Literary Translation: Old and New Challenges PDF

# Literary Translation: Old and New Challenges ## Abstract This paper discusses the main challenges that face literary translation and literary translators. These challenges have been divided into three main categories: Linguistic, cultural, and human. - The first type of challenges comes from t...

# Literary Translation: Old and New Challenges ## Abstract This paper discusses the main challenges that face literary translation and literary translators. These challenges have been divided into three main categories: Linguistic, cultural, and human. - The first type of challenges comes from the nature of the discipline itself since it involves the difficult task of dealing with phonological, syntactic, lexical, semantic, stylistic and pragmatic issues occurring in literary texts whose language is additionally characterized by its linguistic deviation from the norm, especially in its use of figurative language. - The second source of challenges stems from the fact that literary translation is primarily concerned with translating culture-bound expressions and concepts which pose one of the most difficult tasks for translators when trying to render them into a foreign language. - The third type of challenges is related to the barriers facing literary translation including lack of government funding, poor literary translator training, language and cultural hegemony, cultural insularity and indifference towards translated literature. The discussion focuses on the situation of literary translation in the Arab world and in the English-speaking world with some illustrative examples and statistics. ## Introduction In our modern times literary translation faces various challenges. These challenges can be divided into three main categories: Linguistic, cultural, and human challenges. - The aim of this paper is to investigate these three main types of challenges and then look at the prospects for literary translation and literary translators. - The first type of challenges (linguistic challenges) comes from the nature of the discipline itself since it involves the difficult task of dealing with phonological, syntactic, lexical, semantic, stylistic and pragmatic issues occurring in literary texts. - The second source of challenges (cultural challenges) stems from the fact that literary translation involves translating culture-bound expressions and concepts that constitute serious challenges for the translator. - The third type of challenges (human challenges) is related to the situation of the literary translator, the role of publishers and the annual output of literary translations locally and globally. - Below is a discussion of the three types of challenges together with a general outlook on the future of literary translation. ## 1. Linguistic challenges Of all types of translation, literary translation is perhaps the most demanding and the most difficult. - The reason behind this is that the language of literature is different from ordinary language and involves a variety of challenges on the phonological, syntactic, lexical, semantic, stylistic and pragmatic levels. - In literary translation, formal and stylistic features become of great significance. The meaning of a literary text, as formalist critics have shown, is affected by the special organic relationship between the constituent parts, and the parts and the whole. - These features are most apparent in the translation of poetic texts and, to some extent, of dramatic texts and even of a wide variety of prose literary texts. - Poetry presents a strong challenge for translators, given the complexity of its formal aspects in addition to its cultural content. Normally, a poet composes his poem while paying attention to word sounds, rhythms, rhymes, stanzaic patterns, visual layout (graphology) and word choice. - This selection has great effects on the meaning of the text. - Such characteristic literary and linguistic features often defy translation due to the basic differences between different languages. ## 2. Cultural challenges Though traditional literary translation theorists centered their translation criticism and evaluation on the basis of a direct and faithful correspondence between the source text and the target text, recent developments in this area indicate a further movement from the traditional emphasis on rendering the formal aspects of the original to a concentration on the translated text in the target language. - As Suh points out, "Before the mid-1970s translation criticism proceeded from the assumption that the target text should reproduce the source text, and deviations from the original were inexcusable" (Suh 2002:51). - In the traditional linguistically-oriented approach, scholars considered literary translation as a process of textual transfer that should grasp the syntactic, lexical, stylistic and pragmatic aspects of the texts in question and on the comparison between the source text and the target text. - In the new trend, however, there is a movement away from comparative textual analysis and evaluative criticism towards the acceptance of the target text as a product in its own right. Consequently, translations are set within the context of their receiving cultures and the focus therefore is on cultural interchange. This shift of emphasis has resulted in a shift in the challenges that literary translators face. - Instead of being constrained with linguistic and stylistic problems, now translators are faced with new, sometimes additional, challenges emanating from the ideological and cultural values and norms of the target culture/s. Whether the translation of a literary text is source-text or target-text oriented, the translator is faced with innumerable problems trying to transfer the spatial and the temporal aspects of the setting, the relations of the characters with one another and all sorts of linguistic and paralinguistic information. - Whatever type of literary translation may be, the new approach compels the translator to take into consideration the various elements to be transferred to the target text and target audience/culture. However, this process itself may prove to be inhibiting for the translator as ideological, cultural and political factors will necessarily come into play. ## 3. Human challenges The third source of challenges facing literary translation and translators stems from what can be called the human factor, including such matters as publication problems, lack of financial support on the part of governments for the translation and publication of literary works, low payments for literary translators, lack of professional translator training, refrain of some countries to introduce translations of foreign literatures into their own language and the reluctance of some publishers to publish literature translations. These problems occur on both the local and the international levels. - In the Arab world, for instance, many publishers are often uneager to publish literary translations. - Most Arab governments also do not have plans for promoting the translation of Arabic literature or the literature of their own country into other languages and are often unprepared to sponsor the translation of literature into and out of Arabic. - Translators often work on their own initiative and there is no concerted translation policy among different Arab countries. - Various translation versions of the same work may appear in different Arab countries, suggesting thereby that translators and policymakers often work in isolation. Nowadays, the quantity of non-literary translations worldwide far exceeds that of literary translations. - Literary readership is faltering down because of the drop in the financial income of many people or because of the