Abstracts
Abstract
The interlingual translation of figurative expressions and idioms is a particularly sensitive task, especially in literary texts where the figurativeness of the language is an inalienable part of the text as a literary piece. Since modern thinking on translation favours fidelity to the source text, the translator is required to maintain – rather than improve, reduce or otherwise alter – the figurative texture of the source text in the target text.
In this paper, we investigate the felicity of J.P. Clark’s Izon-English translation in his The Ozidi Saga. We point out that felicitous as Clark’s translation is in general, there are noticeable cases of improvement, impoverishment and alteration, alongside full equivalence, in the figurative texture of the translation when viewed against the Izon text by a sensitive Izon- English bilingual. From this we argue that any form of alteration is a literary disservice to the source text, the source culture and the target audience. We propose that the literary translator should do his utmost to retain the figurative level of the source-text language in the target text, even if this involves literalism and some other violation of the basic code of the target language while annotations and glossaries may be freely employed.
Keywords/Mots-clés:
- figurative language,
- enfiguration,
- defiguration,
- alter-figuration,
- literal refiguration
Résumé
La traduction des expressions figurées et idiomatiques est une tâche particulièrement sensible, surtout dans les textes littéraires où la nature figurée du langage fait partie intégrante du texte en tant qu’oeuvre littéraire. Puisque la pensée moderne au sujet de la traduction favorise la fidélité au texte original, le traducteur est tenu de garder, plutôt que d’améliorer, de réduire ou de remanier autrement la texture figurée du texte original dans le texte visé (le texte d’arrivée).
Dans cet article, nous examinons la félicité de la traduction Izon-Anglais de J. P. Clark dans The Ozidi Saga. Nous faisons remarquer qu’aussi heureuse que soit la traduction en général de Clark, il y a des cas d’amélioration, d’appauvrissement et de modification perceptibles, à côté de la pleine équivalence dans la texture figurée de la traduction, lorsqu’elle est placée contre le texte Izon par un individu sensible parlant Izon-Anglais. À partir de ce qui précède, nous soutenons que n’importe quelle forme de modification rend un mauvais service littéraire au texte original, à la culture d’origine et au public visé. Nous préconisons que le traducteur du texte littéraire fasse de son mieux pour garder le niveau figuré du langage du texte original dans le texte visé (le texte d’arrivée) même si cela comprend la traduction au pied de la lettre et d’autres violations de la règle de base de la langue d’arrivée, tout en employant librement des annotations et des glossaires si nécessaire.
Appendices
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10.7202/004016ar