ЧАСТЬ III
TEXT 1. What translation theory is about
Translation theory is a misnomer, a blanket term, a possible translation, therefore a translation label, for Übersetzungswissenschaft. In fact translation theory is neither a theory nor a science, but the body of knowledge that we have and have still to have about the process of translating: it is therefore an -ology, but I prefer not to call it 'translatology' (Harris, 1977) or 'traductology' (Vasquez, 1977), because the terms sound too pretentious – I do not wish to add to any -ologies or -isms. Besides, since, as Gombrich (1978) has pointed out, Kunstwissenschaft translates 'art theory', 'translation theory' will do.
Translation theory's main concern is to determine appropriate translation methods for the widest possible range of texts or text-categories. Further, it provides a framework of principles, restricted rules and hints for translating texts and criticizing translations, a background for problem-solving. Thus, an institutional term ('MP') or a metaphor ('the stone died' (see Levin, 1977)) or synonyms in collocation or metalingual terms may each be translated in many ways, if it is out of context; in these areas, the theory demonstrates the possible translation procedures and the various arguments for and against the use of one translation rather than another in a particular context. Note that translation theory is concerned with choices and decisions, not with the mechanics of either the source language (SL) or the target language (TL). When Catford (1965) gives a list of words that are grammatically singular in one language and plural in another, he may be helping the student to translate, he is illustrating contrastive linguistics, but he is not contributing to translation theory.
Lastly, translation theory attempts to give some insight into the relation between thought, meaning and language; the universal, cultural and individual aspects of language and behaviour, the understanding of cultures; the interpretation of texts that may be clarified and even supplemented by way of translation.
Thus translation theory covers a wide range of pursuits, attempts always to be useful, to assist the individual translator both by stimulating him to write better and to suggest points of agreement on common translation problems. Assumptions and propositions about translation normally arise only from practice, and should not be offered without examples of originals and their translations. As with much literature à thèse, the examples are often more interesting than the thesis itself. Further, translation theory alternates between the smallest detail, the significance (translation) of dashes and hyphens, and the most abstract themes, the symbolic power of a metaphor or the interpretation of a multivalent myth.
Consider the problem: a text to be translated is like a particle in an electric field attracted by the opposing forces of the two cultures and the norms of two languages, the idiosyncrasies of one writer (who may infringe all the norms of his own language), and the different requirements of its readers, the prejudices of the translator and possibly of its publisher. Further, the text is at the mercy of a translator who may be deficient in several essential qualifications: accuracy, resourcefulness, flexibility, elegance and sensitivity in the use of his own language, which may save him from failings in two other respects: knowledge of the text's subject matter and knowledge of the SL.
(Newmark P. Approaches to Translation. Cambridge, 1988. P.19-20)
TEXT 2. The translation of metaphor
As I see it, the main and one serious purpose of metaphor is to describe an entity, event or quality more comprehensively and concisely and in a more complex way than is possible by using literal language. The process is initially emotive, since, by referring to one object in terms of another ('a wooden face', 'starry-eyed'), one appears to be telling a lie; original metaphors are often dramatic and shocking in effect, and, since they establish points of similarity between one object and another without explicitly stating what these resemblances are ('he leads a dog's life', but elle a du chien), they appear to be imprecise, if not inaccurate, since they have indeterminate and undeterminable frontiers. However, there is no question that good writers use metaphors to help the reader to gain a more accurate insight, both physical and emotional, into, say, a character or a situation. Further, it is not difficult to show that a one-word metaphor, once it is accepted as a technical term, so becoming a metonym (e. g. 'dog', chien, cane), as a 'truck', 'tub' or a 'mine car', and becomes a more or less dead metaphor, may be added to the technical terminology of a semantic field and therefore contributes to greater accuracy in the use of language.
I have never seen this purpose of metaphor stated in any textbook, dictionary or encyclopaedia. The issue is clouded by the idea of metaphor as an ornament, as a figure of speech, or trope, as the process of implying a resemblance between one object and another, as a poetic device. Further, linguists assume that scientific or technological texts will contain mainly literal language, illustrated by an occasional simile (a more cautious form of metaphor), whilst the purpose of metaphor is merely to liven up other types of texts, to make them more colourful, dramatic and witty, notoriously in journalism. All emotive expression depends on metaphor, being mainly figurative language tempered by psychological terms. If metaphor is used for the purpose of colouring language (rather than sharpening it in order to describe the life of the world or the mind more accurately), it cannot be taken all that seriously.
Words are not things, but symbols of things. On Martinet's model we may regard words as the first articulation of meaning, and since all symbols are metaphors or metonyms replacing their objects, all words are therefore metaphorical. However, as translators we know that words in context are neither things nor usually the same symbols as individual words, but components of a larger symbol which spans a collocation, a clause or a sentence, and is a different symbol than that of an isolated word. This is the second articulation of meaning and to this extent language itself is a metaphorical web. Lastly, as Gombrich has pointed out (1978), metaphor is literally translation, and dead metaphors, i. e. literal language, are the staple of accurate translation.
Metaphor is in fact based on a scientific observable procedure: the perception of a resemblance between two phenomena, i. e. objects or processes. Sometimes the image may be physical (e. g. a 'battery' of cameras), but often it is chosen for its connotations rather than its physical characteristics (e. g. in 'she is a cat'). Violence is exercised on reality when the objects or processes are identified with each other, which in the first instance produces a strong emotive effect. Gradually, when the metaphor is repeated in various contexts, the emotive effect subsides, and a new term that describes reality more closely has been created, e. g. étonné which in a seventeenth-century text might be translated as 'thunder-struck', but is now translated as 'astonished'.
(Newmark P. Approaches to Translation. Cambridge, 1988. P. 84-85)
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