Didactics of Translation: Text in Context

*new born and his parents.
Translation b)
Mohamed Bafadan and his wife in Agadir were blessed with a child whose name they chose to be *Joseph. On this happy event, Mohamed TAFRAOUTI, on behalf of his friends and acquaintances, sends his congratulations to the family of the new born baby asking God to
*lengthen his lifetime in *the arms of his parents.
Text 2:
Translation a)
In the Hilton Hotel, the wedding of both Mr Ali RABAH, an engineer in Lydec and Miss Aziza Hind, a teacher at the High Institute of Commerce, took place. On this occasion, the workers of Lydec *express best wishes and a happy life to the new couple. *(OMISSION)

Translation b)

In the Hilton Hotel, the marriage of Ali RABEH, an engineer in Lydec company *with an employee in the High Institute of Commerce *was contracted. On this occasion, the staff of Lydec Company *display their cordial congratulations to the new couple *hoping from God to bless them with good children.
Text 3:
Translation a)
After struggling for a long time against a fatal disease, Mr Mohamed TAHIRI has passed away *(kicked the bucket). On this sorrowful occasion, the members of the al-Mountakhab newspaper *condole the family of Mr TAHIRI, *willing him to be at the mercy of Allah.
Translation b):
*At the age of 76, Mohamed TAHIRI passed away after a long struggle with an incurable disease. *By this sad event, the staff of the newspaper al- Montakab display their hearty condolence to the family of the deceased asking God to be merciful towards him and to grant his family patience. And we are to God and to him we will return.
In general, the testees’ translations were characterized by the following:

1. 
   Lack of knowledge of the genre structure. For example in the translation (a) of text 1, there is topicalization of the city where the baby is born and not the birth event.
   
2. 
   Lack of consistency when translating cultural terms and expressions: ௌ is translated * as God or transliterated as ALLAH.
   
3. 
   Difficulties in translating Koranic verses and some culture-loaded
   

^{words such as ϕίέ and Ϫϣ}˲ ^ή˴ ^Σ˴ ^{. The appeal to God at the end of each}
text is either incorrectly translated or simply left out.

4. 
   Avoiding the translation of Koranic verses and culture specific terms.
   
5. 
   Serious collocational problems.
   

One can conclude that, in addition to some language problems, the testees did not have a clear strategy concerning the translation of these genres.
Text 5 mixes the birth announcement genre with that of the sports news. The words ίΰϋ, ϪΗήγ΍ ϢϗΎσ and ΪϳΪΠϟ΍ Ϊϓ΍Ϯϟ΍ bring to mind the kind of

language used by a sports news commentator, such as: ϢϗΎσ ˯ΎΟήϟ΍ ϖϳήϓ ίΰϋ ϪϘϳήϓand ϖϴϔμΘϟΎΑ ΪϳΪΠϟ΍ Ϊϓ΍Ϯϟ΍ ϭ ΐϋϼϟ΍ ΍άϫ έϮϬϤΠϟ΍ ϞΒϘΘγ΍

Text 6 uses a certain language, which is evocative of a legal text and a
marriage announcement genre: ΔϴΑϭΰόϟ΍ ϖϴϠτΗ ϥϼϓ έήϗ ΔόΟέ ϥϭΪΑ The
function of this transplanting is undoubtedly to cause a certain comic effect and to introduce an element of cheerfulness.
Texts 7, 8 and 9 are extracts from a collection of short stories entitled ΔΤϠγϻ΍ ϭ ΏέΎΤϤϟ΍ “The Fighter and the Weapons” by Bachir El Kamari, a Moroccan writer. In these stories, the writer sometimes imitates Koranic style when describing a certain place, as in Texts 7 and 8, in order to express a certain attitude. In Text 9, he borrows the language of an old literary Arabic genre called ΕΎϣΎϘϤϟ΍ (al-maqaamaat) to describe the capital city and his own situation. This kind of genre is marked by the extensive rhyming of its words.
With regard to the translation of the texts (4 to 9), the testees were on the whole successful in relaying the dynamism of texts 4, 5 and 6 as they attempted to use equivalent vocabulary items and similar metaphoric expressions which point to the non-static character of these texts. However, with respect to texts 7, 8 and 9, the testees seem to encounter great difficulties in rendering these texts. Thus, the Koranic distinctive features were absent and so were the special phonetic characteristics of al- maqaamaat. Below are the translations produced by some of the testees:
Text 4:
Student 1
The temperature of piety has noticed a big decrease at the level of faith. This is due to the intensity of coldness which has overwhelmed the majority of hearts. Moreover, the Islamic World has witnessed the blowing of a strong wind carrying corruption and permissiveness from the West and America.
From the pictures which we took from the Koran and Sunna, we have noticed the appearance of clouds filled with subversion and covering the sky of the Islamic nation … Concerning our expectations for tomorrow, the fog of ignorance and backwardness will, God willing, clear up and the serenity of love will reign throughout the land if we stick to the holy Koran and the Sunna of His messenger, peace be upon him. Finally, we advise all Muslims to wear the clothes of piety and carry the umbrellas of faith so as not to catch the coldness of unwariness from the path of God and so as to avoid the harshness of the heart.

