Academic literature on the topic 'Dutch poetry, translations into english'

The topic of the thesis is the Dutch translations of character names in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which is a story about how Harry Potter discovers the magical world after spending the first 11 years of his life in the ordinary, non-magical world. The book has been translated by Wiebe Buddingh’. There are altogether 112 characters in the novel, all of which have been included because effort has been made to create and translate each name. The purpose of the study was to investigate the translation of the names into the Dutch language: how they have been translated exactly and how they compare with translations into other languages. The analysis has been conducted through a careful reading of the names. The origin of the target text names was briefly examined and compared with the source text names to discover the method of translation, after which the names were categorised based on what method has been used to translate them. The categories used in this paper are the ones used by Davies (2003), who analysed culture-specific items in the Harry Potter novels. The categories are preservation, addition, omission, globalisation, localisation, transformation and creation. After analysing each name individually, an overview of the translation was formed and the results of the analysis were discussed in the context of each category. The overview also included discussion on the translation in the framework of relevant translation theories introduced in the theoretical background section. Even though I have studied Dutch for some years, I am not yet fluent in it, which is why any problems or difficulties deducting the meaning of the name were solved by consulting a native speaker of Dutch. It was found that preservation was used the most, which is probably due to the closeness of the Dutch and English cultures. Transformation was also quite common and the new names were often linked to the personality of the character or the spelling of the original name. The names were fairly descriptive and unambiguous. The analysis also revealed that there has been a shift towards the Dutch culture because of the way localisation was used: very strange names were changed into more familiar ones and some English names into Dutch ones. Overall, the level of associations in the names was less difficult than in the source text, which indicates that the target audience has been limited to children. This is probably so because it is an extremely challenging task to translate all aspects of names into another language. An unexpected finding was that the Dutch and German translations appear to be different regarding the names despite the similarities in the cultures. On the other hand, the Finnish names in the novel seemed to be translated in a relatively similar manner compared to the Dutch names. Further studies could investigate the names in the other novels of the series, and perhaps the studies could also include other culture-specific items in addition to character names<br>Tutkielman aihe on hahmojen nimien hollanninkieliset käännökset teoksessa Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, joka on kertomus siitä, kuinka Harry Potter löytää taikamaailman vietettyään elämänsä tavallisessa maailmassa 11-vuotiaaksi asti. Hollanninkielisen käännöksen on tehnyt Wiebe Buddingh’. Romaanissa on kaiken yhteensä 112 hahmoa, ja tutkielmassa on tarkasteltu kaikkia, koska jokaisen nimen luomiseen ja kääntämiseen on nähty vaivaa. Tutkielman tarkoitus oli tutkia nimien käännöksiä hollannin kielelle: miten ne on käännetty tarkalleen ja mitä selviää, kun hollanninkielisiä nimiä verrataan muunkielisiin nimiin. Nimet on analysoitu tarkastelemalla nimiä huolellisesti. Kohdekielisten nimien alkuperät on selvitetty ja niitä on verrattu lähdekielen nimiin, jotta saadaan selville kääntämismetodi. Sen jälkeen nimet on jaettu kategorioihin kääntämismetodin perustella. Tässä tutkielmassa on käytetty samoja kategroioita kuin Davies (2003), joka tutki kulttuurisidonnaisia elementtejä Harry Potter -kirjoissa. Kategoriat ovat seuraavat: säilyttäminen, lisäys, poistaminen, globalisointi, lokalisointi, transformaatio ja luominen. Yksittäisten nimien analyysin jälkeen käännöksistä muodostettiin yleiskatsaus, jossa analyysin tulokset käydään läpi kategoria kerrallaan. Yleiskatsaus sisältää myös pohdintaa käännökseen liittyvistä käännösteorioista, jotka esitellään tutkielman teoriaosiossa. Vaikka olen opiskellut hollantia muutamia vuosia, en osaa sitä vielä sujuvasti, ja siksi tutkimuksessa on konsultoitu hollantia äidinkielenään puhuvaa henkilöä, jotta nimien tulkinnassa vastaantulevat epäselvyydet on saatu ratkaistua. Tutkimuksen tuloksista selviää, että säilyttämistä on käytetty kaikkein eniten, mikä johtunee siitä, että Hollannin ja Englannin kulttuurit ovat jokseenkin samanlaisia. Transfromaatio oli myös melko yleinen, ja sillä tavalla syntyneet uudet nimet liittyivät usein hahmon luonteeseen tai alkuperäisen nimen kirjoitusasuun. Nimet ovat kuvaavia ja yksiselitteisiä. Lokalisoinnin käyttö käännöksessä paljasti myös pienehkön muutoksen hollantilaiseen kulttuuriin päin: hyvin oudot nimet muutettiin tutummiksi ja jotkin englantilaiset nimet muutettiin hollantilaisiksi. Yleensä ottaen mielleyhtymät olivat kohdetekstissä yksinkertaisempia kuin lähdetekstissä, mistä voidaan päätellä, että käännöksen kohdeyleisöksi on rajattu lapsiin. Se johtuu nimien kääntämisen vaikeudesta, sillä on erittäin haastavaa kääntää nimen kaikki aspektit toiselle kielelle. Yllättävä havainto oli se, että hollanninkieliset ja saksankieliset nimien käännökset erosivat toisistaan, vaikka kulttuurit muistuttavat toisiaan läheisesti. Toisaalta selvisi myös, että suomenkieliset nimet on käännetty samalla tyylillä kuin hollanninkieliset. Jatkotutkimusta voitaisiin tehdä siitä, miten nimet on käännetty kirjasarjan muissa osissa, ja aineistoon voitaisiin myös sisällyttää nimien lisäksi muut kulttuurisidonnaiset elementit