competition of electronically-produced reading materials and translations. - The internet has led many people to read some classics or download them at their own convenience. However, online matter can have positive and negative effects at the same time. - Though it may reduce the demand for paper translated books, it may also be used to promote some translations. - In the Arab world, such factors and others have led to drastic reductions in the number of translated and published works and ultimately to the closure of some libraries and bookshops in many Arab countries to be replaced by restaurants, coffee shops, internet cafés and the like. - According to some online statistics, the average annual number of books translated into Arabic from all languages is less than 400 books ("A Note on Arabic Literacy and Translation" 2009), a really surprising figure for a population of around 400,000,000 people. On the other hand, the translation of Arabic literature into Western literatures (European and American) is no better. - In an online article, Peter Ripken points to the scarcity of translated Arab authors into European languages: "In a world in which translations of literary works are becoming more and more important for the understanding of other cultures, there are distinct gaps in most European book markets when it comes to creative writing from other countries. This is particularly true of literature from the Arab World". - Though Arabic embraces one of the world's richest literatures, the translations of Arabic literature into other languages, particularly English, are quite meager and limited. - Only some Arab writers or works have been accepted for translation into English. True, the works of Naguib Mahfouz, Tayeb Saleh, Abdel-Rahman Muneif, Han al-Sheikh, Ghassan Kanafani, Gamal Al-Ghitani and several others have been translated into English but we should remember that these writers have been translated not necessarily on their outstanding literary merits, though this may be the case, but primarily on the basis of their appeal to the Western readership and their conformity to Western value system, providing the Western readers with what they expect and like. Thus, most of the translation work in the West is carried out on an exclusion and inclusion basis. - Edward Said had underscored the neglect of Arabic literature in the West, particularly in the US. - In Orientalism as well as in many of his subsequent books and studies, Said had spoken of a prevalent attitude in the Anglo-Saxon world to view with caution the literatures of other cultures and Arabic literature is no exception. - Even more, Said asserts that modern American social-science scholars are not interested in literature or literary translations: "You can read through reams of expert writing on the modern East and never encounter a single reference to literature" (Said: 291). Although literature should know no frontiers, the English-speaking world is still skeptical about translations from other cultures and literatures. - Asserting that "circulation among different languages via translation is the very lifeblood of literature", Esther Allen, the editor of the "PEN/IRL Report on the International Situation of Literary Translation" (2007), argues that though English is the global lingua franca, "the English-speaking countries remain inhospitable to translations into English from other languages" (12-13). - She further adds that according to current statistics, the total number of translated books into English in English-speaking countries is on average about 2% of all books published each year and the majority of these translated books are non-fiction and that in flourishing literary cultures such as Argentina, less than one percent of the living writers will see their works translated into English (13). - In light of these statistics, it is necessary that the English-speaking cultures should open themselves and increase the number of translations into English if they want to create a real bridge between literatures. By the same token, in her article, "Literary Translation: The International Panorama," Simona Skrabec also notes that "there are few translated works in the United States. - In the UK, the most optimistic statistics indicate 6% of books are translations but this includes technical and non-fiction translations. - Literary translation makes only 2% of total output. - In Australia things are even worse ... Fewer than half a dozen books are translated each year" (38). There is no doubt that publishers around the world exert great influence over literary translation policies. - In recent years, even some university presses, which had been among the best sources of translations in literature, have begun to cut down on the literary translations they publish. - Apparently, there is a deeply entrenched tendency within many sectors of the Western publishing industry to view literary translations as unsaleable or unprofitable. - Hence, it is not surprising that technical translation and many other types of translation far exceed literary translation not only in financial revenue but also in volume. On the whole, literary translation is now somewhat marginal. - Publishers often focus on the best-sellers. - Only when the works are those of Nobel Prize winners or famous writers whose works have become best-sellers are publishers ready to spend money on translations. - In many cases, the translations are not carried out on the basis of great literary merits. - The translated works are often detective stories, science fiction material or works of a sensual nature. Sometimes the problem lies with the literary translations and the literary translators themselves. - The language and style of some translations are sometimes flawed. - Often, there is dearth of competent translators and high-quality translations. - An important question that should be raised here is: How far are literary translators properly prepared or trained for their profession? Translation as a profession is generally underestimated and some translators do not have the necessary professional and academic training. - Such a factor is bound to have a negative impact on the quality of professional literary translations. - Besides the adequate and sound handling of the linguistic, the extralinguistic and the cultural aspects of both the SL and the TL text, the translator's skill, his/her wide cultural background and specialized training and the human factors surrounding and affecting the translation commission play an important role in determining the quality and the nature of the final translation product. - A literary translator needs to have a very good knowledge of two or more languages and cultures in addition to a good literary experience and even a talent for creative writing. Literary translation, just like other types of translation, has suffered on both the professional and the academic levels. - As a form of literary scholarship, translation has been devalued in most parts of the world; translators are often poorly paid and their work is not duly appreciated. - Many universities do not consider translation as a full-fledged academic discipline. - Faculty members are often inhibited by the fact that their research work submitted for promotion should not include more than one work which should fall within the narrow specialization of the faculty member. - A university professor, therefore, finds it much more rewarding financially to teach rather than to practice translation. - The situation is common in the English-speaking countries, particularly in the US, as well as in Arab countries. - According to Allen (2006), many American universities do not view translation as a serious academic endeavor when career achievements are being evaluated (15).