.), Montserrat. Cinc-cents anys de publicacions 1499–1999 (pp. 55–72). Barcelona: Generalitat, Departament de Cultura. Feliu, Eduard & Casanellas, Pere (1985). “Bibliografia sobre la història dels jueus de la Corona de Catalunya-Aragó i Provença. 1985–1994”. Tamid, 1, 157–265. Feliu, Eduard & Casanellas, Pere (1998–1999). “Notes bibliogràfiques”. Tamid, 2, 157–199.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.18 (1048-1146)

 Irene Llop Jordana

Feliu, Eduard & Casanellas, Pere (2000–2001). “Publicacions que contenen la bibliografia d’erudits (arqueòlegs, lingüistes, biblistes, exegetes, historiadors) l’obra dels quals concerneix en algun aspecte l’Orient antic, la Bíblia, la llengua hebrea o la vida i la cultura jueves de l’època talmúdica i de l’edat mitjana”. Tamid, 3, 203–263. Forcano, Manuel (1998). “Sobre la poesia de Iehuda Amikhai: proximitat i llunyania cultural de la traducció poètica d’expressió hebrea”. Reduccions. Revista de poesia, 69(70), 100– 106. Marco, Josep (2000). “Funció de les traduccions i models estilístics. El cas de la traducció al català al s. XX”. Quaderns. Revista de traducció, 5, 29–44. Margot, Jean Claude (1993). “Traduction et comprehension de la Biblia. Quelques aspectes espécifiques de la traduction biblique”. In F. Raurell, D. Roure & R. Tragan (Eds.), Tradició i traducció de la Paraula. Miscel·lània Guiu Camps (pp. 357–389). Barcelona: Associació Bíblica de Catalunya/Publicacions Abadia de Montserrat. Olmo, Gregorio del (1991). “Los estudios hebraicos en la Universidad de Barcelona. Síntesis histórica”. Miscelánea de Estudios árabes y hebraicos, 37–38(XXXVII–XXXVIII), 305– 316. Parcerisas, Francesc (1997). Tradició, edició, ideologia. Aspectes sociològics de les traduccions de la Bíblia i de l’Odissea al català. Doctoral dissertation. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Proposta de transcripció de l’hebreu en textos escrits en català (Acord del 14 de juny de 2002) (2003). [Documents de la Secció Filològica IV]. Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Riera, Jaume (1974). “Literatura en hebreu dels jueus catalans”. Miscellanea Barcinonensia, 13(37), 33–47. Riera, Jaume (1986). “Estudis sobre el judaisme català. Anys 1970–1984”. Calls, 1, 93–132. Riera, Jaume (1987). “Estudis sobre el judaisme català. Anys 1929–1969”. Calls, 2, 181–209. Riera, Jaume (1988–1989). “Estudis sobre el judaisme català. Anys 1836–1928”. Calls, 3, 103–135. Sariola, Eulàlia (1993). “Shlomo Avayou: a la recerca de la identitat israeliana”. Reduccions. Revista de poesia, 58, 75–78. Varela, María Encarnación (1992). Historia de la literatura hebrea contemporánea. Barcelona: Editorial Mirador.

Appendix: Translations from Hebrew into Catalan, arranged chronologically by sections The Bible El Gènesi: versió segons els textos originals, amb anotació de Frederic Clascar (1914). Barcelona: Institut de la Llengua Catalana. El Càntic dels càntics de Salomó: versió segons els textos originals, amb anotació de Frederic Clascar (1918). Barcelona: Institut de la Llengua Catalana. Èxode: versió segons els textos originals, amb anotació de Frederic Clascar (1925). Barcelona: Institut de la Llengua Catalana.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.19 (1146-1237)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan 

La Bíblia. Versió dels textos originals i comentaris pels monjos de Montserrat. Edició i comentaris per Dom Bonaventura Ubach et al. (1926–1958). Montserrat: Monestir de Montserrat. La Sagrada Bíblia. Antic Testament. Vol. I. Gènesi. Èxode. Versió dels textos originals, introduccions i notes de Dr. Carles Cardó, P. Antoni Maria de Barcelona, Dr. J. M. Millàs i Vallicrosa (1928). Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. La Sagrada Bíblia. Antic Testament. Vol. II. Levític. Nombres. Deuteronomi. Versió dels textos originals, introducció i notes de Dr. Carles Cardó, P. Antoni Maria de Barcelona, Dr. J. M. Millàs i Vallicrosa (1929). Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. La Sagrada Bíblia. Antic Testament. Vol. III. Josuè. Traducció, introducció i notes de Dr. Enric Bayon. Jutges I i II de Samuel. Traducció, introducció i notes del P. Marc de Castellví. Rut. Traducció de Carles Riba (1930). Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. La Sagrada Bíblia. Antic Testament. Vol. VI. Job. Proverbis. Eclesiasta. Versió dels originals, introducció i notes de Dr. Gumersind Alabart, Dr. Carles Cardó i P. Antoni Maria de Barcelona (1930). Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. La Sagrada Bíblia. Antic Testament. Vol. IV. I i II dels Reis. I i II de les Cròniques. Notícies preliminars, traducció i notes del P. Marc de Castellví (1933). Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. La Sagrada Bíblia. Antic Testament. Vol. X. Daniel i els dotze profetes menors. Versió dels originals, introducció i notes del Dr. Joan Bta. Manyà, revisió del P. Marc de Castellví (1934). Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. La Sagrada Bíblia. Antic Testament. Vol. V. Esdras i Nehemias. Tobias. Judit. Ester. I i II dels Macabeus (1935). Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. La Sagrada Bíblia. Antic Testament. Vol. VIII. Eclesiàstic. Introducció, versió i notes del Dr. Ramon Roca i Puig, revisió pel Dr. Carles Cardó. Isaïas. Introducció, versió i notes exegètiques pel Dr. Carles Cardó, notes filològiques i revisió pel Dr. J. M. Millàs i Vallicrosa (1935). Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. La Sagrada Biblia. Antic Testament. Vol. IX. Jeremias. Baruc. Introducció, versió i notes del P. Marc de Castellví, Dr. Ramon Roca i Puig. Revisió del Dr. J. M. Millàs i Vallicrosa. Ezequiel. Introducció, traducció i notes de P. Josep Trepat (1946). Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. La Sagrada Bíblia. Antic Testament Vol. VII. Càntic dels Càntics. Versió del Dr. Carles Riba, introducció del Dr. Cebrià Montserrat i notes dels Drs. Montserrat i Riba. Salms. Introducció, versió i notes del Dr. Carles Cardó. Llibre de la Saviesa. Introducció, versió i notes del Dr. Ramon Roca i Puig (1948). Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. Bíblia (1968). Barcelona: Fundació Bíblica Catalana/Editorial Alpha. La Bíblia. Versió dels textos originals i notes pels monjos de Montserrat (1970). Andorra: Editorial Casal i Vall. Bíblia Catalana Interconfessional (1979). Barcelona: Associació Bíblica de Catalunya.

Medieval texts Abraham Bar Hiia (1929). Llibre revelador: Meguil·lat Hamegal·lè. Segons l’edició del text revisat i prologat pel Dr. Guttmann; versió de l’hebreu per J. Millàs Vallicrosa [Biblioteca Hebraico-Catalana 1]. Barcelona: Editorial Alpha.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.20 (1237-1332)

 Irene Llop Jordana

Josep ben Meir ibn Sabara (1931). Llibre d’ensenyaments delectables: Séfer Xaaixuïm. Traducció amb introducció i notes d’Ignasi González-Llubera [Biblioteca HebraicoCatalana 2]. Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. Abraham Bar Hiia (1931). Llibre de Geometria: Hibbur hameixihà uehatixbòret. Text editat i prologat pel Dr. Guttmann, versió de l’hebreu de J. Millàs Vallicrosa [Biblioteca HebraicoCatalana 3]. Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. Profeit Tibbon (1933). Tractat de l’asssafea d’Azarquiel. Edició crítica dels textos hebraic i llatí, amb traducció, pròleg i notes per J. Millàs i Vallicrosa [Biblioteca Hebraico-Catalana 4]. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. Riera Sans, Jaume (1974). La crònica en hebreu de la Disputa de Tortosa. Barcelona: Fundació Salvador Vives Casajuana. Poemes hebraics de jueus catalans (segles XI–XV). Traducció de l’hebreu i notes per Eduard Feliu Mabres, presentació per Jaume Riera Sans (1976). [Llibres del Mall 22]. Barcelona: Curial. Poemes hebraics de jueus catalans (segles XI–XV). Traducció de l’hebreu i notes per Eduard Feliu i Mabres, presentació per Jaume Riera Sans (1976). [Publicacions de la Fundació Salvador Vives Casajuana 41]. Barcelona: Rafael Dalmau. Ribera Florit, Josep (1982). “La polèmica contra Maimònides reflectida en la poesia de Meshul·lam ben Shelomo de Piera”. Anuario de Filología, 8, 177–188. Ribera Florit, Josep (1983). “Una poesia polèmica del jueu català Meshul·lam ben Shelomó de Piera”. Anuario de Filología, 9, 187–193. Cortès Minguella, Enric (1983). “Una poesia cabalística desconeguda i uns fragments d’Ibn Guiat procedents de l’Arxiu Diocesà de Girona”. Arxiu de Textos Catalans Antics, 2, 7–21. Ribera Florit, Josep (1985). “El poeta jueu català Meshul·lam ben Shelomó de Piera i els seus poemes laudatoris”. In R. Aramon (Ed.), Homenatge a Antoni Comas (pp. 371–384). Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. Mosse ben Nahman (1985). Disputa de Barcelona de 1263 entre Mestre Mossé de Girona i Fra Pau Cristià. Traducció de l’hebreu i notes d’Eduard Feliu, introducció de Jaume Riera [Estudis i Assaigs 2]. Barcelona: Columna. Alsina, Teresa & Feliu, Eduard (1985). “Mosse Natan, poeta hebreu de Tàrrega”. In Constitució de l’Associació d’Estudiosos del Judaisme Català (pp. 11–47). Tàrrega: Museu Comarcal de Tàrrega. Mosse ben Nahman [attributed to] (1986). Lletra santa concernent a l’ajustament carnal de marit i muller, atribuïda a Mestre Mossé de Girona. Edició i traducció d’Eduard Feliu. Barcelona: Columna. Ribera Florit, Josep (1986). “Com mantenir un secret segons el poeta Meshul·lam ben Shelomo de Piera”. Calls, 1, 7–9. Feliu, Eduard (1986). “Profiat Duran: Al tehí ka-avotekha”. Calls, 1, 53–77. Maimonides (1986). De la Guia dels Perplexos i altres escrits. Estudi introductori, traducció de l’hebreu i notes d’Eduard Feliu [Textos Filosòfics 41]. Barcelona: Editorial Laia. Ribera Florit, Josep (1987). “El poeta polemista Meshul·lam ben Shelomo de Piera”. Calls, 2, 17–25. Feliu, Eduard (1987). “Els acords de Barcelona de 1354”. Calls, 2, 145–164.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.21 (1332-1427)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan 

Abraham ibn Hasday (1987). El príncep i el monjo, d’Abraham ben Samuel ha-Leví ibn Hasday. Traducció i estudi de Tessa Calders i Artís [Orientalia Barcinonensia 2]. Sabadell: Ausa. Ribera Florit, Josep (1988–1989). “Un altre poema polèmic de Meshul·lam de Piera”. Calls, 3, 45–51. Feliu, Eduard (1989). “Un antievangeli jueu de l’Edat Mitjana: el Séfer Toledot Iesu”. I Jornades de Filosofia Catalana. El debat intercultural als segles XIII i XIV. Estudi General, 9, 237–262. Feliu, Eduard (1990). “Quatre lletres de Mossé ben Nahman”. Calls, 4, 69–93. Arnaldi de Villanova Medicationis Parabole / Pirqé Arnau de Villanova. Arnaldi de Villanova Opera Medica Omnia: VI.1 Seminarium Historiae Scientiae Barchinone (CSIC). Edició i presentació de la traducció hebrea medieval d’Eduard Feliu, en col·laboració amb Lola Ferre (1990). Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. Ribera Florit, Josep (1990). “El jueu gironí Meshul·lam ben Shelomó de Piera i la seva obra poètica”. In Actes de les Jornades d’Història dels Jueus de Catalunya (pp. 251–256). Girona: Ajuntament de Girona. Feliu, Eduard (1991). “La gramàtica com a pretext: El Ma’asé Efod de Profiat Duran”. Anuario de Filología, 14, 103–115. Barjau, Esperança & Calders, Tessa (1991). “Les azharot de rabí Ishaq al-Bargeloní”. Anuari de Filologia, 14, 61–72. Forcano, Manel (1991). “Nova aportació a la poesia polèmica de Meshul·lam ben Shelomó de Piera”. Anuari de Filologia, 14, 73–86. Feliu, Eduard (1992). “Salomó ben Adret, talmudista i jurisconsult”. Alef, 3, 28–29. Mossé ben Nahman (1993). El Llibre de la Redempció i altres escrits. A cura d’Eduard Feliu [Biblioteca Judaico-Catalana 1]. Girona: Ajuntament de Girona and Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. Arnaldi de Villanova Commentum in quasdam parabolas et alias aphorismorum series: Aphorismi particulares, Aphorismi de memoria, Aphorismi extravagantes. Arnaldi de Villanova Opera Medica Omnia: VI.2. Seminarium Historiae Scientiae Barchinone (CSIC). Estudi sobre la versió hebrea d’Eduard Feliu en col·laboració amb Luis GarcíaBallester (1993). Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona/Fundació Noguera. Feliu, Eduard (1994). “El Comentari sobre el Pentateuc de Mossé ben Nahman”. In Mossé ben Nahman i el seu temps. Simposi commemoratiu del vuitè centenari del naixement de Mossé ben Nahman 1194–1994 (pp. 183–237). Girona: Ajuntament de Girona. Amram Gaó (1995). Ritual de pregàries jueves. Séder d’Amram Gaó. Introducció, traducció parcial i notes per Josefina Ferrater i Mestre [Biblioteca Judaico-Catalana 2]. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona/Ajuntament de Girona. Barjau, Esperança (1996). El Séfer Divré Iossef (Les Cròniques de Josep) de Iossef ben Isaac ben Sambari. Introducció, traducció i notes per Maria Esperança Barjau [Biblioteca JudaicoCatalana 3]. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. Forcano, Manuel (1996). “La lletra apologètica de Jedàia ha-Peniní de Besiers”. Anuari de Filologia, 19, 93–104. Feliu, Eduard (1997). “La controvèrsia sobre l’estudi de la filosofia en les comunitats jueves occitanocatalanes a la primeria del segle XIV: Alguns documents essencials del llibre Minhat Quenaot d’Abamari ben Mossé de Lunel”. Tamid, 1, 65–131.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.22 (1427-1529)

 Irene Llop Jordana

Documents González Llubera, Ignasi (1917). “Un contracte de matrimoni jueu de Mallorca”. Butlletí de la Biblioteca de Catalunya, 4, 124–126. Millàs Vallicrosa, J. M. (1927). “Documents hebraics de jueus catalans”. In Memòries de l’Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Vol. 1 (facsimile 3) (pp. 61–167). Millàs Vallicrosa, J. M. (1927). “Petita llista d’un prestamista jueu”. Estudis Universitaris Catalans, 12, 65–67. Millàs Vallicrosa, J. M. (1936). “Manuscrits hebraics d’origen català a la Biblioteca Vaticana”. Estudis Universitaris Catalans, 21, 97–109. Riera Sans, Jaume (1971–1972). “Un breu cabalístic”. Boletín Arqueológico (113–120), 309– 312. Riera Sans, Jaume & Udina Martorell, Frederic (1978). “Els documents en hebreu conservats a l’Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó”. Miscellanea Barcinonensia, 17(49), 21–36. Alturo Perucho, Jesus (1978). “Notícia de tres noves subscripcions hebraiques en diplomes de l’arxiu de Santa Anna de Barcelona”. Anuario de Filología, 4, 157–164. Cortès, Enric (1982). “Fragments de manuscrits hebreus i arameus descoberts de nou a l’Arxiu Diocesà de Girona”. Revista Catalana de Teologia, 7, 1–55. Cortès, Enric (1983). “Un curiós fragment hebreu de l’Arxiu Històric Fidel Fita d’Arenys de Mar”. Estudis Franciscans, 84, 215–217. Cortès, Enric (1983). “Una poesia cabalística desconeguda i uns fragments d’Ibn Guiat procedents de l’Arxiu Diocesà de Girona”. Arxiu de Textos Catalans Antics, 2, 7–21. Cortès, Enric (1984). “Fragments de manuscrits hebreus i arameus descoberts de nou a l’Arxiu Diocesà de Girona.” Revista Catalana de Teologia, 9, 83–111. Cortès, Enric (1984). “A propòsit d’un manuscrit fragmentari hebraico-arameu de l’Arxiu Diocesà de Vic”. Associació Bíblica de Catalunya, 25–26, 10–15. Cortès, Enric (1986). “A propòsit de dos manuscrits fragmentaris hebreus apareguts de nou”. Estudios Franciscanos, 87, 1025–1031. Pujol Canelles, Miquel (1990). “Dues tabes hebraiques de l’aljama de Castelló d’Empúries”. Calls, 4, 7–52. Feliu, Eduard (1999). “Un altre pergamí hebreu identificat”. L’Arjau, 34, 11–12. Llop Jordana, Irene (2000). “Una ketubà inèdita conservada a l’Arxiu Episcopal de Vic”. Ausa, 144, 55–60. Feliu, Eduard (2002). “Fragments de textos hebreus medievals trobats a l’Arxiu Històric de Terrassa”. Terme, 17, 103–115.

Contemporary literature Agnon, Shmuel Yosef (1969). “El mocador”. Translated by Eduard Feliu. El Pont, 38, 30–40. Amihai, Iehuda (1972). Antologia. Versió de l’hebreu i pròleg d’Eduard Feliu [Els Llibres de l’Óssa Menor 74]. Barcelona: Edicions Proa. Oz, Amos (1973). El meu Mikhael. Traducció de l’hebreu per Eduard Feliu [A Tot Vent 166]. Barcelona: Edicions Proa. Goldberg, Lea (1979). Els meus amics del carrer Arnon. Traducció de l’hebreu per Eduard Feliu [La Xarxa 22]. Barcelona: Abadia de Montserrat.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:24

F: BTL5820.tex / p.23 (1529-1627)

Translation from Hebrew into Catalan

Rokeah, David (1985). Coloms missatgers aturats a l’ampit de la finestra. Traducció i pròleg d’Eduard Feliu [Poesia del segle XX, 7]. Barcelona: Edicions del Mall. Langella, Yael (1987). “Silencis”. Reduccions. Revista de poesia, 35, 34–51. Kaniuk, Yoram (1990). Confessions d’un bon àrab. Traducció de l’anglès per Laura Santamaria Guinot [El Balancí 231]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Sariola, Eulàlia (1993). “Selecció de poemes de Shlomo Avayou”. Reduccions. Revista de Poesia, 58, 28–41. Shahar, David (1994). Contes de Jerusalem. Traducció de l’hebreu de Roser Lluch. Barcelona: Proa. Amikhai, Iehuda (1995). Queda’t amb mi. Traducció de l’hebreu de Manuel Forcano [El Corb 2]. Barcelona: Columna. Orlev, Uri (1998). L’illa del carrer dels ocells. Traducció d’Eulàlia Sariola [Col. Infantil-Juvenil Blau 8]. Barcelona: Alfaguara, Grup Promotor d’Ensenyament i Difusió Català. Barjau, Esperança & Feliu, Eduard (1997). “Amir Guilboa o els esbarzers del somni”. Tamid, 1, 133–156. Oz, Amos (1998). Una pantera al soterrani. Traducció de l’hebreu de Roser Lluch. Madrid: Barcanova/Siruela. Forcano, Manuel (1998). “Iehuda Amikhai. Selecció de poemes (1963–1989)”. Reduccions. Revista de poesia, 69(79), 36–59. Forcano, Manuel (1998–1999). “Ronny Someck: música d’Um Kulzum a Tel Aviv”. Tamid, 2, 205–218. Forcano, Manuel (1998–1999). “Poemes del darrer llibre de poemes de Iehuda Amikhai: Obert tancat obert (1998)”. Anuari de Filologia, 20, 287–292. Someck, Ronny & Greenberg, Tamir (2000). En paper de vidre. Seminari de traducció poètica de Farrera II; edició a cura de Francesc Parcerisas, Iolanda Pelegrí, Jordi Font [Els Llibres de l’Óssa menor 213]. Barcelona: Proa. Langella, Yael (2000). Retorn a Dahme [Jardins de Samarcanda 22]. Vic: Eumo Editorial/Cafè Central. Feliu, Eduard (2000–2001). “Yona Wallach o la llum salvatge”. Tamid, 3, 119–154. Amikhai, Iehuda (2001). Clavats a la carn del món: antologia poètica. Tria i traducció de l’hebreu de Manuel Forcano; pròleg de D. Sam Abrams. Barcelona: Proa. Sadé, Pinkhas (2002). El Déu abandona David. Selecció i traducció de Manuel Forcano. Barcelona: Edicions 62/Empúries. Oz, Amos (2002). El mateix mar. Traducció de l’hebreu de Manuel Forcano i Roser Lluch. Barcelona: Proa. Grossman, David (2002). El duel. Traducció de Margarida Sanjaume, il·lustracions de Joma [El Vaixell de Vapor, Sèrie Taronja 124]. Barcelona: Cruïlla. Orlev, Uri (2002). Corre, noi, corre! Barcelona: Alfaguara, Grup Promotor d’Ensenyament i Difusió Català. Oz, Amos (2003). La bicicleta d’en Sumkhí. Il·lustracions de Gallardo, traducció de Roser Lluch [El Vaixell de Vapor, Sèrie Taronja 132]. Barcelona: Cruïlla. Grossman, David (2003). Les històries d’Itamar. Traducció d’Eulàlia Sariola. [El Vaixell de Vapor, Sèrie Blava 114]. Barcelona: Cruïlla.



JB[v.20020404] Prn:7/10/2004; 12:42

Symposium Six Catalan translators

F: BTL58P5.tex / p.1 (41-66)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.1 (41-112)

Andreu Nin Exponent of an unyielding intellectual yearning Judit Figuerola

.

Introduction

Andreu Nin. . . On evoking this name a few qualifiers we could associate with such an outstanding character come to mind: politician and communist intellectual are, no doubt, the first to arise. However, Nin’s image has too often reached us through witnesses speaking much afterward and contradicting the reality to some extent. The picture they paint of him is that of the intellectualised communist, in keeping with all the clichés that in the sixties (when this stereotype came into being) were associated with this sort of figure. On the other hand, one cannot deny that the so-called “Nin affair” has been debated at length, especially because of his murder during the Spanish Civil War. Political science and history are, however, the fields which have most often looked at it. Unfortunately, as a man of learning he has remained hitherto practically unheard of. Therefore, it has been necessary to carry out thorough, often complicated research in order to be able to offer a general view of the whole of his intellectual activities: teacher and educator, literary critic, political theorist, journalist and, obviously, translator. The primary purpose of this article is to rediscover the figure of Nin from the multiplicity of not strictly political scopes in which he moved throughout his life, paying special attention to the task of translation.1 In any case, there is one thing that powerfully stands out when looking back over Andreu Nin’s life – especially if one is able to read his own words directly in interviews or statements: his great and characteristic enthusiasm. Whether as a rank-and-file member, a propagandist-orator, a teacher, a journalist or a translator, Nin devoted himself fully to the task. It is important to bear this in mind when getting down to the story of his life.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.2 (112-162)

 Judit Figuerola

. Biographical notes In this journey through his life, we have tried to show his political evolution – without going into excessive detail – bearing in mind that it is a field which only interests us as a counterpoint for a better understanding of his nature. This biography sketches three principle periods in Nin’s progression towards personal and political maturity: beginnings of an active political life, the Russian period, and revolutionary maturity. In short, these are points of reference which are very useful for us afterwards to rebuild the many sides of this multi-faceted figure.

. Beginnings of an active political life Born in Vendrell (Tarragona) on the 4th of February of 1892, he began studying to become a teacher in Tarragona. After that, he moved to Barcelona in order to complete these studies by taking a degree. He had just turned 18 and he landed in the city in a moment of great political, social and cultural upheaval. The young teacher leant towards a form of Republican nationalism that, with people such as Antoni Rovira i Virgili, sought to overcome the crisis of left-wing Catalanism. At the same time, he joined the editorial staff of El Poble Català, the newspaper of the above-mentioned nationalists. Very soon, he stood out as a propagandist both in left-wing press and on orator platforms. He would alternate political enterprise and collaboration with the press with his tasks as an educator. The growing interest in the world of the working-class, together with a political and ideological radicalisation, led him towards socialist affiliation. In spite of that, Nin carried on working for El Poble Català, until the ultimate split with nationalist Republicanism led him to give up his post in the newspaper. He was thus left in a financial condition of great precariousness and was forced to take up a job as a salesman. He did not resume political activity until the crisis of August 1917, when the revolutionary strike, the implacable fights between the managerial class and the workers, and finally, the Russian Revolution all deeply moved him. It was then that he joined the CNT trade union (National Work Confederation) and initiated a time of renewed oratory and propagandistic activity. This change of direction was possible because he had started working for the newspaper La Publicidad, where he was in charge of the foreign section until he was turned out for being a trade unionist. After that, he was quickly able to find work at the news agency Fabra. Nin left Agència Fabra in 1918 in order to become an active member of the CNT. It was a particularly rough moment for trade unionism. In order to defend themselves from a powerful and spirited working-class movement, the managerial class had organized the Free Trade Unions, and their gunmen were killing the most

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.3 (162-214)

Andreu Nin 

outstanding working-class movement militants. As the repression got harder, Nin was gradually promoted in the Confederation until he reached the point of being appointed member of the delegation that was to attend the founding congress of the ISR (International Red Trade Union) in Moscow, in July 1921.

. The Russian period Nin’s contributions in the congress did not go unnoticed and Losovsky, the secretary of ISR, decided to incorporate him into the secretariat of the International. A unique chance of completing his knowledge of the international working-class movement had turned up. His excellent relationship with Losovsky, as well as with Lenin, Trotsky, Bukharin and Zinoviev made this considerably easier. Moreover, as an ISR delegate, Nin carried out important work against the rising fascism, with frequent trips to Italy and Germany. Andreu Nin lived in Moscow for nearly nine years. The Russian period was essential both for his growth at a political as well as a personal level. He learnt Russian and came into contact with not only the revolutionary experience of the first socialist country in the world, but also the cultural richness of the Russian people. At the same time, however, he continued to be mindful of the situation in Spain and he had a fundamental role when it came to explaining the realities of the new USSR back home. All this without leaving behind a task he performed throughout these years, that of giving assistance to his fellow countrymen during their visits. From Josep Pla to Francesc Macià, Nin always served as an efficient interpreter and intermediary. When the struggle for power in the Communist Party began, Nin unhesitatingly tended towards the approach of the Trotskyist Opposition. This stance forced him out of all offices, and brought about his expulsion from the party. This political ostracism went with virtual confinement at the Lux Hotel and the pressing need to look for new sources of income to survive. Nin repeatedly asked for authorisation to leave the country but for over a year he did not get any reply. Finally, halfway through 1930, he was unexpectedly deported.

. Revolutionary maturity Nin arrived in Barcelona at the age of 38 with sound intellectual and political training. As early as 1928, Nin had tried to re-establish contact with Catalonia and this allowed him to start a set of literary translations of Russian authors into Catalan for Edicions Proa, supervised by Joan Puig i Ferreter. Thus, he translated a classic like Crime and Punishment and, later, he started to translate Boris Pilnyak’s novel, The Volga Falls to the Caspian Sea. Once in Barcelona, monetary obstacles

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.4 (214-272)

 Judit Figuerola

drove him to continue his task as a translator from Russian. Furthermore, shortly after having arrived, his first book in Catalan was published, Les dictadures dels nostres dies (The Dictatorships of Today). In a way, despite the economic trials and the political exasperations, Nin lived as an intellectual. This was only possible, however, while he belonged to a very small, rather politically isolated organisation – the Communist, Trostskyist left. The situation changed radically with the unification of the left and Joaquim Maurín’s BOC (Worker and Peasant Bloc) in September 1935. The result was the creation of the new POUM (Marxist Unified Working-Class Party). Due to Maurín’s absence at the beginning of the Civil War, Nin became the party’s chief leader and devoted himself fully to working in politics. He obviously did not have any time for many of the intellectual activities he had practiced until then. In the revolutionary process started by Catalonia from that very moment, Nin was a member of the Council of Economy, and, from September to December 1936, he was a Justice and Law minister for the Generalitat (Catalan Autonomous Government), from where he created popular courts and granted civil adulthood to eighteen-year-olds. Still, the revolutionary intransigence maintained by POUM and Nin himself these months, together with his criticism of Stalin’s purges in the Soviet Union, earned him the open hostility of Spanish and Catalan communists. In June 1937 Juan Negrín’s government declared POUM illegal. Nin was arrested and disappeared, according to all circumstantial evidence kidnapped by Soviet political police operating illegally in Republican Spain. It seems that he was murdered near Madrid, after having refused to sign a statement accusing his comrades of treason. So Albert Camus was right when he said: “[. . . ] Andreu Nin’s death set a change of direction in the tragedy of the 20th century, the century of the betrayed revolution” (Tosstorff 1998: 172).

