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(6) Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind .
(7) The wind went down
(8) Her talk was all wind
(9) The sick man broke wind
(10) You go against the wind!
All these are literal translations of the sense of the original as accurately, closely and
completely as possible, be it metaphorical or not. None of the English statements has lost any
part of its original sense in the Arabic translation. Whether this sense is figurative or not in
both languages is next to achieving accuracy in translation.
Free Translation, on the other hand, is again misunderstood to be a method that allows the
translator to add, delete, drop, shorten, expand, adapt or change meaning or any part of
meaning. Another possibility of misunderstanding free translation is that it is concerned with
the message which is reshaped and reconstructed in the translator's own way. In other words,
freedom of translation is freedom of language and style, not freedom of rendering the
message. There is no play with the message, but a play with wording it. In other words, the
translator is free to change the style, but not free to change the message. And here lies the big
mistake, the mistake that a difference of the style of expression does not affect the message.
A third mistaken common practice of free translation is the tendency on the part of some
translators to over-exaggerate, overemphasize, be over-expressive, classical / frozen formal,
or rhetorical with the aim to provoke greater effect and be more impressive. This is due to
their misapprehension of good translation to be as much effective, rhetorical, expressive and
impressive as possible, regardless of the types of text, context, readership, topic, historical
background and register.
To overcome any shade of misunderstanding, I would define free translation as "a method
concerned more with the message that the fine details of meaning and its componential
constituent words in context. Its focal point is the production of (a stylistic-semantic) effect of
some kind on the TL readers to impress them more unjustifiably than justifiably by means of
exaggeration, provocation, prejudice, rhetoric, expressiveness, classical / frozen formality,
24 HASAN SAID GHAZALA
understatement, overstatement, aesthetic, pragmatic, religious, cultural, social, ideological
or other factors". These are features of style and tone before anything else.
Free translation is two types (see also Ghazala, 2008 / 2012d: ch. 1):
(a) Bound Free Translation: a little free translation that might somehow exaggerate,
undermine, etc. more than the original without going far away from its lexical /
referential meaning, with the aim of making effect or impression of some kind: e.g.
- We feel sorry about the situation / (over-
exaggeration about regret) (c.f. )
- Parsimony is not advisable (a collocation more rhetorical, emphatic
and effective than normal (cf. )
- You are quite right. ( a proverb: rhetoric and metaphorical) (cf.
/ ).
(b) Loose Free Translation: a greater space of freedom is exercised here by the translator
who may go beyond the referential meaning to explore the inferential meaning, which
is in other words a pragmatic meaning, allegedly tracing the authorial intentions. Here
are illustrative examples:
- ) ( (The Assad regime of Syria
representative to the UN said: "We will kill the Syrian People" (cf. The Syrian People
is our responsibility).
- ) ( (the Assad regime of Syria foreign
minister said "The Syrian army has special potentials of humiliating the Syrians") (cf.
The Syrian army has special military potentials).
- He keeps a low profile (cf. )
Although these cannot be described as common in all types of translation, we have to admit
that no one denies their recurrence in the translation of literature particular. Both types of free
translation method are widely applied due to their relevance to (a) style, tone and rhetoric,
and (b) pragmatic implications (b).
LITERARY TRANSLATION 25
At this stage, we come closer to the translation method appropriate for translating literature.
Before that, it is high time to introduce an alternative table with a view to combining,
outlining, simplifying and merging the major methods of translation discussed earlier and
their characteristic features juxtaposed:
Free/Communicative Trans.
Method
- priority to message
- priority to effect
- faithful to TL norms and culture
- faithful to TL readership
- tends to translate expressive,
pragmatic meaning and
intentions
- creative
- pragmatic
- more literary
- special concern with TL style
and tone
- committed to TL translation
- attempts to render the spirit
Literal/Semantic Trans. Method
- priority to meaning
- priority to accuracy
- faithful to SL norms and culture
- Faithful to SL readership
- insists on referential / lexical /
surface
meaning
- non-creative
- non-pragmatic
- less literary
- normal concern with SL style
and tone
- committed to SL text
-attempts to render sense
7. Creative Literary Stylistic Translation
In a previous work of his, Cognitive Stylistics and the Translator (2011), the author of this
book undertakes and develops a style-based Method of Direct Translation, put forward by
Gutt (2000). It attempts to preserve not just what the source text said, but also how it said it.
