Shahram Delshad; Seyyed Mehdi Masboogh
Abstract
1. Introductionsince the early hegira centuries up to the contemporary era “One Thousand and One Nights” stories have been translated into Arabic. During this period we have been confronted with a great many of the translators doing translation jobs from various source languages into different ...
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1. Introductionsince the early hegira centuries up to the contemporary era “One Thousand and One Nights” stories have been translated into Arabic. During this period we have been confronted with a great many of the translators doing translation jobs from various source languages into different target languages, thus we are bearing witness to the imposition of variegated tastes and styles into the translations presented of the book. This has resulted in full eradication of the original version, the numerosity of the copies and the substanital discrepancies in the equivalents offered of the story book. The similarity between the basic foundation of the translations put forth by Tesuji and Eghlidi and Mar’ashipur (published by Bulaq institution in Egypt) provides an appropriate and suitable grouding for the research into the way these three translators have made a connection with the original text. Ommission is considered as one of the important indices by means of which one can deal with the criticism of a translation work based on the theory proposed by Jean Rene Ladmiral, the French target language-oriented theorist. Such a process in the translation operation happens due to cultural, linguistic, stylistic, etc requirements. The current research paper is trying to evaluate the ommission process in three subject matters of “the expressions of love”, “the translation of the poems” and “the translation of the Arabic-Islamic signs”in the Persian translations presented for the story book “ألف لیلة ولیلة” meaning “One Thousand and One Nights”.2. Theoretical FrameworkOne of the most important issues discussed by Jean Rene Ladmiral, target language-oriented theorist, which is the second most significant topic dealt with in the book written by Ladmiral, is “entropy” meaning “loss of information or compaction” and it is suggested to the translator as opposing redundancy by Ladmiral. Quite contrary to redundancy, there are cases in which the semantic implied via the use of source wording is seen as less important or even unessential. Therefore, a translator can ignore or should ignore translating them in some of the cases. Not only redundancy but also entropy, defined as unavailable parts in a system, basically mean gradual loss of information which can also be traced in the signified level. In the signifier level, it is sometimes allowed to lighten the text which is recognized as being redundant and verbiage, if such a redundancy can be realized as unified with nonverbal language habits and gestures and it will be better if it can be made incongruent therewith (Mohseni, 2009: 244). Such an issue stems from the translator’s target language-centeredness and it is noteworthy to say that the source language-oriented theorists disagree by all means with the entropy. 3. Study MethodologyThe study methodolgy adopted by the curent research paper is a descriptive-analytical one and the authors try to deal with the process of entropy (ommissions) in the persian translation of “One Thousand and One Nights” (translated by Tesuji, Eghlidi and Mar’ashipur) in three different areas (expressions of love, poem translation, Islamic and Arabic signs). The present study has been laid upon the formulations posited in Ladmiral’s theory.4. Study Findings and DiscussionMost of the omissions in “One Thousand and One Nights” translations pertain to the depiction of the expressions of love. Even there are cases in some of the Arabic versions which are found as being inconsistent with the nobility and decency and hence omitted due to substantial oppositions demonstrated by the jurisprudents and the clergymen. Persian translators each have chosen to take on an independent route but very close to one another. The first translator, Tesuji, tries to express the meanings and semantics of the love expressions somehow in an ambiguous and unveiled manner and avoids transfering the details. Eghlidi as a result of choosing to adopt a source language-oriented translation in rendering of the story “One Thousand and One Nights” advances further inside the realm of transfering the details and providing in-depth descriptions of the original version. Mar’ashipur transfers such expressions of love out of staying loyal to the source language text and there are a few omissions observable in his rendering of the story. Regarding the criticism of the translations presented for the poems recited in “ألف لیله ولیله”, an Arabic rendering of the title of the book “One Thousand and One Nights”, it is worth mentioning that since the poems presented therein are not enumerated in general as active elements of advancing the narration and the plot of the story omitting them from the context does not expose the translation work to any suffering. But holding such a view regarding the poems cannot be generalized and applied to the entire book; since, occasionally, poems play a critical and effective part in the narration’s evolution. Tesuji generally falls