. The literary phases The presentation of each of the literary activities carried out by Nin separately from the others is only done to facilitate the task of explaining them all. However, it is obvious that in order to understand the figure of Nin, it is necessary for us to make an all-embracing effort and put all this exceptional man’s phases together along one life path. Thus, one should bear in mind that in this section we are not dealing with watertight compartments, but rather with tasks and interests that interweave and influence each other, enriching the impressive entirety of his work.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.5 (272-325)

Andreu Nin 

. The teacher and educator His vocation for educating was apparent very early in Andreu Nin’s life, as shown by some of his early articles, where he fiercely attacks sensationalist publications, bullfights, and flamenco culture. These were things which, according to him, made the lack of a clearly popular Catalan culture plain. An outstanding student, he studied teaching in Tarragona and Barcelona with brilliant results. Once this training was completed, Nin started working as a teacher. In fact, his educational activity comprised the period between 1911 and 1914 and was carried out at Escola Horaciana, a teaching institution maintained by trade unions and coherent with their pedagogical ideology as well as with their incipient sociopolitical concerns. Moreover, he also taught (probably for free) at Ateneu Obrer de la Barceloneta (Barceloneta’s Working-Class Cultural Association) and at Ateneu Enciclòpedic Popular (People’s Encyclopaedic Cultural Association). His experience as a teacher helped Nin to get to know the working-class world intimately, while he struggled to make his dream of a secular Catalan school system come true. He would make good use of the platform offered by the press (El Baix Penedés and El Poble Català) and his conferences at universities, cultural associations and trade-union headquarters in his effort to bring the project to life. For him, his contemporaries – the young, were the power of a revolution that was to make change possible. From the start, it was plain to Nin that in order to manage to forge a new society, one had to start with the schools. He aimed specifically to transform the traditional roles of teacher and student so that school would really educate and enable people to think. Along this same line, Nin sought to banish all partisan morals and he harshly criticised the use of the Christian doctrine as an instrument to encourage passivity and conformism with regard to the existing order. As far as the question of language is concerned, he stood up for teaching in the student’s mother tongue, because he believed that in this way learning could be easier and more effective. Thus, his teaching and educational activity was fundamentally concentrated in the first period of Nin’s life – before leaving for the USSR – although he never lost the urge to teach. For instance, in the early thirties, after returning to Barcelona, he taught a few courses in economics and history at cultural associations. However, he eventually leant towards a political option as a more effective means of social influence. In spite of everything, he always firmly believed that it was necessary for the practice of politics to have “as a supreme mission educating the community, shaping the citizen’s moral sense or, to be more precise, creating the nation” (Bonamusa 1977: 220). In Pelai Pagès’s words:

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.6 (325-387)

 Judit Figuerola

The teaching profession that he exercised for the first years of his political career served him as a justification of one of his fundamental political aims: the fight for the integral emancipation of man was, to a great extent, a battle for culture. (Pagès 1993: 18)

. The journalist The beginning of Andreu Nin’s journalistic enterprise was rather early: the first article signed by Nin came out in El Baix Penedés in 1906 when he was only fourteen years old. At first, he very probably did not consider it as a possible job, but, more likely, as a means through which he could communicate his youthful concerns. From 1909 on, his first regular contributions were published precisely in this weekly from Vendrell. Then, for a time he wrote articles for both El Baix Penedés and El Poble Català (as mentioned earlier, the newspaper of Republican nationalists). His contributions to the latter would continue until the beginning of 1914. These articles often dealt with culture and education-related subjects, although local politics were also prominent. It was probably at that time when Nin decided that the situation seething around him was not “compatible with the normal, a little ordinary, life of a school teacher” (Alba 1974: 40). That is why he changed jobs, and consequently, his life changed, too. He became a journalist moved by “his ambition to communicate with people and not only with his colleagues in the organisation,” a job “more in accordance with his political and intellectual concerns than those teaching had to offer” (Iglesias 1994: 28). After leaving El Poble Català, Nin and other colleagues of its editorial staff tried to set up a new newspaper. In this period, his journalistic task already showed his clear wish to become a professional journalist. He wrote articles for the newspaper Els Amics d’Europa, and he also sporadically wrote for La Revista, a publication of great intellectual influence that had come out at the beginning of 1915. Nin was the perfect example of the learned youth that gets impatient at the need to find a place for himself and earn certain recognition in the cultural world of a Barcelona that was in a period of much growth and change. Once back into political life, after the long interval of being a salesman, Nin took the task of journalism up again. From the autumn of 1917 and until, as a preeminent member of CNT, he went into hiding shortly before his trip to the USSR, he exercised as a professional journalist in renowned media. First he wrote for La Publicidad, where he (together with Manuel Brunet) was in charge of the foreign news pages that were experiencing a moment of great vitality due to World War I. Afterwards, when he was fired from the newspaper for political reasons, he joined the Fabra news agency, run by Claudi Ametlla.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.7 (387-445)

Andreu Nin 

From a present-day point of view, one could consider that Nin practiced journalism temporarily, as a way through to other assignments, but one must admit he had a command of a clean, concise, informative, up-to-date journalistic style. As far as the Soviet period and the last period in Barcelona are concerned, the propagandistic message in his articles became clear. As a matter of fact, these articles enable us to see the evolution of Nin’s political thought. The first writings by Andreu Nin from Moscow aimed at explaining the reality of the new USSR, thus making it easier for a rapprochement to the communist thesis of the Catalan, pro-Bolshevik trade-unionist group. When the publication of La Batalla (weekly newspaper of the above-mentioned revolutionary trade unionists) was brought to a stop at the beginning of Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship in 1923, this relationship was cut short. Contact with the Catalan media was taken up again towards 1928 and was shown in the articles published in L’Opinió, which, in a way, paved the way for Nin’s return. Once in Catalonia, the numerous contributions continued to be eminently political. The last journalistic activity that Nin carried out was that of editor of La Nueva Era, POUM’s ideological magazine. We would like to conclude this section with an appraisal of Nin’s prose by Víctor Alba, in which he highlights as a characteristic trait the prevalence of reporting or journalistic style, in the desire to make himself understood which extended to all of the aspects of his vast written production: Take a look at the indexes in his books [. . . ] which are like anthologies of Nin’s work in political newspapers and magazines, and see that, with a few exceptions, they are all informative articles, or articles about local current issues in Catalan or Spanish politics. (Alba 1998: 129)

. Political theorist We obviously do not have the intention of dealing with this phase in the same depth as strictly historical studies would. We are interested in briefly outlining the two aspects of this activity that are present in Andreu Nin’s evolution: oratory and writing. The first, which developed parallel to his political awakening, was done basically in Nin’s first period of life. The young teacher and journalist astonished because of the moderation and correctness of his oral discourse. Obviously, the radicalisation of his ideology – a logical consequence of his Muscovite years – implied an essential change in Nin’s contributions at meetings and conferences after his return to Catalonia. He did continue, however, to show a rhetoric that was exceptional because of its clarity and organisational attributes, as well as the fact that it adapted itself to

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.8 (445-505)

 Judit Figuerola

the expectations of every audience. Perhaps he had one weak point: he did not have complete mastery of a rhetoric that was captivating enough to move the public. As far as his political writing is concerned, Nin started this in the last years of his stay in the USSR, where the two books of political-theoretical content that he wrote in Catalan were brewed up. The first one, Les dictadures dels nostres dies, was published in 1930, coinciding with Nin’s arrival in Barcelona. The second one, Els moviments d’emancipació nacional (The Movements of National Emancipation), was published in 1935. As far as the array of topics is concerned, they dealt with two of the most important issues in the whole of his political thought: the first one with the ideological fight against fascism and the second with the issue of nationalities. Although the publication of these pieces of work made Nin gain certain prestige, scholars agree in stating that they did not contribute anything new to Marxism nor did they set up an organic or doctrinal whole. Moreover, the style was clearly still under the influence of the official communist literature, and any references to the real situation of the USSR under Stalin – a far cry from the theoretical ideas – were avoided. On the other hand, it is clear that Nin’s political production cannot be analysed outside the context in which it appeared.

. The literary critic We would like to touch upon the work carried out by Andreu Nin as a literary critic because it could be seen to have an important part in his task as a translator. Concentrated in the third phase of his evolution, with Nin newly settled in Barcelona, it is best illustrated by his article about the Soviet novel “Grandesa i decadència de la novel·la soviètica” (Greatness and Decadence of the Soviet Novel), published in 1934 in Revista de Catalunya. The author briefly described the evolution of the genre from the end of the Civil War until the end of the twenties, showing a view strongly influenced by Trotskyist-tending criticism. Despite its excessive simplification of the Soviet literary scene, this informative article was quite important, since it brought absolutely contemporary, and therefore unknown novels and novelists closer to the Catalan public. Furthermore, Nin openly denounced Stalinist literary policies since he considered them responsible for the decadence that the genre suffered after 1928. The prologues that came with some of his literary translations complete Nin’s task as a literary critic. These five prologues were useful both in introducing contemporary Soviet authors (Pilnyak, Bogdanov and Zoschenko) and works unknown to the Catalan public and in presenting and restoring the figure of the unjustly forgotten (in Nin’s view) revolutionary writer Jules Vallès. The purpose of the prologue to Crime and Punishment moved away from this line since it was by an author that needed no letter of introduction. Nevertheless,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.9 (505-566)

Andreu Nin 

the text is extremely interesting because it shows more clearly than the rest that it was based upon the Marxist method of analysis. Nin, in favour of not giving up the inheritance of the classics, tried to justify the bourgeois individualism in Dostoyevsky’s heroes. In short, in each and every one of these periods Nin showed himself as a man closely bound to his time. A time that, without a doubt, has been one of the most agitated of our recent history. It seems obvious that his intellectual activities were extraordinarily conditioned by his political and social commitment. We should never forget that his main aim was to fight in order to achieve an egalitarian society and that, as a consequence, the tasks of teacher and educator, journalist and political theorist also had, above all, this same objective.

. Forerunner in literary translation from Russian into Catalan The last, and undoubtedly most important of the activities carried out by Nin as a man of learning, was literary translation. It is an activity that he devoted himself to strongly in the last years of the Muscovite period and which gained further impulse after his return to Barcelona. In fact, only the tragedy of the Civil War managed to make Nin give up the practice of professional translation. As far as the translations are concerned, it is worth noting that Nin translated a lot into Spanish, but never literature. These works were, basically, of marked political content – Marx, Lenin or Trotsky, among others, although there also were historical and scientific works. Catalan was the language he kept in reserve for literary texts. Thus, it was not done for economic reasons. Behind this decision there was the desire to enrich Catalan literature with the incorporation of classical and contemporary Russian writers, as well as the personal ambition to do justice to these books and to his own work as a translator. As he himself told Puig i Ferrater from Moscow on the 5th of July of 1928: [. . . ] with the warm welcome you have given my proposition, you have granted me the chance of undertaking a piece of work that will be an inexhaustible source of intellectual satisfaction. In this way, it stands that I will not, as you seem to fear, carry out an “industrial job”, “only for the money”. I love myself and the Russian classics too much to do such a thing. Be sure that I will put everything I know into this. If I do not do it better it will be because the seven years I have not written in Catalan will let themselves be felt. As far as the money is concerned, bear in mind that, at present, I can translate as much political literature (firstly, Lenin) as I like – and I actually do – in infinitely better conditions than those you are offering me [. . . ]2

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.10 (566-626)

 Judit Figuerola

Despite the economic hardship he was going through, it seems that the literary quality of the translations published by Proa did not suffer. Nevertheless, Nin was not granted much public recognition by the intellectual circles at home. Francesc Bonamusa explains why: “Unmistakably, Nin’s political characterisation was, at that time, an important and decisive element when it came to considering his task as a translator, his marked communist attachment discouraged observations in the press” (Bonamusa 1977: 54). However, Nin’s most fervent wish was to manage to find a space for his proposal in the political scene of the time and, probably because of this, he did not get involved in literary controversies. Next, we would like to offer an overall view of the genres, authors and texts selected in these literary translations, as well as a characterisation of the publishing houses and magazines where they were published. To begin with, we emphasize the fact that Nin only translated prose, essentially novels. The reasons for this choice could be found in the fact that the narrative genre was at a great moment both in Russian and in Catalan literature. Moreover, the two collections where Nin’s translations came out (the Proa Publishing collection A Tot Vent and the Quaderns Literaris) considered the novel, and prose in general, as the most suitable genre to make the necessary consolidation of the Catalan language come through. The fact is that the role of translation has been of capital importance in Catalonia’s process of recovering literary prose. While poetry soon had models of its own that enabled the continuity and expansion of the genre, in prose “from the turn of the century on, translation exerted an influence by far greater than that of original works, to the extent of substituting the models of the recent tradition” (Toutain 1997: 63–64). Displaying an innovative and, at the same time, classical style, Nin was one of the many translators that contributed to the Catalanisation of an extensive range of foreign authors and, as an indirect consequence, to bringing new life to the literary prose and the language. As far as the authors and texts are concerned, the fruitful collaboration between Nin and Proa can account for the choice (all his literary translations except for one were published with this house between 1929 and 1936). On the one hand, with the translation of works by classical authors such as Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Chekov, and even the French Vallès, the company was betting safely, offering the Catalan reader vital literary works such as Anna Karenina or Crime and Punishment. On the other hand, the good understanding between the supervisor of the collection, Joan Puig i Ferreter, and Nin himself made possible the publication of works by contemporary Soviet writers that were totally unknown at home, such as Pilnyak and Bogdanov – although, in some cases, the translated novels had a nominal value rather than a strictly literary merit.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.11 (626-694)

Andreu Nin 

The only literary translation that did not come out in Proa was the compilation of short stories by the satiric writer Mikhail Zoschenko, published in Quaderns Literaris (a series edited by Josep Jané). This was probably due to this collection not focussing exclusively on the novel and wanting to deal with the considerably increasing number of contemporary foreign authors. Let us remember that at the end of the thirties – shortly after Nin’s arrival in Barcelona – his translation of a short story by Zoschenko had already been published in the magazine Mirador. Taking into account that this magazine was set apart by a tone of sceptical curiosity in its journalistic handling of the realities of the USSR, it is not surprising that a writer that “draws a smile despite the great epic of the revolution, or leads to inevitably making faces” was allowed for.3 Finally, we cannot consider this journey through the whole of the literary translations performed by Nin concluded unless we pause to look at the prologues included in some of these texts. There are five in all: three of them are an introduction to an unknown contemporary author and his work, one introduces the French writer Jules Vallès, and the last one completes the already-known information about the author of Crime and Punishment. The references we may find to translation are practically null, except for the prologue dedicated to Dostoyevsky. In it, Nin reveals two main concerns when it comes to facing the task of translating: on the one hand, loyalty to the style in the original, openly refusing to Catalanise Dostoyevsky’s prose; on the other hand, respect for the idiosyncrasy of the target language. He phrased it as follows: The approach that has guided us has been that of remaining constantly true to the style of the author, without polishing its original “barbarism” up nor betraying the spirit of the language into which the piece of work has been translated. (Nin 1929: 11)

The remaining prologues confirm this impression. Let us verify it: From where we stand, we have tried to maintain the freshness of the original, overcoming the great difficulties that translation implies and leaving the language irregularities that infuse the piece of work with a charming spontaneity deliberately untouched. (Nin 1935: 9) The only obstacles that, in this respect, the reader could find, are the profuse references, too far-off from our time, to events and public figures. In order to help us surmount them, we give illuminating notes whenever we consider them necessary for a better understanding of the text. (Nin 1935: 13)

In short, Nin shows a total respect for the style of the original, so as not to lose anything of the nature of the prose and, at the same time, the will to collaborate with the reader to make the understanding of a reality that was remote in both time and space easier for him.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.12 (694-742)

 Judit Figuerola

After the inescapable interruption that the Civil War meant for almost all the publishing projects in the country, the relatively consolidated presence of Russian literature in Catalonia during the thirties (to a great extent due to the remarkable, direct and unabridged translations from Russian done by Andreu Nin and Francesc Payarols, two great contemporary translators) came to nothing. It goes without saying that the post-war period wiped out everything Catalan and Russian. It would not be until 1962 that Russian works printed in Catalan were to be timidly seen again. Throughout this long period that leads us to the present day, some of Nin’s translations have been reissued and we may state that, for the modern reader, the Catalan in these pieces of work is anything but archaic and it continues to be as alive now as it was seventy years ago. We could even put forward Josep Pla’s statement, as an informed opinion: I can only say, according to those who at this stage can meritoriously say something, that these translations: [of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky] are the best ever to have been made in a language of Slavonic root – in this case a Latin language. (Pla 1959: 87–88)

Teacher, journalist, political writer, orator and lecturer, literary critic. . . Several periods, a path covered towards human and intellectual maturity. A journey that prepares, as well as explains, the last length of this trip. Translation is not thus seen as a mere matter of chance, the result of adverse circumstances, but as the logical activity for a man captivated from an early age by words and holder of an accurate, modern prose style who, on top of that, was familiar with the language and reality that the literature he translated dealt with. (Translated by Paola Silano Cedrón)

Notes . See the Appendix for a list of the literary works he translated into Catalan. . Unpublished letter from Andreu Nin to Joan Puig i Ferreter (Fons Borràs, Biblioteca de Catalunya). . Fragment from Nin’s introduction to Mikhail Zoschenko’s short story, “El transformista”, published in the magazine Mirador (see Appendix).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:28

F: BTL5821.tex / p.13 (742-836)

Andreu Nin 

References Alba, Víctor (1974). El marxisme a Catalunya (1919–1939). Vol. III: Andreu Nin. Barcelona: Pòrtic. Alba, Víctor (1998). “Andreu Nin, teòric, en perspectiva”. In V. Alba et al. (Ed.), Andreu Nin i el socialisme (pp. 119–132). Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. Bonamusa, Francesc (1977). Andreu Nin y el movimiento comunista en España (1930–1937). Barcelona: Anagrama. Iglesias, Ignacio (1994). “Andreu Nin: revolucionari i intel·lectual”. In X. Marcet et al. (Eds.), Andreu Nin (pp. 25–40). Barcelona: Columna. Nin, Andreu (1929). “Pròleg del traductor”. In F. Dostoievski (Ed.), Crim i càstig (pp. 5–11). Badalona: Proa. Nin, Andreu (1935). “L’obra i l’autor”. In N. Bogdànov (Ed.), La primera noia (pp. 5–10). Badalona: Proa. Nin, Andreu (1935). “L’autor i l’obra”. In J. Vallès (Ed.), L’insurgent (pp. 7–13). Badalona: Proa. Pagès, Pelai (1993). “Andreu Nin: cent anys després”. L’Avenç, 166, 17–23. Pla, Josep (1959). “Andreu Nin”. Homenots. Tercera sèrie. Barcelona: Selecta. Tosstorff, Reiner (1998). “Nin com a líder del POUM”. In V. Alba et al. (Eds.), Andreu Nin i el socialisme (pp. 145–172). Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. Toutain, Ferran (1997). “Traducció i models estilístics”. In F. Toutain et al. (Eds.), Traducció i literatura. Homenatge a Àngel Crespo (pp. 63–64). Vic: Eumo.

Appendix: Andreu Nin’s literary translations into Catalan Bogdànov, Nikolai (1935). La primera noia [Biblioteca “A Tot Vent” 74]. Badalona: Proa. Dostoievski, Feodor (1929). Crim i càstig [Biblioteca “A Tot Vent” 20; 20a]. Badalona: Proa. Dostoievski, Feodor (1933). Stepàntxikovo i els seus habitants [Biblioteca “A Tot Vent” 55]. Badalona: Proa. Pilniak, Boris (1931). El Volga desemboca al mar Caspi [“Els d’Ara”]. Badalona: Proa. Vallès, Jules (1935). L’insurgent [Biblioteca “A Tot Vent” 77]. Badalona: Proa. Tolstoi, Lleó (1933). Anna Karènina [Biblioteca “A Tot Vent” 64a; 64b; 64c; 64d]. Badalona: Proa. Tolstoi, Lleó (1974). Infància, Adolescència, Joventut. Barcelona: Proa. Txèkhov, Anton (1936). Una cacera dramàtica [Biblioteca “A Tot Vent” 89]. Badalona: Proa. Zòixenko, Mikhaïl (1930). “El transformista”. Mirador, 96, 4. Zòixenko, Mikhaïl (1936). Prou compassió! [“Quaderns Literaris” 115]. Barcelona: Josep Jané i Olivé.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:31

F: BTL5822.tex / p.1 (41-103)

Bonaventura Vallespinosa Translation and cultural revitalisation Judit Fontcuberta i Famadas

In 1987, the year of Bonaventura Vallespinosa’s death, the cultural association Centre de Lectura de Reus published two of his translations in one volume – El mite de Sísif by Albert Camus and Corrupció al Palau de Justícia by Ugo Betti – 25 years after they had been completed. The publication was to honour this figure who had done such outstanding work for the cultural life of the city of Reus, capital of the Baix Camp (district of Catalonia), at a time in which conditions were anything but favourable. Thanks to the prologue by Joaquim Mallafrè (Mallafrè 1987: 7– 11), and a monographic edition devoted to Vallespinosa in the Revista del Centre de Lectura (the magazine of the above-mentioned cultural association) in 1972, including articles by Xavier Amorós, Frederic Roda, Rosa Cabré, Lluís Pasqual and Ramon Gomis,1 we can fathom the breadth of the work done by this Reus doctor at a time when any manifestation of literature in the Catalan language was frowned upon, if not banned outright. Despite the negative environment, Vallespinosa felt called to devote time and effort to the revitalisation of Catalan culture – a daunting task in the mid-post-war epoch, but one which was, nevertheless, absolutely vital. Though born in Vilafranca del Penedès, Bonaventura Vallespinosa (1899– 1987) lived practically all his life in Reus. He studied medicine at the University of Barcelona, and while a student (1918–1920) he contributed a number of essays and poems to the Futurist magazine La Columna de Foc and to the noucentista magazine Llaç. After a long period, in which it seems he devoted himself exclusively to medicine, he was made president of the Letters Section of the Centre de Lectura de Reus in 1955, a position he was to occupy until his resignation in 1971. As president, he carried out numerous activities aimed, as Xavier Amorós said, at “providing evidence of a flourishing literary culture in full stride” (Amorós 1972: 2): lectures, courses on Catalan history and literature, recitation, reading and writing competitions for school children, poetry readings, publications such

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:31

F: BTL5822.tex / p.2 (103-168)

 Judit Fontcuberta i Famadas

as Antologia de la poesia reusenca (Anthology of Poetry from Reus) (1956–1961), commemorations, and so on. His passion for the theatre led him to produce and direct plays and dramatic readings, first at the Bartrina and later at the Fortuny. In these undertakings, Vallespinosa played an extremely active part, working above all to motivate others and especially the young: Lluís Pasqual quotes him as saying “The young won’t just come [. . . ]; you have to go and find them, and this is our job. It is like preparing new seedlings for a future garden in a waste land” (Pasqual 1972: 16). This enthusiasm and the lack of Catalan versions of contemporary plays led him to translate his favourite European and North American texts with a view to staging them in Catalonia and thus giving people a taste of the main international intellectual trends. At the same time, he was conscious of the need to dignify Catalan letters through translation of the main works of universal literature. Bonaventura Vallespinosa mainly translated into Catalan – it would appear that his only translation into Spanish was Los exiliados románticos by Edward Hallett Carr (1969) – and almost always from either French or Italian, although he also translated from English (probably with the aid of an intermediate language) in the case of Figuretes de vidre by Tennessee Williams (1959) and Aquell poble nostre by Thornton Wilder (unpublished, 1965). For his translation of the Sanskrit text Xakúntala (1970) by the Indian poet and playwright Kalidasa, he worked from the French and English translations.2 We have record of 64 translations into Catalan by Vallespinosa, more than half of which have never been published.3 Some have, unfortunately, been lost, including L’illa de les cabres (1960) and La innocent Irene (1963) by Ugo Betti and Diàleg amb Leucò (1968) by Cesare Pavese.4 Nor do we have many of his translations of Luigi Pirandello. Vallespinosa (Vallespinosa 1985: 12) himself wrote that he had translated twenty of his works, whereas we only have seven, for one of which, És així, si us ho sembla (1983), he was awarded the Josep M. de Sagarra Translation Prize in 1980. Vallespinosa himself also tells us that he had translated works by the French doctor and physiologist Claude Bernard; again however, nothing of this has survived. Joaquim Mallafrè (Mallafrè 1987: 9) has defined Vallespinosa as a “translatorreader”; in other words, he did not work to order; rather he translated according to his own taste. His translation work then offers an insight into his own tastes and interests. First and foremost came his love for theatre, given that of the 64 translations on record, 47 are theatrical works. Of course, he also translated narrative, essays, and poetry, including classics, contemporary works, and even a crime novel (Els desapareguts de Saint-Agil by Pierre Véry 1964); however, it is interesting to note that several of these works were written by writers who were also distinguished playwrights, such as Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Françoise Sagan.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:31

F: BTL5822.tex / p.3 (168-229)

Bonaventura Vallespinosa 

Many of his theatrical translations broke new ground in Catalonia and were staged in various towns and cities; for example, La cantant calba by Eugène Ionesco, which was first performed at the Romea in 1959, was taken around Catalonia and performed more than 30 times. Frederic Roda commented on the quality of Vallespinosa’s translation, which he found had achieved . . . the correct balance between a faithfulness to the original which would render it incomprehensible and excessive Catalanisation; this perfect balance, thanks to which the spectator understands the work and all its subtleties perfectly and yet is aware of a certain distance: one understands and responds to the text while appreciating that the original pertains to another language and culture. (Roda 1972: 7)

Jordi Carbonell, who saw it as “an excellent Catalan text” said that it had “all the quality of a re-creation”, since a word-for-word translation would have failed to maintain the effectiveness of the original text (Carbonell 1963: 6). Apart from the prevalence of theatrical works, Joaquim Mallafrè (Mallafrè 1987: 10) distinguished three main groups among Vallespinosa’s translations: the modern language classics, the existentialists and the avant-garde. Among the modern language classics, we find the French Molière, Racine and Alfred de Musset, and the Italian Ludovico Ariosto. However, broadly-speaking, we could also include in this group two writers in ancient languages: Kalidasa, mentioned above, and Sophocles, since Vallespinosa made a three-act verse translation of Electra (unpublished), based on the Catalan translation by Carles Riba. Among the existentialists he translated are Camus and Sartre. Mallafrè also includes here authors with a certain affinity to existentialism, such as Jean Anouilh and Sagan. Finally, the avant-garde block included Jean Cocteau, Pirandello, Ionesco and Betti, an author influenced by the Italian Twilight School, whose work was antiformalist and occasionally Kafkian in nature. Mallafrè mentions Vallespinosa’s “incursions” into the works of doctors and/or humanists that interested him, such as the essay L’home, un inconegut (1971) by the 1912 Nobel Prize winning French physiologist and surgeon Alexis Carrel. He also translated works by the Italian writers Giovanni Papini and Cesare Pavese. In the case of the former, Cartes del Papa Celestí VI als homes (1963) and of the latter, in addition to the novels El bell estiu (1967) and Entre dones soles (1967), the diary L’ofici de viure (1969) and Diàleg amb Leucò (unpublished, 1968). We could also include in this group his translation of Assaig sobre les classes socials (1979) by Paolo Sylos Labini, La visió artística i religiosa de Gaudí (1969) by Robert Descharnes and Clovis Prévost, Sartre’s literary study Baudelaire (1969) and the previously mentioned philosophical essay by Camus, El mite de Sísif (1961). He also translated into Catalan Camus’ L’esperança i l’absurd en l’obra d’Alfred Kafka

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:31

F: BTL5822.tex / p.4 (229-289)

 Judit Fontcuberta i Famadas

(unpublished). This study was originally published in the journal L’Arbalète (1945) and was later integrated by Camus into his Le Mythe de Sysiphe. The authors chosen by Vallespinosa for translation share many points in common, perhaps because the majority were representatives of the intellectual trends then in vogue. Many of them, for example, coincide in their critical view of society and in their revolutionary attitudes. The latter often took the form of a political stance, as in the case of Camus and Sartre; the first works of Ionesco were also laden with socio-political commitment; and Papini, through the journal La Voce, strove to make Italian youth aware of how Italian culture had lagged behind and was in need of renovation; finally, there is his translation of Assaig sobre les classes socials by Sylos Labini, the title of which gives a fair indication of its content. Besides, many of these authors characteristically present disappointed, solitary and tormented characters trapped in suffocating settings and faced with a harsh, hostile reality. In addition to the romantic influence found in the works of such authors as Musset and Anouilh, many of the works are intimate or individualistic in nature and there is a preponderance of the psychological point of view. Finally, we find a tendency to philosophical reflection: in addition to Sartre, Camus, Papini, Ionesco and Betti, he also translated Jean J. Gateau’s introduction to the French translation of La maladie mortelle by Søren Kierkegaard, entitled Le traité du désespoir. Of the translations which have survived, Molière is to the forefront with a total of eleven, only three of which have been published. It seems, however,5 that Vallespinosa was preparing to publish a set of translations of Molière’s work under the title Comèdies, but this never took place. L’amor metge, El metge per força and El malalt imaginari, three works centred around the medical profession, were published together by Selecta, with an introduction and notes by Dr. Vallespinosa and a prologue by another doctor, Josep Trueta. Of interest is the inclusion of the original prologues and intervals – the ballet, comedy and music prologue of L’amor metge, and the three intermissions and two prologues of El malalt imaginari –, mainly written in verse, all of which were often omitted by other translators due to their lack of connection with the plays themselves. Vallespinosa had a profound knowledge of the authors he translated. This is reflected in his choice of pieces, the prologues and notes; Xakúntala, for example, contains a total of 53 notes, most of which aim to clarify Hindu concepts, cultural references, puns or differences between various editions of the work in the original language. We know that on occasion he even consulted the authors themselves to seek clarification, as occurred with Camus and Ionesco. What is also remarkable is the extent to which he managed to stay abreast of international literary developments, despite the cultural isolation of Catalonia at that time. Thus, the time elapsing between the date of publication of several of the originals and Vallespinosa’s translations was unusually short. For example, his translations of

