Introduction to Translation Studies

 

Translation Defined

            Translation is like poetry; both are hard to be defined.  They have many definitions.  Translation is both substitution and a transference of meaning from Source Language (SL) to Target Language (TL). 

 

Oxford advanced learners dictionary defines translation as “the act of going into the meaning of a said or written word in a language.”

 

Dr. Johnson defines translation as the process of “change into another language, retaining the sense.”  A.H. Smith acknowledges and repeats Dr. Johnson’s views.  Catford defines translation from the linguistic point of view: “the replacement of textual material in SL by equivalent material in TL.”  Peter Newmark defines translation as “basic loss of meaning…between over translation and under translation.”

 

Theodore Savory defines translation as an ‘art’.  Eric Jacobson considers it as a ‘craft’ and Eugene Nida calls it as a ‘science’.  Horst Frenz goes a step further and defines translation as “neither a creative art not an imitative art, but stands somewhere between the two.”  Art is creative, craft is considered as a lower occupation and science is purely mechanical.  Translation is more than all these.  It is a process of analysis, interpretation and creation, which leads to a replacement of one set of linguistic resources and values for another.  In the process part of the original meaning is lost but an easily identifiable core is kept.”  J.C. Catford defines, “translation is an operation performed in languages: a process of substituting a text in one language for a text in another.”

 

A.K. Srivastava says, “in a translation process it is the metaphoric métier that provokes the problem of ambiguity even when assuming that the core meaning arrived at by the translation represents the temper and tone of the original faithfully.”

 

Translation theorists divide translation into two types: literary and non-literary.  In literary translation is translation of literature, wherein the rhetoric of SL should be faithfully carried over to the TL.  In literary translation, the translator decodes the motive of the text in the SL and re-encodes it in the translation.

 

A translator should be thorough with both the SL and TL.  He should ‘feel’ the languages.  He should keep in mind the socio-cultural matrix of the languages.  Meenakshi Mukerjee says, “the act of translation if voluntary, that is the material has been chosen by the translation himself and the prime mover is a compelling desire to recreate.  The translator is a writer in the language in which he is translating, that is, his handling of the language is not merely competent but creative.”

Sri Aurobindo states that “a translator is not necessarily bound to the original he chooses; he can make his own poem out of it…”

 

There is another view which looks down upon translation.  Some scholars quote the Italian proverb by Benedetto Croce – “Traddutore-traditore”, which means “A translator is a traitor” and say that translation is an untrustworthy source as it is not always genuine.  Translation has been perceived as a secondary activity, as a mechanical rather than a creative process and it does not require any extraordinary skill or talent.  It is considered more to be a grab than to be an art.

 

We cannot ignore translation for these reasons.  Translation is indeed a pipeline that connects one part of the world with another.

 

The importance of translation lies in the fact that it brings the readers, writers and critics of one nation in contact with others not only in the field of literature but in science, medicine,  philosophy, religion, politics and law.

 

Translation is as old as language and more certainly an ancient craft.  It seems to be an art as it defined by its very existence in poetics.  Translation bridges the gap between stylistics, literatures, history, linguistics, semiotics and aesthetics.

 

Translation can also be considered as a fusion of two different spheres of language which have moved closer together through the medium of the translator.  Translation studies is indeed a discipline in its own way.  It has not been fixed in a single framework to offer what the field could perform in language teaching process.  It is not merely a branch of comparative literature study and a specific area of linguistics but a vastly complex field with many far reaching ramification.