UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

Applying Direct and Oblique Strategies when dealing with a literal translation of a poem.

Translation and Theory LCS - MA03-10

20th December 2010

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Contents

Page

1. Introduction 3

2. A Methodology for Translation 4

2.1 Direct Translation Techniques in context 6

2.2 Oblique Translation Techniques in context 10

3. Other criticism and response 18

4. Conclusions 19

5. References 21

6. Appendices i

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1. Introduction

This essay is a presentation of some of the linguistic aspects of translation

supported by theoretical framework mostly drawn from Jean-Paul Vinay and

Jean Darbelnet’s methodology around the topic of different translational

strategies. Data used as a source of examples and criticisms is a Polish

translation of a 1971 poetic song lyric ‘Thick as a brick’ by Jethro Tull

translated by Jędrzej Polak (1999), a well-known and respected literary Polish

translator, text of which and its back translation are included in the Appendices

section of this essay.

Firstly, an introduction of Vinay and Darbelnet’s work and terminology will

be presented followed by an in-depth analysis of some of the translation

strategies proposed by their understanding of equivalence (1958). At this point

the seven proposed methods of translation will be presented and examples will

be provided. I will share some interesting findings and try to investigate some of

the translator’s decisions as to which techniques he used and why. Criticisms

made by others will be drawn upon and my personal views and possible

solutions will be presented alongside the theory and examples as well as in the

final part of the essay.

2. A Methodology for Translation

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A duo of French linguists Vinay and Darbelnet’s perception of the linguistic

aspects of translation deserves recognition in the field of translation studies.

Their 1958 Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A Methodology for

Translation introduces many translation processes and gives guidelines and

examples for practising translators working in English-French language pair. At

the same time, universal as their methodology became it was adopted by

theorists from other cultures and nationalities. One of the most interesting and

practical part of Vinay and Darbelnet’s concepts of dealing with substitution of

Source Text (ST) with Target Text (TT) in another language is their catalogue

of seven procedures translators follow in order to ‘establish relationships

between specific manifestations of two linguistic systems’(1958:30). The

concern focuses on translator’s task to create an equivalent piece of message. In

some cases, the discovery of the appropriate Target Language (TL) unit is very

sudden and comes ‘naturally’ or ‘easily’, which means that ST automatically

reveals TL solution. Such almost instinctive substitution may, however, lead to

gaps (or lacunae) in the TL which should be filled with corresponding elements

in order to create similar impression between the two languages. This is where

linguistics and translations studies meet.

Vinay and Darbelnet (1958) introduced seven translation techniques, which

they divided into two groups. First group is Direct Translations (DT) and it

consists of the following techniques: loan, calque and literal translation. Their

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feature is that they are used when structural and conceptual elements of the SL

can be transported into TL ‘element by element’ simply because they are based

on either parallel categories or concepts. Second group is Oblique Translations

(OT) which are used when the elements of the SL cannot be directly translated

without altering meaning or upsetting the grammatical and stylistic elements of

the target language, these include: transposition, modulation, équivalence (also

called reformulation or correspondence) and adaptation. The order in which all

techniques had been listed above mirrors the level of difficulty in use, according

to Vinay and Darbelnet the easiest being loan and most difficult adaptation

(Pym, 2010: 13). Such bold statement that ‘one thing is easy and the other

difficult’ poses a question of the level of comprehension of the text and perhaps

reveals a note of doubt in translator’s knowledge of SL and TL. Therefore, next

section of this essay will focus on the actual methods and try to analyze the

techniques visible within the translation of the song lyric ‘Thick as a brick’.

In order to put the main focus of this essay into context I will present the

techniques and extracts taken from my data and provide either critical

alternative to translator’s choice or I will analyze the translation on the grounds

of theoretical framework. The lists of procedures tend to make perfect sense

when they are presented alongside carefully selected examples. At the same

time, as the text gets analyzed it becomes clear that some procedures overlap

and more than one category can be assigned to one rendering, which will be

confirmed and more clearly visible in further stages of this essay.