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:31

F: BTL5822.tex / p.5 (289-345)

Bonaventura Vallespinosa 

works by Camus, Ionesco, Betti and Williams, normally appeared within the same decade as the original or, at latest, in the following. This celerity is especially remarkable in the case of Becket, o l’honor de Déu by Anouilh, written in 1959 and translated in 1960, and of the novel Bon dia, tristor by Sagan, written in 1954 and translated in 1957. Mallafrè points out the difficulties faced by the translator at that time, not only due to the adverse political situation but also because it was a . . . pre-technological epoch, in which the non-existence of the personal computer and reliable dictionaries, and the lack of standardisation of the Catalan language itself, all presented both linguistic and political problems. It was a time in which one strove to demonstrate the infinite ability of the Catalan language to express all manifestations, including cultural expression of the highest order, in the face of the threat of minoritisation which existed then and continues to exist now – although from a different perspective. (Mallafrè 1987: 9)

Despite the difficulties, Vallespinosa’s translations are of undeniably high quality. Xavier Amorós, well versed in his work, assures us that the quality is extremely high, especially in the theatrical pieces which exhibit . . . a truly living language which has, at the same time, a very high literary quality. This blend, which is all the more difficult to achieve in a repressed language, is a constant feature of the translations of Dr. Vallespinosa. (Amorós 1972: 3)

Similarly, Mallafrè, in his prologue to the translations of the works by Camus and Betti El mite de Sísif and Corrupció al Palau de Justícia, emphasises the vitality and wealth of the language; a language which sprang from the language of the people, which was still pure and uncontaminated by Spanish, and which was dignified through the process of literary creation – or re-creation. In the specific works mentioned above, the language was, he said, precise and aware and showed “a literal respect to the original to the extent permitted by linguistic elegance and naturalness” (Mallafrè 1989: 9). Above all, however, he praised his ability to translate verse – a “virtuoso” he termed him – both in the epic poem Orland furiós by Ariosto (1983) and in theatrical pieces, such as those by Racine, of whom he translated six plays – Fedra, Britannic, Berenice, Ifigènia, Esther and Andròmaca, all of which were published in a single volume entitled Tragèdies (1967). In the prologue, Vallespinosa tells us that he tried to maintain “the same metre, the same rhyme and the same number and order of verses as the original”, and that he had, therefore, frequently been forced to stray a little from “rigorous faithfulness in order to preserve the Alexandrines and the rhyme in alternate distichs, with the stress falling on the penultimate and last syllable, respectively” (Vallespinosa

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:31

F: BTL5822.tex / p.6 (345-402)

 Judit Fontcuberta i Famadas

1967: 24). This, he saw as preferable to abandoning the characteristic verse of the epoch. He took the view that the text was foremost, even to the expense of personal taste, with the exception of a number of cases in which it was necessary to change sentences, expressions or phrases which, despite having almost exact equivalents in Catalan, were not in keeping “with the genius of the language itself ” or which, because of distance in time, might sound “out of place”. He endeavoured then to preserve the language of the original as much as possible and to maintain its rhythm since, given the impossibility of recreating the harmony of the French phonetics, he thereby managed at least to preserve a certain “cadential aftertaste” (Vallespinosa 1967: 25). It is surprising that such an extensive body of translations, widely recognised as being of the highest quality, should have been largely ignored for so long. All too many of his translations were never published and those that were did not receive the attention they deserved. As observed by Joaquim Mallafrè, it is to figures such as Bonaventura Vallespinosa who “worked in obscurity over many years” that we owe the dignification of our language, transformed “working in the harshest of conditions [. . . ] into a vehicle of expression fit to take its position anywhere in the world” (Mallafrè 1987: 11). Lluís Pasqual wrote that it was a shame that the work of Vallespinosa “was never acclaimed nor published to the extent it deserved” but that “it would nevertheless prevail just as it did when he sought the pure truth of the futurists” (Pasqual 1972: 7). I hope this paper makes some small contribution to spreading word of his work. At the end of this article, an appendix is included: a listing of the translations by Bonaventura Vallespinosa. (Translated by Carl MacGabhann)

Notes . Monogràfic dedicat a l’obra literària de Bonaventura Vallespinosa (1972). Revista del Centro de Lectura 231. . “Following the idea of Toussaint and Farran i Mayoral, my version is based on the two original recensions in Bengali and Devanagari, translated to French and English by A. L. Chézy and M. Monier Williams respectively, from which I have procured to achieve a single version, adopting, whenever these texts diverged, whatever solution I deemed most appropriate. I have also taken into account the Spanish translation by Farran i Mayoral and a French adaptation by Franz Toussaint” (Vallespinosa 1970: 12). . Some are in the Institut del Teatre library and the Vallespinosa family library.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:31

F: BTL5822.tex / p.7 (402-496)

Bonaventura Vallespinosa  . Ramon Gomis included these translations in the bibliography he published in Monogràfic dedicat a l’obra literària de Bonaventura Vallespinosa (Gomis 1972: 18–20), but they are no longer in the Vallespinosa family library where they had been kept. . See the back cover of the dust jacket of Racine, Jean (1967). Tragèdies. Barcelona: Alpha.

References Amorós, Xavier (1972). “El doctor Vallespinosa, president de la Secció de Lletres”. In Monogràfic dedicat a l’obra literària de Bonaventura Vallespinosa. Revista del Centro de Lectura, 231, 1–5. Carbonell, Jordi (1963). “Pròleg”. In Ionesco, Eugène, La cantant calba. Barcelona: J. Horta. Gomis, Ramon (1972). “Bibliografia”. In Monogràfic dedicat a l’obra literària de Bonaventura Vallespinosa. Revista del Centro de Lectura, 231, 18–20. Mallafrè, Joaquim (1987). “Pròleg”. In Camus, Albert, El mite de Sísif and Betti, Ugo, Corrupció al Palau de Justícia. Reus: Edicions del Centre de Lectura de Reus. Pasqual, Lluís (1972). “Bonaventura Vallespinosa, cavalcant uns temps difícils”. In Monogràfic dedicat a l’obra literària de Bonaventura Vallespinosa. Revista del Centro de Lectura, 231, 15–17. Roda, Frederic (1972). “Vallespinosa, traductor de teatre”. In Monogràfic dedicat a l’obra literària de Bonaventura Vallespinosa. Revista del Centro de Lectura, 231, 6–7. Vallespinosa, Bonaventura (1967). “Pròleg”. In Racine, Jean, Tragèdies. Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. Vallespinosa, Bonaventura (1970). “Notícia preliminar”. In Kalidasa, Xakúntala. Barcelona: Selecta. Vallespinosa, Bonaventura (1985). “Nota del traductor”. In Pirandello, Joyce, Brecht, vistos per Vallespinosa, Mallafrè, Murgades. Baix Camp: Òmnium Cultural Baix Camp.

Appendix: Bonaventura Vallespinosa’s translations into Catalan Anouilh, Jean (1963). Becket o l’honor de Déu. Barcelona: Joaquim Horta. (Trans. 1960; premiered at Palau de la Música 1961.) Ariosto, Ludovico (1983). Orland furiós. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Betti, Ugo (1987). Corrupció al Palau de Justícia. In Camus, Albert, El mite de Sísif and Betti, Ugo, Corrupció al Palau de Justícia. Reus: Edicions del Centre de Lectura de Reus. (Corrupció al Palau de Justícia, trans. 1962.) Betti, Ugo (unpublished). Espiritisme a la casa antiga (1960), L’illa de les cabres (1960, lost) and La innocent Irene (1963, lost). Camus, Albert (1964). La caiguda. Barcelona: Vergara. Camus, Albert (1987). El mite de Sísif. In Camus, Albert, El mite de Sísif and Betti, Ugo, Corrupció al Palau de Justícia. Reus: Edicions del Centre de Lectura de Reus. (El mite de Sísif, trans. 1961.)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:31

F: BTL5822.tex / p.8 (496-613)

 Judit Fontcuberta i Famadas

Camus, Albert (unpublished). Cal·lígula (1958), L’estrany (1958), Els justos (1960; premiered at Palau de la Música 1961), El malentès (1964) and L’esperança i l’absurd en l’obra d’Alfred Kafka (year unknown). Carrel, Alexis (1971). L’home, un inconegut. Barcelona: Miquel Arimany. Cocteau, Jean (unpublished). La veu humana. (Premiered at the Bartrina theatre 1955.) Descharnes, Robert & Prévost, Clovis (1969). La visió artística i religiosa de Gaudí. Barcelona: Aymà. Gateau, Jean J. (unpublished). Introducció a la maladie mortelle de Søren Kierkegaard (year unknown). Ionesco, Eugène (1963). La cantant calba. Barcelona: Joaquim Horta. (Premiered at the Romea theatre and at the Centre de Lectura de Reus 1959.) Ionesco, Eugène (unpublished). Les cadires (premiered at the Romea theatre 1959), Desvari a duo (1963), Jaume o la submissió (1967), L’avenir és als ous o cal de tot per a fer un món (1967) and La lliçó (1984). Kalidasa (1970). Xakúntala. Barcelona: Selecta. (Trans. 1954–1970.) Molière (1967). L’amor metge, El metge per força and El malalt imaginari. Barcelona: Selecta. Molière (unpublished). Tartuf o l’impostor (1964; premiered in Sant Cugat 1968), El burgès gentilhome (1967), Escola de mullers (1967), L’avar (1967), El misantrop (1968), Don Joan o el convit de pedra (1970), Jordi Dandin o el marit confús (1970) and Les precioses ridícules (1970). Musset, Alfred de (unpublished). Lorenzaccio. (Premiered at La Palestra de Sabadell 1968.) Papini, Giovanni (1963). Cartes del Papa Celestí VI als homes. Barcelona: Vergara. Pavese, Cesare (1967). El bell estiu and Entre dones soles. In Pavese, Cesare, El bell estiu. Barcelona: Proa. (El bell estiu and Entre dones soles, trans. 1965). [re-edition: Pavese, Cesare (1992). El bell estiu. Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana. Special edition for El Observador.] Pavese, Cesare (1969). L’ofici de viure. Barcelona: Anagrama. (Trans. 1967.) Pavese, Cesare (unpublished). Diàleg amb Leucò (1968, lost). Pirandello, Luigi (1983). És així, si us ho sembla. Barcelona: Institut del Teatre de la Diputació de Barcelona. (Trans. 1974.) Pirandello, Luigi (1985). El goig de ser com cal, Patent professional and L’imbecil. In Pirandello, Joyce, Brecht, vistos per Vallespinosa, Mallafrè, Murgades. Baix Camp: Òmnium Cultural Baix Camp, p. 13–72. (El goig de ser com cal and Patent professional, trans. 1960.) Pirandello, Luigi (1986). El joc dels papers. Barcelona: Institut del Teatre de la Diputació de Barcelona and Edicions del Mall. Pirandello, Luigi (1987). Sis personatges en cerca d’autor and Enric IV. Barcelona: Edicions 62. (Enric IV, trans. 1959, and Sis personatges en cerca d’autor, trans. 1974.) Racine, Jean (1967). Tragèdies. Barcelona: Editorial Alpha. (Fedra, trans. 1958, premiered at the Bartrina theatre 1963; Andròmaca, trans. 1959; Berenice, trans. 1965; Britannic, premiered at Palau de la Música 1965; Esther, trans. 1966, and Ifigènia, trans. 1966.) Sagan, Françoise (unpublished). Bon dia, tristor (1957) and Un castell a Suècia (1961). Sartre, Jean-Paul (1969). Baudelaire. Barcelona: Anagrama. (Trans. 1968.) Sartre, Jean-Paul (unpublished). Les mans brutes (1964) and La p respectuosa (1967). Sylos Labini, Paolo (1979). Assaig sobre les classes socials. Barcelona: Edicions 62.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:31

F: BTL5822.tex / p.9 (613-629)

Bonaventura Vallespinosa 

Sophocles-Carles Riba (unpublished). Electra. A three-act verse adaptation of the translation from the Greek by Carles Riba (year of translation unknown). Véry, Pierre (1964). Els desapareguts de Saint-Agil. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Wilder, Thornton (unpublished). Aquell poble nostre (1965). Williams, Tennessee (1959). Figuretes de vidre. Barcelona: Joaquim Horta. (Trans. 1955; premiered at the Bartrina theatre 1956.)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.1 (41-121)

Manuel de Pedrolo Not just a prolific translator Alba Pijuan Vallverdú

Not only was Manuel de Pedrolo a major writer in contemporary Catalan literature, but he was also a prolific translator, with more than forty-two published translations to his name. Like so many others in the history of translation into Catalan, however, he has never been studied in his role as translator. If we take a look at the bibliography of his translation work,1 we can see that it falls within four major blocks: from his earliest translations until 1963, when he began to work for Edicions 62; from 1963 to 1970, his most prolific period, during which he founded the thriller and crime fiction collection La Cua de Palla; from 1970 to 1976, a time of crisis for publishing in the Catalan language; and from 1976, when he gave up translating, until his death in 1990. Manuel de Pedrolo’s earliest translations were of poems. They were exercises in translation that he undertook during a period when, as a writer, he was himself exploring the poetic genre. Most of these translations remain unpublished, and it is only through his personal writings, particularly his letters and diaries, that we know of their existence. In 1950, in a letter to Gabriel Celaya, who at that time was editor of the collection of poetry volumes called Norte, he wrote that he had translated Rimbaud’s Une saison en enfer (A Season in Hell), but could not publish the translation, precisely because he had translated it into Catalan. Me ha gustado su colección Norte; la encuentro interesante y sobre todo inquieta. No de todas las colecciones se puede decir lo mismo. Fue para mí un placer encontrar entre sus títulos Una temporada en el infierno, libro que conozco bien y del que tengo una traducción – inédita todavía, pues no se nos permite publicar traducciones en nuestro idioma. (Pedrolo 1997: 119)2

In June of that year he wrote to Ricardo Orozco, the editor of El sobre literario magazine, who had asked him for some biographical details for an article he wished to write about him. Pedrolo gave Orozco a summary of his literary production

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.2 (121-177)

 Alba Pijuan Vallverdú

up to that date, saying that he had translated poetry from the French (Rimbaud, Valéry, Eluard), the English (Eliot, Sitwell and Pound) and the Italian (Salvatore Quasimodo, among others), although most of these translations have never been published. In July, in another of a number of letters to Ricardo Orozco, Pedrolo made a suggestion related to the supplement to El sobre literario named Fulles. Bearing in mind that this supplement was made up of literary contributions in all the languages of Spain, Pedrolo commented on the possibility of continuing the collection with items in other European languages (and including the translation of non-Romance-language texts, along with the original), once all the Iberian ones had been touched upon. In 1951 Manuel de Pedrolo began to work for Ferran Canyameras’s publishing house, Albor, where he acted as an adviser on English-language books and appears to have translated novels by Georges Simenon into Spanish, although he was never named as the translator. He also translated romantic fiction, westerns, adventure novels and detective stories for the fee of 3,000 pesetas per title, as well as correcting texts for the publisher Bruguera. Also in 1951, Pedrolo met Carles Riba (an important person in the world of Catalan letters, in particular for his landmark 1919 translation of the Odyssey), who introduced him to Joan Triadú (of the magazine Raixa), who in turn put him in touch with the editors of another literary magazine named Ariel. Pedrolo contributed to the last issue of the magazine (1951) with the selection and translation of six poems by American authors who were at that time unknown in Catalonia and which came as a revelation to all the staff and writers for Ariel. The poems were by Selwyn Schwartz, William Jay Smith, Ray H. Zorn, Doris B. Blanch, Robin Holzhauer and John Williams, and each translation was introduced with a brief note about the author or about the translated verses. In 1952, an article by Pedrolo entitled “Mig segle de literatura catalana” (Half a Century of Catalan Literature) was published in Fulles. The previous year, Orozco had written to Pedrolo asking him for a contribution for an issue of the magazine focused on the study of all the Peninsular literatures during the first half of the 19th century. As one part of his text on Catalan literature, Pedrolo briefly summarised the history of translation in Catalonia from 1900 to 1950. The article was originally due to appear in the edition of December 1951, but was finally published in March 1952. The part referring to translation in Catalonia said: Seria incompleta aquesta ressenya – ho és de totes maneres –, si em callés l’important treball de traducció que s’ha portat a terme entre nosaltres. Moltes col.leccions, mortes totes l’any trenta-nou, hi han dedicat especial atenció, nodrint-ne els catàlegs llurs. A part, hi ha les activitats més importants de la Fundació Bernat Metge, la qual incorpora els clàssics grecs i llatins a la nostra llengua; l’obra de F.B.M., la qual ha completat recentment la traducció

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.3 (177-243)

Manuel de Pedrolo 

catalana de la Bíblia. Tampoc no pot oblidar-se la traducció de les obres de Shakespeare portada a terme per C. A. Jordana (actualment J. M. de Sagarra en finalitza una altra versió), ni la de les obres de Molière, a càrrec d’Alfons Maseres, les dues publicades per l’editorial Barcino, creadora de la col·lecció “Els nostres clàssics”, en la qual són reimpreses o impreses per primera vegada les obres de la literatura catalana antiga. Finalment, la traducció del Faust de Goethe, obra de J. Lleonart, i les de l’Odissea; La divina comèdia i El paradís perdut, a cura, respectivament, de Carles Riba, J. M. de Sagarra i J. Boix i Selva. (Pedrolo 1994: 157)3

In August 1952, in a letter addressed to Triadú, he included the Catalan translation of Mallarmé’s L’après-midi d’un faune in the hope that it might be published in Raixa, but in fact the translation never appeared in the magazine and remains unpublished to this day. In 1954, he contributed to Homenatge a Carles Riba en complir seixanta anys (Homage to Carles Riba on his 60th Birthday) together with an important number of well-known writers. His part of this miscellany, published by Janés in Barcelona, was the translation of the poem “Burnt Norton” by T. S. Eliot, an author whom Pedrolo greatly admired. Finally, in 1962, what was to be Pedrolo’s first published book translation, Cridem llibertat! (Tell Freedom) by Peter Abrahams, appeared in Nova Terra’s collection Actituds. 1963 marked a turning-point in Manuel de Pedrolo’s career as a translator. It was then that he began working with Edicions 62, becoming one of their first contributors and also one of their best-known translators. It was Pedrolo to whom they entrusted their collection La Cua de Palla,4 which announced itself as “the best collection of thrillers in the world” and marked an entirely new departure in the Catalan publishing world. That was a difficult time for Catalan publishing: Spanish was the language of everyday literature and Catalan was only used for quality works, which had a small audience of readers. It was only after the Civil War that there was an increase in the number of authors who planned to write crime novels in Catalan so as to attract new readers in this language. The most important of these was Rafael Tasis with La bíblia valenciana (1955), És hora de plegar (1956) and Un crim al Paralelo (1960). When asked about the importance of this kind of novel for Catalan literature, Pedrolo gave his opinion as follows: No dubto pas que aquest tipus de literatura podria guanyar-nos uns centenars, uns milers i tot, de lectors, ara poc familiaritzats amb el català escrit i massa mandrosos per lliurar-se a l’esforç que, a llur entendre, suposa el fet d’abordar un llibre de més tonatge literari. (Pedrolo 1974: 14)5

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.4 (243-290)

 Alba Pijuan Vallverdú

La Cua de Palla had three main aims: to reach a wide reading public, to raise the status of the thriller and to promote local production within the genre. Various means were used to achieve these aims. First, there was a scrupulous selection of the works which would make up the collection: crime novel classics, contemporary authors and, in the future, Catalan authors. Moreover, novels were selected for their literary interest rather than merely for their value as escapist fiction. In order to reach the largest possible number of readers, it was decided to use relatively everyday language in the translations, which would have universal appeal and also be plausible in this type of literature. Finally, it should be borne in mind that, apart from selecting good authors, La Cua de Palla had an excellent team of translators, including Maria Aurèlia Capmany, Ramon Folch i Camarasa, Josep Vallverdú, Joaquim Carbó, Rafael Tasis, Maurici Serrahima, Joan Oliver and Manuel de Pedrolo himself. In the beginning, Pedrolo himself was in charge of looking for translators for the collection, and he got the help of numerous writers – friends of his who accepted the task since, according to Francesc Vallverdú, “publishing in Catalan was really tough and they longed to translate in this language” (Vallverdú 2000). As a result, the quality of these translations seemed to be guaranteed. The translators enjoyed total freedom in their work: they were just given a brief dossier with an enumeration of typographical guidelines about a group of features which required coherence: abbreviations, punctuation marks, italics, contraction of articles, capital letters, compound nouns and references. However, the translators of La Cua de Palla had to face another challenge: the creation of “new” Catalan, the colloquial Catalan which was missing in the most recent literary tradition. The Civil War had brought a hiatus in the use of Catalan in literature and, in addition, the way of speaking of the people of that time had suffered from the strong influence of Spanish. It was necessary to use a colloquial language model which sounded good and correct at the same time. According to an article of Jaume Fuster in Taula de canvi magazine (Fuster 1979: 83), the translations of Pedrolo, Tasis and Josep Vallverdú, together with the version of Joan Oliver of Batudes a la ciutat (Rafles sur la ville) by August le Breton, were a great help to create in that genre a kind of language which was not in current use and which, subsequently, would be used by writers in original Catalan works. In 1970, however, La Cua de Palla ceased publication, with seventy-one titles to its credit. The reasons for the collection’s demise are to be found in poor sales, copyright problems involved in putting the collection of books and authors together, the reluctance of Catalan authors to take up the genre, and the fact that readers considered the books to be expensive for the type of literature. Apart from his role at the helm of La Cua de Palla, the second stage in Manuel de Pedrolo’s bibliography is also distinguished by the large number of works that he translated: twenty-nine out of a total of forty-two throughout his career. In contrast

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.5 (290-351)

Manuel de Pedrolo 

to the previous stage, during which most translations were of poetry, all the books he translated in this period were novels, except for the poetic work La nit es mou (La nuit remue) by Henri Michaux, and the plays A porta tancada, Les mosques, Les mans brutes, Morts sense sepultura, and Les troianes (Huis clos; Les mouches; Les mains sales; Mort sans sépulture; Les troyennes) by Jean-Paul Sartre. 1970 marked the beginning of a crisis in Catalan publishing due to a tightening of the Franco regime’s censorship as applied to Catalan, and particularly to translated works. In two letters addressed to Jordi Arbonès in 1970 and 1973, Pedrolo referred to the precarious circumstances in which Catalan publishers found themselves, remarking that both Aymà and Edicions 62 had for a long time been unable to give work even to their regular translators, including Pedrolo himself, who during this period translated only five books: Fets de cultura (Cannibals and Christians) by Norman Mailer and Seymur: Una introducció (Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction) by J. D. Salinger in 1971; La meva vida i els meus temps (My Life and Times) by Henry Miller in 1972; Sotà el volcà (Under the Volcano) by Malcolm Lowry in 1973; and La meva vida amb Martin L. King (My Life with Martin L. King) by Coretta Scott King in 1974. In 1973, Edicions 62 made an attempt to publish Pedrolo’s translation of Numquam by Lawrence Durrell, since in 1970 they had published its first part, Tunc, but this book did not pass the censorship control. Furthermore, the limited sales of Tunc did not at all help to encourage the publishing of the second part: in three years, only three hundred copies had been sold. As a result, Numquam did not appear until 1985. In 1976, failing eyesight as well as back problems forced Pedrolo to give up translating. Faced with a choice between writing and translating, he decided to give up translating, the activity which had provided him with a livelihood for so many years, in favour of his creative urge as a writer. Nevertheless, from that time until his death in June, 1990, he published a number of translations that he had done previously. In addition, his translation of Harold Pinter’s The Room. The Dumb Waiter under the title L’habitació. El muntaplats was published posthumously in 1994, having been found among other unpublished items at Pedrolo’s house by Maria Ginés (Pedrolo’s biographer) and Joaquim Carbó (a good friend and fellow translator). Despite the many years that Pedrolo devoted to translating, he never explicitly theorised on translation. He was interested in it not as an object of study but rather as a means of earning a living and complementing his work as a writer. It should be said, however, that only a few decades ago, the discipline of translation did not enjoy the recognition that it does today. Nevertheless, an analysis of his writings suggests a number of conclusions concerning Pedrolo’s thoughts on translation. On the one hand, he believed that someone who consciously learned a second language had a better command of that language than the

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.6 (351-409)

 Alba Pijuan Vallverdú

natively bilingual speaker, since the latter had difficulty in clearly establishing the boundaries between the two languages. Moreover, he believed that, rather than an effort of the imagination like that involved in writing, translation involved the difficult task of not betraying, or misrepresenting, the author. Finally, he stated that when a translator translates, his or her own style infiltrates the text, and the original style is therefore not left intact. Pedrolo also bequeathed to us a linguistic model in Catalan which in many cases founded a school of writing, as in the detective novel genre, for instance. Pedrolo was self-taught when it came to Catalan: he belonged to a generation of post-war writers who did not learn Catalan at school and who had no opportunity to hear or read the language through the media. Their readers were in the same situation, which meant that books published in Catalan had to act as a linguistic model which, in addition to both standardising and establishing norms, had to appeal to a reading public which was not always equipped to read the language. Pedrolo advocated a pragmatic use of language: language should never be a barrier to the communication between writer and reader. In his earliest works in Catalan, he had to forego the use of expressions from his own western counties of Catalonia, thus sacrificing some degree of naturalness in his writing. Because he had never studied Catalan, his language was peppered with incorrect and non-standard usage and, moreover, he was obliged to follow the standard prescribed by Pompeu Fabra, with which he did not entirely agree. As his knowledge of the language improved, he began to use unusual words and solutions, particularly in dialogues, where he mixed highly colloquial forms with more literary language. When he had to represent the lowest social classes, he was reticent about writing absolutely vulgar words, especially those referring to the sexual organs, due to the lack of tradition in the use of language. Nevertheless, it should be said that Pedrolo, by means of the Catalan used in his novels and translations, managed to reflect all the social classes and he combated the taboo about sexuality. Despite all this, Pedrolo’s use of language has not been considered praiseworthy by all critics. Xavier Pericay and Ferran Toutain, both Catalan scholars, claim in their El malentès del noucentisme (1996) (The misunderstanding of noucentisme) that Manuel de Pedrolo helped to promote again the literary language of noucentisme6 to the detriment of what they called “la prosa del 25” (prose of ’25), a writing style based on the language spoken in the street. However, the latter model of language had totally disappeared after the Civil War; Catalan culture had gone into hiding and there was a break in the continuity of this prose style. The new generations of writers had limited training in the use of Catalan and they were not proficient enough to use the kind of language of la prosa del 25. During the sixties, the model of “la prosa del noucentisme” spread once again, through the republishing of translations from the beginning of the nineteenth century and the

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.7 (409-460)

Manuel de Pedrolo 

new production of some writers and translators. According to Pericay and Toutain, Manuel de Pedrolo, who was part of this group, was one of the authors who contributed the most to promoting the literary language of noucentisme due to his influence as a writer and translator at a time when the number of translations surpassed that of original Catalan works. Yet, it should be borne in mind that the opinion of Pericay and Toutain has been strongly criticised by authors such as Joaquim Mallafrè and Jordi Arbonès, another translator who also received criticism in El malentès del noucentisme. Whatever one may think of Pedrolo’s use of language, it cannot be denied that he was a prolific writer, with his own literary work and forty-two published translations. If one wanted to analyse Pedrolo’s translated works in more detail, it could be seen that they generally fit into one or another of the following five blocks: poetry, American novel, existentialist theatre, theatre of the absurd, and crime fiction. These are the fields that exerted the greatest influence on him both as a writer and a translator. Poetry was the first genre that he translated and explored as a writer. His translations were of French and American poets, the former including, among others, Rimbaud, whose Une saison en enfer he translated in 1950 as Una temporada a l’infern and Mallarmé, whose L’après-midi d’un faune he translated in 1952. Both these translations remain unpublished. His translation of Henri Michaux’s La nuit remue (La nit es mou) was published in 1966, and his translation of Lautréamont’s (Isidore Ducasse’s) Les Chants de Maldoror was published in 1978 under the title Els cants de Maldoror. He also translated the poem “Femmes damnées / Delphine et Hippolyte” from Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal in 1986, when, having bought Xavier Benguerel’s Catalan translation of the work, he realised that it was incomplete, and he decided to translate this poem himself. In the field of American poetry, he translated T. S. Eliot’s “Burnt Norton” in 1954, some six poems by Ezra Pound in 1960, and “my sweet old etcetera” (“mon dolç etcètera”) by Cummings in 1963, as well as the earlier-mentioned poems by Selwyn Schwartz, Jay Smith, Ray Zorn, Doris Blanch, Robin Holzhauer and John Williams, which were published in 1951. He was a great enthusiast of the American novel, with which he first became acquainted around 1940, when he read William Faulkner. He even went so far as to say that America had produced writers who surpassed those of Europe. He translated modernist American authors such as William Faulkner, Henry Miller, Erskine Caldwell, John Steinbeck and John Dos Passos; Norman Mailer, the founder of hipster philosophy; and Jack Kerouac, the foremost exponent of the Beat Generation. In all these cases, except that of Norman Mailer, Pedrolo in fact introduced the authors and their work into literature in Catalan. Existentialism was one of the literary movements that Pedrolo most admired, and he argued that it offered the most complete and coherent reflection on the 20th century. He was a great admirer of Jean-Paul Sartre, six of whose best-known plays

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.8 (460-507)

 Alba Pijuan Vallverdú

he translated in a single volume; one of these plays, Les mosques (Les mouches), was first performed in Catalan by the Adrià Gual company on 8 March 1968, the same year in which it was translated. The theatre of the absurd also had an influence on Pedrolo, and he is considered to have introduced this dramatic form into Catalonia through his own literary creation. In terms of the translations he produced, we have L’habitació. El muntaplats (The Room. The Dumb Waiter) by Harold Pinter, which was published posthumously in 1994. Finally, we must not forget his crime fiction translations. Pedrolo introduced this genre into Catalan literature through the La Cua de Palla collection of which he himself was the editor-in-chief and for which he translated five titles: Piège pour Cendrillon (Parany per una noia) by Sébastien Japrisot and A Stranger in My Grave (Un estrany en la meva tomba), by Margaret Millar, in 1963; and The Postman Always Rings Twice (El carter sempre truca dues vegades) by James M. Cain, The Ivory Grin (La mort t’assenyala) by Ross MacDonald and The Deep (Qui mana), by Mickey Spillane, in 1964. In addition to the 42 translations published to date, it should be remembered, as already mentioned in this paper, that there are a number of unpublished translations by Pedrolo. Among the poetry translations, Une saison en enfer by Rimbaud, L’après-midi d’un faune by Mallarmé, “Femmes damnées / Delphine et Hippolyte” from Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal, half a dozen poems by Ezra Pound, as well as others by Valéry, Eluard, Sitwell and various Italian authors. As for his translations of dramatic works, there are the two plays that were discovered by Maria Ginés and Joaquim Carbó, together with the translation of the Pinter play. Els daus (The Dice) by Forbes Brambles, and Quin va ser el darrer cop que vas veure la mare? (When Did You Last See Your Mother?) by Christopher Hampton, all of which remain unpublished. In conclusion, we believe that Manuel de Pedrolo’s work as a translator deserves recognition not only because of the considerable number of translations that he produced, but also, and more particularly, because in the majority of cases, he was responsible for introducing into Catalan literature new authors and genres that were familiar to Pedrolo thanks to his keen interest in keeping abreast of what was published abroad. (Translated by Jacqueline Minett)

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.9 (507-588)

Manuel de Pedrolo 

Notes . See the Appendix for a complete list of his translations into Catalan. . “I really like your collection Norte; I find it interesting and particularly stirring. One can’t say the same about other collections. It was a pleasure for me to find Una temporada en el infierno among the published titles. I know this book well, and in fact have done a translation of it – unpublished still, as we aren’t allowed to bring out translations in our language.” . “This article would be incomplete – and it is in any case –, if I did not mention the important translation work carried out by us in Catalonia. A great number of book collections, all of which disappeared in 1939, paid special attention to translations, filling out their catalogues with them. Apart from this, I should mention the very important activities of the Fundació Bernat Metge, which has brought Latin and Greek classics into our language; the task of F.B.M. in the recently completed Catalan translation of the Bible. Neither can we forget the translation of Shakespearean plays by C. A. Jordana (at present J. M. de Sagarra is finishing up new versions of them) and the translation of some of Molière’s works by Alfons Maseres, both published by Barcino. This same publishing house created the collection Els nostres clàssics (Our Classics), in which old classics of Catalan literature were reprinted or printed for the first time. Finally, there are the translations of Goethe’s Faust by J. Lleonart and L’Odissea (The Odyssey), La divina comèdia (The Divine Comedy) and El paradís perdut (Paradise Lost) by Carles Riba, J. M. de Sagarra and J. Boix i Selva, respectively. . “Tenir cua de palla” (literally, to have a tail of straw) means that one is not blameless in some affair. Pedrolo made reference to the collection name in the prologue to its first volume, saying that the expression could sooner or later be applied to all criminals. . “I have no doubt that this kind of literature could gain us some hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of new readers, now not used to written Catalan and too lazy to make the effort required, according to their understanding, to read a book of higher literary quality.” . Noucentisme was a political and cultural trend that had a strong influence in Catalonia at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It favoured the use of relatively formal Catalan, while rejecting colloquial language. Its proponents believed that the language should be standardised through literary works.