Text 5:
Student 2

Mr FADWASH, the head of the sport’s department in the Monaddama newspaper, has reinforced the crew of his small family with the birth of a beautiful girl for whom he chose the name of Rim. On this happy occasion, all the members of the Monaddama newspaper congratulate the families of Mr FADWASH and his wife Latifa TIKI.
Text 6:
Student 3
Mohcin JABBOUR has irrevocably decided to divorce celibacy and get married to the beautiful Sanaa ESSIAM. Best wishes to the new couple and a long happy life.
Text 7:
Student 4
The garden is a paradise under which sorrows are flowing and it is crossed by an invisible river in which everyone is swimming equally. There is no difference between a white person and a black person or between a male and a female. In fact, one male has the same share as the one the girl has.
Text 8
Student 5
There is everything in the capital: ministries, buildings, mosques, villas, gardens, universities, poor people, buses and walking. Everyone knows what walking means. Walking is a blessing from God so that all people remain equal.
Text 9:
Student 6
I walk with a twisted and bending stature and, complaining of boredom and in my pockets what has been left of the keys of the afterlife.
Interview:
After the pre-test, the students were asked the following questions:

1. 
   Did you find any difficulty translating the STs?
   
2. 
   What strategy did you follow in translating the STs?
   
3. 
   Are you familiar with the parallel or equivalent TTs for the first three STs?
   
4. 
   Are you confident about your translations?
   

5. 
   What were your reactions to texts 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9?
   

Concerning the first question, all the students interviewed said that the STs, although apparently easy, were in fact difficult because of the culture-specific items they contained. As for the second question, they all answered that they were not aware that any strategy did exist for handling these types of texts. With regard to question 3, they, likewise, denied having come across English texts belonging to these particular genres. As for question 4, they all admitted they did not feel very confident about their renderings.
Concerning questions 5 and 6, the majority of the testees thought that all the dynamic texts (4 to 9) struck them as rather odd because of the language used. As a result, they all admitted to having felt that they would face problems translating them. Among the problems they mentioned when translating these texts, the following are cited:

1. 
   difficulties in the translation of culture specific words and expressions as well as some formulaic phrases
   
2. 
   difficulties in the translation of metaphoric expressions
   
3. 
   difficulties in the translation of the language of the Koran
   
4. 
   difficulties in the translation of some non-conventional forms of language as in texts 4, 7 and 8
   
5. 
   difficulties in finding equivalents for some words which are rhymed as in text 9
   

Lecture:
Before giving a lecture on genre and its translation, the students were handed over some English texts which were considered to be parallel to the first three STs in the pre-test in that they were about the same social situation. The purpose of this activity was first to push the students to compare these texts and try to identify and describe the patterns of the genres to which they belong; second, to prepare them for the lecture. Some of the English parallel texts, taken from the Times newspaper, are given below:

English text 2 parallel to Arabic text 2:
English text 1 parallel to Arabic text 1: Births

ANDERSON On January 16^th 2006, to Giles and Philippa (née Brooks), a daughter, Isabella Clementine, a sister for Elizabeth and Camille

Marriage announcement

The marriage took place on Saturday 1^st April at St. Andrews Church Kensington between John Robert Smith of London, eldest son of Mr and Mrs Peter Smith of Edinburgh and Katherine Jane Jones of London, second daughter of Mr and Mrs John Jones of Cardiff. The bride was attended by Miss Katherene Smith and Miss Anabel Meers. Mr Anthony Philips was Best Man. The honeymoon is being spent in Jamaica.
English text 3 parallel to Arabic text 3: Deaths

FRYE Jeanne (née Haighton). Much loved wife of the late Clarence Hugo Frye, passed away Sunday 22^nd January. Funeral at Putney Vale Crematorium 3 pm Monday 30th January. Flowers welcome or donations to Royal Brompton Hospital.

After having compared the texts, a discussion ensued concerning the characteristics of these genres in the ST and in the translation. More specifically, the discussion focused on the following points:

1. 
   Content: what content is included and what content is excluded?
   
2. 
   Rhetorical appeals: what appeals to pathos and ethos appear?
   
3. 
   Structure: what are the different sections of the genre and how are they organized?
   
4. 
   Layout: the way the genre is presented and its length.
   
5. 
   Sentences: the types of sentences present in the different genres.
   
6. 
   Diction: choice of words used and their frequency.
   

The students were then given a lecture on genre and its translation (see Appendix E). The lecture, which covers the points listed below, is based on the insights of translation scholars such as House (1997), Hatim & Mason (1990) (1997), Bakhtin (1986), Haddad (1995) and Bex (1996).
The points dealt with include:

x Definition of genre x Genre and culture x Genre and register

x Genre and areas of human activity

x Speech genres in everyday life
x The psychological reality of genres x The relevance of genre to translation x The translation of genre

4.