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2.1 Direct Translation Techniques in context

The ‘easy’ Direct Techniques can simply be described as literal (Wilss,

1982). The translator can borrow the word directly from the source language to

the target without changing its form or even translating it. This technique seems

very unproblematic and works particularly well when thinking of translating

proper names, branding or when target culture does not have a word for

something. In this retrospect borrowing is somewhat similar to the calque

approach when a phrase is taken from SL and each of its elements gets

translated literally. As a result the target language gains a fixed calque, which

after a period of time may become a part of the culture. These may however,

become faux amis. A very clear example of such calque is visible in the ‘Thick

as a brick’ lyric.

English-Polish (also see Appendix 1)

(1) to play Monopoly – grać w Monopole – gloss: play monopoly

Non-English speaking Polish person would first of all question the

capitalization of the word ‘Monopole’ as in Polish it is a noun describing a type

of ‘an organization or group which has the power of control which is not shared

by other people or groups especially in business, etc.’ In Polish, nouns do not

get capitalized unless they are proper nouns, names or branding. In this case

‘Monopoly’ obviously refers to the board game (branding), however, Polish

version of ‘Monopoly’ the board game is - and has been called for at least

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twenty years - ‘Eurobiznes’. In poetry, it often happens that not only the

meaning of the text needs to be conveyed but also the rhyme. Here, this could

not have been the case as ‘Monopole’ does not rhyme with anything. Also, as

far as equivalent effect is concerned, in this case such play with foreign word

within the text does not do any justice for the reader as ‘Monopole’ only brings

confusion for a non-English speaking reader. The whole Monopoly-gate is an

example of a bad calque or (attempted) borrowing. Simple and straightforward

as DT may have seemed, in this case Fawcett’s remarks on whether there is a

need to adapt, borrow or translate product’s name into target culture will be a

‘balancing act between the need to find appropriate sounds and connotations,

the need to mark the nationality of the product (...) may be seen as cultural

imperialism’ (1997:35). In other words, taking the literal approach may

facilitate foreignization and disturb the naturalness of the target text. The main

criticism concerning linguistic strategies for dealing with the unknown is that

calquing and borrowing terms which had already been awarded their

equivalents in the target culture, especially when dealing with poems; disturb

the reader who already devotes most of his/her attention to the aesthetic values

of the composition.

On the other hand, Vázquez-Ayora justify the application of literal strategies

whenever there is a precise correspondence of ‘structure’ and ‘signification’

between two utterances in two different languages and equivalence is achieved

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word by word ‘literal translation can be applied without risk’ (1977:257) which

will result in what he calls ‘degree zero of translation’ (ibid.), some examples

can be found within the poem.

English – Polish (also see Appendix 1 - examples 2,3,4)

(2) thick as a brick – tępy jak cegła – gloss: thick like brick

(3) animal deals – brudne interesy – gloss: dirty business

(4) And the poet sheaths his pen while the soldier lifts his sword - A poeta

chowa pióro, podczas gdy żołnierz podnosi swój miecz – gloss: Poet sheaths

pen while soldier raises (his) sword

All of the above idiomatic phrases are typical to the English language and

they do not exist in Polish in the same form. The translator made a decision to

translate each of them literally even though Polish equivalents could have been

applied. ‘Brick’ could have become ‘oak ’, ‘animal deals’ is actually ‘dirty

business’ and ‘soldier pulls his weapon’ not ‘sword’ (Simbrimowicz, 2000).

What happened in those cases was closest literal substitution of SL with TL.