References to Manuel de Pedrolo as a translator Alsina, Victòria (2002). “Estandardització i traducció: la llengua col·loquial”. In Óscar Diaz Fouces et al. (Eds.), Traducció i dinàmica sociolingüística (pp. 134–150). Barcelona: Llibres de l’Índex. Batallé, Víctor (1994). “El trànsit de la foscor a la llum. . . ”. In Harold Pinter (Ed.), L’habitació. El muntaplats (pp. 7–14) [Els Llibres de l’Escorpí. Teatre / El Galliner, 139]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Canal, Jordi (1996). “De “La Cua de Palla” a “Seleccions de La Cua de Palla”. Normalització i mercat.” Serra d’Or, 433, 69–71.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.10 (588-702)

 Alba Pijuan Vallverdú

Canyameras, Ferran (1996). Obra completa VI. Epistolari (1939–1951) [Biblioteca Ferran Canyameras]. Edited by Montserrat Canyameres i Casals. Barcelona: Columna. Capmany, M. Aurèlia (1958). “Reixes a través.” In Cita de narradors (pp. 48–120) [Biblioteca Selecta, 251]. Barcelona: Selecta. Capmany, M. Aurèlia (1992). “Pedrolo encara reixes a través”. In Xavier Garcia (Ed.), Rellegir Pedrolo (pp. 81–103) [Llibres a l’Abast, 266]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Carbó, Joaquim (1992). “Títols, personatges i més coses”. In Xavier Garcia (Ed.), Rellegir Pedrolo (pp. 47–81) [Llibres a l’Abast, 266]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Coca, Jordi (1991). Pedrolo, perillós? [L’Esparver Llegir, 31]. Barcelona: La Magrana. Cònsul, Isidor (1988). “La novel·la policíaca catalana (l’eufòria present i la tenacitat d’antany).” Revista de Catalunya, 15, 144–148. Fàbregas, Xavier (1968). “Pròleg”. In Jean-Paul Sartre, Teatre (pp. 5–9). Barcelona: Aymà. Faulí, Josep (1992). “De “lladres i serenos”, però a la seva manera”. In Xavier Garcia (Ed.), Rellegir Pedrolo (pp. 197–207) [Llibres a l’Abast, 266]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Fuster, Jaume (1979). “Manuel de Pedrolo i la novel·la policíaca en llengua catalana”. Taula de Canvi, 16, 76–86. Ginés, Maria (1992). “Manuel de Pedrolo, inèdit”. In Xavier Garcia (Ed.), Rellegir Pedrolo (pp. 219–229) [Llibres a l’Abast, 266]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Ginés, Maria (1994). “Pedrolo: un dramaturg traductor de Pinter”. In Harold Pinter (Ed.), L’habitació. El muntaplats (pp. 15–19) [Els Llibres de l’Escorpí. Teatre / El Galliner, 139]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Lorés, Maite (1986). “Pròleg”. In Arnold Wesker (Ed.), Sopa de pollastre amb ordi (pp. 5–15) [Biblioteca Teatral, 53]. Barcelona: Edicions del Mall. Mallafrè i Gavaldà, Joaquim (2000). “Model de llengua i traducció catalana”. Quaderns. Revista de Traducció, 5, 9–27. Manent, Albert (1997). “La recepció de l’obra de T. S. Eliot a Catalunya”. In Del Noucentisme a l’exili. Sobre la cultura catalana del Nou-cents (pp. 227–240) [Biblioteca Serra d’Or, 180]. Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat. Marco, Josep (2000). “Funció de les traduccions i models estilístics: el cas de la traducció al català al segle XX”. Quaderns. Revista de Traducció, 5, 29–44. Pedrolo, Manuel de (1974). Si em pregunten, responc. Barcelona: Proa. Pedrolo, Manuel de (1991). Darrers diaris inèdits. Blocs 1988–1990 [Biografies i Memòries, 14]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Pedrolo, Manuel de (1994). El llegir no fa perdre l’escriure. Escrits sobre literatura. 1951–1974 [Argent Viu, 12], Xavier Garcia (Ed.). Lleida: Pagès. Pedrolo, Manuel de (1997a). Epistolari. Volum I [Biblioteca Literària de Ponent, 4]. Lleida: Universitat de Lleida. Pedrolo, Manuel de (1997b). Epistolari. Volum II [Biblioteca Literària de Ponent, 5]. Lleida: Universitat de Lleida. Pedrolo, Manuel de (1998). Diari 1986 [El Balancí, 317]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Pedrolo, Manuel de (1999). Diari 1987 [El Balancí, 339]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Pericay, Xavier & Toutain, Ferran (1996). El malentès del noucentisme. Tradició i plagi de la prosa catalana moderna. Barcelona: Proa. Porcel, Baltasar (1970). “Manuel de Pedrolo, multiforme i patètic.” Serra d’Or, 124, 23–27.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.11 (702-805)

Manuel de Pedrolo 

Riera Llorca, Vicenç (1971). 9 obstinats (pp. 201–226) [Biblioteca Selecta, 449]. Barcelona: Selecta. Rosselló, Ramon X. (1997). “Al voltant del teatre de l’absurd en el teatre català de postguerra.” In Les literatures catalana i francesa al llarg del segle XX (pp. 271–293). Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat. Sellent Arús, Joan (1998). “La traducció literària en català: alguns títols representatius”. Quaderns. Revista de Traducció, 2, 23–32. Torres, Estanislau (1973). Els escriptors catalans parlen [Actituds. Sèrie Testimoniatges]. Barcelona: Nova Terra. Triadú, Joan (1992). “Manuel de Pedrolo i l’aventura d’escriure”. In Xavier Garcia (Ed.), Rellegir Pedrolo (pp. 11–31) [Llibres a l’Abast, 266]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Vallverdú, Francesc (1968). L’escriptor català i el problema de la llengua [Llibres a l’Abast, 59]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Vallverdú, Francesc (1987). “L’edició en català i l’experiència d’Edicions 62”. In Vint-i-cinc anys d’Edicions 62. Catàleg (pp. 109–123). Barcelona: Edicions 62. Vallverdú, Francesc (2000). Personal interview. Barcelona, 9th October. Verjat, Alain (1997). “Sartre et Pedrolo huis-clos et tècnica de cambra.” In Les literatures catalana i francesa al llarg del segle XX (pp. 409–419). Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat.

Appendix: Manuel de Pedrolo’s translations into Catalan (original title given in square brackets) Abrahams, Peter (1962). Cridem llibertat! [Actituds]. Barcelona: Nova Terra. [Tell Freedom] Cain, James M. (1964). El carter sempre truca dues vegades [La Cua de Palla, 12]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Postman always rings twice] Caldwell, Erskine (1965). La ruta del tabac. [El Balancí, 3]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Tobacco Road] Caldwell, Erskine (1967). El petit camp de Déu [El Balancí, 34]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [God’s Little Acre] Dos Passos, John (1965). Manhattan transfer [A Tot Vent, 111]. Barcelona: Proa. [Manhattan Transfer] Dos Passos, John (1966). Paral·lel 42 [El Balancí, 24]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The 42nd Parallel] Dos Passos, John (1967). Diner llarg [El Balancí, 35]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Big Money] Dos Passos, John (1967). L’any 1919 [El Balancí, 30]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [1919] Ducasse, Isidore (1978). Els cants de Maldoror (I) [Sèrie Nova de Narrativa, 2]. Barcelona: Robrenyo. [Les Chants de Maldoror (I)] Ducasse, Isidore (1978). Els cants de Maldoror (II) [Sèrie Nova de Narrativa, 4]. Barcelona: Robrenyo. [Les Chants de Maldoror (II)] Durrell, Lawrence (1969). Justine [Tròpics]. Barcelona: Aymà. [Justine] Durrell, Lawrence (1970). Tunc [El Balancí, 62]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Tunc]

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.12 (805-910)

 Alba Pijuan Vallverdú

Durrell, Lawrence (1983). Balthazar [A Tot Vent, 204]. Barcelona: Proa. [Balthazar] Durrell, Lawrence (1983). Mountolive [A Tot Vent, 205]. Barcelona: Proa. [Mountolive] Durrell, Lawrence (1985). Nunquam [El Balancí, 173]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Nunquam] Durrell, Lawrence (1995). Quartet d’Alexandria [A Tot Vent, 205]. Barcelona: Proa. [The Alexandria Quartet] Fast, Howard (1965). El cas Winston [El Trapezi, 5]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Winston Affair] Fast, Howard (1965). Espàrtac [El Trapezi, 3]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Spartacus] Faulkner, William (1965). Llum d’agost [El Balancí, 4]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Light in August] Faulkner, William (1969). Intrús en la pols [El Balancí, 51]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Intruder in the Dust] Faulkner, William (1970). Santuari [A Tot Vent, 149]. Barcelona: Proa. [Sanctuary] Garner, Alan (1971). Elidor [El Nus, 12]. Barcelona: Estela. [Elidor] Golding, William (1966). El senyor de les mosques [El Balancí, 16]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Lord of the Flies] Japrisot, Sébastien (1963). Parany per una noia [La Cua de Palla, 1]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Piège pour Cendrillon] Kerouac, Jack (1967). Els pòtols místics [A Tot Vent, 129]. Barcelona: Proa. [The Dharma Bums] Lowry, Malcom (1973). Sota el volcà [El Balancí, 83]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Under the Volcano] MacDonald, Ross (1964). La mort t’assenyala [La Cua de Palla, 9]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Ivory Grin] Mailer, Norman (1971). Fets de cultura [L’Escorpí Idees, 29]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Cannibals and Christians] Michaux, Henri (1966). La nit es mou [Beatriu de Dia, 4]. Barcelona: Edicions Roca-Llibres de Sinera. [La nuit remue] Millar, Margaret (1963). Un estrany en la meva tomba [La Cua de Palla, 5]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [A Stranger in my Grave] Miller, Henry (1966). Un diable al paradís [El Balancí, 22]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [A Devil in Paradise] Miller, Henry (1972). La meva vida i els meus temps. Barcelona: Aymà. [My Life and Times] Pinter, Harold (1994). L’habitació. El muntaplats [El Galliner, 139]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Room and the Dumb Waiter] Robbe-Grillet, Alain (1968). Dins del laberint [El Balancí, 45]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Dans le labyrinthe] Salinger, J. D. (1971). Seymur: una introducció [El Balancí, 66]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction] Sartre, Jean-Paul (1968). A porta tancada, Les mosques, Les mans brutes, Morts sense sepultura, La P... respectuosa i Les troianes. Barcelona: Aymà. [Huis clos; Les mouches; Les mains sales; Morts sans sépulture; La putain respectuese; Les Troyennes] Scott King, Coretta (1970). La meva vida amb Martin L. King. Barcelona: Aymà. [My Life with Martin L. King]

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:33

F: BTL5823.tex / p.13 (910-935)

Manuel de Pedrolo

Spark, Muriel (1967). El punt dolç de la senyoreta Brodie [El Balancí, 38]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie] Spillane, Mickey (1964). Qui mana [La Cua de Palla, 22]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Deep] Steinbeck, John (1964). Homes i ratolins [A Tot Vent, 99]. Perpinyà: Proa. [Of Mice and Men] Tillard, Paul (1967). El pa dels temps maleïts [Actituds, 11]. Barcelona: Nova Terra. [Le pain des temps maudits] Vance, Marshall (1966). La caminada [El Trapezi, 6]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Walkabout] Wesker, Arnold (1986). Sopa de pollastre amb ordi [Biblioteca Teatral, 53]. Barcelona: Institut del Teatre / Edicions del Mall. [Chicken Soup with Barley]



JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:35

F: BTL5824.tex / p.1 (41-106)

Josep Vallverdú Translation as resistance and service Anna Cris Mora

.

Introduction

Josep Vallverdú i Aixalà is well known in the world of Catalan letters, chiefly as a prolific writer of fiction for children and young readers. However, his literary activities were not confined to this genre; he is the author of essays, popularising works, books on the Catalan regions, drama, poetry, film-scripts, articles, and literary criticism. He also devoted much time to translation, with some seventy translated works to his name, most of which were from English, French and Italian.1

. The life and times of Josep Vallverdú, translator Josep Vallverdú was born in Lleida in 1923. From an early age, he began to be interested in language and showed signs of the creative urge, that need to write and publish, that was to be his life-long driving passion. He studied Classics at the University of Barcelona, a rare privilege considering that he was the first member of the Vallverdú family to go to university and study for a degree. His paternal grandfather, however, did have a book collection, and his father, although not himself a literary man, had purchased a copy of the Enciclopèdia Espasa. So, despite their lack of a formal higher education, the Vallverdú family clearly took an interest in literature. Josep Vallverdú arrived in Barcelona in 1940 to complete the final year of his secondary school education and the following year he entered university, only two years after the end of the Spanish Civil War. Studying at the University of Barcelona opened the doors of a new city with new ideas. The beginnings of the post-war period were like manna to Vallverdú, who came from the disillusioned,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:35

F: BTL5824.tex / p.2 (106-161)

 Anna Cris Mora

occupied, conservative rural area of western Catalonia. He chose to study Classics because it offered him “grounding in philology, as well as a general education in Mediterranean culture, classical archaeology, Greek, Latin and mythology”, and at the same time allowed him to experiment in translation from the Greek and Latin, one of his abiding passions (Biosca & Cornadó 1992: 92). At the Arts Faculty, he came into contact with circles that were committed to Catalan culture and to reviving and furthering the cause of the Catalan language. Officially, Josep Vallverdú began writing in Spanish in 1948, with the publication of an article in the magazine Temps, which numbered among its contributors such figures as Josep Pereña, Miquel Arimany and Jordi Carbonell, to name but a few, and of which he was one of the founders. He continued to write in Spanish until 1960, the year in which he published his first book in Catalan, El venedor de peixos. In fact, in 1937 he had written a version of the popular Catalan Nativity play Els Pastorets and, had it not been for the peculiar circumstances of those early years of the Franco dictatorship, Vallverdú would not have been forced to change the language in which he wrote in order to ensure the publication of his books. Vallverdú’s debut as a translator came in 1948, when at the age of twenty-five he translated two works by W. W. Jacobs into Spanish, Odd Craft and Many Cargoes, under the titles Amor pasado por agua and Un pobre diablo, respectively, both of which were published by Editorial Arimany. At that time, it should be remembered, the Catalan language was subject to a ban in all areas, particularly in that of translation. During the 1950s, he continued to produce Spanish translations, a total of seven titles for Arimany, Seix Barral and Marfil, in Valencia. On the career front, Vallverdú began working as a teacher at the Institut de Balaguer secondary school in 1956. He would dedicate thirty-two years of his life to this job that served as his principle source of income. It was not until the 1960s that the Catalan translation movement took off in a decisive way and the obstacles in its path began, to some extent, to be removed, thanks to a degree of relaxation in the censorship exerted by the Franco regime. Moreover, the sixties brought changes in the Catalan publishing scene: new publishers such as Edicions 62 and Edicions La Galera emerged, marking a step forward on the road to the normalcy of Catalan. Writers and translators now had the opportunity to publish in Catalan. It was at last time for all those dark, formative years to bear fruit and gain recognition by getting into print. Josep Vallverdú, like many other writer-translators, had turned that period of publishing silence to good account by serving his literary apprenticeship, albeit in Spanish. In 1962, Josep Vallverdú approached Edicions 62 and Herder as a literary translator and was favourably received by both publishing firms. That same year he began an intense period of translating activity which was to last until the seventies, when he devoted his energies more specifically to creative works of his own. He translated for Edicions 62, Herder, Estela, Vicens Vives, Aymà and Plaza i Janés.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:35

F: BTL5824.tex / p.3 (161-218)

Josep Vallverdú 

From 1963 to 1969 he translated a total of thirty works. In 1963 he produced his first translation in Catalan, a religious book entitled El laic en l’Església, translated from the French original Le laïc dans l’Eglise for Estela. In 1964, two years after Edicions 62 came into existence, he was already beginning to produce translations for the collection La Cua de Palla edited by Manuel de Pedrolo; this was a collection of the leading foreign authors in the detective story and thriller genre. The first of such books that he translated was A Kiss before Dying (Una besada abans de morir), by Ira Levin. It was followed by other titles by well-known American authors writing in the detective story genre, including Raymond Chandler, Ed McBain, Dashiell Hammet, Hillary Waugh and Lionel White. He also translated books by the English author James Hadley Chase, including No Orchids for Miss Blandish (No hi ha orquídies per a Miss Blandish), which appeared in 1967. Looking back, we can see that the task of translating detective novels into Catalan in the sixties involved finding solutions to a number of problems. Catalan narrative had no authors of its own working in this particular genre and translators therefore had to break new ground, creating a street language appropriate to the situations in which the characters, the thieves and murderers in the novels, found themselves. It was a very delicate situation, in which translators acted as the creators of a language and contributed to forging a model for the language of narrative in Catalan at that time. The translation of the various foreign books involved a broad range of registers that the Catalan language would have to come to terms with if the existing publishing opportunity were not to be missed. In the words of Josep Vallverdú, “the translators working on La Cua de Palla tended to use a slightly more literary language than the original author” because they couldn’t take the liberty of using the same register as the one used in English, a language with an established standard and which therefore admitted a great versatility of style. The task facing the Catalan translators of the sixties was threefold: to translate, to create a plausible narrative language and to educate the reading public in the Catalan language. During those years, Vallverdú translated detective novels for Edicions 62, the occasional work on social anthropology, religious books – in Catalan for Estela and in both Spanish and Catalan for Herder, mysteries for Plaza i Janés, historical works for Vicens Vives and a book by Martin L. King for Aymà. On 1 May, 1966, he organised the First Round Table of Catalan Translators (Primera Taula Rodona de Traductors Catalans), which was held in Raïmat (a town in the Catalan district of Segrià). The event was without precedent in the Catalan translating world and took on particular significance in view of all the obstacles that had to be overcome before it actually took place. The gathering was attended by representatives of the literary and cultural life of Catalonia, including a good many translators. Josep Vallverdú’s talk during the round table discussion was entitled “The translator in 1966 and the (Catalan) language”; in it he reflected on

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:35

F: BTL5824.tex / p.4 (218-272)

 Anna Cris Mora

the difficulties posed by terminology and the linguistic standard in Catalan, as well as on the ethical responsibilities of the translator as a man or woman committed to the task of educating the nation. The 1970s saw a slump in the Catalan publishing sector due to an imbalance in the production and the demand for books. There was a glut in production, and the Catalan reading public was not able to absorb such a large quantity of books in a language which for so many years had been denied publication, a language which was striving to establish itself as a language of culture. Vallverdú returned to translation in 1973 with a pedagogical title for Teide and a book on the history of art for Edicions 62. During the seventies, he worked for these two publishers, translating numerous books on education and history; he also wrote essays and literature for children and young readers, as well as completing the series of books on the regions of Catalonia that he had begun with Ton Sirera. In 1980, in the article “Les alegries de l’amic Rodari”, he translated some poems by Gianni Rodari from the Italian for the children’s magazine Cavall Fort. Two years later, he translated another work by Rodari, this time for La Galera. Although he had previously translated a collection of ten children’s stories in 1975, these two translations marked the beginning of a particular interest – one to which Vallverdú always attached great importance – in translating literature for children and young readers, working with the publishers La Galera, Barcanova and Bruguera. La Galera published not only his translations but also many of his own original books for children and young people. During the 1980s, he also translated two educational books, one on Greek mythology for young people and another on reading. In 1981 and 1984, respectively, he translated two famous novels: Our Man in Havana (El nostre home a l’Havana), by Graham Greene, and The Turn of the Screw (Un altre tomb de rosca), by Henry James. In 1982, he wrote a book on translation criticism entitled Magí Morera i Galícia, traductor de Shakespeare, a work in which he analysed Morera i Galícia’s translations of Shakespeare. Josep Vallverdú retired in 1988, after a lifetime devoted to teaching but he continued to write. His last translation was published in 1993.

. The translations, authors translated and publishers Having given an overview of Vallverdú’s translations, I will now identify the six major areas into which they fall. Although the subject matter is very diverse, as we have already seen, his translations can be classified as follows: detective novels for La Cua de Palla collection of Edicions 62; children’s literature for La Galera, Barcanova and Bruguera; classics of English and American literature for several publishing houses such as Aliorna, La Galera, Noguer or Barcanova; essay, usually

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:35

F: BTL5824.tex / p.5 (272-331)

Josep Vallverdú 

on teaching and education for Herder, Teide and Cruïlla; history and art history, including mythology, for Vicens Vives and Edicions 62; and finally, works on religion and anthropology for the publishers Estela and Herder. Detective novels and literature for children and young readers were the two subject areas in which Josep Vallverdú felt most at home. On the one hand, he was anxious to provide Catalan children with the publications necessary for them to achieve an optimum level of cultural normality through the Catalan language; that is why he introduced, by means of translation, the best foreign authors of children’s literature into Catalonia. On the other hand, translating crime novels into Catalan in the 1960s was quite a challenge, because this was a genre for which no tradition existed in Catalonia and it therefore necessarily involved translators from the very outset in the task of creating a new kind of language, as has been mentioned above. I shall now give a few details about the authors whose work was especially important in the development of the genres of the detective novel and children’s and young people’s literature, followed by a few comments about Vallverdú’s principal publishers.

. Detective novel writers The detective novel writers whom Vallverdú translated from 1964 to 1968 were Ed McBain, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammet, Ira Levin, Hillary Waugh, Lionel White and James Hadley Chase, all of whom were American except for the latter, who was English. Ed McBain is one of the many pseudonyms used by the writer Salvatore Lombino, who was born in New York in 1926. He is a very prolific writer with more than 131 works to his name, notably in the crime and detective novel genre. He has also written scripts for cinema and television. His books deal with political and social themes, focussing particularly on ethnic minorities. The language that he uses is popular, with a rich stream of slang, making translation difficult. In 1967, Vallverdú tackled Lady, Lady, I did it, published under the title El ritual de la sang, a novel in the long and famous 87th Precinct series, which belongs to the police procedural sub-genre of the detective novel and which foregrounds the role of characters who are members of the law enforcement forces. The series has given rise to several film and TV adaptations. Raymond Chandler, born in Chicago in 1888, embarked on his literary career when he was forty-four. He started out writing short stories and novelettes for the popular pulp magazines of the 1920s and 30s, which played an important role in the birth and development of the detective novel. They were aimed at a readership which was not very demanding in terms of literary quality, and they

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:35

F: BTL5824.tex / p.6 (331-383)

 Anna Cris Mora

provided escapist relief from the social and political realities of the day. Chandler is representative of the hard-boiled crime writer school, a new trend in detectivestory writing in the twenties, which applied the conventions of the western to the American metropolis, using an incisive, ironic brand of language. Chandler is regarded as the leader of the second generation of that school. The Big Sleep, written in 1939 and translated by Vallverdú in 1966, belongs to a series of private-eye novels featuring Philip Marlowe as their protagonist. Dashiell Hammet was born in Maryland in 1894. His literary contribution marked the beginning of the detective novel. With his naked realism and behaviourist style, he forged an individual style of expression in which the words and phrases used are charged with meaning. The creator of an aesthetic based on ambiguity, he was skilled at making the most of the hard-boiled strategy of frenzied, incisive action. Vallverdú translated two of his novels: in 1967, The Thin Man (L’home flac) and the following year, Red Harvest (Collita roja). Ira Levin was born in New York in 1929. His literary production was varied, ranging from musicals to television. His classic detective novel, A Kiss before Dying, which was translated by Vallverdú in 1964 under the title Una besada abans de morir, was the basis for a film of the same name. Hillary Waugh was born in 1920 in Connecticut. A representative writer of the police procedural, he has published novels under a number of pseudonyms. Vallverdú translated his Sleep Long, My Love (L’assassí és al veïnat in Catalan), in 1967. Lionel White, a New York writer born in 1905, is one of the most searingly desperate writers of the crime novel genre. His books are about hold-ups, kidnappings, robbery, alcohol and passion, and have a predilection for describing psychological conflicts. Vallverdú translated Invitation to Violence, one of White’s last books, under the title Invitació a la violència, in 1965. J. Hadley Chase is the pseudonym of the English author René Brabazon Raymond. A crime psychology enthusiast, he wrote his first novel, No Orchids for Miss Blandish, in 1938 with the help of a dictionary of American slang. In 1967, Vallverdú translated the book into Catalan under the title No hi ha orquídies per a Miss Blandish.

. Writers of children’s and young people’s literature In the field of literature for children and young readers, Vallverdú has introduced such authors as Jack London, Scott O’Dell, Betsy Byars and Gianni Rodari into Catalan. Jack London, the pseudonym of John Griffith London, was born in San Francisco in 1876. All his life he strove to escape from the moral and financial wretchedness that marked his childhood. He was a regular contributor

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:35

F: BTL5824.tex / p.7 (383-447)

Josep Vallverdú 

to magazines and newspapers. His first major success came with The Call of the Wild (1903), translated by Vallverdú under the title La crida de la natura salvatge in 1993. Scott O’Dell is a well-known American author who has published eighteen books for young readers. Island of the Blue Dolphins, translated as L’illa dels dofins blaus in 1987, was awarded the Newberry Medal, the most important prize for children’s literature in the United States. The other book by O’Dell that Josep Vallverdú translated for La Galera was The Black Pearl, which was published in 1987 as La perla negra. In 1972, O’Dell became the first American to receive the Hans Christian Andersen Medal. Betsy Byars is an acclaimed children’s and young readers’ fiction writer who has received numerous international awards. Vallverdú translated her book The Summer of the Swans under the title L’estiu dels cignes in 1984. Gianni Rodari, born in Lombardy in 1920, is regarded as Italy’s foremost writer of children’s literature. He has been a schoolteacher and a journalist, but he has never ceased to be interested in education. In 1970, he was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal. Vallverdú translated his La Freccia Azzurra (La fletxa blava) in 1982.

