Babel - Volume 69, Issue 1, 2023

Abstract

Chinese calligraphy, which distinctively represents traditional Chinese culture, contains many culture-specific aesthetic terms that pose a translation challenge requiring creative cross-cultural strategies. This study presents several English translations for four key Chinese aesthetic terms on calligraphy, namely shi 勢 (roughly translated as “vital force” or “energy”), yun 韻 (once translated as “rhythmic life” or “life movement”), fei bai 飛白 (“flying white” or “hollow strokes”) and jibai-danghei 計白當黑 (literally: treating white areas like black ink). It examines their effectiveness in facilitating cross-cultural understanding and maximizing cultural authenticity. This article points out that most of these terms have been adequately contextualized in English over the past century, even though some are rendered in English using terms borrowed from Western art history. This shows how cultural translation, the theoretical basis of this study, comes into play when dealing with Chinese aesthetic terms in calligraphy.

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of the socio-political environment on the publication of the first translation into Catalan of Anne Frank’s diary (Folch i Camarasa 1959), which had passages cut from the Spanish rendition in 1955. Based on two translations of the same text into two languages spoken in Spain, the analysis will center on the impact of the changes that occurred during the 1950s, characterized by a moderate “opening up.” Attention will be drawn to the role played by the Catalonian publishing industry in reviving cultural production at a time when the voices of the Other were subject to strict control. The efforts to ensure that the book – penned by an author whose testimony pertained to a distant reality – was available in Catalan show the willingness to use translation to question the dominant hegemonic discourse. Furthermore, the text can be considered the initiator of the development undergone by the publishing sector in Catalonia starting in 1962. On the other hand, tolerance of this translation is to be explained because the Francoist regime had to adapt to the circumstances and make concessions to promote a positive international image.

Abstract

This study examines the change of criteria for selecting texts for translation in Shinchunji, the most influential magazine in liberated Korea. Using data mining methods, the study analyzes the topics and narratives of the source texts on the two occupiers of Korea: the US and the USSR. The results reveal that institutional, domestic, and international changes affected the magazine’s selection process, as its editors’ perceptions of the two powers changed over time. The selected texts’ topics and narratives show the ideological transformation of the publishing company from a left-leaning or moderate to an anti-communist governmental mouthpiece, expressing the editors’ desire to win over the minds of the Koreans for nation-building.

Abstract

The collaboration between the visual and textual narrative in comics, richly loaded with cultural codes and background, leads to challenges in translation. Cultural transference in comics is inevitably obstructed and distorted. Even readers who understand both the source and target language may need help comprehending the entire narrative, not to mention monolingual readers. In an international city like Hong Kong, where cultures coexist independently yet interrelatedly, the incomprehensiveness of the translated version of Old Master Q Chinese Idioms LOL (2012) is instantly recognized by bilingual Chinese-English readers. A problematic transposition of semiotic and cultural knowledge and a disrupted interplay between the textual and visual narratives causes incomprehension. The translation of this comic series becomes even more challenging to achieve the clear intent of edutainment. This article will argue that translated comics will appear deficient to monolingual and bilingual readers even if they are equipped with the semiotic knowledge of the source and target language. The translation of multimodal texts is considerably constrained by a chain effect triggered by posting changes to any element in comics – a syncretic semiotic environment.

Abstract

Translation proper is rarely the sole activity that translators undertake in today’s translation market. Translators regularly function as revisers or post-editors, requiring them to check human or machine translations to make or recommend changes to improve translation quality. Various construct and performance models of and studies into translation competence (TC), translation revision competence (TRC), and post-editing competence (PEC) exist. However, a fundamental question remains unanswered to date: how similar or different TC, TRC, and PEC are. Using indirect translations (L1 Dutch, L2 French), we collected and analyzed translation, translation revision (TR), and post-editing (PE) data from 11 graduate translation trainees. Our exploratory study shows that TRC and PEC appear to have different competences, with trainees performing better for TR than PE. However, TRC and PEC do appear to have a common core, which does not differ significantly across tasks: problem detection.

Abstract

The present paper discusses the translation of the maqāmāt (i.e., assemblies) from Arabic into English. The focus is on two main issues: the translation of rhyming prose into English and the problem of archaizing the language when translating old literary texts, especially Arabic ones. The discussion of these two topics draws on different views, especially Catford’s, Newmark’s, and Pym’s, and examples translated by the author and compared to Prendergast’s translation ([1915] 2015), the only rendition available. This discussion also touches upon the dichotomy of foreignization versus domestication, as explicated by Venuti (1997). The paper concludes that translating expressive texts is quite an undertaking, particularly if they are contingent on rhyming prose and archaisms as their basic features. Another important conclusion is that the translator should keep an eye on the temporal distance between the two texts (i.e., the source text and the target text). Archaisms are therefore proposed to sprinkle the translated text with that perceived aspect of time. However, this does not mean that the target text will appear incomprehensible, for archaizing should be confined to the lexical level and some syntactic constructions which characterize literary prose.

This article reviews Translating Asymmetry-Rewriting Power

This article reviews Audiovisual Translation–Research and Use