Interestingly, unlike Monopoly, the three idiomatic expressions can be

comprehended by a Polish reader without detecting any ambiguities. Having

conducted a simple, yet extensive, experiment with the use of Google search

engine and Polish Online Corpora it became apparent that all mentioned options

do appear in Polish texts even though they are not of Polish origin. Surprisingly,

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‘thick as a brick’ saying does actually appear in a 2005 edition of one of the

English –Polish idiom dictionaries and the entry features a link to, perhaps now

old fashioned ‘thick as an oak’ idiom. The 1997 edition of a similar publication

(Radziejewski, 1997) does not feature both entries – only the ‘thick as an oak’

one. Therefore, could it be that the mentioned calques have successfully become

a part Polish language? Or are they simply on their way to becoming ‘full

equivalents’?

Another question that comes to one’s mind is why the translator did not opt

for the slightly freer methods and applied the pre-existing Polish versions of the

above examples since the meaning would have remained the same and it would

have only been the form at a word level that would have been changed. Perhaps,

Vázquez-Ayora’s dire warning that ‘the translator should not alter this process

(of literal translation) out of an itch to change things or out of simple fear of

criticism that the translation is literal in the pejorative sense of the term’

(1977:257) would be a good enough reasoning for the decisions taken.

However, not being able to go into translator’s thoughts or guess his motivation

(which is not the purpose of this essay anyway) it will be even more interesting

to investigate more examples that are almost complete opposites of the ones

already mentioned or are the same utterances but looked at from a different

angle.

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2.2 Oblique Translation Techniques in context

Pym (2010:14) suggested a model for translation, which is possible when the

translator can first try the Direct Techniques when, neither of those bring

satisfactory results because of lexis, grammar or textual differences then he/she

can move on to the Oblique methods, which involve the procedures of real

interest to the linguists due to the complexity and number of complicated

problems with concrete definitions.

The technique of transposition is how Vinay and Darbelnet deal with

grammatical changes in translation. They devote some attention to the task of

demonstrating how parts of speech change their sequence within the text when

dealing with different language. In other words, it is a shift of word class.

Transposition often happens between English and Polish because of preferred

position of the verb in the sentence. Any changes of such nature require the

translator’s knowledge that it is possible to replace the word category in the

target language without altering the meaning. Interestingly, however, in the case

of the poem the translator kept the Polish sentence structure very closely to the

original without even creating any gaps in the flow of the passage. The only

example of a different kind of transposition visible within the poem is that of

interchange - a special case of transposition (1958:103) in the very first verse.

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English-Polish (also see Appendix 1 – example 5)

(5) Really don’t mind if you sit this one out – Możesz to sobie odpuścić, to

naprawdę nie ma znaczenia. – gloss: You can let it go, it really doesn’t matter.

Here, we can observe how the sentence structure changed and for the sake of

stylistic values the utterance got converted into a compound sentence. The

English first states the abstract feeling/emotion (result) and then the means. Had

it been translated literally without what Malone (1988) refers to as ‘reordering’

the Polish structure of conditional sentences would have sounded obscure. It is

proper grammar of the Polish language that dictates the position of action single

sentence against the result sentence. On the other hand, it must be underlined

that ‘obscure’ in this case does not mean ‘incorrect’. The reason this needs to be

addressed and clarified is that there is a slight chance of possible confusion

between two important techniques, namely, the already mentioned transposition

and modulation. The latter one is also considered to be ‘variation of the form of

the message, obtained by a change in the point of view. This change can be

justified when, although literal, or even transported translation results in a

grammatically correct utterance it is considered unsuitable, unidiomatic or

awkward in TL’(Vinay and Darbelnet, 1958: 36). The striking difference

between the two definitions is the point of view of a translator on the subject of

correctness of the utterance. In the case of the example number five above, it

depends on whether we would consider the literal translation awkward or not

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that defines its status of either having undergone transposition or modulation.

This is where Malone’s view concerning the division of Vinay and Darbelnet’s

becomes valid. According to his own new taxonomy from 1988 transposition,

modulation, correspondence and adaptation are no longer completely separate

processes and he simply re-names them as ‘Reordering’ (Malone capitalizes the

words) and as an example provides a simplified formula ‘in which the translator

introduces what is called a co-reference chain’ (Fawcett, 1997:41) and all the

changes are down to substituting parts of sentences (AB →BA). Different and

simplistic as Malone’s proposal may seem, it still clearly distinguishes between

what Vinay and Darbelnet first proposed in 1958, that is literal vs free (or OT vs

DT).