. Publishing houses If we take a look at the principal publishers with whom Vallverdú worked, we can see that the majority were founded after the Civil War, between the 1940s and the 1960s, except for the odd publishing house which had continued active since the 1920s, such as Proa. Another characteristic feature was their commitment to the Catalan language; the majority appeared at a time of literary stagnation, and one of their main priorities was to re-establish the normality of Catalan culture and restore Catalan to the status of a literary language. Edicions 62 was founded in Barcelona in 1961 and the following year embarked on its publishing activities with the emblematic work Nosaltres els valencians, by Joan Fuster. The firm got off to a vigorous start and embarked on the publication of collections of essays, literature, religious books, research books and quality popular nonfiction. The Herder publishing house, founded in 1943, was Catholic in outlook and produced books mainly in Spanish, except for a small number of books which were published in both Spanish and Catalan. Estela, founded in 1958, had as its aim the dissemination of Catholic thought and the spirit of Church renewal through French Catholic authors and groups. Some of the titles it published ran to 40,000 copies. In 1971, it ceased its publishing activities and was absorbed into a new publishing house, Laia. Before the war, Edicions Proa, which was founded in Badalona in 1928, had launched collections of novels, children’s books and essays. After the defeat of the Republic, it resumed its publishing activities in Catalan,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:35

F: BTL5824.tex / p.8 (447-503)

 Anna Cris Mora

first in Perpignan, France, in 1951, and later in Barcelona, in 1965. Edicions La Galera (1963) dealt in children’s books and educational texts. From 1967, it offered the Folch i Torres Prize for children’s literature, which was awarded to Josep Vallverdú in 1968 for his Rovelló. Teide and Seix Barral published textbooks and books on education. Plaza i Janés was founded in 1959; for this publishing house Vallverdú translated a novel by G. K. Chesterton, The Innocence of Father Brown (La innocència del Pare Brown), a mystery which remains popular to this day. Arimany (1947) was one of the first publishers to resume publishing in Catalan. Miquel Arimany, deeply concerned with the Catalan language, published all kinds of literature and reference works, such as cultural magazines, dictionaries, Catalan language teaching texts, etc. All these publishers played a key role in the post-war recovery of Catalan culture and are the most important firms with which Vallverdú worked as a translator.

. Conclusion I would like to conclude by emphasising a few points which, in my opinion, sum up Josep Vallverdú’s contribution to the world of translation: first, the large number of works translated, some seventy in all; second, his dedication and sense of service to Catalan society through the medium of his translations and original literary works, and, finally, his contribution to the development of a plausible language model for contemporary narrative. For all these reasons, I believe Vallverdú’s work as a translator deserves a much more in-depth study than has been possible within the limited scope of the present paper. (Translated by Jacqueline Minett)

Note . See the Appendix for a list of the works he translated into Catalan.

References Aloy, Josep Maria (1998). Camins i paraules. Josep Vallverdú, l’escriptor i l’home [Guimet 24]. Lleida: Pagès Editors. Biosca, Mercè & Cornadó, M. Pau (1992). Escriptors d’avui. Perfils literaris (pp. 87–95) [Quaderns d’Ara 1]. Lleida: Ajuntament de Lleida.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:35

F: BTL5824.tex / p.9 (503-644)

Josep Vallverdú 

Broch, Àlex (1980). Literatura catalana dels anys setanta [L’Escorpí 43]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Canal i Artigas, Jordi (1996a). “De ‘La Cua de Palla’ a ‘Seleccions de La Cua de Palla”’. Serra d’Or, 433, 69–71. Canal i Artigas, Jordi (1996b). “Quo vadis, Cua de Palla?”. Serra d’Or, 441, 54–55. “Cita de traductors” (1966). Serra d’Or, 6, 49. Coma, Xavier (1994). Temes i autors de la novel·la negra [Seleccions de la Cua de Palla 150]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Mora i Figuera, Anna Cris (2002). “Entrevista a Josep Vallverdú, traductor”. Quaderns. Revista de Traducció, 8, 121–131. Pedrolo, Manuel de (1972). “Que falla, ‘La Cua de Palla’?”. Serra d’Or, 149, 44–46. Sullà, Enric (1983). “Elogi de ‘La Cua de Palla”’. Avui Lletres, 143 (11 Nov. 1983). Vallverdú, Josep (1966). “El traductor de 1966 i la llengua”. In Montserrat Bacardí, Joan Fontcuberta & Francesc Parcerisas (Eds.) (1998), Cent anys de traducció al català (1891– 1990) (pp. 199–208). Barcelona: Eumo. Vallverdú, Josep (1983). Indíbil i la boira. Barcelona: Destino. Vallverdú, Josep (1996). Vagó de tercera. Barcelona: Proa. Vallverdú, Josep (1998). Garbinada i ponent. Els meus anys cinquanta [Memòria 4]. Barcelona: Proa. Vallverdú, Josep (2000). Desmudat i a les golfes [Memòria 13]. Barcelona: Proa.

Appendix: Josep Vallverdú’s translations into Catalan Blance, E. & Cook, A. (1975). Gegant. Barcelona: Teide. Byars, Betsy (1984). L’estiu dels cignes. Barcelona: La Galera. Chandler, Raymond (1966). La gran dormida. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Chase, James Hadley (1968). Els culpables tenen por. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Chase, James Hadley (1967). No hi ha orquídies per a Miss Blandish. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Chesterton, Gilbert Keith (1965). La innocència del Pare Brown. Barcelona: Plaza Janés. Defoe, Daniel (1991). Robinson Crusoe. Barcelona: Proa. Dufourq, Charles-Emmanuel (1969). L’expansió catalana a la Mediterrània occidental segles XIII i XIV. Barcelona: Vicens-Vives. Elliott, John Huxtable (1966). La revolta catalana 1598–1640. Barcelona: Vicens-Vives. Forrester, Larry (1967). Tuck, l’immortal pilot de la RAF. Barcelona: Estela. Gibson, Michael (1984). Mitologia grega. Barcelona: Barcanova. Gleason, R. W. (1964). La gràcia. Barcelona: Herder. Glorieux, P. (1963). El laic en l’Església. Barcelona: Estela. Greene, Graham (1981). El nostre home a l’Havana. Barcelona: Proa. Hammet, Dashiell (1968). Collita roja. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Hammet, Dashiell (1967). L’home flac. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Hofinger, Johannes; Stone (1967). Catequesi pastoral. Barcelona: Herder. Hofinger, Johannes & Reedy, William J. (1968). ABC de la catequesi moderna. Barcelona: Herder.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:35

F: BTL5824.tex / p.10 (644-807)

 Anna Cris Mora

James, Henry (1984). Un altre tomb de rosca. Barcelona: L’Atzar. King, Martin Luther (1967). La força d’estimar. Barcelona: Aymà. Kurtz, Carmen (1984). Veva. Barcelona: Noguer. Lengrand, Paul (1973). L’educació permanent. Barcelona: Teide. Levin, Ira (1964). Una besada abans de morir. Barcelona: Edicions 62. London, Jack (1986). Ganes de viure i altres relats. Barcelona: Barcanova. London, Jack (1993). La crida de la natura salvatge. Barcelona: Barcanova. Malinowski, Bronislaw (1969). Sexe i repressió en les societats primitives. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Martínez Gil, F. (1990). El joc del pirata. Barcelona: Noguer. Masacrier, Jacques (1978). Tornem a viure. Barcelona: Alta Fulla. McBain, Ed. (1967). El ritual de la sang. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Merton, Thomas (1965). Vida i santedat. Barcelona: Herder. Mistral, Frederic (1996). Nerta. Lleida: Pagès. (Premiered at the Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona, 1959). Mitchell, Juliet (1977). La condició de la dona. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Mount, Cedric. El niu mai del tot niu (Premiered at the C. A. Sant Lluc in Barcelona on the 26–27 February 1960). O’Dell, Scott (1985). La canoa fosca. Barcelona: La Galera. O’Dell, Scott (1987). La perla negra. Barcelona: La Galera. O’Dell, Scott (1987). L’illa dels dofins blaus. Barcelona: La Galera. Payeras, Francesc (1964). Catecisme catòlic. Barcelona: Herder. Perrault, Charles (1972). La caputxeta i el llop. Barcelona: La Galera. (Premiered at Teatre Romea, Barcelona, 1972). Piaget, Jean (1974). On va l’educació? Barcelona: Teide. Pocock, D. F. (1964). Antropologia social. Barcelona: Herder. Poe, Edgar Allan (1986). Descens al Mäelstrom i altres relats. Barcelona: Barcanova. Poe, Edgar Allan (1991). L’escarabat d’or i altres relats. Barcelona: Barcanova. Rodari, Gianni (1982). La fletxa blava. Barcelona: La Galera. Rolland, Germain (1965). Kamikaze. Barcelona: Estela. Saroyan, William (1992). Tots estàvem guillats. Barcelona: La Galera. Sarto, Montserrat (1985). L’animació a la lectura. Barcelona: Cruïlla. Schwarz, Oswald (1975). Sexe i psicologia. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Shneidman, J. Lee (1975). L’imperi catalano-aragonès (1200–1350). I. Política interior. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Smedt, E. J. de (1965). L’amor conjugal. Barcelona: Herder. Steinbeck, John (1988). El poni roig. Barcelona: Aliorna. Steinbeck, John (1987). La perla. Barcelona: Noguer. Stevenson, James (1983). L’ou de Pasqua. Barcelona: Barcanova. Stevenson, James (1984). No tenim son! Barcelona: Barcanova. Stevenson, Robert Louis (1984). L’illa del tresor. Barcelona: Bruguera. Stewart, Sydney (1967). Doneu-nos el dia d’avui. Barcelona: Estela. Waugh, Hillary (1967). L’assassí és al veïnat. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Weyergans, Franz (1965). Fills de la meva paciència. Barcelona: Estela. White, Lionel (1965). Invitació a la violència. Barcelona: Edicions 62.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:35

F: BTL5824.tex / p.11 (807-819)

Josep Vallverdú 

Whitehill, Walter M. (1973). L’art romànic a Catalunya: segle XI. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Wilde, Oscar (1991). El fantasma de Canterville i altres relats. Barcelona: Barcanova. Wilde, Oscar (1982). El príncep feliç i altres contes. Barcelona: La Galera.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:37

F: BTL5825.tex / p.1 (41-107)

Maria-Mercè Marçal (Re)presentation, textuality, translation* Pilar Godayol

.

Introduction

I would like to begin with some lines by the Catalan poet, novelist, teacher, translator, and militant feminist, Maria-Mercè Marçal (Ivars d’Urgell, 1952 – Barcelona, 1998), lines that, for me, besides describing that profound ambivalence we all feel before another person, also define the process of (re)presenting. In Desglaç, Marçal speaks of the: Dolor de ser tant diferent de tu. Dolor d’una semblança sense termes. . . Dolor de ser i no ser tu: desig. Pain of being so different from you. Pain of an unspeakable similitude. . . Pain of being and not being you: desire. Pain and desire interweave when we (re)present; pain, since the (re)presentation can never wholly (re)produce the original; desire, because this impossibility generates an insatiable demand for completeness that can never fully be met. These two very human feelings intertwine when we write, paint or translate, when we try to encompass an object in its entirety, seeking to bridge the contextual and linguistic chasm that separates us, and when we come to the definitive realisation that we cannot fully decipher the original, for in so doing we would destroy its meaning.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:37

F: BTL5825.tex / p.2 (107-153)

 Pilar Godayol

. (Re)presentation Before going on to look in more detail at the translations of Maria-Mercè Marçal,1 which are dealt with in the second part of this article, I would like to add a few reflections on the relation between reality and the forms of (re)presentation, on how language is both a way of (re)presenting reality and of manipulating it. For we choose the words we use, and not any others, in the same way that a painter chooses some colours, some forms, to (re)present. Speaking of painting, another of the languages human beings have available to translate reality, I would like here to draw on Michel Foucault’s very well-known essay on Las Meninas, the painting by Velázquez, in order to illustrate these concepts. In his critical analysis of the painting, Foucault (1970) reflects on the legitimacy of (re)presentations. Behind his description lies a recognition of the unstable nature of meanings and the impossibility of reducing things to a single reading. A man and a woman, who are not directly visible to us, are at once spectacle and spectators in relation to the subjects in the room depicted in the painting. At the same time these subjects also become spectacle and spectators for us as we contemplate Velázquez’s painting. But what is the real scene that the artist is portraying? Velázquez is of course playing with the (re)presentation of a king and queen, with the act of creating a painting, and, above all, with the meaning inherent in (re)presentation. In the picture, Felipe IV of Spain and his wife Mariana are posing for a painter, but they are seen only indirectly, in a mirror which makes visible that which is otherwise invisible, and which is the centre of the canvas. The Infanta Margarita (their daughter) and the members of the court have come to watch the painting of the portrait. The King and Queen, thus, become the object of the gaze of three separate groups of subjects: the artist who is painting them and who is also represented in the picture, the onlookers from the Escorial Palace who are watching the scene, and ourselves, who look on from the outside. All eyes contemplate a meticulously prepared scene in which the monarchs, all-powerful subjects in the society of the time, pose for a portrait and are thereby transformed into objects. The painting depicts a scene in which power is inverted. In reality, any spectator looking upon the scene may also be the object of the gaze of some other spectator. We are at once spectator and spectacle in the hierarchy of (re)presentation. In 1957 Picasso painted a series of forty-four canvases which constitute a (re)interpretation of Velázquez’s work. If we examine the elements depicted and compare them with the original, we see how Picasso introduces certain symbols, adds colours, diminishes or enlarges forms, satirises characters and, above all, changes the focus of the composition in his paintings. In particular, the image reflected in the mirror is blurred, converting the monarchs into mere shadows. He enlarges the figure of Velázquez while the rest remain small. He increases the size of the hooks in the ceiling, transforms the courtiers on the right of the painting into

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:37

F: BTL5825.tex / p.3 (153-210)

Maria-Mercè Marçal 

coffins, rounds out the faces of the Infanta Margarita, Maribárbola and Pertusato (the court jesters), and disfigures the young ladies attending the Infanta by adding sharp points to their features. Dalí also has (re)productions of Las Meninas. In the best known, Dalí includes the whole of Velázquez’s canvas but uses it as just one element in his picture, albeit the central one. In the painting, a person whose back is turned contemplates a seascape. The sky takes up a large part of the canvas and Las Meninas is represented only on a small scale. Obviously Dalí carries Veláquez’s irony further. The game is becoming more and more complex. There are no longer three groups of subjects watching the king and queen; rather, there are five or more, depending on how we interpret the painting. Velázquez, Picasso and Dalí all reflect on the position from which they paint, questioning the differences between original work and (re)production, authorship and (re)producer, and, above all, they make clear to us that there is always something lost that reveals the incompleteness of (re)presentations, an instance of Foucault’s separation between signification and (re)presentation, both in the original work and in its (re)productions. (Re)production, like translation, is an act marked by the unconscious desire, which can never be satisfied, for complete identity with the original work. In the same way that Foucault affirms that an absolute (re)presentation cannot exist, since there are always residues left behind between the act of seeing and that of (re)presenting, we can also say that the absolute translation does not exist since losses also occur between the act of reading and (re)writing. The absolute equivalent of any painting or text can only be the painting or text itself. The dichotomy between a painting and its (re)production, or between an original text and its translation, is not in reality a dichotomy since the dynamic nature of the process of (re)production means there are always additions and detractions, contaminations and novel conceptualisations in the two or more (re)presentations. Both pictorial (re)production and translation are only possible through a process of dialogue with the original work. This relationship, a sort of love-hate dialogue, arises only when desire intervenes, that insatiable urge for complete identity with the Other which paves the way for creativity. All pictorial and textual (re)productions renew the desire for fulfilment which all subjects experience in all fields of human activity, that unconscious longing for absolute happiness that can only be achieved by a complete communion with the Other. However, (re)producing the totality of the Other is impossible. It is precisely this impossibility that makes possible the continuing demand for its achievement, which in the case of translation means imagining the signification of the original text. The desperation produced by the desire to achieve an interchange with the Other is the impelling force behind pictorial and textual (re)creations. The dissatisfaction that arises from never being able to achieve a complete (re)creation

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:37

F: BTL5825.tex / p.4 (210-260)

 Pilar Godayol

of the original is exactly what makes possible the existence of this desire. The gap dividing original and (re)production is neither sterile nor empty; rather it summons the creative and dynamic. Only the lack of completeness, the latent consciousness of loss, the desire for absolute identification, can give rise to the urge for communion with the Other.

. Textuality It might seem as if this digression has taken us far away from Maria-Mercè Marçal, with whom we began this essay and with whom we shall now concern ourselves. However, in fact we have not left her at all, for in the final analysis both Marçal’s poetry and her translations move in the terrain between reality and its (re)presentation, in the shifting ground that lies between similarity and difference, between pain and the desire produced in us by any exchange between ourselves and the Other, that Other we can never fully comprehend. La passió segons Renée Vivien (The Passion according to Renée Vivien 1994) was Maria-Mercè Marçal’s only novel. In it, Kerimée, the Turkish princess with whom Pauline M. Tarn falls in love, declares, during an afternoon of shared memories and nostalgia, “. . . sometimes it is difficult to shape in one’s mind one’s own desire, to unravel a single precise impulse from the vague cloud of tangled sensations and unnamed ripples of emotion. And to give it a name, and thus, the right to exist” (1994: 224). These words that fictionally reproduce the paradoxes inherent in human relationships, can be extrapolated and applied to our relationship with a text. When we translate, we desire, above all, ‘to name, and thus confer the right to exist’ on an original text transposed into our own language and culture. To (re)write becomes the act of “unravelling . . . from a cloud of tangled sensations and unnamed ripples of emotion”, to select some words rather than others. This uneasy exchange between subject and object brings to the surface our most deeply concealed pains and desires; perhaps the pain of an involuntary yet conscious and significant loss, or perhaps the desire to go beyond mere words. In any case, we are left wondering, like Kerimée, whether “it is true that pain often binds us more closely than pleasure? Or is it that there is a strange, dark pleasure that expresses itself through the intensity of suffering?”. Marçal did not write directly about translation, yet her philosophy of life and of writing – a philosophy that celebrates difference, contamination and intertextuality – can readily be discerned in her work. In Cau de llunes (Moons’ Lair 1977), her first volume of poetry, Marçal had already identified what were to become the three great themes, inseparably interwoven, around which her intellectual life would revolve: being a woman, being a member of the working class, and being a citizen

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:37

F: BTL5825.tex / p.5 (260-313)

Maria-Mercè Marçal 

of an oppressed country. In particular, her preoccupation with the language of her country, proscribed so dubiously, and the central importance she gave to her identity as a woman, were the thematic spaces she chose to inhabit, the ‘room of her own’ as Virginia Woolf put it. Her translations reflect precisely these realities.

. Translation Challenging the lack of recognition given to women in the cultural world, and their meagre (re)presentation in Catalan, Marçal set out to reclaim a number of women writers ignored by the critics, and translated some of their works. Her chosen authors were Colette, Marguerite Yourcenar, Leonor Fini, and with the Slavist scholar Monika Zgustová, the Russian poets Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsetayeva. She selected them not only on the grounds that the introduction of their writings into Catalan literature questioned the texts and the ‘correct’ readings imposed by the dominant figures in literary criticism, but also because, thematically, these writers, like Marçal in her poetry, explored spaces that are either exclusively feminine (maternity or the body), or else they dwelt on feminine experiences that are specific yet universal (love, enmity, solitude, pain, death). Marçal’s poetry, her novel, and her translations deal with women, with feminine subjectivity, and with women’s relationship with themselves and with the world around them. Apart from solidarity and militancy, she is moved by sensuality and the fascination she feels for her journey through life and through literature. The affinity between writer and translator is so deep that in the prologue that accompanies her first translation, La dona amagada (The Hidden Woman 1985), by the French woman writer Colette (1873–1954), Marçal portrayed the author in terms that could equally be applied to herself: Her work is, then, a reflection of, and a spur to push her onwards towards her lengthy and tenacious education in freedom. And, inseparably, of her struggle with words to make them say all that which before her had never been expressed and that, therefore, was inexistent; to make them illuminate unexplored realms of that “dark continent” that Freud spoke of when referring to the female sex. (Colette 1985: 10)

Writing allowed Colette to express herself, to give voice to her silence, to the silence of women. Writing for her was synonymous with opening up, with resistance, with transformation. Colette struggled to discover what lies behind the “dark continent”, behind the masquerade that conceals the feminine essence. But like the main character in La dona amagada, the first story in the anthology which lends its title to the entire collection, Colette and Marçal, writer and translator, come to the realisation that there is no authentic, transparent, unchanging feminine

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:37

F: BTL5825.tex / p.6 (313-372)

 Pilar Godayol

identity, but rather a multiple identity, constantly shifting and surprising; like the narrator, who hides herself behind “a little mask, enfolded within a hermetic dress”, woman always returns to “her irremediable solitude and her dishonest innocence” (1985: 19). The life and work of Colette prefigured the conception developed by the French post-structuralists of the elusiveness of the feminine. These arguments were based on Lacan’s concept that women can only express their desire in relation to a significant male and that, therefore, the feminine cannot be (re)presented. From Sidonie Gabrielle Claudine, she became Mme. Willy, Baroness of Jouvenel des Ursins. . . and finally simply Colette, her patronymic, and a woman’s name. From slave to her first husband, Papa Willy, who forced her to begin writing only to put his own name to her early pieces, she became an audacious music-hall actress at 33, lover of the Marchioness of Mornay, nurse in the Great War, columnist and literary critic for Le Figaro, Vogue, Demain and Le Matin, renowned public speaker, owner of a beauty salon, the only woman member of the Academie Goncourt in 1945, and writer. Colette is a broken mirror full of unidentifiable shadows, an erratic and paradoxical being, the quintessential “dark continent” of Freud. All this Marçal lays before us in the prologue to her Catalan translation. In the late eighties, Marçal broke off her translation work, never her main source of income, and did not return to it on a regular basis until 1990. In that year, Edicions B brought out her version of El tret de gràcia (Coup de Grace) by Marguerite de Crayencour (1903–1987). This French writer was a magnificent translator of both Virginia Woolf and Henry James, and published her first volume of poetry at the age of only sixteen. She adopted Marguerite Yourcenar as her nom de plume, an anagram of the surname of her father, a comfortably-off academic. Born in Brussels and educated in France and England, Yourcenar settled in the United States in 1951. In that year, Memòries d’Adrià (Adrian’s Memoirs), much of which she wrote in Greek in order to better identify with the main character, was published and she became an international figure in the world of French literature. Her writing, like that of all the authors that Marçal transposed into Catalan, might be defined as fictionalised memoirs based on her own experience. In Yourcenar’s work, what always catches the eye is her analysis of the self; this self is not confined to silence or immobility, but rather is highly involved in the narrative, relating personal experiences transposed to different periods and cultures. El tret de gràcia is a tale told in the first person, a technique that Yourcenar often resorted to, as she herself explains in the preface (1990: 9), “because it eliminates from the book the author’s point of view, or at least her comments, and because it allows the depiction of a human being in the process of confronting her own life”. The boundary between fiction and autobiography is always vague in this author’s work, whether there be several characters interposed, like Eric, Sophie and Conrad in this tale of love and death, or the narrative/(re)presentation is direct, as in El

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:37

F: BTL5825.tex / p.7 (372-423)

Maria-Mercè Marçal 

laberint del món (The World Labyrinth 1994). In this latter three-volume work, the author speaks of the heroic nature of the struggle to live, and bears witness to her worldly philosophy, well summed-up in these lines from the poem ‘Preserve the memory’ in El temps i dels somnis (Of time and dreams): “Imperfect beings flutter around, coupling in order to complete themselves, but those things that are beautiful and pure are solitary, like human pain”. Also in 1990 Marçal, in conjunction with Monika Zgustová, published Rèquiem i altres poemes (Requiem and Other Poems), a translation of the works of the Russian poet Anna Andreievna Gorenko (1889–1967), whose decision to adopt a nom de plume, Anna Akhmatova, reflected her father’s wish to maintain his respectability. But Akhmatova, unlike Colette and Marguerite Yourcenar, went back to her matronymic to provide herself with a pseudonym. The repetition of the five ‘a’s produces an effect that is almost hypnotic, and this, as Marçal points out (1998: 160), “wove a seductive spell on the public”. Rèquiem i altres poemes is the only sample of Akhmatova’s poetry that has been translated into Catalan. The choice of poems for this anthology, as the translators indicate in the Editors’ Note (1990: 25), “aims to provide the reader with an overall view of the thematic and formal evolution of the author”. Although the pieces chosen are not in strictly chronological order, the main phases of the Russian poet’s work can be discerned. Apart from some short poems, Marçal and Zgustová (re)wrote two of her best-known works: Requiem and a long fragment of Poem without Hero. Akhmatova wrote Requiem, her most famous piece, after a long period of silence that accompanied a string of personal tragedies (the execution of her first husband, Gumiliov; the arrest of her son; the arrest of her third husband, Nicolas Punin) that followed Stalin’s rise to power. In 1923, after publishing Anno Domini 1921, she was forced into literary exile, though unlike so many other artists and writers – Marina Tsvetayeva was one – she did not leave the country as she proudly proclaims in the opening lines of Requiem (1990: 93): No strange sky sheltered me Nor did foreign wings protect me. I was, then, amid my people And shared their ill-fortune. For many years, Akhmatova was completely ostracised, with even the European critics convinced that she was dead. Despite this, Requiem finally appeared, a clandestine work composed orally and memorised by women friends in order to avoid detentions and imprisonments. Requiem, as Marçal describes it (1998: 183) “is a poem of the pain of maternal love when confronted with the ill-fortune of her son, of fruitless exertions on his behalf, of long queues in front of the prison, of an

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:37

F: BTL5825.tex / p.8 (423-480)

 Pilar Godayol

unending via crucis”. Her personal experience was shared by so many others that her verses became the scream of pain of an entire people. In 1992, Edicions 62 also published Marçal and Zgustová’s translation of Poema de la fi (The Poem of the End) by the other great Russian woman poet and contemporary of Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetayeva (1892–1941). Tsvetayeva did not, unlike Akhmatova, stubbornly refuse to leave the USSR; instead she went into exile, returning later only to commit suicide. Neither did she share Akhmatova’s serene, classical, academic style of writing. Tsvetayeva was a cryptic and difficult, polychromatic writer. However, historical circumstances and personal tragedies led to a series of fateful coincidences that can be perceived in their works, which when taken together make up a written testimony to a tragic period in Russian history. Though Poema de la fi does not deal with episodes of collective suffering, pain is ever present in the work. The poem describes a couple’s final meeting and their decision to separate. As Marçal points out (1998: 177), this is a subject that “Akhmatova could have boiled down to just two lines . . . while Tsvetayeva unfolds it over hundreds of verses, with a breadth normally reserved for epic, collective themes”. Personal drama is elevated here to the level of general catastrophe; she compares it with a massacre of Jews. There is no hope, there is no communication between the characters. As Tsvetayeva says “the final bridge” is “the final toll” and in the crossing of the Lethe, “Charon demands his payment in full”. Without abandoning women’s autobiographical literature, Marçal brought her brief though intense career as a translator to a close in that same year of 1992 with L’Oneiropompe. This novel was written by the multi-faceted artist Leonor Fini, whose illustrations accompany the work. Painter, stage designer, illustrator, and occasional writer, Fini was born in Buenos Aires in 1918. She is still living and working, dividing her time between Paris and the Loire Valley. She is best known for her paintings, opera, ballet and theatre sets, and her work as a costume designer for the cinema. As a powerful and sensuous painter, she explores feminine erotic fantasies and myths. L’Oneiropompe, the dream-bearing cat, is a thriller that moves through the same dreamlike and hypnotic landscape her paintings explore. The search for the decapitated head of a black basalt statue is the excuse for a somnolent journey that begins in a hotel room, meanders through a train compartment and a house, and ends on a Mediterranean island.

. Conclusion Colette, Marguerite Yourcenar, Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetayeva and Leonor Fini, despite the geographical and contextual distances separating them, shared difficult and contradictory times for women’s literature. They became symbols of

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:37

F: BTL5825.tex / p.9 (480-563)

Maria-Mercè Marçal 

rebellion and the struggle for the right to define oneself. Marçal, realising this, (re)presented them in Catalan, without losing sight of the fact that translating is an open-ended battle, a constant process of negotiation between two languages and two cultures. Translation, for Marçal, is like many loves that, as the Princess Kerimée puts it, “are deeply rooted in conflict and thus mimic that enduring, yet troubled, idyll in which, for centuries, old Istanbul has been bound to the Black Sea wind, which batters her mercilessly and lays waste to her springs” (1994: 228).

Notes * This study was carried out as part of Research Project No. BFF 2000–1281 financed by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture. . For a list of her translations, see the Appendix.

