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22 - The translation process - part 4ON THE NET - englishTOROP P.

At the end of the unit twenty-one, we saw the Torop model with eight types of

adequate translations, a model that we provide again here in a lightly different form,adding the numbers corresponding to the descriptions of every type. Torop has preferredto use a poetic text for his examples. However, if we keep in mind what we said aboutthe concept of total translation (see the unit sixteen), it is obvious that, as thetranslationmodel must have a universal character, the use of a poetic text as a sampleshould not create an obstacle.

TABLA LLI 21

he first division concerns recoding and transposition, which, we want to recall,distinguishes the transfer of the expression plane (recoding) and the transfer of thecontent plane (transposition). In this unit, we will deal with recoding translation, while inthe next one we will examine the four types of transposing translation.

Analysis is the part of the translation process that addresses the original (or prototext),while synthesis is the projection of the prototext onto the (potential) metatext (ortranslated text). If we focus on dominant-oriented analytic recoding, we get whatTorop defines

1. macro-stylistic translation. In this type of translation, the dominant is theexpression plane of the prototext, on which the construction of the metatext content planeis also based. In the metatext, we observe a compliant preservation of the meter, of therhymes, of the strophes (if it is a poem), and of every other formal structure.

It is called "macro-stylistic" because while it preserves, reproduces, or reconstructs thestylistic features of the original, it does not focus on single elements, aiming instead toglobally reproduce the general style features of the prototext. For example, in thiscategory fall the translations of poems in rhyme that preserve the meter of the originalbut, of course, have a semantic content which is different from the original. As Nabkovwrites in the preface to his famous translation into English of Pushkin's Evgnij Ongin,

To reproduce the rhymes and yet translate the entire poem literally is mathematicallyimpossible 1.

If the translator chooses an autonomous analytic recoding- "autonomous" in thesense that the dominant of the prototext becomes the absolute dominant of the metatext,obscuring every other subdominant - we get what is called

2. exacttranslation. Unlike the preceding type, the prototext expression plane dominatesto the point that nothing else is left in the metatext. Some researchers call this type

"interlineartranslation".

macro-st precision mycro-st quotation theme description expression freedom

dominantcentered autonomus dominantcentered autonomus dominantcentered autonomus dominantcenter autonomus

analysis synthesis analysis synthesis recodin trans osition

dequateanslationbla lli

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The prototext style and syntax form completely swallow the metatext, upsetting thephrase construction rules of the receiving language and bending them to conform to therules of the original language. The result of this translation can hardly be considered atext. It is an only an aid to gain access to the original. The most widespread use of thiskind of translation is the publication of poetry with parallel-translated "text" presentednear the original version. This is unreadable as such, useful only as an "explication note"

to the prototext. Passing from analytic recoding to synthetic recoding- i.e. a translation based on theexpression plane, but aimed at synthesis, in other words at the product of the translationwork, which consequently is also the projection of the text onto a hypothetical, potentialreader conjectured by the translator - we meet the first type of translation based on theprototext dominant:

3. micro-stylistictranslation. The main purpose of this type of translation is to recreatethe individual expressive devices of the author. Under this category fall the exoticizingtranslations (preservation of the realia [cultural words] which remind the reader thecultural distance of the prototext); the localizing translations (modification of the realiaand their substitution by similar cultural words of the receiving culture, so as to obliteratethe cultural distance of the prototext); and the tropic translations (reproduction of thesingle rhetoric figures of the prototext).

This type of translation is called "micro-stylistic" because the translation strategy is notbased on the reproduction of the whole formal style of the prototext, but on thereproduction of the single style features, paying careful attention to their potentialreception by the metatext Model Reader. Our last type of recoding is called autonomous synthetic recoding, in which theprototext dominant becomes absolute, in the metatext, obscuring all other elements

(subdominants and secondary elements). Torop calls it4. quotation translation. In this type of translation, the aim to formally reproduce theexpression plane is considered so important that only formal limitations (grammar andsyntax) prevent the translator to "copy" the original: lexical precisionis the absolutedominant.

The difference between exact translation and quotation translation rests mainly in the factthat the former is interlinear, it does not respect any syntax rules of the receivinglanguage, while the quotation translation is lexically exact, but respects the formallimitations imposed by the receiving language. This is the reason why exact translation is

considered analytical (prototext-oriented), while quotation translation is synthetic (it givesa relatively higher priority to readability). Sometimes this kind of translation is called"literal", but we think that this term is too vague and ambiguous to be used in the contextof a scientific taxonomy. We will make this point in the third part of this course. Until now, we have examined the four types of recoding translation. In the next unit, wewill see the other four types of adequate translation, belonging to the transposing-translation group.

Bibliographical references

NABKOV V. Foreword. In Eugene Onegin, by Aleksandr Pushkin, edited by VladimirNabkov, 4 vol., Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1975. ISBN 0-691-01905-3.

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TOROP P. La traduzione totale. Ed. by B. Osimo. Modena, Guaraldi Logos, 2000. ISBN88-8049-195-4. Or. ed.Totalnyj perevod. Tartu, Tartu likooli Kirjastus [Tartu UniversityPress], 1995. ISBN 9985-56-122-8.1Nabkov1975, p. ix.

23 - The translation process - part 5

We reproduce again Torop's eight-part model here in a lightly altered form, with theaddition of numbers corresponding to the descriptions of each type. The first distinction isbetween recoding and transposition, which, we remind the readers, distinguishes theexpression plane transfer (recoding) from the content plane transfer (transposition). Inthis unit we will deal with transposing translation, while in the previous one we describedthe four types of recoding translation.