Moreover, staying on the topic of modulation and possible shifts in

definitions and usage of terminology it is worth going back to the ‘thick as a

brick’ case (example 2), which does, to a certain extent, fit in what Vinay and

Darbelnet include in their further definition of fixed and free modulation. They

claim that :

Cases of free modulation are single instances not yet fixed and sanctioned by usage, so that the procedure must be carried out anew each time (...) when carried out as it should be, the resulting translation should correspond perfectly to the situation indicated by SL. (...) (1958:37)

So far, from the citation we can fit the case of ‘thick as brick’ (not as an ‘oak’),

which as far as we know from my research had not yet been fixed into the

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modulation criteria. Aware of its appearance in one of the dictionaries and

having acquainted ourselves with the rest of Vinay and Darbelnet’s renderings

on modulation which states that:

‘as soon as free modulation is used often enough, or is felt to offer the only solution (this usually results from the study of bilingual texts (...) or from a famous translation which claims recognition due to its literary merit) it may become fixed until its referred to in dictionaries and grammars (...)’ (ibid.)

A statement can be made that ‘thick as a brick’ is a case of (as mentioned at the

end of the section 2 of this essay) overlapping procedures as it could be classed

as one of the direct methods or as a process of oblique techniques. Whichever

label we choose I must stress that the way the phrase made it to the dictionary

had not yet been confirmed and the situation remains hypothetical.

Meanwhile, Wilss (1982:102) who also talks about problems with classifying

translation procedures (especially modulation) in English-German language pair

gives an advice to his readers and suggests that many of the difficulties with

classification of Vinay and Darbelnet’s methodology can be avoided by ‘staying

away from the linear arrangement used in the taxonomy and choosing instead a

hierarchical principle of arrangement which better illustrates the relationships

between categories’ (see Figure 2 - appendix 2). Interestingly, he completely

omits the last two remaining techniques: correspondence (équivalence) and

adaptation. According to him the term équivalence is too problematic as in

principle every translation process is aimed at equivalence and is meant to be

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achieved no matter which strategy is used. When it comes to adaptation he also

rejects the term as it ‘denotes a general state of affairs guiding every non-literal

translation process and establishing correspondence between SL and TL

according to given contextual and situational communication in each case’.

As far as Wilss’ uncertainty about the very flexible and somewhat

controversial definition of equivalence is concerned, his point can be justified as

there still exists an ongoing and controversial debate on what equivalence

actually is. Vinay and Darbelnet point out that équivalence (French spelling)

occurs when the same situation can be rendered by two texts using different

stylistic methods in order to produce equivalent text. The focus mainly falls on

examples of idiomatic expressions and onomatopoeia when the equivalence

cannot be achieved by calque. The term itself, even though kept in its French

form seems to be the biggest bone of contention for the critics and other

linguists as it now has a much wider meaning in translation. While Vinay and

Darbelnet positioned the concept of équivalence in the bottom two of their

taxonomy and considered it to be the more free technique, where the translator

applies ‘the method of creating equivalences’ (1958:38) they still refer it back to

more direct techniques (e.g. claque). They give examples of translating idioms

and culture specific phraseology and then they conclude with advice that ‘in

translating it is advisable to use traditional forms of expression, because the

accusation of using Gallicisms, Anglicisms, Germanisms, Hispanisms, etc. will

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always be present when translator attempts to introduce a new calque’

(1958:39). This is where, critics voice their opinions on the fact that equivalence

is rendered as the ‘freer’ method. Being such a wide and flexible concept it

would be advisable to break the équivalence down to different types, just like

Nida (1969) did when he introduced his formal vs. dynamic equivalences

definitions. Where the formal one would probably take its place on the very top

of Vinay and Darbelnet’s table (somewhere between calque and borrowing) and

the dynamic one would equal adaptation on the very bottom.