References Foucault, Michel (1970). The Order of Things: An Archaelogy of the Human Sciences. Trans. anon. New York: Pantheon. Homenatge a Maria-Mercè Marçal (1998). Barcelona: Empúries. Julià, Lluïsa (1998). Àlbum Maria-Mercè Marçal. Barcelona: Centre Català del PEN Club. Julià, Lluïsa (1999). Memòria de l’aigua. Onze escriptores i el seu món. Barcelona: Proa. Leonor Fini (1988). Paris: Guy Pieters. Marçal, Maria-Mercè (1989). Llengua abolida (1973–1988). València: 3 i 4. Marçal, Maria-Mercè (1998). Cartografies del desig. Quinze escriptores i el seu món. Barcelona: Proa. Marçal, Maria-Mercè (1999/1994). La passió segons Renée Vivien. Barcelona: Proa. Razumovsky, Maria (1994). Marina Tsvetayeva. Glasgow: Bloodaxe Books. Thurman, Judith (2000). A Life of Colette. Secrets of the Life. London: Bloomsbury. Uglow, Jennifer (1999). The Macmillan Dictionary of Women’s Biography. London: Papermac. Wells, David N. (1996). Anna Akhmatova. Her Poetry. Oxford: Berg. Yourcenar, Marguerite (1994). El laberint del món. Trans. by Montserrat Planas. Barcelona: Proa.

Appendix: Maria-Mercè Marçal’s translations into Catalan Akhmatova, Anna (1990). Rèquiem i altres poemes. Barcelona: Edicions 62 (Translated with Monika Zgustová). Colette (1985). La dona amagada. Barcelona: Edicions del Mall.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:37

F: BTL5825.tex / p.10 (563-576)

 Pilar Godayol

Fini, Leonor (1992). L’Oneiropompe. Barcelona: Edicions de l’Eixample. Tsvetàieva, Marina (1992). Poema de la fi. Barcelona: Edicions 62 (Translated with Monika Zgustová). Yourcenar, Marguerite (1990). El tret de gràcia. Barcelona: Edicions B.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.1 (42-119)

Jordi Arbonès i Montull Translating in difficult times Victòria Alsina Keith

.

The beginning

Jordi Arbonès was born in Barcelona in 1929 and died in 2001 in Buenos Aires, where he had emigrated at the age of twenty-seven. In spite of spending the last forty-five years of his life away from Catalonia, which he did not visit a single time between the fifties and 1988, he became one of the most prolific Catalan translators.1 He was perhaps the main contributor to the introduction of literature in English, especially twentieth-century American literature, into Catalan. His case is an unusual one not because he was translating into Catalan while living in a foreign country (many exiled Republicans such as Josep Carner, Rafael Tasis, Cèsar August Jordana, Avel·lí Artís-Gener and others did so, some for money, some for pleasure or through patriotism, several for all of these reasons), but because he continued to translate after so many years in the Argentine, and because of the sheer amount of work he produced: between the late sixties and the year of his death he translated 93 books into Catalan, as well as 48 into Spanish, although during most of this period he was earning his living as a proof-reader and editor in a publishing house in Buenos Aires. Although Arbonès was an exile and probably a Republican, he cannot exactly be called an exiled Republican, as he was only nine years old when the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939, and he left his country for family, not political reasons many years after the end of the war. Nevertheless, he did have opinions which must have made him feel restless in post-war Spain, a country which, as well as being under a dictatorship, was impoverished and culturally backward at the time. It is likely that this fact contributed to his decision to move to Buenos Aires in order to try to make a better living, live in a freer society, and be among people who shared his way of thinking. It was unusual for a person of his generation in Spain to have any knowledge, let alone a good command, of English, as at the time the foreign language learned

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.2 (119-171)

 Victòria Alsina Keith

at schools and familiar to a majority of educated people was French. Arbonès had started studying English in his twenties, first on his own, and later with a tutor. Then in 1955 he made a trip to England in order to improve his knowledge of the language (Pijuan 2003: 153), after which he became an avid reader of American and British literature. It was also unusual for Catalans of his age to be able to read and write fluently in Catalan and to be familiar with Catalan literature, because at the end of the Civil War the language had been banned from schools, where only Spanish was taught. In a talk given in 1990 to students of translation at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, which some years later was published in three successive articles (Arbonès 1995a, 1996a and 1996b), he explained his shock one day when he realised that he spoke a language which he did not know how to write: “Our generation had suffered a lobotomy,” he wrote. “We had been deprived of the organ of expression in our own language” (1995a: 75). So Arbonès decided to hire another tutor to teach him Catalan grammar and literature. His first translations were for the theatre. He was active in amateur drama most of his life, and since his youth in Barcelona he had taken part in the staging of plays, which he continued to do in Buenos Aires. Before going to America, he translated Richard Hughes’s The Man Who Was Born to Be Hung for the Catalan director and producer Ricard Salvat. Years later, in Buenos Aires, the director of the dramatic society at the House of Catalonia in Buenos Aires asked him to translate Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge and Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for his drama group. As Arbonès’s friend Joaquim Carbó says (2003), who could have known that years later these translations, which were written for a circle of friends who were staging a play, would make their way to public libraries in Barcelona. But Arbonès’s career as a professional translator began in the late fifties, when, after joining the Poseidón publishing house, he started translating detective novels into Spanish. At first, they were published without acknowledging him as the translator (Pijuan 2003: 153). Then in the late sixties, owing to his great interest both in American fiction and in Catalan culture, and because he was in touch with publishers and writers in Catalonia, he was offered the first translations of American novels into Catalan. This was the start of a very productive career, which for many years he pursued as a side-job, until in 1988 he decided to give up his main job and devote himself only to translating. Although Arbonès once pointed out that a translator is not often allowed to choose the books he translates (1995a: 79), in fact in his case his opinion must have been taken into account, as we can see if we compare the kind of books he translated into Spanish, which he did solely for money, with those he translated into Catalan, with which he was pursuing a cultural agenda. The former were largely composed of detective novels (a genre he was nevertheless very fond of) and best-sellers, whereas the latter were for the most part great works of literature,

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.3 (171-208)

Jordi Arbonès i Montull 

among which there was a significant proportion of novels written by his favourite authors. But he was also grateful to be commissioned Spanish jobs, as he could never be sure when the next translation would be coming. Publishing in Catalan was, and still is, an expensive and uncertain business, as the reading public is quite small and Catalan translations are always in competition with Spanish ones, which Catalans can read just as well. The publishing business goes through a crisis once in a while, and must reduce costs. The first way to do this is by cutting down on translations, which is what happened in 1980, when, as Arbonès told his friend Joaquim Carbó in a letter, the publishing house Aymà, which was going through a difficult period, asked him not to go ahead with the translation of Women in Love – which he had already started (Carbó 2003). (It was finally published ten years later by another firm.) Carbó’s story of how he and Arbonès became friends (2003: 1) is indicative of the latter’s energy and activity: in 1967 Carbó was one of the judges in the Joan Santamaria prize for short stories, to which Jordi Arbonès had submitted a story, Tant se val – o no? (“It doesn’t matter – or does it?”). Although Carbó and another member of the panel of judges thought that Arbonès’s story deserved the prize, two other members strongly objected to this because of what they considered the coarse language used in it (which would not be thought at all coarse by today’s standards), and the outcome was that another work finally won. However, Carbó decided to write to Arbonès, personally telling him how much he had liked his story. Arbonès answered at once, and this was the beginning of a friendship which lasted until Arbonès’s death – although they did not meet personally until 1980. Carbó was surprised to find out that Jordi Arbonès, as well as earning his living at a publishing house, was in charge of the Catalan bookshop in Buenos Aires, where he organized exhibitions and cultural activities and gave lectures, that he also translated and directed plays, gave Catalan classes, collaborated in the Catalan magazine Ressorgiment, wrote stories, and had started translating contemporary North American classics.

. Catalan translations and censorship In 1966 Arbonès began to translate for the Barcelona-based publishing house Aymà (Arbonès 1995b: 88), and by the end of 1967 he had finished Faulkner’s The Wild Palms, Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls and Miller’s Black Spring and Tropic of Cancer. But, owing mostly to problems with censorship, none of these appeared for several years. Black Spring was published in 1970; For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1971; Tropic of Cancer in 1976; and The Wild Palms was finally published in 1984 –

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.4 (208-259)

 Victòria Alsina Keith

strangely, the least political or sexually explicit of the four novels was the last one to appear. Until 1976, Arbonès’s translations suffered the situation of uncertainty caused by the limitations on the freedom of speech existing at the time. During Franco’s long dictatorship (1939–1975), all books in Spain were subjected to a strict censorship which, while overtly acting on moral, political or religious grounds, was especially restrictive with any publication written in Catalan. This was in accordance with the spirit of the government, which from 1939 onwards had banned the teaching of Catalan in schools, eliminated chairs in Catalan language and literature, history of Catalonia and Catalan law at Universities, forbidden newspapers and magazines to be written in Catalan, and forbidden any public use of Catalan (in commercial transactions, public offices, official documents, in the names of people and streets, in theatres, cinemas, on the radio, etc.). Towards the end of the sixties some of the laws were relaxed, as was the severity with which they were enforced. As Ferrer writes (1985, quoted in Arbonès 1995b: 87–88), “With the passing of the new law of the Press in 1966, the media were granted a little more liberty, although no languages other than Spanish were considered. While there was no explicit prohibition on the use of Catalan, it was restricted.” It sometimes happened that the Catalan version of a book did not get past the censor, allegedly because of the political ideas or moral values it contained, while the Spanish one did. This was the case of For Whom the Bell Tolls (dealing with the Spanish Civil War, a sensitive subject), which was brought out in Spanish in 1968 by Planeta, while Aymà, which in fact had acquired the rights for publishing this work in Spain, was not given permission to do so. In an article on this subject (1995b), Arbonès wrote of the numerous letters he still had in his power from two of his publishers, Joan Oliver and Joan Baptista Cendrós, informing him, for example, that his translation would not be published for the moment, as the censor’s office had “advised against it” (that was the case of For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1967), or hoping he had not got very far in the translation of the last book commissioned to him, as it had not been approved by the censor’s office and they would not be able to bring it out (that was the case of Black Spring, also in 1967, which they proposed changing for another, more acceptable book by Henry Miller, The Books in My Life). These were some of the obstacles faced by Arbonès at the beginning of his career as a translator, which were a reflection of the situation of the Catalan language and culture, and the publishing business in Catalonia (and he faced the added difficulty of living thousands miles away from his publishers, across an ocean, and having to effect all transactions with them by mail).2 This situation changed after 1976, when Spain became a democracy and all limitations on the freedom of speech were removed. But this long period had taken its toll, and some

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.5 (259-317)

Jordi Arbonès i Montull 

years later Arbonès, like other translators and writers of his generation, was to come across a different kind of problem derived from it, as we shall see a little further on.

. Arbonès’s contribution to Catalan literature Arbonès’s contribution to Catalan literature, if we include all literature written in Catalan under such a name, is unquestionably remarkable: he was the means of introducing some of the main writers of modern American and British literature into Catalan. He translated over forty books of contemporary literature, a majority of which were novels, as well as seventeen 19th-century novels, thirteen detective novels, six children’s books, and a number of other works, including several contemporary best-sellers. We shall get a better idea of the importance of his work if we set his production beside the rest of existing Catalan translations: between 1967 and 2001 he translated eleven books by Henry Miller3 (of which nine have been published); before that, only one of Henry Miller’s novels had ever appeared in Catalan (Devil in Paradise, translated in 1966 by Arbonès’s friend, the writer Manuel de Pedrolo), and subsequently three others have been translated; which means that out of a total of thirteen different translations of Henry Miller which are available today in Catalan, nine (70%) are Jordi Arbonès’s work. This is his most significant contribution to the introduction of modern American literature into Catalan, perhaps not surprisingly, since Henry Miller was a writer he was especially interested in. Nevertheless, it is only a small part of his work. He also translated three books of Ernest Hemingway’s fiction, out of a total of nine translated into Catalan – the first two appeared in 1971 (The First Forty-nine Stories and For Whom the Bell Tolls), when only one other novel by Hemingway was available in Catalan;4 two of the six existing Catalan versions of Anaïs Nin’s books are also by him (Ladders to Fire, published in 1976, and Afrodisíac: selecció de textos eròtics, published in 1979); two of the nine existing Catalan versions of William Faulkner were done by him (The Sound and the Fury and The Wild Palms, both of which appeared in 1984); two of the seven Catalan translations of Vladimir Nabokov’s books are also by him (Ada or Ardor, published in 1987 – the most difficult book he was ever commissioned, we are told in Arbonès 1996: 95 –, and The Enchanter, which appeared in 1987 as well); he also translated Gore Vidal’s Washington, D.C. (in 1985, before there were any other translations of Vidal’s books in Catalan. Two other novels of Vidal have since appeared in Catalan); James Purdy’s Narrow Rooms in 1988 (one other translation of Purdy has since appeared); Saul Bellow’s Humboldt’s Gift in 1990; and John Steinbeck’s The Pearl in 1994 (six other Catalan translations of each of these last two writers exist, but his were among the first).

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.6 (317-376)

 Victòria Alsina Keith

We have thus seen the impact Arbonès had on the introduction of some of the main twentieth-century American novelists into Catalan: without his contribution, today in Catalonia many of these outstanding works of literature would just be available in Spanish. So his significance lies not only in the fact that he translated what can objectively be considered a large number of books (novels, mainly) by some of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century; it also lies in the impact these translations had on the overall situation of translated literature in Catalan. American fiction is not the only kind of work he translated, of course: there are also plays (by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Robert Woodruff Anderson, Edward Albee and Peter Shaffer), although in not such a significant proportion; British and Irish twentieth-century novels (by Liam O’Flaherty, D. H. Lawrence, Anthony Burgess, E. M. Forster, Somerset Maugham, Christopher Isherwood, Paul Bowles, Philip Larkin, Gerald Durrell and David Lodge), and nineteenthcentury British and American works of fiction (by Margaret Mitchell, Henry James, William Thackeray, Jane Austen, Ambrose Bierce, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Isak Dinensen, George Eliot, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Charlotte Brontë and Wilkie Collins). In the nineties he went on to translate a number of detective novels (including some by writers such as Raymond Chandler, John Le Carré, Agatha Christie or Ross Macdonald), several best-sellers (such as Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Nicholas Sparks’s The Notebook and Message in a Bottle, and Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha), and six classical children’s books: Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (1990), C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1991), The Magician’s Nephew (1991), The Horse and His Boy (1992) and Prince Caspian (1992), and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1997).5 The significance of Arbonès’s work did not go unrecognised, and he received several important translation awards in his lifetime, both from the Catalan Generalitat and from the Spanish Government.

. The problem of style Although, as we have seen, Arbonès’s works had a great influence on the situation of translated literature in Catalan, in the nineties he came under criticism precisely because of his influence on Catalan prose. In 1996 two young philologists wrote a book on modern Catalan prose style, El malentès del noucentisme (Pericay & Toutain 1996), in which they expressed the view that a number of writers and translators, some of whom were widely read, like Jordi Arbonès and his friend Manuel de Pedrolo, were using an artificial, wooden prose based on a debased version of the style developed during the nineteen-twenties and thirties by the

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.7 (376-420)

Jordi Arbonès i Montull 

cultural movement known as noucentisme. They were not so much critical of the style of some of the most prominent noucentistes as of the kind of language into which this style had evolved in the hands of a number of writers after the sixties. They argued that the result was an artificial, unnatural Catalan differing from the language as it was spoken, in which expressions belonging to different language levels were randomly mixed, and they proposed that, rather than take the noucentistes as a prose model – which is what they claimed Pedrolo and Arbonès were doing, or trying to do –, modern writers should follow the example of a number of slightly more recent authors like Mercè Rodoreda or Josep Pla, who had developed a deceptively simple prose style which was rooted in spoken Catalan yet adequate for works of literature. These points of view made an impression among language professionals (publishers, translators, editors, writers, lexicographers, etc.), and revived a debate on the subject, a debate which had in fact started ten years earlier with the appearance of Verinosa llengua, by the same two authors. Jordi Arbonès was dismissive of such criticism – and I think he was hurt as well: he took it to mean that the Catalan he used was too unlike the language strongly influenced by Spanish which had developed mostly around Barcelona during Franco’s dictatorship and is now spoken by a large number of Catalans, a pidgin form of Catalan which he thought should be shunned and corrected rather than imitated. Carbó expressed this point of view in the following way: Although [Arbonès’s] versions of some of the great monuments of literature such as William Faulkner, Henry James, Saul Bellow, Gore Vidal, Ernest Hemingway or Tennessee Williams were never questioned, some of his translations of minor novels have in the last years been attacked by the supporters of the light variety of Catalan, closer to the language as it is now spoken. Obviously, Arbonès, who had been living in the Argentine for forty-five years, had not assimilated some of the easier (light) constructions – that is to say, constructions which imitated Spanish –, and continued to be faithful to what his tutor Antoni Jaume had taught him in their clandestine classes.6 (Carbó 2003)

Actually, Pericay and Toutain’s criticism had been aimed at Arbonès’s style in general and not only at his minor translations, but the point is that both Carbó and Arbonès completely failed to understand what the two critics objected to and what kind of prose style they were really defending. Both Pericay and Toutain were, and still are, highly competent professional translators, writers and editors, and by no means were they putting forth a kind of pidgin Catalan as a new model for literary prose; the fact that the authors they offered as models were Mercè Rodoreda and Josep Pla should be enough to make us realise that. What they were doing was censuring a style which they considered contrived and distant from natural, spontaneous speech, and offering instead as a model the prose of a handful of authors who had a very good ear for the spoken word and are

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.8 (420-497)

 Victòria Alsina Keith

unanimously considered the best Catalan stylists in the last century at least. The debate they started was actually a very healthy one, after over five decades in which Catalan writers, whatever they wrote and however they did it, were seen almost as sacred keepers of the flame (with some reason, it must be acknowledged), and any criticism against them was considered unpatriotic. Part of the general reaction to Pericay and Toutain’s book was that of outraged patriotism, whereas they were in fact making a perfectly reasonable point about the way Catalan prose had developed during Franco’s time and later. The objection which can perhaps be made against them is that they were judging Catalan prose by the standards of a normally developed language, and not making allowances for the deprivation Catalan had gone through, which had inevitably stunted its growth. When they complained that the prose used by Arbonès or Pedrolo was unsatisfactory, although strictly speaking they may have been right, they were not taking into account that given the circumstances it could hardly be expected to be much better (in spite of a handful of exceptional writers – not translators), and that it was nevertheless of undeniable value to the development of written Catalan. Pericay and Toutain’s books and the reactions to them marked the passing of an age, that in which Catalan just aspired to survive and had to be maintained through the unity and sacrifice of its speakers, and the beginning of a new age, in which Catalan was becoming “normal” (whatever that may be). Arbonès belonged to the first age, and made conscious use of translations in order to contribute to the rebuilding of Catalan. In one of his articles he wrote (1995a: 79–80): Because of the persecution our language was subjected to [. . . ], when I started translating I considered that one of the objects of my task had to be to strengthen the language, so much threatened, attacked and maligned. [. . . ] It is clear that the task of writers and translators is to enrich the language, to make it supple, and use it creatively.

But he did adapt to the change of times, and in another article he comments on the fact that in his first translations he adhered more strictly than in his later ones to the “norms of correct Catalan”, as he was convinced that the political and linguistic situation made it necessary if Catalan was to survive (Arbonès 1996a: 93).

. Translation problems In Arbonès’s three articles on translation (mentioned at the beginning of this article), in which he starts by acknowledging that he is totally self-taught and disclaiming any expertise on translation theory, we can glimpse the method of a thorough and hard-working translator, as well as one who had given a lot of thought to the different problems he had encountered in the course of his many

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.9 (497-524)

Jordi Arbonès i Montull 

translations. He advised reading the whole work before starting to work on it, as well as other books by the same author and, when possible, books about the author. He recommended never accepting an impossible deadline, which would oblige the translator to distribute the book among several people, thus ruining it (1995a: 78). He explained how he had solved different kinds of problems he had come across during his career: the presence of dialect or of special languages, such as the difference between the speech of Mellors the gamekeeper and that of Lady Chatterley and her circle in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, the language nadsat in Clockwork Orange, or Liam O’Flaherty’s Irish-influenced style in The Informer (1996a: 86–93); or the presence of plays on words and malapropisms, which he translated by analysing their function in the original and then trying to find the best equivalent for such a function in Catalan (1996a: 95–98). He also defended himself from criticisms his translations had received at different points in his life: for example, in 1979 the critic Robert Saladrigas had objected to the language used by the characters in the Catalan version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which in some cases he found too “correct” to be spoken by people who were supposed to be either uneducated or on intimate terms with one another; Arbonès pointed out that this was the language used by the characters in the original novel, so the criticism should have been aimed at Lawrence, not at him. He then complained that critics often object to what they take to be defects of the translator, when in fact he or she is only trying to convey the traits in the original work as much as possible, as the critics would surely realise if only they bothered to compare the translation to the source text (1996a: 91–92). At one point in his articles on translating, Arbonès puts forth the opinion that the problems encountered in different translations differ from one another to such an extent that the same solutions can never be applied: “[. . . ] as the problems or difficulties of translation are hard to categorize, I consider it pointless to try to establish rules or formulae to be applied in other cases” (1996a: 82). It seems, then, that Arbonès, the self-taught translator, did not believe that translating could really be taught, and relied mostly on experience. But if one sets his translations beside the originals on which they were based, certain weaknesses, which a formal training would have almost certainly prevented, can quite easily be perceived. Although he was often capable of finding not only the expression which most aptly conveyed the full meaning of a word or phrase, but also the one most suited to the context, he also had a definite tendency to translate too literally, so that English expressions or phrases are not infrequently (but surprisingly, for such an experienced translator) rendered word by word in Catalan, thus becoming meaningless, or meaningless in that particular context. His prose is also full of passive voices and other constructions more usual in English than in Catalan, which sometimes make the style stilted. Arbonès’s translations, then, in spite of their obvious many good points which were the result of thoroughness, hard

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.10 (524-576)

 Victòria Alsina Keith

work and, in the later works, a good deal of experience, also have a number of weaknesses, the outcome partly of his lack of training and partly of the poor state of Catalan which was his inheritance at the time when he started translating.

. Concluding remarks Jordi Arbonès, then, although he was a somewhat untypical translator, having spent all of his working life away from his country, was also in many ways a product of the age and culture he was born into, which shaped the way he saw his task as a translator. He started translating at a time when Catalan was going through a period of enforced decadence, and, like many Catalan intellectuals, he thought that translations were one way of contributing to the survival of his language, since they could partially make up for the lack of original productions in Catalan. His attitude to his job was therefore not a purely professional one; he certainly worked for money, but also to help build up his language. In this object it can be said that he amply succeeded, in spite of the many obstacles he encountered, so that today any account of Catalan translating cannot be complete unless he figures in it prominently.

Notes . See the Appendix for the complete bibliography of his translations into Catalan. . His friend Joaquim Carbó tells of the problems encountered by Arbonès at the beginning of 1985, when a long strike of the Argentinian mail caused an obstruction to his main means of communication with his publishers, preventing the arrival of the letters from his editors, of the originals he had to translate, and of his payment. . As we have mentioned above, the first of these was not published until 1970, owing to delays caused by censorship. . The Torrents of Spring, translated in 1937 by J. Ros-Artigues. . Treasure Island is a highly atypical case in the world of translating in Catalan, where the usual situation for famous works of literature is that they have either not been translated at all, or only once, or, at the most, twice, the first translation having been done by some famous writer in the twenties or thirties of the twentieth century (when there was a first surge of translations in Catalan) and the second one in the eighties or nineties (when there was a second, more abundant surge of translations). But Treasure Island can boast of no less than twelve different Catalan translations, published in the following years: 1934, 1986, 1989, two in 1994, two in 1996, 1999, two in 1997, and two in 2001, without counting adaptations. Up to a point this can be explained because of the popularity of the novel, which has become even more popular owing to the several films based on it. But why editors

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.11 (576-664)

Jordi Arbonès i Montull 

who would not risk a single translation of Sense and Sensibility in 1996 (when Ang Lee and Emma Thompson’s film came out) thought it would be good business to publish a tenth, eleventh or twelfth translation of Treasure Island within fifteen years, it is hard to fathom. . The English adjectives light and heavy are used for the two varieties of Catalan which, in a gross simplification of matters, have been placed in opposition to each other: the first one is supposedly closer to the language as it is spoken, and therefore less respectful of norms given by Pompeu Fabra and the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (which acts as an Academy of the language), whereas the second is, so the argument runs, more faithful to Fabra’s norms and therefore less tolerant of the Spanish influence so widespread nowadays.

References Arbonès, Jordi (1995a). “Reflexions sobre aspectes pràctics de la traducció”. Revista de Catalunya, 94, 73–86. Arbonès, Jordi (1995b). “La censura sobre les traduccions a l’època franquista”. Revista de Catalunya, 97, 87–96. Arbonès, Jordi (1996a). “Més reflexions sobre aspectes pràctics de la traducció”. Revista de Catalunya, 103, 85–100. Arbonès, Jordi (1996b). “Encara més reflexions sobre aspectes pràctics de la traducció”. Revista de Catalunya, 104, 112–120. Carbó, Joaquim (2002). “Viure per traduir, traduir per viure”. Avui, 28 Feb. 2002. Carbó, Joaquim (2003). “Jordi Arbonès i Montull a la Universitat”. The Barcelona Review 37. [Consulted 30 Jan. 2003] Ferrer i Gironès, Francesc (1985). La persecució política de la llengua catalana. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Pericay, Xavier & Toutain, Ferran (1986). Verinosa llengua. Barcelona: Empúries. Pericay, Xavier & Toutain, Ferran (1996). El malentès del noucentisme. Barcelona: Proa. Pijuan, Alba (2003). “Entrevista a Jordi Arbonès”. Quaderns. Revista de Traducció, 10, 153– 163.

Appendix: Jordi Arbonès’s translations into Catalan (English title given in square brackets) Arbonès’s complete bibliography, comprising his articles and books of criticism, his one published work of fiction, his prologues to translations, and his translations into Spanish and into Catalan, both published and unpublished, can be found in Pijuan (2003).

Albee, Edward (1991). Qui té por de Virginia Woolf? [Biblioteca Teatral, 76]. Barcelona: Institut del Teatre. [Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?]

