The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2022 - 25

you can skip some of the
properties or less relevant
details of the chaumière while
still conveying its visual
impression to the reader. You
can also opt for a cultural
substitution by replacing
the chaumière with a type
of house that exists in the
target culture. Another, yet
weaker, option would be to
add a footnote or leave the
term in the source language
and let the reader do the
research. As the translator,
you must decide if the
potential losses that come
with an interpretation are
bearable for the reader and
the plot.
Reaching the Fuzzy End
of the Spectrum
In rare cases, sticking too
close to the source text will
lead to irreparable losses.
In his novel The Name of
the Rose, Umberto Eco's
character Salvatore speaks
a language that consists
of fragments of multiple
languages, including Latin,
Provençale, and an Italian
dialect, as a means to
protect himself. An example
of this intentional Babel
effect in Salvatore's dialogue
is: " Ich aime spaghetti. " If
an English translator were
to translate this phrase
as " I like spaghetti, " the
Babel effect would be gone,
eliminating a vital aspect of
the character's psychology.
For translators of European
languages with readership
who will recognize this mix
of languages, the choice is
easy: keep the utterance the
same. But what should you
do if you have to translate
this into a target language
that has no relation to
European languages?
Unfortunately, this requires
www.ata-chronicle.online
you to entirely rewrite
the utterance so that it's
relevant to the respective
language and culture. Eco
refers to this process as
moderate rewriting, which is
common with specific forms
of poetry or plurilingual
texts, such as James Joyce's
Finnegans Wake.6
What makes literary
translation challenging is
also what makes it
interesting. You have
greater flexibility in
decision making than when
translating other text types.
Ultimately, you want to
provide the reader of the
translated text with the
same experience as the
NOTES
1
reader of the source text. A
good translation should
respect and reflect the
author's style and
vocabulary. If the author's
writing is choppy or
flowing, it should be
reflected in the translation.
The same goes if the
author's style is harsh,
pompous, flowery, or
unambiguous. A good
translation should also aim
to convey what is written
between the lines. However,
this doesn't mean that
every single word or phrase
you choose has to perfectly
resemble the author in style
and effect. You have
options!
As translators,
we must
capture tone,
voice, rhythm,
dramatic
structure,
themes, rhetoric,
and historical
context to
effectively
introduce
new readers
to a work of
literature.
For the translation process, see Borg, Claudine. " DecisionMaking
and Alternative Translation Solutions in the Literary
Translation Process: A Case Study, " Across Languages and
Cultures (Volume 18, Issue 2, 2017),
279-304, https://bit.ly/Borg-translation.
2
Bellos, David. Is that a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the
Meaning of Everything (Faber and Faber Inc., 2011), 49,
https://bit.ly/Bellos-fish.
3
Panou, Despoina. Translating Names in Harry Potter
(Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021),
https://bit.ly/Potter-translating.
4
List of Characters in Translations of Harry Potter,
https://bit.ly/Severus_Snape.
5
Eco, Umberto. Experiences in Translation
(University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2001), 48ff, 59,
https://amzn.to/32fvWL8.
6
Ibid., 57, https://amzn.to/32fvWL8.
Petra C. Rieker is a freelance journalist
and published translator of six works of fiction
and translation reference. Specializing in
English>German, she is the owner of The Art of
German Language, a translation and tutoring
practice, and publisher of a blog which explores the nuance
of translating creative works (www.TheArtofGermanLanguage.
com/petras-blog). She recently completed a four-year term
on the board of directors of the Delaware Valley Translators
Association (an ATA chapter). She has an MBA from the OttoFriedrich
University in Bamberg, Germany, and is a certified
public relations consultant. rieker3199@comcast.net
American Translators Association 25

https://www.bit.ly/Borg-translation https://www.bit.ly/Bellos-fish https://www.bit.ly/Potter-translating https://www.bit.ly/Severus_Snape https://www.amzn.to/32fvWL8 https://www.amzn.to/32fvWL8 http://www.TheArtofGermanLanguage.com/petras-blog http://www.TheArtofGermanLanguage.com/petras-blog http://www.ata-chronicle.online

The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2022

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