On the other hand, looking at other critics’ approach and separating

équivalence as a concept to be dealt with on its own merits, could be a better

solution. To my understanding of the most of the equivalence concepts and

definitions, it should remain a separate topic and it should not be regarded as

a linguistic strategy. This is exactly what Wilss suggests (1982: 101, 134)

and treats it as a completely different chapter of translation studies.

At the same time, Pym (2010) puts the last two techniques of équivalence

and adaptation together and concludes that at the end of the day, the two

procedures are all about cultural adjustments. The very famous example given

by Vinay and Darbelnet of translating ‘Friday the thirteenth’ as ‘Tuesday the

thirteenth’ in a different language does illustrate the idea of cultural adjustment

very clearly. Yet, adaptation remains the one most open to controversy. At the

lexical level Vinay and Darbelnet propose some unusual and risky translations,

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for example one of the most striking ones is how they translated what for French

is ‘cyclisme’ (cycling) to the British is ‘cricket’. First of all, why cricket not

football or polo? The initial critical reaction was perhaps justified when finding

out this particular case, however, when dealing with a different example from

‘Thick as a brick’ where the translator misses a chance to apply adaptation

strategy it did make me think twice about the reasons for turning cycling to

cricket.

English-Polish (Also see Appendix – example 6)

(6) Where the hell was Biggles? – Gdzie do cholery był Biggles? – gloss:

Where the hell was Biggles?

This is a very problematic piece of translation. To begin with, who is

Biggles? To a Polish reader of that text Biggles will not probably ring any bells

at all. After looking Biggles up it becomes clear that the character is very much

connected with British culture (he is a fictional character, a pilot and adventurer

in a youth oriented adventure book series). Any English reader will recognize

Biggles straight away as the book series dates back to mid-twentieth century but

has also been referred to in the media, comedy and TV shows on numerous

occasions throughout the years. The translator of ‘Thick as brick’ chose to leave

the name of that character as it appears in the original, in other words, he

borrowed the name and its function (which in this case was a hint of sarcasm

and humour when the author asks Biggles for help). When reading the poem in

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Polish, the reader will have to do what I did when I met Biggles and that is look

it up. One could say that a bit of owns research and getting to know other culture

cannot hurt anyone and I agree. However, to my understanding of the poem and

that particular verse the possible solution of using the name Pirxie would be a

perfect example of adaptation. The similarities between the two characters are

very striking, Pirxie is a fictional character, a pilot and adventurer in a very well

known youth oriented adventure book series by a Polish author Stanisław Lem,

which was first published in 1968. Referring to Pirxie rather than Biggles in the

translated version would most definitely have the equivalent effect of humour

and sarcasm on the Polish reader without making him/her go through the

background of British literature. Just like when Vinay and Darbelnet changed

cycling to cricket and yet managed to remain within the topic of sport, here the

change would have been seemingly large in terms of form but, in my opinion,

much more rewarding in terms of comprehension of the text. The exact same

type of adaptation could have been used in case of previously discussed

Monopoly and Eurobiznes example (1). However, in that example there is a

chance that the reader would guess the meaning of the board game from the

context. As far as Biggles is concerned, the unfamiliarity with the character does

not denote anything. Yes, we can guess he is a human being and a hero but not

more than that, moreover from the context the reader could wrongly take him for

a celebrity sportsman. In this case the thought that bothers me the most is

whether translators decision to keep Biggles name was an intended one or not.

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Vinay and Darbelnet do admit that adaptation carries some risks of

overtranslation if the translator fails to recognize the relations between two

different concepts within the text. At the same time, they suggestively warn that

‘the refusal to make an adaptation is invariably detected within translation

because it affects not only the syntactic structure, but also the development of

ideas’, which in case of a poetic text can be very disturbing.