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.12 (664-776)

 Victòria Alsina Keith

Alonso, Pedro & Santamaria, Josep (1995). Antologia del relat policíac [Aula Literària, 17]. Barcelona: Vicens Vives. Anderson, Robert Woodruff (1988). Te i simpatia [Biblioteca Teatral, 55]. Barcelona: Institut del Teatre. [Tea and Sympathy] Austen, Jane (1988). Persuasió [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [Persuasion] Austen, Jane (1991). L’abadia de Northanger [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [Northanger Abbey] Bellow, Saul (1990). El llegat Humboldt [Les Millors Obres de la Literatura Universal. Segle XX, 42]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Humboldt’s Gift] Bierce, Ambrose (1988). Faules fantàstiques [Narratives, 11]. Vic: Eumo. [Fantastic Fables] Bowles, Paul (1994). El cel protector [Les Millors Obres de la Literatura Universal. Segle XX, 89]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Sheltering Sky] Braddon, Mary Elizabeth (2000). El secret de Lady Audley [Clàssica, 373]. Barcelona: Columna. [Lady Audley’s Secret] Brontë, Charlotte (2001). Jane Eyre [Clàssica, 454]. Barcelona: Columna. Burgess, Anthony (1984). La taronja mecànica [A Tot Vent, 214]. Barcelona: Proa. [A Clockwork Orange] Chandler, Raymond (1994). Adéu, nena [La Cua de Palla, 146]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Farewell, my Lovely] Christie, Agatha (1998). Assassinat al camp de golf [Agatha Christie / Columna, 20]. Barcelona: Columna. [Murder on the Links] Collins, Wilkie (2001). El riu culpable [Clàssica, 434]. Barcelona: Columna. [The Guilty River] Daly, Carroll John (1995). El bram de la bèstia [La Cua de Palla, 161]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Snarl of the Beast] Dickens, Charles (1991). Una història de dues ciutats [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [A Tale of Two Cities] Dickens, Charles (1995). Cançó de Nadal [Aula Literària, 16]. Barcelona: Vicens Vives. [A Christmas Carol in Prose] Dinensen, Isak (1995). Set contes gòtics [Clàssica, 167]. Barcelona: Columna. [Seven Gothic Tales] Durrell, Gerald (1989). El jardí dels déus [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [The Garden of the Gods] Durrell, Gerald (1991). L’excursió i altres maremàgnums [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium] Durrell, Gerald (1995). Mare per merèixer i altres històries [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Proa. [Marrying off Mother and Other Stories] Durrell, Lawrence (1984). Clea [A Tot Vent, 206]. Barcelona: Proa. Eliot, George (1995). Middlemarch [Clàssica, 160]. Barcelona: Columna. Faulkner, William (1984). El soroll i la fúria [A Tot Vent, 219]. Barcelona: Proa. [The Sound and the Fury] Faulkner, William (1985). Les palmeres salvatges [A Tot Vent, 226]. Barcelona: Proa. [The Wild Palms] Forster, E. M. (1985). Viatge a l’Índia [A Tot Vent, 27]. Barcelona: Proa. [A Passage to India] Gibran, Kahlil (1998). Cartes d’amor [Clàssica, 234]. Barcelona: Columna. [Love letters]

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.13 (776-882)

Jordi Arbonès i Montull 

Golden, Arthur (1999). Memòries d’una gheisa [El Balancí, 354]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Memoirs of a Geisha] Grahame, Kenneth (1990). El vent entre els salzes [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [The Wind in the Willows] Haynes, Melinda (2000). Mareperla [Proa Beta, 47]. Barcelona: Proa. [Mother of Pearl] Hemingway, Ernest (1971). Els primers quaranta-nou contes [Les Millors Obres de la Literatura Universal. Segle XX, 36]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The first forty-nine stories] Hemingway, Ernest (1971). Per qui toquen les campanes [A Tot Vent, 158]. Barcelona: Proa. [For Whom the Bell Tolls] Hemingway, Ernest (1995). Les neus del Kilimanjaro i altres contes [Petita Biblioteca Universal, 10]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Snows of Kilimanjaro and other stories] Horney, Karen (1969). La personalitat neuròtica del nostre temps [Llibres a l’Abast, 73]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Neurotic Personality of Our Time] Hunter, Evan (1995). Veure’ls morir [La Cua de Palla, 159]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [See Them Die] Irish, William (1998). Aprenent de detectiu. Un robatori molt costós [Cucanya, 3]. Barcelona: Vicens Vives Primària. Isherwood, Christopher (1992). Adéu a Berlín [Columna, 95]. Barcelona: Columna. [Goodbye to Berlin] James, Henry (1981). Washington Square [A Tot Vent, 225]. Barcelona: Proa. James, Henry (1995). La copa daurada [Les Millors Obres de la Literatura Universal. Segle XX, 100]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Golden Bowl] Kipling, Rudyard (1993). L’home que volia ser rei i altres contes [Les Millors Obres de la Literatura Universal. Segle XX, 78]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Man Who Would Be King and other stories] Kipling, Rudyard (1995). Més enllà del límit [Petita Biblioteca Universal, 5]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Beyond the Limit] Larkin, Philip (1990). Noia a l’hivern [Narrativa, 18]. Vic: Eumo. [A Girl in Winter] Lawrence, D. H. (1979). L’amant de Lady Chatterley [A Tot Vent, 185]. Barcelona: Proa. [Lady Chatterley’s Lover] Lawrence, D. H. (1990). Dones enamorades [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [Women in Love] Le Carré, John (1996). El talp: calderer, sastre, soldat, espia [Les Millors Obres de la Literatura Universal. Segle XX, 107]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy] Le Carré, John (1998). La gent de Smiley [Èxits 62, 6]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Smiley’s People] Lewis, C. S. (1991). El lleó, la bruixa i l’armari [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe] Lewis, C. S. (1991). El nebot del mag [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [The Magician’s Nephew] Lewis, C. S. (1992). El cavall i el seu noi [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [The Horse and His Boy] Lewis, C. S. (1993). El príncep Caspian [A Tot Vent]. Barcelona: Proa. [Prince Caspian] Lodge, David (1995). Notícies del paradís [A Tot Vent, 324]. Barcelona: Proa. [Paradise News]

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.14 (882-996)

 Victòria Alsina Keith

Macdonald, Ross (1999). El cas Galton [Èxits 62, 13]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Galton Case] Maugham, W. Somerset (1986). De la servitud humana [A Tot Vent, 256]. Barcelona: Proa. [Of Human Bondage] Melville, Herman (1997). Billy Budd, el mariner [Gàrgola, 4]. Barcelona: Deriva. [Billy Budd, Foretopman] Miller, Arthur (1986). Del pont estant [Biblioteca Teatral, 46]. Barcelona: Edicions del Mall. [A View from the Bridge] Miller, Henry (1970). Primavera negra [Tròpics]. Barcelona: Aymà. [Black Spring] Miller, Henry (1975). El temps dels assassins [La Mirada]. Barcelona: Proa. [The Time of the Assassins] Miller, Henry (1977). Tròpic de càncer [Tròpics]. Barcelona: Aymà. [Tropic of Cancer] Miller, Henry (1978). Tròpic de capricorn [Tròpics]. Barcelona: Aymà. [Tropic of Capricorn] Miller, Henry (1984). En tombar la vuitantena [Plecs, 10]. Sabadell: Edicions dels Dies. [On Turning Eighty] Miller, Henry (1987). El colós de Marussi [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [The Colossus of Maroussi] Miller, Henry (1992). El gall foll [El Confident, 19]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Crazy Cock] Miller, Henry (1992). Sexus [Les Millors Obres de la Literatura Universal. Segle XX, 65]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Miller, Henry (2001). Els llibres de la meva vida [Elogi de la Paraula, 3]. Barcelona: Deriva. [The Books in My Life] Mitchell, Margaret (1977). Allò que el vent s’endugué [Zènit]. Barcelona: Aymà. [Gone With the Wind] Nabokov, Vladímir (1987). Ada o l’ardor: una crònica familiar [Les Millors Obres de la Literatura Universal. Segle XX, 13]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Ada or Ardor] Nabokov, Vladímir (1987). L’encantador [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [The Enchanter] Nin, Anaïs (1976). Escales cap al foc [Tròpics]. Barcelona: Aymà. [Ladders to Fire] Nin, Anaïs (1979). Afrodisíac: selecció de textos eròtics. Barcelona: Proa. [Selected erotic works] O’Flaherty, Liam (1973). El delator [A Tot Vent, 162]. Barcelona: Proa. [The Informer] Poe, Edgar Allan (1996). El gat negre i altres contes [Aula Literària, 20]. Barcelona: Vicens Vives. [The Black Cat and Other Stories] Purdy, James (1988). Cambres estretes [El Balancí, 205]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Narrow Rooms] Ripley, Alexandra (1994). Scarlett. Barcelona: Edicions B. Salivarova, Zdena (1975). Estiu a Praga [A Tot Vent, 171]. Barcelona: Proa. [Summer in Prague] Shaffer, Peter (1994). Equus [El Galliner, 137]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. Sparks, Nicholas (1997). El quadern de Noah. Barcelona: Muchnik. [The Notebook] Sparks, Nicholas (1998). Missatge en una ampolla [Èxits 62, 9]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Message in a Bottle] Steinbeck, John (1994). La perla [Aula Literària, 4]. Barcelona: Vicens Vives. [The Pearl] Stevenson, Robert Louis (1997). L’illa del tresor [Aula Literària, 18]. Barcelona: Vicens Vives. [Treasure Island]

JB[v.20020404] Prn:13/12/2004; 14:39

F: BTL5826.tex / p.15 (996-1046)

Jordi Arbonès i Montull 

Tan, Amy (1994). El club de la bona estrella [La Finestra]. Barcelona: Muchnik. [The Joy Luck Club] Thakeray, William (1984). La fira de les vanitats [Les Millors Obres de la Literatura Universal, 38]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Vanity Fair] Tolkien, J. R. R. (1988). El ferrer de Wootton Major. “La fulla” d’en Niggle [Clàssics Moderns]. Barcelona: Edhasa. [Smith of Wooton Major. Leaf of Niggle] Vidal, Gore (1985). Washington D.C. [A Tot Vent, 236]. Barcelona: Proa. Waller, Robert James (1996). Puerto Vallarta: la fugida cap al nord [Columna, 205]. Barcelona: Columna. [Puerto Vallarta Squeeze (The Run for the Norte)] Westlake, Donald E. (1994). Els mercenaris [La Cua de Palla, 145]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Smashers] Williams, Charles (1996). El biquini de diamants [La Cua de Palla, 162]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [The Diamond Bikini] Williams, Tennessee (1983). Un tramvia anomenat desig [Biblioteca Teatral, 19]. Barcelona: Edicions del Mall. [A Streetcar Named Desire] Williams, Tennessee (1987). La gata damunt la teulada [El Galliner, 99]. Barcelona: Edicions 62. [Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ] Woolrich, Cornell (2000). L’ull de vidre. Charlie sortirà aquesta nit [Cucanya, 8]. Barcelona: Vicens Vives. [The Glass Eye. Charlie Won’t Be Home Tonight] Yolen, Jane (1999). La sang del drac [Elogi de la Paraula, 1]. Barcelona: Deriva. [Dragon’s Blood]

JB[v.20020404] Prn:8/10/2004; 13:36

F: BTL58BI.tex / p.1 (41-109)

Biographical notes on the authors and editors

Anna Aguilar-Amat (b. 1962). Ph.D. in Linguistics (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). She has been a professor at the Department of Translation and Interpretation at the UAB since 1997, teaching Applied Terminology for Translation (at the undergraduate level) and Machine Translation (at the doctoral level). She has worked with several research groups on computational linguistics and machine translation, including work at the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona (with Fujitsu Spain) and the Universitat de Barcelona (Gilcub group). She participated in the European project on machine translation (EUROTRA). Dr. Aguilar-Amat’s doctoral thesis, dedicated to the study of adjective-noun collocations from a lexicalsemantic perspective, came out of a study of terminology, conceptology, and problems of translation equivalence. She has published articles on these subjects and also on cultural contrast, with special reference to distant or minorised cultures in Africa and Catalonia. She is also a writer, having published two volumes of poetry and won three awards for her poetic works. Victòria Alsina Keith (b. 1957). B.A. and Ph.D. in Classical Philology (Universitat de Barcelona). Her doctoral thesis studied the presence of the classics in Catalonia during the 1920s and 30s. After completing her studies, she spent nine years at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, working as a lexicographer on the “normative” Catalan dictionary. In 1994 Dr. Alsina started working at the Universitat de Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), where she has taught Lexicography, Translation from Spanish into Catalan and from English into Catalan, and Translation Theory. She has published articles on lexicography and on Catalan literary translation, and she has also translated books for children, as well as several novels, from English into Catalan. Montserrat Bacardí (b. 1962). B.A. in Catalan Philology, Ph.D. in Spanish Philology. She is a professor at the Faculty of Translation and Interpretation at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She has undertaken various editorial tasks, and has published articles on the history of literature and the history of translation, as well as the books Alfons Costafreda. La temptació de la poesia (1989), Cent anys de traducció al català (1891–1990). Antologia (1998) and Anna Murià. El vici d’escriure

JB[v.20020404] Prn:8/10/2004; 13:36

F: BTL58BI.tex / p.2 (109-165)

 Biographical notes on the authors and editors

(2004). In 2000 Dr. Bacardí’s project Diccionari de traductors (Dictionary of Translators) won the Premi de Recerca Humanística awarded by the Fundació Enciclopèdia Catalana. Jean-Bosco Botsho (b. 1955). Degrees in International Relations (Catholic University of Lovaina, Belgium) and Law (Robert Schuman University, Strasbourg, France). Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, he previously worked as a teacher. Now he is an Intercultural Mediator and Collaborator of Intercultura, Centre pel Diàleg Intercultural de Catalunya. He is the president of AFRICAT (Associació Africana i Catalana de Cooperació Cultural), which uses culture (represented in stories, music, and literature) as a tool to promote understanding between the peoples of the world. Mr. Botsho is a member of the Centre d’Estudis Internacionals of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He is also a storyteller, and writes some stories himself. Albert Branchadell (b. 1964). B.A. in Philosophy, Ph.D. in Catalan Language and Literature (both from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and Ph.D. in Political Science (Universitat Pompeu Fabra). His main areas of research are sociolinguistics and language policy, where translation policy is included. Within these areas he has published La normalitat improbable (1996), Liberalisme i normalització lingüística (1997), and La hipòtesi de la independència (2001). Dr. Branchadell is currently a lecturer at the Department of Catalan Language and Literature at the UAB, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Quaderns, the translation journal published by the Department of Translation and Interpreting of the same university; Noves SL, an electronic sociolinguistics journal published by the Catalan autonomous government; and Estudios Catalanes, the first journal of Latin America devoted to Catalan Studies, published by the Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Santa Fe (Argentina). Grzegorz Chrupała (b. 1974). M.A. in English (the Silesian University in Katowice, Poland), Master’s degree in Technical Translation from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain). Currently he is a doctoral student and member of the GRIAL research group at the Universitat de Barcelona, and does research in computational lingustics and natural language processing. Oscar Diaz Fouces (b. 1964). Degree in Romance Languages (Galician-Portuguese), Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics (both Universitat de Barcelona). Since 1995 he has been teaching courses in Applied Linguistics (for Translation and Interpreting) and Portuguese-Spanish Translation at the Universidade de Vigo. He is a member of the scientific committees of Discursos. Série Estudos de Tradução and Confluên-

JB[v.20020404] Prn:8/10/2004; 13:36

F: BTL58BI.tex / p.3 (165-214)

Biographical notes on the authors and editors 

cias. Revista de Tradução Científica e Técnica. Dr. Diaz’s research interests cover aspects of translation theory and language planning, particularly including the sociology of translation and translation policy and planning. He is the author of several papers which have been presented at conferences or published in national and international journals. Eva Espasa (b. 1966). B.A. and Ph.D. in English Philology (Universitat de Barcelona, both with honours). She also studied translation at Essex and at Leuven. She is currently a lecturer at the Universitat de Vic, where she teaches drama and audio-visual translation. She has published a book on stage translation in Catalonia, La traducció dalt de l’escenari (2001), as well as several articles on stage translation, audio-visual translation, gender studies and translation training. Dr. Espasa is a member of the editorial board of La Capsa de Pandora series published by Eumo publishers. Her current research focuses on cultural and ideological issues in translation through different mediums. Judit Figuerola (b. 1972). Degree in Translation and Interpretation (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) including two years abroad – first in France (Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux) and then in Germany (Johannes-GutenbergUniversität Mainz, Germersheim). Degree in Slavic Philology (Universitat de Barcelona) with a semester at the University of Saint Petersburg. She is a certified legal translator and interpreter and is currently working as a secondary school teacher of Catalan and German. Ms. Figuerola received a grant from the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes to carry out research culminating in her minor thesis, Andreu Nin, traductor (1999). She is currently working on her doctoral thesis (to complete her Ph.D. in Translation Theory, UAB) on Andreu Nin’s translation of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. She is also collaborating on various research projects related with translation into Catalan or Russian. Judit Fontcuberta i Famadas (b. 1968). Diploma in Translation and Interpretation, B.A. in English Philology, Ph.D. in Translation and Interpretation (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). She has been teaching at the Faculty of Translation and Interpretation (UAB) since 1997. She is a member of the editorial board of Quaderns. Revista de Traducció and of the research group on Catalan translation Trellat. Dr. Fontcuberta is also a researcher for the Diccionari de traductors and for MELIN (Minority European Languages Information Network). She has published several articles related with her doctoral thesis, La recepció de Molière a Catalunya al primer terç del segle XX (in press), namely “Les traduccions catalanes de Molière” (2001), “Molière in the Catalan Lands” (2002), “Alfons Maseras, traductor

JB[v.20020404] Prn:8/10/2004; 13:36

F: BTL58BI.tex / p.4 (214-274)

 Biographical notes on the authors and editors

de Molière” (2003), and “Molière: A Model for the Catalan Theatre” (in press), as well as the entry “Molière” in the Diccionari del Teatre a les Illes Balears (2003). Cristina García de Toro (b. 1965). B.A. in Spanish Philology, B.A. in Catalan Philology (both Universitat de València), Ph.D. in Translation Studies (Universitat Jaume I, Spain). She currently teaches translation between Catalan and Spanish at the UJI. Her main area of interest is the specific characteristics of translation between these two languages, touching on sociolinguistics, bilingualism, language policy and teaching. Dr. García has published twenty articles in this field. She is also the author of Traducció català-espanyol. Quadern de treball, and has co-edited Experiencias de traducción. Reflexiones desde la práctica traductora. She belongs to the Editorial Board of the review AILIJ (Anuario de investigación en literatura infantil y juvenil), and is an active translator of children’s literature from Catalan into Spanish. Marta García González (b. 1975). Degree in Translation and Interpretation (Universidade de Vigo, Spain). She has worked as a professional translator and interpreter since graduating in 1997. Since 2000, she has been a lecturer in the area of translation at the Universidade de Vigo, where she is working on her doctoral thesis on translation from and into minority languages. Although Ms. García has also published papers on interpretation and on literary translation, her main research interest focuses on the study of translation from a sociological and sociolinguistic viewpoint. In this area, she has recently co-edited the work Traducció i dinàmica sociolingüística. Pilar Godayol (b. 1968). Ph.D. in Translation Theory (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). She is a certified legal translator and currently teaches in the Translation Studies Programme at the Universitat de Vic. She coordinates the Biblioteca de Traducció i Interpretació series published by Eumo Editorial. She has published a book on gender and translation, Espais de frontera. Gènere i traducció (2000) (Spazi di frontiera. Genere e traduzione, 2002), and a book on women’s biographies, Germanes de Shakespeare. 20 del XX (2003). Dr. Godayol has also edited and translated a book of Chicana Literature, Veus xicanes. Contes (2001). Her current research is based on cultural aspects of translation with emphasis on the Theory of Translation and Gender Studies. Hassan Hamzé (b. 1945). Master’s degree in Arabic Language and Literature (Lebanese University), Ph.D. in Islamic Studies, Linguistics option (University of Provence), Ph.D. in Language Sciences (University of Lyon 2). He is a professor of Arabic Language and Linguistics at the University of Lyon 2. His principal

JB[v.20020404] Prn:8/10/2004; 13:36

F: BTL58BI.tex / p.5 (274-331)

Biographical notes on the authors and editors 

research interests lie in the area of Arabic language sciences, terminology and translation. He is the head of the ELISA Research Center (Epistemology, Linguistics and Semiology of Arabic), the head of the Translation Office at the Terminology and Translation Research Center (CRTT) and the head of the Department of Arabic Studies. Dr. Hamzé is also the coordinating expert for a research project on French-Arabic dictionaries, in partnership with the University of Manouba and the Lebanese University, and the French leader of the project CMCU (Mixed FrancoTunisian Committee for Academic Cooperation) relating to technical and scientific terminology in medieval Arabic sources. Leticia Herrero (b. 1971). B.A. and Ph.D. in English Studies (Universidad de Alicante, Spain). Postgraduate certificate in Translation Studies (University of Warwick, UK). Dr. Herrero currently teaches translation practice at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She also teaches literary translation in the Master of Translation Studies at the same university. Moreover, she has worked as a translator for an international financial institution. She has published several articles on translation. Irene Llop Jordana (b. 1973). B.A. in Medieval History, Palaeography and Diplomatics, B.A. in Hebrew Philology (both Universitat de Barcelona). She is now lecturer at the Department of Information and Documentation of the Universitat de Vic (Barcelona). Ms. Llop is presently finishing her Ph.D. on The Jewish Community of Vic in the 13th Century. She has published articles about the history and documents of the Jews of medieval Vic. Goretti López Heredia (b. 1973). B.A. in Translation Studies (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), M.Sc. in African Studies (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, Paris), Ph.D. in Humanities (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, expected fall 2004). Her thesis studies postcolonial translation in African francophone and lusophone literature, and she has recently published papers in French and Belgian monographs on this topic. For her research, she has been awarded grants from the Fundació “la Caixa”, Ministère Français de la Culture et de la Communication, Instituto Camões and Ministerio Portugués dos Negócios Estrangeiros. Dr. López has also translated several novels from French and Portuguese into Spanish and Catalan by writers such as Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Mia Couto and Daniel Pennac, among others, and has worked as an intepreter from Russian. A former lecturer in translation practice at Universidad Complutense and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, she now teaches translation theory at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Nicole Martínez Melis (b. 1951). Ph.D. in Translation Studies (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). She has been a professor at the Department of Transla-

JB[v.20020404] Prn:8/10/2004; 13:36

F: BTL58BI.tex / p.6 (331-382)

 Biographical notes on the authors and editors

tion and Interpretation at the UAB since 1976, teaching translation. She has worked with several research groups on literary criticism, computer assisted teaching and translation competence acquisition. Dr. Martínez Melis’s doctoral thesis, dedicated to the study of assessment in the field of translation, puts forward some assessment instruments in line with objectives for teaching translation, designed according to a model of translation competence. She has published articles on teaching translation, the evaluation of translations, assessment of learning in translation programmes, and translation competence. In 2002 she founded the multidisciplinary group Marpa (Dept. of Translation, UAB), dedicated to the study of the transfer of Tibetan Buddhism to the West, and in particular to translation, terminology and cultural transfer issues. Anna Cris Mora (b. 1978). Degree in Translation and Interpretation (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). She has undertaken several projects on language policies at European universities for the Ministry of Universities, Research and the Information Society of the Government of Catalonia. In 2002, her interview of Josep Vallverdú was published in Quaderns. Revista de Traducció No. 8. In 2003, Ms. Mora presented her minor thesis “Josep Vallverdú, llengua, literatura i traducció”. At the moment she is working on her doctoral thesis on the Catalan translator Jordi Arbonès i Montull. Maria D. Oltra Ripoll (b. 1978). Degree in Translation and Interpreting – English, French, German, Catalan and Spanish (Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain). Italian, German and Russian language studies (Escuela Oficial de Idiomas). Doctorate courses in Translation Studies (UJI) during the academic year 2000–2001. Ms. Oltra currently teaches translation from French into Spanish at the Translation and Communication Department of the same university, and is writing her doctoral thesis entitled La traducció de les unitats fraseològiques en el cinema i la literatura: estudi descriptiu. She also works as a film and screen translator for several dubbing and subtitling studios. Among her most important contributions are the articles “La traducción de los fraseologismos en el cine y la literatura” (forthcoming) and “La traducción de la fraseología: análisis de las UFS presentes en la novela Last Orders y la película Bridget Jones’s Diary” (forthcoming). Her research focuses on phraseology, literary and screen translation and intercultural communication. Nobel-Augusto Perdu Honeyman (b. 1955). B.A. in Spanish Philology (Universidad de Málaga), Ph.D. in English Philology (Universidad de Almería, Spain). He has been a member of the English Department at the Universidad de Almería since 1992, and a member of the International Panel for Spanish Translations of Bahá’í Literature (which translated the Kitáb-i-Aqdas into Spanish) since 1993. He is a

JB[v.20020404] Prn:8/10/2004; 13:36

F: BTL58BI.tex / p.7 (382-426)

Biographical notes on the authors and editors 

certified legal translator (English-Spanish). His main areas of research are indirect translation, team translation, international auxiliary languages and translation of scripture. Dr. Perdu is editor of ODISEA (a journal of English language and translation of the English Department at the U.A.); has edited two books on translation, La traducción, puente interdisciplinar (2001), and Contribuciones interdisciplinares a la traducción (2003); is author of La relevancia de la pragmática en la traducción de textos interdisciplinares: el caso del Kitáb-i-Aqdas (2003); has translated 11 books; and is an organiser of the 3rd International Symposium on Translation, Text and Transfers (Almería, 2004). Alba Pijuan Vallverdú (b. 1975). Degree in Translation and Interpretation (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) Doctorate courses on Translation Theory (UAB). Since 1997, she has been working as an English teacher at a secondary school. In the research field, she presented her minor thesis “Manuel de Pedrolo, traductor” in 2002. In 2004, her interview with Jordi Arbonès (“Entrevista amb Jordi Arbonès”) was published in Quaderns de Traducció. Revista de Traducció, edited by the Department of Translation of the UAB. Currently, Ms. Pijuan is working on her doctoral thesis based on the analysis of Pedrolo’s original typewritten translation of William Faulkner’s Light in August. She also collaborates on various activities organised by the Department of Translation of the UAB. Anthony Pym (b. 1956). Has studied Comparative Literature (Murdoch University, Australia), French and German (University of Western Australia), Spanish (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain) Sociology (École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales, Paris), Comparative Literature (Harvard University, U.S.A.) and the History of Literary Translation (Georg-August Universität Göttingen, Germany). He is currently coordinator of postgraduate programs in Translation and Localization at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain. Dr. Pym is the author or coauthor of 11 books and more than 100 articles in the general field of Translation and Intercultural Studies. Sara Rovira-Esteva (b. 1971). B.A. in Translation and Interpreting, Ph.D. in Translation Theory (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). She teaches Chinese language at the Faculty of Translation and Interpretation (UAB) and has also lectured on Chinese culture and translation at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She is currently coordinator of the doctoral program on Translation and Intercultural Studies offered by the Department of Translation and Interpreting. Dr. RoviraEsteva has worked as a professional translator, translating mainly Chinese films and literature. Her research interests include cultural transfer, translation studies, Chinese pedagogy and contrastive linguistics. Her primary research in the latter

JB[v.20020404] Prn:8/10/2004; 13:36

F: BTL58BI.tex / p.8 (426-479)

 Biographical notes on the authors and editors

area currently centres on the teaching and translation of Chinese measure words. Her major publication on the subject is Diccionari de mesuradors xinesos: Ús i traducció al català (1998). Dora Sales Salvador (b. 1974). Degree in English, Ph.D. in Translation Studies (Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain). She is a lecturer in the Department of Translation and Communication, UJI. She was Visiting Fellow at the University of Bombay (India), and at Ricardo Palma University (Lima, Peru). She is associate editor of the journal Atlantic Literary Review (New Delhi) and foreign correspondent of Revista de la Facultad de Lenguas Modernas (Ricardo Palma University). Her current research interests deal with translation studies, narrative transculturation, and intercultural communication and mediation. Dr. Sales is author of Puentes sobre el mundo: Cultura, traducción y forma literaria en las narrativas de transculturación de José María Arguedas y Vikram Chandra (Peter Lang, forthcoming). She is an active translator working from English to Spanish. She has translated Vikram Chandra’s (1997) Love and Longing in Bombay (Madrid: Espasa, 2001) and Manju Kapur’s (1998) Difficult Daughters (Madrid: Espasa, 2003). She is currently translating Kapur’s second novel. Andrés Xosé Salter Iglesias (b. 1978). Degree in Translation and Interpreting, Postgraduate studies in Translation (Universidade de Vigo, Spain) His qualifying project Mia Couto y la dimensión lingüística de los relatos de Vozes Anoitecidas was awarded the Degree Qualifying Project Prize by the university, the Autonomous Government of Galicia (the Xunta) and the National Ministry of Education and Science. He is a certified legal translator and interpreter and works as an English teacher at the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas in Vigo. Mr. Salter has presented papers at conferences held in Spain and Portugal on Internet technology and translation, literary symbolism and translation, translation of exotic languages, and language teaching and translation. His present fields of research are translation and symbolism, legal translation from Portuguese into Spanish, and the application of the European Framework of Reference for Languages to create coherent syllabi and improve language teaching methodology. He is presently finishing his doctoral thesis. Vilelmini Sosonis (b. 1974). M.A. in Translation, Ph.D. in Translation and Text Linguistics (both University of Surrey), D.U. in Trilingual Translation (Université des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg) and B.A. in English Language and Linguistics (University of Athens). Her main areas of research are translation and text linguistics, translation quality, language hybridity, language diversity and multilingualism, language ideologies, translation and political discourse, translation and EU texts, and subtitling. Within these areas, she has published various articles and

JB[v.20020404] Prn:8/10/2004; 13:36

F: BTL58BI.tex / p.9 (479-493)

Biographical notes on the authors and editors 

has presented numerous papers at conferences and seminars. Dr. Sosonis is currently teaching at the University of Athens and at the Institut Français d’ Athènes (IFA) and is also working as a special consultant for the Greek Parliament and for a multinational translation company. Moreover, she is a freelance translator, interpreter and subtitler. Lovell Margaret West (b. 1969). B.A. Spanish, B.S. Business Administration (Washington and Lee University, U.S.A.), doctoral coursework in Translation Theory (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona). She has been teaching English language at a broad range of levels and to many types of students since 1992, including general English and English for Specific Purposes in the areas of business administration and the hotel, catering and tourism industry. Ms. West has been teaching English to students of Political Science and Sociology at the UAB since 1993, and participates in activities of the Department of Interpretation and Translation.