TABLA LLI 21

This group consists of those translations in which the content is considered so important,

that the translator puts it foremost, even over form when necessary. The first type we aregoing to consider is the dominant-oriented analytic transposition, which Toropdefines

1.

2. thematictranslation. The expression plane (see unit 21) in this case is subject tothe content plane. Form is sacrificed in the name of comprehensive content. Thetranslator chooses this procedure in order to facilitate the reception of the contentby the reader.

3.Nevertheless, we must pay attention to the fact that it is easier for the reader to

access the prototext content, but the reader will be deprived of the chance ofseeing what was its form like. We, therefore, should not generalize affirming thatthis type of translation is "closer to the reader". It is a facilitated, simplified version,for which reason it does not contain all the formal characteristics of the prototext.An understanding of the semantic content is best achieved using simpler forms. If,for example, the original is a poem with a well-defined meter, rhythm, and rhymescheme, one possible thematic translation is the use of vers libre, in which everyformal structure of the prototext disappears.To continue with Torop's model, we find the autonomous analytictransposition, i.e. an analytic transposition in which the dominant (the content, in

this case) is emphasized in an absolute way, to the point that it totally obscuresform. It is called

4. descriptive translation. Like all autonomous translation types, the prevalence ofthe dominant is pushed to the extreme, and the possibility of translating the entiretext is rationally refused. One might think that this kind of translation is seldomseen, but, contrarily, in some cultures it is the most common.

5.This type of translation is exemplified by the transposition of a poetic text (in verse)into a prose metatext. The attitude we found even in the thematic translation

(passing from the rhyme to vers libre) is taken to the farthest limit, and thepassage is taken from verse to prose.Let us now examine the dominant-oriented synthetic transposition, in which the

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focus is moved from the prototext (analysis) to the metatext (synthesis), even if thetransposition dominant (i.e. the content plane) is rendered in relative terms, andthe other planes are seen underneath. That is the so-called

6. expressive(or receptive) translation. This type of translation is realized when, in

the translator's intentions, the metatext dominant coincides with the metatextexpressiveness. The translator postulates the standard reaction of the prototextModel Reader and, having this hypothetical reaction in mind, she produces a textthat, at least in theory, has the purpose of eliciting the same kind of reaction in themetatext Model Reader. The theory behind this approach is called "dynamicequivalence"; it was predominantly originated by Eugne Nida1.

7.Let us finally examine the last type of translation: the autonomous synthetictransposition, which is a type of free interpretation of the prototext content in aform arbitrarily chosen by the translator. It is called

8. free translation and, among those examined in Torop's model, is that whichproduces a text that differs most from the prototext. It is not a real "translation" aswe commonly use the word; we could call it a remake, as are those that arecommonly described as "liberally drawn from'", or "liberally inspired to'".

9. An example of autonomous synthetic transposition is perhaps Johnston's 1977 versionof Eugene Ongin, Pushkin's novel in verse, particularly if compared to the more exact1964 version by Vladimir Nabkov:

If only Lenskyd known the burning If he had known what wound

wound that had seared my Tanyashear!

burned my Tatianas heart

If Tanyad had the chance of learning If Tatiana had been aware,

that Lensky and Eugene, apart, if she could have known

would settle, on the morrow morning, that Lenski and Eugene tomorrow

for which of them the tomb wasyawning,

were to compete for the tombs shelter,

perhaps her love could in the end ah, possibly her love

have reunited friend to friend! might have conjoined the friends again!

But, even by accident, her passion But even by chance that passion

was undiscovered to that day. no one had yet discovered.

Onegin had no word to say; Tatiana pined away in secret;

of the whole world, her nurse alone, alone the nurse might have known -

if not slow-witted, might have known. but then she was slow-witted.

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Here is the prototext transliterated: "Kogda b on znal, kakaja rana / Moej Tatjany serdcezhgla! / Kogda by vedala Tatjana, / Kogda by znat ona mogla, / CHto zavtra Lenskij IEvgenij / Zasporjat o mogilnoj seni; / Ah, mozhet byt, e ljubov / Druzej soedinilavnov! / No toy strasti I sluchajno / eshch nikto ne otkry-val. / Onegin obo vsmmolchal; / Tatjana iznyvala tajno; / Odna by nanja znat mogla, / Da nedogadliva byla".

Ricapitolando, abbiamo esaminato otto tipi teorici di attualizzazione del modello diprocesso traduttivo, distinti sulla base di tre criteri fondamentali:

As anyone can see, even without knowing Russian, the content of the right-columnversion is quite different from the left-column one. The translator's poetic intent isevident, and the result is a rhyme poem with a different content and different formalcharacteristics from the prototext.

We have examined the eight theoretical types of actualization of Torop's translationprocess model. The types are differentiated based on three fundamental criteria:

recoding/transposition, i.e. the distinction between expression plane translation

(recoding) emphasizing formal elements, and content plane translation(transposition).

analysis/synthesis, i.e. the distinction between the part of the translationprocess centered upon the readings/interpretations of the prototext by thetranslator (analysis) and the projection of the potential text toward its actualization

in the metatext (synthesis).

dominant/autonomous: it is perhaps the most difficult distinction, because theword "autonomous" could induce one to think of something very remote from theprototext. Actually, the dominant-oriented translation accounts - as in JAkobsn'soriginal view - even with all its hierarchy of subdominants, while the type Toropcalls "autonomous" is an exasperation of the "dominant" concept: the dominant iselevated to the totalization dimension of governing the entirety of the text, which ismanipulated at will in order to amplify that dominant element.