This thesis is a textual and contextual study of English renditions of poetry in Luo Guanzhong’s Sanguo zhi yanyi, in terms of their artistic approach and their bearing on the artistic functions which poetry fulfills in the novel. There are several English renditions of the Sanguo zhi yanyi in full or in part, including two full translations by Charles H. Brewit-Taylor and Moss Roberts. While the two full translations form the focus of the study, Roberts’s abridged version is also included. Published fifteen years before the full rendition by the same translator, the abridged version serves every now and then as a reference point showing how an individual’s interpretive perception may change over time and bear on choices made in a literary translation. Insertion of poetry in a novel is basically unique to Chinese fiction, often contributing to its overall artistic effects as an organic element. A Western reader coming from a different cultural background may employ different standards in evaluating the artistic role and appeal of poetry in a Chinese classical novel. In an attempt to be as flexible and open-minded as possible, this thesis does not adopt any particular theoretical perspective, but makes use of literary concepts to facilitate the analysis as appropriate. To assess the literary translations, concrete analysis of selected original poems in semantic, syntactic, auditory, imagistic, symbolic and stylistic terms is made before the strategies adopted by the translated versions, along with their merits and limitations, are discussed. Detailed discussions of textual features and contextual elements offer an evidence-based appraisal of the renditions. artistic approaches, which are significant in shedding light on the translators’ attempts to re-create and revitalize the artistic appeal of the source text within the multidimensional context of the target language and culture. It is also hoped that the thesis help shed light on some general as well as language- and culture-specific issues in the translation of classical Chinese poetry.