It pursues all nuances of style and stylistic choices. The translator is concerned more with
what goes in the people's mind beyond the actual words on the page than what they
referentially mean in context in literary texts. Hence, the method is appropriate for literary
translation, where faithfulness is both to content as much as to style. This is clearly a
cognitive stylistic translation practice. In this sense, direct translation is an interpretive
26 HASAN SAID GHAZALA
activity which retains what features of style might mean at the overall context of the literary
text, not only their formal shape. Therefore, Gutt declares that direct translation is more
difficult for the reader to process, yet it is rewarding for it provides more cognitive and
emotional effects (ibid.). (See also Boase-Beier, 2006 and Ghazala, 2011: ch. 4).
In an extension to this direct translation method in relation to literary translation in particular,
and to avoid any confusion with other direct methods of translation, a method of creative
translation is proposed here. As argued above, the clue to literary language is the set of the
features of literariness that make literature into literature.
Therefore, the translation of literature is expected to attend to these features entirely. And if
any translation of literature is meant to be constructed as a literary translation, that is, a piece
of literature in the TL, it has to trace the features of literariness in the SLT to construct them
in the TLT. And since the features of literariness are features of the style of literary language,
since style is the source of creativity in literary translation, and since style is the master key,
as it were, to understanding, interpreting and, hence, translating literature, the more
appropriate method to the translation of literature can be based on literary style which is
defined and constructed in terms of features of literariness singled out in 4 above. Hence the
suggestion of the literary style-based method of translation, 'creative literary stylistic
translation'. The main features that characterize creative literary stylistic translation are:
creativity, figurativeness, lexical and syntactic elaboration expressivity, rhetoric,
impressiveness, effectiveness, aesthetics, inventiveness, pragmaticality, tone, resonance,
emotionality, human feelings, (frozen / classical) formality, flexibility, humility and
captivation (of TL readers).
I hasten to point out that any of the major translation methods outlined above (especially,
semantic, communicative, literal free and pragmatic) can be sometimes creative in style,
meeting some of the criteria of this method just outlined. Therefore, they are occasionally
employed and implied in the suggested method of translating literature, creative literary
stylistic translation.
8. Conclusion
LITERARY TRANSLATION 27
This paper has provided initial definitions and details necessary for the students and readers
of literary translation to be aware of before embarking on more specific arguments and
applications. Different definitions of literature are provided. Then the polarization between
literary language and non-literary language in terms of style is recognized, but was found
inevitable and useful to literary translators for they translate literarily in terms of the features
which make literature into literature, that is, features of literariness in literature like: semantic
density, lexical and syntactic elaboration, medium dependence, re-registration, polysemy, the
possibility of reading literature at more than one level, the involvement of human feelings, etc.
It has been argued that the pivotal importance of these features is immeasurable to literary
translators.
The third major point raised has been literary translation which has been defined in as a
special type of translation that accounts for all features of literariness and style of the original,
especially those pointed out above. Then the special capabilities and characteristics of the
literary translator are discussed. They have been meant to demonstrate the tall order of
becoming a literary translator.
The penultimate point raised has tackled the major methods of translation in the field. The
final point, and, eventually, the ultimate objective aimed at by this paper has been the
suggestion of a literary style-based method of translation for translating literature: 'a creative
literary stylistic translation method'. It has been claimed that this method can respond to the
demanding requirement of translating literature by singling out creativity and its source, style,
to represent the core of the literariness of literature. It is hoped that this method would be a
new springboard for a more creative, truthful, scrupulous and impressive translation that may
meet the necessary requirements for a good literary translation of literature now.
Conflict of Interests
The author declares that there is no conflict of interests.
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