short of providing equivalent translations for the poems and whatever is left of the translation of the poems in his rendering of the story book belongs to the literary works performed by his poet colleague, Sorush Isfahani. It is noteworthy that Sorush has not translated the poems, except for a few cases; rather poems from the Persian poets have been substituted for the Arabic poems of the story book through adhering to the contextual contents’ commonalities. But Eghlidi, except for a few cases of taking advantage of the translations made by the other poets, has done about ninety percent of the extant poems’ translations through offering a poetic and literal word-for-word Persian equivalent. Mar’ashipur has carried out a similar but a lot more difficult work the same as Tesuji has performed. While the task of translating and replacing the poems has been assigned to Sorush in Tesuji’s rendering of the story book, Mar’ashipur himself has achived this goal. It has to be stated that Mar’ashipur’s performance in contrast to what has been carried out by Sorush lacks elegance and accuracy and many of the translations of the poems are found disproportionate to the narration. Tesuji more than Eghlidi and Mar’ashipur more than Eghlidi has resorted to some entropies which are figured out as being resulted from cultural features and in some of the cases he has tried to mitigate the domination of elements such as Arabic environment and rituals which are inset as patches on the book.5. ConclusionA great many of the omissions in persian translations are related to Tesuji’s and Mar’ashipur’s unduly free and target-oriented approach in their renderings, unlike Eghlidi who has been bound to the main text and has less resorted to omissions. Through takig advantage of the omission process in the translation, Tesuji has been able to reduce the redundancies and boring and weary repetitions and provide the reader with a text more compact than the main text and this is why his translations seems more attractive. Also, reducing and decreasing the mass of the poems have made the book pruned of the numerous poems which cause a slackness in the narration of the story and therefore would otherwise result in tiredness and distantness of the readers of the main course of the story. Of course, occassionally, the lack of correct understanding of the redundancies in the translation presented by Tesuji appears damaging the method of story-telling and style of the book. Being loyal to the main text, Eghlidi has imported repetitions and redundants which seem to have been derived out of the prescribers’ false understanding of the main text and the oral style of the book and he is found falling short of dealing with garnishing the text. Also, the one hundred percent transfer of the poems to the target language without taking advantage of ommission and even reducing the poems by Eghlidi has made such poems to every now and then appear weak and annoying and this has caused his translation to look less legible and coherently less beautiful.
Seyyed Mahdi Masboogh; Shahram Delshad
Abstract
1. IntroductionAccording to the source language and target language differences in the nature and structure and other cultural and style factors, the translator sometimes has no way other than making changes in the source text; therefore, some target-oriented scholars such as Ladmiral calls translators ...
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1. IntroductionAccording to the source language and target language differences in the nature and structure and other cultural and style factors, the translator sometimes has no way other than making changes in the source text; therefore, some target-oriented scholars such as Ladmiral calls translators for exerting changes and modifications in carious structural areas for the fluency and legibility of the translated text to be enhanced, which can set the grounds for the feature of recreation to be taken place in the rendered text. The current study is an attempt to criticize and analyze the structural modifications carried out by Tesuji and Eghlidi in the translation of one thousand and a night from the four perspectives of adjustment in the verbal syntactic constructs, in addressing the style, in eloquence, and in phonetics. The results of the study indicate that Tesuji and Eghlidi have adopted a target-oriented approach to the translocation and adjustment of the sentence structure. In rendering by Tesuji, there can be found numerous specimens in which appropriate structural adjustments and modifications have taken place; however, in the majority of the cases the book style has also suffered from such adaptations, where as Eghlidi has tackled the structural adjustments to a smaller extent. In addition, it is worth mentioning that his translation enjoys less legibility. 