Babel - Volume 70, Issue 4, 2024

Abstract

This article describes an attempt to introduce the elements of collaboration into translator training in the form of a multi-stage translation project. The project was carried out during regular translation classes with the participation of 70 students (translating from Italian, French, or English into Polish). The project comprised the following stages (as prescribed by two standards: ISO 17100:2015 and ISO/TS 11669:2012). Stage 0: Project preparation (pre-production) – terminological work/dialogue list preparation; Stages 1 and 2: Translation and check of one’s own translation; Stage 3: Revision – work on bilingual texts – general correction; Stage 4: Review – work on TL texts – focus on factual errors; Stage 5: Proofreading – work on TL texts – focus on linguistic errors; Stage 6: Final verification and release. Each student was asked to work on a different text at each stage. The platform for exchanging files between the students was Trello, an online task management tool. The aim of the classes was to broaden the students’ view of the current translation market through hands-on experience and to develop their teamwork skills. This article presents the proceedings of the classes, the results of the opinion survey distributed among the participants, and discusses the potential difficulties.

Abstract

Empirical research has boomed in the last few years in translation studies (TS) scholarship in general and audiovisual translation (AVT) in particular (Orero et al. 2018; Díaz-Cintas and Szarkowska 2020). As a discipline heavily driven by new technologies, AVT poses additional problems for translator trainers as training institutions sometimes fail to keep abreast of the latest technological developments in the industry. The learning and teaching of said practices ought to bear empirical scrutiny and shed light on how new technologies can inform classroom practices and vice versa. This paper explores practice-based research on the use of cloud technologies in the subtitling classroom and encourages the establishment of closer links between training institutions and industry partners, as well as the use of user-generated feedback to improve existing AVT software.

Abstract

Youth lexicon has penetrated and become consolidated in the common colloquial register of adult speakers of any given language. This study uses a comparable bilingual corpus of original Spanish and Italian series, and a parallel trilingual corpus which includes the target Spanish and Italian versions of an analogous French series in order to investigate the use of such voices in national and foreign serial products of both cultures. The frequency of use per minute and the repertoire of terms inserted in the series of the two countries have been compared. The results show that the number of occurrences per minute in the Spanish original fictional language is much higher than in the Italian one, where this kind of words and expressions are often excluded. These data coincide with the number of occurrences per minute recorded in the Spanish and Italian target versions. Therefore, the parallelism between the original and target products of both languages shows that hybridization and domestication have been the predominant strategies in the translation for dubbing.

Abstract

Among the numerous German translations of the traditional Chinese cultural classic Zhuangzi, the version by the missionary Richard Wilhelm, Dschuang Dsi. Das wahre Buch vom südlichen Blütenland (1912), is of great significance as the first direct translation from Chinese. The work contributed greatly to the popularity of Taoism in Germany. However, studies on the German versions of the Zhuangzi are limited, and most focus on the text itself, whereas the research value of the paratexts has been neglected. This study explores the role of paratexts of Wilhelm’s translation in the construction of Zhuang Zhou’s philosophical ideas. We find there is a noticeable presence of the translator’s voice in the paratexts of Wilhelm’s translation. Moreover, the interpretative role of the paratexts can enhance readers’ understanding of Wilhelm’s construction of the philosophical ideas conveyed by the text. Based on the analysis of paratexts, we conclude that Wilhelm’s translation is characterized by Western cultural interventions, such as analogies between Zhuang Zhou and Western philosophers and the adoption of Christian claims. This may be attributed to the goal of Wilhelm’s translation (i.e., to introduce the Zhuangzi to general German-speaking readers), his cultural background of Western education (especially at the Tübingen Seminary), and the sinological tradition of studying and translating Chinese classics from the perspective of Western culture at the time.

Abstract

This paper explores the career of Wan Kin-lau (1944–1976), a Hong Kong poet and translator who attended the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program in 1968. He remained in Iowa City and earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1970. Over half of the poems in Wan’s master’s thesis are self-translations of his poems originally written in Chinese, although nothing in the thesis indicates that any of the poems are translations. In some cases, Wan domesticated his self-translations for an American readership, mainly in relation to his critique of the American War in Vietnam. Contra Venuti’s conceptualization of domestication as enabling “the ethnocentric violence of translation,” Wan’s self-translations demonstrate that domestication is not simply a matter of subjugation to the dominant culture and can instead serve as an act of defiance in which domestic audiences confront uncomfortable political realities as their own. Translation was at the center of Wan’s short life, both in his poetry and other literary projects, and in his translation of complex Chinese cultural and political issues for American audiences, especially in relation to the Baodiao movement.

This article reviews Taiwanese Literature as World Literature

This article reviews Lorca in English: A History of Manipulation through Translation

This article reviews The Psychology of Translation: An Interdisciplinary Approach

This article reviews Chinese Poetry and Translation: Rights and Wrongs

This article reviews Translation Project Management