Excellent Essay on Translation from DePaul Student: Zachary Welden
Theoretical Guidelines for Translation
Zachary Welden
The act of translation at its fundamental level requires taking an idea from one language and retransmitting it into another. For some ideas this can be quite simple. A handy traveler’s guide with simple phrases in the target language provides some example of this. However other ideas can poses significant challenges to this end. Translating complex poetry or passages from works of prose steeped in subtle cultural allusions highlight a few of these obstacles.
Thus, finding guideposts that can help the translator in his or her work is important. Many theories have been put forth and a few of the noteworthy shall be examined here. From the Chinese perspective comes an established and long discusses rubric for translation based around the short phrase, “xinm, da, ya”. From the west comes an evolution of translation theory emerging out of the idea that there exist parallel concepts in all languages.
“Xin da ya”, meaning faithfulness, expressiveness, and gracefulness is a methodology for translation used with China. At its core it suggests the way to produce a good translation is to remain faithful to the original text. After reproducing the core message of the original, the translator seeks to produce a piece that is approachable and readable by the target audience. Finally, the translator ought to make the translated text linguistically elegant, conveying a sense of literary skill in the final product.
While the Chinese theory focuses on the practical applications of how one ought to translate, western translation theories have focused more on the philosophical aspect of what it means to translate, and have explored the limitations of translation. The starting point of these discussions revolve around an idea of natural equivalence. This theory states that and idea in one language has a natural reproducible parallel in another language.
For simple phrases and ideas the concept of natural equivalence holds quite well. However as more and more of a culture and language’s subtle elements creep into the work in question, the act of translation becomes increasingly difficult. Common examples include translating ideas involving superstations, holidays, or turns of phases which have no direct equivalent in the target language.
In light of this, the theory of directional equivalence offers a looser theoretical framework for translation. Rather than finding a concept that equally represents and idea in both languages, the translator looks only in the target language to reproduce an original idea, even if it means losing the ability to produce a back translation. Similarly, the theoretical model of relevance, suggests focusing on capturing the overall theme of a work rather than focusing on line
by line accuracy. Thus it is permissible and perhaps even necessary to reword and reorganize sentences or paragraphs in order to remain faithful the purpose or theme of a work.
In compiling my own personal guidelines for translation, I believe it is important to pull the most valuable aspects of each of the theories offered and compile them into a personal guiding principle. The Chinese translation theory focuses on the practical aspects of translation and realized that ultimately, regardless of theory, documents have to make it from one language to another. Thus, focusing on making those translations as accurate to the original while still being useful is of paramount importance. From the more theory heavy side emerging out of western thought, the notions of equivalence suggest that while perfect word for word translations are not possible, representing the linguistic and cultural subtleties of the original text is still an important theme in any translation attempt even if doing so is hard work.
In a sentence, my translation guideline would be: Start with purpose and aim for equivalence while making the text as readable as possible. When translating, one’s foremost goal should be to reproduce the central idea or theme as clearly as possible. When possible the translator should seek to reproduce that text as faithfully as possible trying to lose as little of the context of the original along the way. Finally, in the spirit of “Xin, da, ya” the translator should make the reproduced text a readable and enjoyable as possible.
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