2. Theoretical frameworkIf we are wishing to handle the Ladmiral theory through making use of a simple scientific language, we have to declare that Ladmiral believes that the semantic should be conveyed at any cost and the solutions to such a problem can only be actualized in practice. The title chosen by him for his book is clearly reflective of such an idea, “translation, theorems for translation (practice, solution, theory).In this way, in his book and in other articles he presents issues and components for translations which are so diverse. The first issue posited by Ladmiral deals with the structural differences. Such an issue is related to the language structure or grammar, the structure of every language, which is different according to the spirits, and to the attitudes intrinsic in every nation. In this sense ,Ladmiral believes that the translator should not only be necessarily bound to the source language sentence structure, but also to the processes such as rationalization that the translator arranges for the verbal constructs in a manner that they look proportionate to the target language context while they are found fluent and legible by the target language users. Structural adjustments in translation are among the most important components of the Ladmiral theory. The recognition and the survey of such components cannot be fulfilled regardless of the other indicators and issues common to a translation text, because legibility is created subsequent to the structural modifications and it is one of the other components of the theories proposed by Ladmiral. Another component which has been dealt with in the present study is the subject of translational epistemology. That is, paying attention to the stylistic features of books and trying to keep them as intact as possible because by means of such features the author has a point and probably intends to convey a certain idea. Generally speaking, what is of the greatest importance in translating narrative books such as the fiction of one thousand and one nights is to increase the legibility and the attractiveness of the book and also not to damage the book’s narrative stylistic features. Undoubtedly, such a thematic point can only be accomplished through the adoption of opportunities and systematic structural adjustments.3 . MethodologyThe current study is based on a descriptive-analytical method and the authors are seeking to deal with the structural adjustments in the translations by Tesuji and Eghlidi in four different areas (syntax, speech, eloquency, and phonetic). The current study has been laid upon the foundations of Ladmiral theory. He believes that structural modifications can contribute to the recreation and legibility of the translation while the translator should also try to avoid using the items that disturb the book's stylistic features according to the translational epistemologies.4. Results and DiscussionsA great fraction of the structural adjustments pertains to the verbal syntactic constructs. One thousand and one nights, which has been written in Arabic, employs the Arabic language constructs in transferring the stories contents and incidents while the Persian language translators are compelled to cast them into Persian language format. The second part is related to the adjustments in addressing which indicates that the translator is to modify the sentence addressing styles or the author’s point of view in order for the rendered context to be fluent and eloquent. As it is observed in the context of one thousand and one nights, the speech in a narrative work is connected to the way the narrator narrates the contents of the story and that what mechanisms are used by the narrator to advance the events and create coherence among them. The third part which deals with the eloquence adjustments concerns with the efforts paid to loyally recreate the main text in the target language through the use of various literary devices to be able to create the same effects on readers of the translated works as the original text. In this way, when it comes to the eloquence structural adjustments in one thousand and one nights in Persian translations by Tesuji and Eghlidi, we mean the very few cases that the storywriter has favorably and unboundedly used. The last part of the modifications pertains to the phonetic structures of the one thousand and one nights context; it is found to have a slow and flowing rhyme except in some few cases. One of the other factors causing a rhythmic structure to be appeared in a text is related to the methods of storytelling, which is influenced by the oral originality of the book. One such method is the presence of the poems in the original context of the book and both of the translations have been found to convey this phonetic style; however, the translation rendered by Eghlidi seems to be more loyal to the type of the phonology, its quality and quantity.5. ConclusionOne thousand and one nights includes two different aspects. Occasionally, a cliché structure, disproportionate, and arrhythmic rules are seen in the book while some times it is of a consistent and stable style. Being loyal to the source text, Eghlidi has created a book structurally more similar to the original book; however ,Tesuji has ended in a structure different from the original book through disloyal and unduly interactions he has made. Tesuji, who has adopted an unduly free approach toward translating the book, has made use of structural adjustment insofar as it can be helpful in completing and legibility of the book; thus, his rendering of the book displays more beauty and attraction and it has a more fluent and more legible structure and arrangements. Of course, his structural modifications have been exaggerated in some parts as he has ignored the book’s stylistic features such as eloquence and phonetic functions of the descriptions.