3. Other criticisms and response

Having presented the translation strategies and provided some substantial

examples I can now sum up most frequently expressed criticisms which have

not yet been mentioned. Kelly (1979:133) and Pym (2010: 165) state that some

of the strategies like e.g. borrowing and calque cannot be called translation

techniques at all as they are on the verge of mistakes and attempted tones.

Another similar argument criticizing Vinay and Darbelnet’s taxonomy is that

they are ‘just fancy names for what translators already do (or think they do)

intuitively; learning them would be a waste of time’ (Fawcett, 1997: 51).

I strongly disagree with those statements. As shown in some of the above

examples, the literal methods could become very successful and enrich the TL.

Also from the linguistic point of view, such simple techniques are a good

starting point to further language (and culture) exploration. Another important

factor in favour of loans and calques is that in their work translators sometimes

do come across terminology that simply cannot be translated in such cases they

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need not be afraid to foreignaize their text a bit. After all, on many occasions

borrowing proves much better than for example omission or creation of a

completely new term that no one will be able to comprehend. Whether we call

them strategies, methods or techniques it is important that translators are well

acknowledged with all of them.

The one feature of the taxonomies I disagree with is the classification of the

techniques as going from the easy to difficult linear diagram. It all depends on

the translator’s viewpoint he/she either knows or not how to translate

something. If not and the dictionary does not come to the rescue then no amount

of theory will help. This statement could be supported with examples of

attempted ‘easy’ calques, which (at least in my view) failed and on the other

hand the ‘difficult’ adaptations seemed almost intuitive. Again, that is a

personal opinion of mine.

4. Conclusions

It is clear to me that the translation of ‘Thick as a brick’ sways towards the

literal approach. When comparing the original version with the gloss it is

striking how literally the translator approached the text. Almost word-for-word

with only few exceptions of course.

As a native Polish speaker I know that the criticised examples are not right

or wrong and they simply have other alternatives to them. Linguistic methods of

translation only help us name and identify some translational occurrences.

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However, what happens in the mind of a translator when dealing with literature,

poetry and other creative texts can only be explained by him. I must say that

such analysis of methods of somebody else’s translation and applying linguistic

theories onto what had already been done does teach viewing what at a first

glance does not appear to have much to do with theoretical framework and

finding out how interestingly relevant methods proposed over fifty years ago are

today.

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References:

- Fawcett, P. (1997) Translation and Language. Linguistic Theories

Explained. St Jerome Publishing: Manchester, UK.

- Kelly, L (1979) The True Interpreter. A History of Translation Theory

and Practice in the West. Oxford; Basil Blackwell.

- Malone, J.L. (1988) The Science of Linguistics in the Art of Translatio:

Some Tools from Linguistics for the Analysis and practice of Translation.

Albany: State University of New York Press.

- Nida, E. And C. Taber (1969) The Theory and Practice of Translation,

Leiden: Brill.

- Pym, A. (2010) Exploring Translation Theories. Routledge: London and

New York.

- Radziejewski, D. (1997) Angielsko-polski tematyczny słownik idiomów,

zwrotów i wyrażeń z dodatkiem przysłów i sentencji. Atravox Pres:

Bydgoszcz, Poland. Translation of a title: English-Polish thematic

dictionary of idioms, expressions and proverbs and maxims.

- Simbirowicz, L. (2005) Nowy angielsko-polski słownik idiomów i

zwrotów, Harald G Dictionaries: Warsaw, Poland. Translation of a title:

New English-Polish Dictionary of Idioms and Pharses.

- Vázquez-Ayora, G. (1997) Intruduction a la traductologica, Washington

D.C.: Georgetown University.

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- Vinay, J.P. , and J. Darbelnet (1958) Comparative stylistics of French

and English: A Methodology for Translation. trans. and ed.J.C. Sager and

M.J. Hamel, (1999) John Benjamin Publishing Co.: Amsterdam.

- Wills, W. (1982) The Science of Translation: problems and methods.

Gunter Narr Verlang: Tübingen, Germany.

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