Global Translation
After the destruction of the Tower of Babel sons of Adam are restoring their talents
to reconstruct and pose a symbol of power with the same ramifications. But the stature of a unified language in the form of English language, the World Wide Web, Global Economy and other cultural strategies are not enough to overpower the divinely established human diversity. One should not allow a wide scope for the disappearance of diversified cultural and national identities in the process of translation which usually happens when translating from a dominant language into the dominated or even vice versa. Of course, it is the function of a true translator to preserve as much of the cultural tinge of the source language as possible.
One admits that there are different approaches to translating a text. Nevertheless, when translating a literary text the reader expects to read at least a near literary work in the target language. It is clear that such a translator constantly oscillates between fixity and change, the fixity to stay faithful to the source language and its components and the change to transcend the translation red lines in terms of different elements, from linguistic to cultural. The translator as communicator has to communicate the source language in the form of the target language as a "cultural other" and avoid subverting or inverting it into the receiving language. Thus a literary work, say, translated into a language different from its original would reward the target reader with new ideas.
Broadly speaking, translation refers to any communication of knowledge in terms of language or whatsoever. Great national literary traditions, for instance, have flourished and been affected by some other literary movement across the border where people speak a different language and are entertained by a different culture. Translation runs through all human veins and affects all walks of life. It is more often than not a reciprocal movement which results in the natural process of enriching and purifying cultures of diversified nations.
Now the so-called center of the world, the dominating West, is assumed as the great original while the dominated world is subjugated and regarded as colonial copies of the prototypes. Colonies are read as translations of the United States and Europe. Thus Platos patriarchal idea instills the meaning that copies have little or no value in the "new imperial republic". Translations, then, are evaluated as less than originals while the act of translation takes away from the original. In the realm of translation as a means of cultural exchange the governing rule should be the give and take rule which negates any sort of power hierarchy or hegemonic definitions.
It is not important if translation is carried out from a Western language into non-Western or the other way round. The truth is that wherever the West is located in this translation binary it always dreams of a higher status. Take an example, from the archive of Persian-English translation literature. Translation is expected to be a reciprocal cultural process but sometimes it is merely consumed by the West. Over the nineteenth century Arabic, Indian and Persian texts were either translated or modified and published with additional marginal notes. Nevertheless, the receiving (English) language through some textual practices or personal announcements imagined other cultures as subordinate.
Postcolonial theory alerts readers to the essential issues that complexity needs to be restored in order to understand the relations to other identities. Edward Said introduces a new analysis for discovering "revolutionary ideas". He regards imperialism as paradoxical. On the one hand, people were either exclusively Western or exclusively Oriental; on the other hand, imperialism "consolidated the mixture of cultures and identities on a global scale. On the whole, he always wants readers and critics to have a contrapuntal reading of texts in the context of Orientalist cultural exchange. Hall also invites us to heed the postcolonial call which "obliges us to re-read binaries as forms of transculturation, of cultural
translation." Hall also realizes the need to rediscover the "transverse movements which were always inscribed in the history of "colonization" but carefully overwritten by more binary forms of narrativisation." Obviously, Susan Bassnett and Harish Trivedi realize the function of postcolonial theory here: "The post-colonial frame allows us to better understand the outcomes of translation by taking into account the asymmetry of languages and cultures within the evolving global context and by insisting on historically informed criticism."
Let us examine the translation scenario from English to Eastern languages. Of course, it is enough to study the canonical works in the realm of English literature to find that not only literary works written explicitly on the Empire like Rudyard Kiplings Kim but implicit works such as Jane Austens Mansfield Park also are entangled in the imperialistic web whose elements could be traced in "the structure of attitude and reference" coined by Edward Said. Translating such literary works might open a conduit through which foreign influences know how to penetrate and subvert a native culture.
Antonio Gramsci referred to the role of ideology in translation; he used the term hegemony which was responsible for production and control of mainstream cultural knowledge across cultural barriers. In the 1970s some scholars examined cultural systems which could affect translation. However, in the late 1980s other groups of scholars explored the impact of colonization, in particular, on translation. From that time translators and scholars in general grew sensitive to their understanding of other cultures. Even the optimistic concept that universalism which implies that all may have the same things materialized in their languages and cultures was questioned. Universalism or universal truth became an allusion instilled by hegemonic powers in hope to make the dominated subjects accept the culture of the center: If you conform to us and if you try to be like us you will be civilized, modernized, cultured, rational, and so on.
Therefore, when a translator translates from a hegemonic
language with its hegemonic standards into a dominated one he would serve the dominating power because s/he contributes towards the integration of the hegemonic culture into the dominated one. In such cases the source culture is in control of the target one. That is why above ninety percent of translation works are from hegemonic into dominated languages. Even in the few cases from dominating into dominated culture the works would be imagined as mysterious, hard to understand, esoteric and stereotypical. Sometimes, dominated authors look for larger popularity or greater number of readers then s/he has to resort to the dominating language and thus accepting some of the rules of the game or conformity to the hegemonic models.
Translation has sometimes been used by dominated natives to form a resistance in the face of hegemonic cultural assaults. It has sometimes become a tool of resistance for native translators.
Aunes Oversettelser AS has been in the business for 26 years, and we are specialized in technical translations. We are specializing in the Nordic languages, and can offer services into Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Icelandic. The premier translation agency for Norway and the Nordic region! Technical translation services for businesses in the Nordic countries and translation agencies world-wide.
by: carmen
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