Poetry translation evaluation from ancient Chinese to English has been subjective in China. This is caused by the indefinable and intangible notion of ‘poetic spirit’, which is often used in influential translators’ criteria, and by the lack of a systematic investigation of translation evaluation. The problem of subjective criteria has remained unresolved for nearly a century. In order to improve the subjective criteria of poetry translation evaluation, this thesis is an attempt to make objective evaluations of the English translations of an ancient Chinese poem using stylistic theories. To make an objective criticism, it is necessary to offer evidence which is based on systematic and reliable criteria and replicable evaluation procedures. By applying stylistic theories to both the source text and the target texts, it is possible to make a judgement based on the stylistic features found in the texts themselves. Thus, objective evaluation of poetry translation from ancient Chinese to English can be made. This research is qualitative with the data consisting of one ancient Chinese poem as the source text and six English translations as the target texts. It carries out stylistic analyses on the data with two approaches based on the cognitive stylistic concept of figure and ground and the linguistic stylistic theory of foregrounding. The target texts are judged by the evidence of locative relations and foregrounding features. This research also explores and proposes a practical framework for poetry translation. The research findings suggest how to make objective poetry translation evaluations and improve translation techniques. They also point out the need to integrate stylistics with translation evaluation to make improvements in the field.

This is the first discursive study to examine the Arabic translations of a number of major modern poems in the English language in particular T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' and Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself'. These translations were done by the Arab translators who were themselves modernist poets, including Badr Shakir al- Sayyab, to whom a separate chapter is dedicated as a case study. The thesis begins by underlining the relationship between translation and modernity by reviewing some critical studies and translational strategies. The framework allows me to approach the given poems comprehensively, since this study argues that poetry is not only a linguistic composition but also a socio-cultural construct. Thus, this study treats each of these translations as a discursive process comprising three contexts: situational, verbal and cognitive. The situational context highlights the background of these poems and each one's importance in its own system. It also reveals the reasons why Arab modernists were drawn to these poems. The verbal context studies the Arabic translations of the selected poems. It provides a comparative analysis, although its aim is to emphasize specific stylistic issues which function more than others in the target system. The cognitive context underlines the impact of these English poems on Arabic modernity on formal, stylistic and thematic levels. Finally, the thesis covers the main trends in the translation of English poetry into Arabic, and in so doing it presents a new approach. It also paves the way for more studies to explore further aspects of these works of translation.

In un contesto di lingue minoritarie, come nel caso del gaelico scozzese, la traduzione letteraria verso lingue maggioritarie può avere una natura ambivalente: se da un lato garantisce la diffusione di una letteratura altrimenti isolata, dall’altro potrebbe perpetuare degli squilibri di potere che spesso caratterizzano i rapporti tra la cultura dominante e la cultura minoritaria. Se questo è specialmente vero nella traduzione dal gaelico all’inglese, lingua la cui espansione è avvenuta a scapito della cultura gaelica, è possibile che anche nelle traduzioni italiane, prodotte generalmente tramite la versione inglese, tali squilibri vengano riconfermati. Nella presente tesi verranno analizzate le circostanze che hanno portato alla minoritizzazione del gaelico, individuando certe dinamiche riconducibili al postcolonialismo. Si commenterà il dibattito prettamente scozzese sulle più comuni pratiche di traduzione e pubblicazione utilizzate nell’editoria gaelica, adottando una prospettiva che mutua dai Minority Translation Studies, secondo cui la traduzione, se usata correttamente, può essere uno strumento capace di invertire il declino di una lingua minoritaria. Infine, si analizzeranno le risposte dei poeti gaelici e dei traduttori che ne hanno reso le opere fruibili in Italia. La ricerca svelerà che le attuali pratiche editoriali riguardanti la poesia gaelica, spesso a favore di un pubblico anglofono, non rispecchiano la diversità di posizioni degli autori intervistati, e dunque si raccomanderà l’adozione di pratiche per un panorama editoriale più rappresentativo. Lo studio mostrerà anche come, nonostante i traduttori italiani abbiano generalmente adottato strategie per compensare la scarsa conoscenza del gaelico, maggiore consapevolezza e ulteriori strategie siano necessarie affinché le pratiche traduttive e editoriali in Italia possano essere il più possibile vantaggiose alla promozione e alla rivitalizzazione della lingua, della letteratura e della cultura gaeliche.