JB[v.20020404] Prn:21/12/2004; 15:57

F: BTL58IND.tex / p.1 (42-159)

Index

A Aaltonen, Sirkku 141, 142 acculturation 152, 153 Ada or Ardor 379 adaptable individual 147 adaptation 63, 70, 80, 87, 97, 98, 142, 143, 179, 182, 186, 252, 258, 302 additional information 88, 89 Adejunmobi, Moradewun 169 Adrià, Mateu 258 adventure novels 267, 340; see also crime novels, detective novels aesthetic 72, 102, 181, 192, 194, 195, 202, 203, 276, 279, 284, 358 aesthetical function of translation 108 affix/affixation see prefix, suffix Akhmatova, Anna 18, 369, 371, 372 Alba, Víctor 320, 321 Albanian 33, 34 Albertí, Vicenç 259 Alfonso X 258 American fiction 376, 380 literature 18, 266, 356, 375, 379 novel 345, 376 novelists 380 Amichatis 263 Amorós, Xavier 329, 333 Anglada, Maria Àngels 266 Anguera, Pere 257 Annamalai, E. 191 Anouilh, Jean 17, 331–333 anthroponyms 182 appropriation 137, 139, 141, 143

Arabic 1, 12, 49–52, 54–63, 67, 70–72, 97, 112, 271, 295, 296, 298, 302–304 Aragonese 2, 7 Arbonès, Jordi 18, 19, 343, 345, 375–385 Aribau, Bonaventura Carles 262 Ariosto, Ludovico 17, 331, 333 Artís-Gener, Avel.lí 266, 375 Associació Bíblica de Catalunya 295 Associació d’Estudiosos del Judaisme Català 291, 297 audiovisual 100, 101, 269, 270, 274–279, 284, 285 authorship 186, 367 autonomy criterion 100 B Bahá’u’lláh 67, 70, 72 Baker, Mona 2 Balaguer, Víctor 258, 266 Balmes, Jaume 262 Barba, Eugenio 137, 140, 143 Bardagí, Bartomeu 265 Bassnett, Susan 6 Basque 2–4, 7, 10, 16, 101, 126, 269, 272 Batalla, La 321 Baudelaire 345, 346 Beat Generation 345 Beltran, Adolf 267 Bengali Renaissance 8 Benguerel, Xavier 265, 345 Berman, Antoine 197, 203 best-sellers 273, 376, 379, 380 Betti, Ugo 17, 329–333

JB[v.20020404] Prn:21/12/2004; 15:57

F: BTL58IND.tex / p.2 (159-228)

 Index

Bible 17, 69, 77, 289, 290, 292–297, 347 Biblioteca Hebraico-Catalana 296 Biblioteca Judaico-Catalana 291, 296 bilingual behaviour 96, 98, 101 community 105 editions 138, 257, 274, 300, 304; see also multilingual editions people 106, 257, 272 translators 344 writers 191 bilingualism 98, 106 Bodhisattva 209, 213, 219 Boix i Selva, Josep M. 341, 347 Bosch, Alfred 156 Brann, C. M. B. 112, 113 Breton 2, 13, 96, 98 Brisset, Annie 4, 141–143 British literature 376, 379 novels 380 broadcasting quotas 276 Buddhism 15, 207–209, 211, 213–215, 217, 218, 220 Buddhist 15, 207–212, 214, 216–219, 221 Bulbena i Tusell, Antoni 259 Burgas, J. 264 Burnett, Paula 4 Busa, Gabriel 259 Bushrui, Suheil 71 Byars, Betsy 359 C Cabanyes, Manuel de 262 Cahner, Max 266 Cain, James M. 346 calque 87 Cameron, Derrick 141 Camps, Guiu 290 Camus, Albert 17, 318, 332 cannibalism, Brazilian 192, 193 Capdevila, Josep M. 262

Capmany, Maria Aurèlia 342 Carbó, Joaquim 342, 343, 346, 376, 377, 381, 384 Carbonell, Jordi 331 Carrel, Alexis 331 Carreras Candi, Francesc 259, 260 Catalan 1–5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 16–19, 32, 39, 42, 83–87, 96, 100, 101, 126–134, 238, 243–245, 250, 251, 257–267, 269–286, 289–297, 299–303, 317–319, 321–324, 326, 329–331, 333, 334, 339–347, 353–360, 365, 369–371, 373, 375–385 culture 17, 319, 329, 344, 354, 359, 360, 376 history and literature 329 letters 330, 340, 353 prose 380, 382 categorisation 238, 239, 249 Cela, Camilo José 265, 285 Celaya, Gabriel 339 Cendrós, Joan Baptista 378 censorship 264, 275, 343, 354, 377, 378, 384 Cervantes, Miguel de 259–261, 264, 285 Chandler, Raymond 357, 358 Chandra, Vikram 194, 198, 200, 202 Chase, James Hadley 355, 358 Chaume, Frederic 89, 90, 277 children’s books 267, 301, 305, 359, 360, 379, 380 literature 116, 305, 356, 357, 359, 360, 394 Chinese 1, 16, 216, 221, 237, 238, 243, 244, 249–253, 271 Choudhuri, Indra Nath 201 Civera i Sormaní, Joaquim 261 Civil War (Spanish) 17, 260, 261, 263, 266, 274, 290, 293, 295, 315, 318, 322, 323, 326, 341, 342, 344, 353, 359, 375, 376, 378 Clascar, Frederic 290, 294

JB[v.20020404] Prn:21/12/2004; 15:57

F: BTL58IND.tex / p.3 (228-302)

Index 

Classe, Olive 3 classics 17, 138, 260, 276, 323, 330, 331, 342, 347, 356, 377; see also nostres clàssics, Els classifier 250 cognition 148 cognitive linguistics 239, 249, 252 Colette 18, 369–372 Colinas, Antonio 265 Collado, Agustí 263 Collell, Jaume 262 colonialism 2, 5, 7–9, 158, 173 internal 2, 5, 8, 9 colonisation 4, 5, 14, 15, 139, 152, 165–176, 189–194, 200 communicative action 107 style 250 transaction 113 concept 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 13, 42, 53–55, 57, 58, 68, 69, 88, 103, 108, 119, 120, 125, 126, 142, 150–153, 158, 166, 186, 190, 194–196, 202, 212, 228, 229, 234, 370 conceptual trait 54, 55 connotation 82–84, 89, 167, 181, 229 contact 68, 105, 110–117, 148 contact fields 113 contextualisation 181 Correia, Rosa 156 Corsican 2, 8, 10, 96 Coste-Rixte, Marie-Christine 102 Couto, Mia 14, 15, 169, 174, 175, 177–186 Cowie, Moira 2, 69, 70 creative metaphor 248 creoles 37, 170 Crespo, Rafael 156 crime see also adventure novels, detective novels fiction 18, 267, 339, 345, 346 novels 341, 357 Cronin, Michael 1–3, 5, 7, 18, 95, 101, 102, 108, 110 , 112, 119

cross-cultural 1, 6, 11, 15, 28, 35, 46, 192 cross-cultural communication 11, 46 Cua de Palla, La 18, 339, 341, 342, 346, 355, 356 cultural categories 76 equivalence 88 expropriation 141 hegemony 11, 36 identity 9, 40, 132, 139 imposition 13, 99 nationalism 9, 12 normalcy 18 normality 357 opacity 228 planning 111 reconstruction 18 reference 75, 78–88 turn 1, 6, 10, 11, 75 culture 4, 6, 10–12, 14–17, 19, 27, 35, 40, 54, 75, 76, 79–84, 86–90, 102, 109, 115, 137–142, 147–155, 157, 167, 169, 171, 173, 174, 177, 179, 182, 185, 186, 190, 193, 196–198, 201, 202, 225–229, 231, 234, 235, 250, 252, 290, 293, 302, 320, 331, 332, 368, 373, 378, 384; see also Catalan culture, dominant culture, Indian culture cultureme 151, 153 Czech Revival 7, 10

D Dalí, Salvador 367 dead metaphor 16, 237 decolonise 191 dehegemonise 191 Delabastita, Dirk 89 Deleuze, Gilles 14, 101, 168, 169 Delisle, Jean 7, 99 Deshpande, Shashi 198–200

JB[v.20020404] Prn:21/12/2004; 15:57

F: BTL58IND.tex / p.4 (302-364)

 Index

detective novels 355–357, 376, 379, 380; see also adventure novels, crime novels Devy, G. N. 190, 202 Dhammapada 211 dialect 143, 179, 184, 199, 249, 383 dialectal translation 142, 143 dialectal varieties 177 differentiation 148, 151 Diki-Kidiri, Marcel 150, 156 Dingwaney, Anuradha 6, 10 Diz, Inés 3 Dollerup, C. 44, 45 Domenys, J. dels 262 domesticating 15, 197, 227, 230, 232 dominant culture/cultural group 5, 6, 9, 10, 46, 96, 139 language 6, 9–11, 16, 17, 37, 96, 98, 100–102, 113–115, 190, 225; see also major language, majority language position 119 receptor system 196 strategy 153 Dostoyevsky 323–326 Duarte, Carles 279, 280, 284, 285 dubbing 3, 80, 89, 100, 115, 274–276, 278, 285 Dunbar, Hooper 72 Duran i Tortajada, Miquel / Miquel Duran de València (pseudonym) 264 E Edicions 62 18, 273, 274, 339, 341, 343, 354–357, 359, 372 Edwards, Jorge 147, 155 Effendi, Shoghi 70–72 egocentric violence 186; see also ethnocentric violence Ellis, Roger 9 English 2–12, 14–18, 27–29, 32–37, 41–43, 45, 46, 49, 50, 54, 56, 62, 67, 69–73, 76, 78–80, 83, 84, 87,

96–98, 109, 110, 112, 115, 127, 137, 142, 151–153, 157, 168, 170, 173, 175, 189–203, 208, 212, 213, 215, 217, 218, 225–228, 231, 234, 238, 243, 244, 250, 251, 265, 271, 272, 282, 283, 289, 292, 295, 302, 330, 334, 340, 353, 355–358, 375, 376, 383 equivalence 44, 46, 49, 62, 64, 87, 88, 151, 203, 391 equivalent 12, 44, 49, 51, 53, 54, 56, 60–63, 80, 83, 88, 175, 182, 183, 185, 237, 238, 240, 250–252, 367, 383 ethnocentric violence 186 ethnocentrism 179 Eurojargon 45, 46 European Union 1, 12, 13, 39–46, 95–98 Eurospeak 39, 45, 46 Even-Zohar, Itamar 68, 108, 192, 193 exoticisation 178, 203 exoticism 178, 182, 183, 185 exporting language 50 expropriation 141, 143 extranslations 35

F Fabra, Pompeu 260, 267, 344, 385 faithful reproduction of Mozambique 184, 185 to original 196 translation 69, 195, 196 translation and Vallespinosa 331, 333 Faraudo i de Saint-Germain, Lluís / Lluís Deztany (pseudonym) 264 Faulkner, William 379 Feliu, Eduard 290–292, 295–301, 304 Fini, Leonor 372 Fischer-Lichte, Erika 139, 140

JB[v.20020404] Prn:21/12/2004; 15:57

F: BTL58IND.tex / p.5 (364-434)

Index 

Folch i Camarasa, Ramon 265, 266, 342 footnotes in postcolonial literature 174 in translation of Bodhicary¯avat¯ara 218 in translation of Couto 182, 183 in translation of Lamps in the Whirlpool 229–234 translator’s 88, 89, 186 For Whom the Bell Tolls 377–379 Forcano, Manuel 291, 293, 297, 299–302 foreign-language reading 34, 35 foreignising 186, 226–230, 232 Forrest, A. 41, 42 Forteza, Miquel 265 Foucault, Michel 152, 366, 367 Franco dictatorship 264, 354 French 2–8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 32, 35, 41, 42, 45, 46, 49, 50, 52, 54–57, 60, 62, 65, 67, 70, 84–86, 95, 98, 100, 110, 141–143, 152, 157, 168–176, 208, 210, 212–216, 261, 262, 265, 271, 272, 283, 292, 295, 324, 325, 330–332, 334, 340, 345, 353, 355, 359, 369, 370, 376 Frisian 2, 13, 42, 96 functions of translation see translation, functions of Fundació Bíblica Catalana 293, 294 Fundació Bernat Metge 296, 340, 347 Fuster, Jaume 342 Fuster, Joan 261, 359 G Galician 2–4, 7, 8, 10, 13, 16, 96, 100–102, 126, 269, 272 García de Santa María, Gonzalo 258 García Márquez, Gabriel 266 Generalitat, la (government of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia) 100, 274, 275, 277, 281, 285, 293, 318, 380

genre 263, 265, 298, 300, 322, 339, 342, 344–346, 353, 355, 357, 358, 376 and translation 90, 116 Gentzler, Edwin 6 German 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 32, 35, 41, 42, 45, 70, 85, 87, 95, 98, 109, 110, 126, 213, 234, 271, 272, 283, 294, 295 Ginés, Maria 343, 346 globalisation 11–13, 27, 28, 35, 37, 90, 95–97, 99, 189 Goethe 234 Golden, Seán 157 Gomis, Ramon 335 González Llubera, Ignasi 290, 296, 299 Gopinathan, G. 190, 195, 203 Goris, Olivier 89 Grasa, Rafael 157 Guattari, Felix 14, 101, 168, 169 Gutt, Ernst 69 H Hammet, Dashiell 358 Hampton, Christopher 346 Hand, Felicity 157 Hatim, Basil 6, 75, 76, 113, 184 Hebrew 7, 8, 10, 16, 17, 109, 110, 271, 289–300, 302–305 literature 289–311 medieval texts 290, 291, 295–300 Hechter, Michael 5, 9 hegemonic culture 4, 27 globalisation 27 language 11, 28, 100, 110; see also dominant language hegemony cultural 36 -dependency 11 Hermans, Theo 68, 128, 139 Hindi 97, 151, 190, 191, 200, 226, 271

JB[v.20020404] Prn:21/12/2004; 15:57

F: BTL58IND.tex / p.6 (434-512)

 Index

Holmes, James 207, 225 homogeneity criterion 99 human rights 150, 151 Hurtado Albir, Amparo 107, 203 hybrid texts 43, 46 I idiolect 184, 249 imagery 179, 228, 240, 243, 248, 250 imperialism 7, 37, 138, 140, 167, 169, 191 Index Translationum 11, 36, 272, 274; see also UNICEF Indian culture 198, 228 fiction in English 14, 189, 191–193, 196, 198, 201, 202 life 227 literature 15, 190, 192, 193, 198, 201, 203, 225, 226 tradition 226 indigenise 170 Indonesian Malay 8 inequality 2, 6, 7, 11, 12, 97, 173, 279 Institut d’Estudis Catalans 8, 290, 294, 385 Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature 300, 304 interculturalism 137–141, 143 interculturality 1, 14, 148, 154–156, 189 intermediate/intermediary language 12, 277, 330 internal colonialism see colonialism International Panel for Spanish Translations of Bahá’í Literature 67 international terminology 56, 57 International, the 317 interpretation and understanding 151, 154, 155 of painting 366 of text 69, 189, 195, 230, 280

interpreters and indirect translation 68 and the EU 41–43 in Catalan courts 129 role of 155 intertextuality 90, 368 intranslations 33 invisibility 103, 180, 185–186, 197 Ionesco, Eugène 331–333 Ireland 5, 18 Irish 2–5, 7, 9, 18, 101 ISR see International, the Italian 18, 41, 70, 83, 95, 213, 259, 265, 271, 272, 283, 292, 330–332, 340, 346, 353, 356 Italian Twilight School 331 Italy 2, 27, 36, 41, 42, 83, 96, 126, 317, 359 Ivarra, Martí 259 Izard, Natàlia 100, 275, 278

J Jacquemond, Richard 2, 11 Jaffe, J. 8, 10 Jané, Josep 325 Janés see Plaza i Janés jargon 45 jihad 153 Jiménez, Juan Ramón 266 Jordana, C. A. 341, 347, 375 Josep M. De Sagarra Translation Prize 330 Junyent, Carme 157, 158

K Kabunda, Mbuyi 158 Kafkian 331 Kanjur 210, 220 Katan, D. 77 Kellman, Steven 191, 192 Kitáb-i-Aqdas 67–74 Koskinen, K. 40, 41, 44, 45 Kourouma, Ahmadou 169–173

JB[v.20020404] Prn:21/12/2004; 15:57

F: BTL58IND.tex / p.7 (512-580)

Index 

L Ladders to Fire 379 Lady Chatterley’s Lover 383 Lal, P. 15, 190, 194, 195, 203 Langella, Yael 291, 301, 304 language ancient 331 colloquial 342, 347 contact 112–114 indigenous 182, 190 less translated 12, 13, 16, 126 lesser-used 1, 100 major 101, 106–108, 110–115, 118–120, 168, 175, 198, 225, 228; see also dominant language; language, majority majority 2, 133, 168; see also dominant language; language, major model 342, 360 national 7, 9, 174 non-Western 5, 8, 9, 15 normalisation see normalisation, standardisation pairs 117, 119 planning and translation 8, 10, 13, 99, 110, 111, 113–115, 117, 190 policy 116, 270, 275, 276, 278, 281, 284, 285; see also linguistic policy, translation policy preservation 111 recovery 111 regional or minority 2, 12, 42, 43, 97 rights 133, 135; see also linguistic rights working 115; see also vehicular language Latin American literature 266 Lawrence, D. H. 383 Lefevere, André 6, 137, 138 Levin, Ira 355, 357, 358

Levine, Susan Jill 189 less translated language see language, less translated lingua franca 97 linguistic equality 12, 42–44, 46 minorities 95, 125, 133 normalisation see normalisation, standardisation planning see language planning policy 90; see also language policy rights 13, 42, 125–135; see also language rights security 13, 125, 132, 133, 135 submission 49 linguistics 11, 14, 51, 54, 64, 71, 107, 167, 175, 239, 249; see also cognitive linguistics literary language 17, 18, 189, 259, 293, 345, 355, 359 literary translation 8, 12, 16, 102, 108, 112–114, 116, 190, 194–196, 270, 272, 276, 323, 325 literature see American, British, Catalan, children’s, Hebrew, Indian, Latin American, postcolonial Llaç 329 Lleonart, J. 341, 347 Llompart, Josep M. 265 Lluch, Roser 291, 293, 300, 302 López-Llausàs, Antoni 266 López Pinillos, José 263 López Soler, Ramon 266 Losovsky 317 Lotsawa 210 M Macmillan 15, 190, 202, 226 machine translation 3 Macià, Francesc 317 Macura, Vladimír 7, 10 major language see language, major

JB[v.20020404] Prn:21/12/2004; 15:57

F: BTL58IND.tex / p.8 (580-656)

 Index

majority languague see language, majority Makomé, Inongo vi 160 Malinké 169–171, 173, 175 malentès del noucentisme, El 344, 345, 380–383 Mallafrè, Joaquim 76, 99, 329–331, 333, 334, 345 Mallarmé 341, 345 Man Who Was Born to Be Hung, The 376 mandatory translation 13, 125–135 mandatory translation languages (MTLs) 13, 126, 127 partial 126 total 126, 131, 132, 134 maqama 298 Marçal, Maria-Mercè 18, 365–374 Marco, Josep 77, 87, 88 Martí i Muntaner, Enric 266 Martí i Pol, Miquel 266 Martín-Vigil, Luis 265 Marx 323 Maseres, Alfons 341, 347 Mason, Ian 75, 76, 113, 184 Mata, Pere 266 Maurín, Joaquim 318 McBain, Ed 355, 357 media translation 3 mediated translation 69 mediation activities 98, 105 Meninas, Las 366, 367 message 75, 245, 249 metalanguage 184 metaphorical image 249, 252 Millán-Valera, Carmen 101 Millàs Vallicrosa, Josep Maria 290, 294, 296, 299 Miller, Henry 379 minor literature 167, 168, 175 minorised language 96, 101–103 minoritisation 333 minority language 1–8, 16, 100, 102, 106–123, 125–135 Mirador 325

Mixinge, Adriano 158 modernisme 261 mosaic style 296 mother tongue 133, 153, 191, 199, 200, 292, 295, 319 Mounin, Georges 14, 64, 165–167 Mozambique 14, 169, 177–180, 182 Mukherjee, Sujit 190, 195, 202 Muñoz Seca, Pedro 258 multicultural 39, 46, 141, 167, 170, 189, 192, 193 multiculturalism 147, 148, 154 multilingual/multilingualism 3, 12, 39–46, 96, 98, 105, 106, 112, 127, 158, 170, 189–191, 193, 201, 283 editions 282, 283; see also bilingual edition policy of 39–47, 102, 106, 191 N Nabokov, Vladimir 379 nation-building 1, 9 national identity 109, 142 national languages see language, national national literatures 7, 9 nationalist 101, 316 nativization 191 naturalisation 87 neology 178 Nerín, Gustau 158 Neruda, Pablo 147 neurobiology 148, 149 neutralisation 87, 88 Newmark, Peter 76, 87, 179, 183, 184 New Wave/Generation of the State 301, 304 Nida, Eugene and Charles Taber 73 Nigeria 103, 112, 113, 137, 159 Nin, Andreu 17, 315–326 nomenclature 54 non-adaptable individual 153 non-contaminated readers 71

JB[v.20020404] Prn:21/12/2004; 15:57

F: BTL58IND.tex / p.9 (656-733)

Index 

nontranslation 35, 37 normalisation 7, 17, 111, 113–116, 120, 158, 293; see also standardisation norms 6, 12, 46, 103, 107–109, 128, 143, 192 and Catalan 128, 344, 382, 385 preliminary 12, 108 Norte 339, 347 nostres clàssics, Els 341 noucentisme 329, 344, 345, 347, 380, 381 Nueva Era, La 321 number of speakers 118, 226

O Oakley-Brown, Liz 9 obligation to translate 61, 108, 109, 128, 133, 134 Occitan 2, 4, 96 O’Connell, Eithne 3 official language 2, 12, 13, 39–45, 95–97, 105, 106, 112, 126–132, 157, 191, 270, 279, 280 and the European Union 40, 41, 96, 97 O’Flaherty, Liam 383 Oliver, Joan 342, 378 omission 88, 89 onomasiologic 53 Opinió, L’ 321 Orfeó Gracienc 263 originality 15, 170, 186, 234 Oriya 8, 9 Orozco, Ricardo 339, 340 Ortega y Gasset, José 14 Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities 125 Other, the 138, 139, 141, 148, 152, 154, 157, 201, 367, 368 other languages in Spain 270, 271

P Pérez Galdós, Benito 263, 264 Pagès, Pelai 319, 320 Papini, Giovanni 332 Parcerisas, Francesc 3, 274, 294, 300 partial MTL see mandatory translation language Pasqual, Lluís 330, 334 Passió segons Renée Vivien, La 368 Pavis, Patrice 138, 139, 141 Payarols, Francesc 326 Pedraza, Pilar 267 Pedrolo, Manuel de 18, 339–351, 380–382 Pejoan, Antoni 263 Pere el Cerimoniós 258 Pericay, Xavier 344, 345, 380–382 phrase 53 Picasso 366, 367 pidgins 37, 112, 169, 170, 171, 175 Pilnyak, Boris 324 Pinter, Harold 346 Pirandello, Luigi 330 Pla, Josep 317, 326, 381 plagiarism 68 planning see language planning, linguistic policy plays 137–143, 263, 330–333, 345, 346, 376; see also theatre Plaza i Janés (Plaza y Janés) 273, 354, 355, 360 plurilingual see multilingual plurilingual programmes 283 Poble Catalâ, El 316, 319, 320 Poblet, Josep M. 266 poetry 203, 225, 262, 263, 329, 330 Hebrew 293, 297, 300, 301 and Marçal 368, 369, 371, 372 and Pedrolo 345, 339–341 polis language 76, 77 polygamy 159 polysemy 50–52, 181 polysystem theory 108, 192, 193 Pompeu Fabra see Fabra, Pompeu Popovic, Anton 68

JB[v.20020404] Prn:21/12/2004; 15:57

F: BTL58IND.tex / p.10 (733-807)

 Index

Portuguese 8, 14, 41, 42, 96, 97, 100, 156, 157, 168, 169, 174, 175, 177–185, 271, 272, 299 post-war, Spanish 261, 262, 274, 326, 329 344, 353, 360, 375 postcolonial 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, 14, 137, 166–170, 173, 174, 177, 190, 193, 196 literature 5, 165–174, 190–194, 196–198 paradigm 7 theories 5 translation 5, 6, 10, 174, 193 postcolonialism 2, 7 POUM 318, 321 power relations 6, 106, 139–143, 152 unequal 6, 140 power turn 1, 6–11 Pradilla, Cesar de la 156, 157 pragmatic 150, 185, 252, 344 pragmatic function of translation 108, 112 Prasad, G. J. V. 197, 198, 202 prefix/prefixation 49–66, 178–180 preliminary norms see norms prestige 4, 102, 103, 110, 116, 157, 258, 259, 261, 293, 322 criterion 102, 103 Pretty Woman 78–83 professional status of translators 117 Prosa del 25 344 Publicidad, La 316, 320 publisher see publishing, Edicions 62, Plaza i Janés, MacMillan, Tàndem publishing see also best-sellers, bilingual editions, censorship, multilingual editions and Catalan 257–267, 269–274, 283–286, 289, 293, 294, 322, 324–326, 339–344, 347, 354–356, 359, 360, 377, 378 policy of 192, 273

and translation 11, 27–37, 40, 98, 116, 168, 270–272, 293 Puig i Ferreter, Joan 324, 326 Pym, Anthony 11, 28, 37, 97, 98, 100 Q Québécisation 13, 14, 142 Québécois 4, 142, 143 R radical 53–63 Rafanell, August 257 Ramakrishna, Shantha 190 Rao, Raja 14, 191, 193, 198, 199, 201 recognition 14, 148–151, 153 lack of 112, 324, 369 of language 280 of rights 125 of translators 117, 343, 346 Recolons, Lluís 158, 159 recreation 140, 195, 225, 227 refraction 138 Renaixenca (Catalan Renaissance) 259, 262, 266 representation 144 resistance 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 95, 106, 138, 198, 353, 369 restrictions on time and space 88, 89 Revista del Centre de Lectura de Reus 329 Revista, La 320 Riba, Carles 264, 340, 341 Ribera, Josep 159 Ribera, Josep 291, 296, 297 Riera, Carles 282 Riera, Jaume 291, 295, 297, 299 right to use one’s own language 125–127, 132–134 Rimbaud 339, 340 Roda, Frederic 329, 331 Rodari, Gianni 356, 359 root grammatical 57–60 text 214, 216, 217

Less Translated Languages (Benjamins Translation Library)

Contexts in Translating (Benjamins Translation Library)

Multi Media Translation: Concepts, Practices and Research (Benjamins Translation Library)

In Translation - Reflections, Refractions, Transformations (Benjamins Translation Library)

Multi Media Translation: Concepts, Practices and Research (Benjamins Translation Library)

Constructing a Sociology of Translation (Benjamins Translation Library)

Computers and Translation: A Translator's Guide (Benjamins Translation Library)

Translation as a Profession (Benjamins Translation Library, 73)

Translation and the Problem of Sway (Benjamins Translation Library, 92)

The Art of Translation (Benjamins Translation Library (BTL))

Multi Media Translation: Concepts, Practices and Research (Benjamins Translation Library)

Translation Universals: Do They Exist? (Benjamins Translation Library, 48)

Translation Studies at the Interface of Disciplines (Benjamins Translation Library)

Agents of Translation (Benjamins Translation Library (Btl); Est)

The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation (Benjamins Translation Library)

Ethics and Politics of Translating (Benjamins Translation Library)

Ethics and Politics of Translating (Benjamins Translation Library)

Advances in Interpreting Research: Inquiry in action (Benjamins Translation Library)

Between Text and Image: Updating Research in Screen Translation (Benjamins Translation Library)

Translation and Cultural Change: Studies in History, Norms and Image-projection (Benjamins Translation Library)

Twentieth Century Chinese Translation Theory: Modes, Issues and Debates (Benjamins Translation Library)

Methods and Strategies of Process Research: Integrative Approaches to Translation Studies (Benjamins Translation Library)

Training for the New Millenium: Pedagogies for Translation and Interpreting (Benjamins Translation Library)

Expertise And Explicitation in the Translation Process (Benjamins Translation Library : Est)

Jewish Translation History: A Bibliography of Bibliographies and Studies (Benjamins Translation Library, 44)

Functional Approaches to Culture And Translation: Selected Papers by Jose Lambert (Benjamins Translation Library, V. 69)

Triangulating Translation: Perspectives in Process Oriented Research (Benjamins Translation Library, 45)

The Turns of Translation Studies: New paradigms or shifting viewpoints? (Benjamins Translation Library)

Challenging the Traditional Axioms: Translation into a Non-mother Tongue (Benjamins Translation Library)

Challenging the Traditional Axioms: Translation into a Non-mother Tongue (Benjamins Translation Library)

The Moving Text: Localization, Translation, and Distribution (Benjamins Translation Library, 49)

Less Translated Languages (Benjamins Translation Library)

Contexts in Translating (Benjamins Translation Library)

Multi Media Translation: Concepts, Practices and Research (Benjamins Translation Library)

In Translation - Reflections, Refractions, Transformations (Benjamins Translation Library)

Multi Media Translation: Concepts, Practices and Research (Benjamins Translation Library)

Constructing a Sociology of Translation (Benjamins Translation Library)

Computers and Translation: A Translator's Guide (Benjamins Translation Library)

Translation as a Profession (Benjamins Translation Library, 73)

Translation and the Problem of Sway (Benjamins Translation Library, 92)

The Art of Translation (Benjamins Translation Library (BTL))

Multi Media Translation: Concepts, Practices and Research (Benjamins Translation Library)

Translation Universals: Do They Exist? (Benjamins Translation Library, 48)

Translation Studies at the Interface of Disciplines (Benjamins Translation Library)

Agents of Translation (Benjamins Translation Library (Btl); Est)

The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation (Benjamins Translation Library)

Ethics and Politics of Translating (Benjamins Translation Library)

Ethics and Politics of Translating (Benjamins Translation Library)

Advances in Interpreting Research: Inquiry in action (Benjamins Translation Library)

Between Text and Image: Updating Research in Screen Translation (Benjamins Translation Library)

Translation and Cultural Change: Studies in History, Norms and Image-projection (Benjamins Translation Library)

Twentieth Century Chinese Translation Theory: Modes, Issues and Debates (Benjamins Translation Library)

Methods and Strategies of Process Research: Integrative Approaches to Translation Studies (Benjamins Translation Library)

Training for the New Millenium: Pedagogies for Translation and Interpreting (Benjamins Translation Library)

Expertise And Explicitation in the Translation Process (Benjamins Translation Library : Est)

Jewish Translation History: A Bibliography of Bibliographies and Studies (Benjamins Translation Library, 44)

Functional Approaches to Culture And Translation: Selected Papers by Jose Lambert (Benjamins Translation Library, V. 69)

Triangulating Translation: Perspectives in Process Oriented Research (Benjamins Translation Library, 45)

The Turns of Translation Studies: New paradigms or shifting viewpoints? (Benjamins Translation Library)

Challenging the Traditional Axioms: Translation into a Non-mother Tongue (Benjamins Translation Library)

Challenging the Traditional Axioms: Translation into a Non-mother Tongue (Benjamins Translation Library)

The Moving Text: Localization, Translation, and Distribution (Benjamins Translation Library, 49)

Recommend Documents