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Post-tests: Genre
The ten students were asked to re-translate the pre-test texts using either an overt or a covert translation. However, some students translated the texts using a combination of the two types. Following are sample translations by one of the students:
Translation A of pre-text 1: (an overt translation)
God has given Mr Mohamed BAFDIN and his spouse in Agadir a son for whom they chose the name of Youssef. On this happy occasion, Mr Aziz TAFRAOUTI would like to give his congratulations to the family of the newborn asking God to grant him a long life under the protection of his family.
Comment: The student has included the congratulation in his translation and has translated the appeal to God to grant a long life to the baby.
Translation B of pre-text 1: (a covert translation).
BAFDIN, to Mohamed and his wife, a son, Youssef.
Comment: Contrary to what happens in English birth announcements, where the date of birth is mentioned along with the mother’s maiden name, the covert translation produced lacks these elements in the covert translation above. In addition, the message of congratulation and the appeal to God are left out. Nevertheless, the testee has demonstrated that he is trying to meet the target readers’ expectations.
Translation A of pre-text 2: (an overt translation)
The young man Ali RABAH has been united to the young girl Aziza HIND a teacher in the High Institute of Commerce. The wonderful ceremony was attended by the families of the couple.
Comment: Neither the congratulation nor the appeal to God is translated.
Translation B of pre-text 2: (a covert translation)
The young Ali RABAH has been united to the young girl Aziza, a teacher in the High Institute of Commerce. The ceremony was attended by the families of the couple.
Comment: Neither the congratulation nor the appeal to God is translated. The congratulation is not translated and neither is the appeal to God.
Translation A of Text 3: (an overt translation)
DEATHS
Mr Mohamed TAHIRI has joined God at the age of 76 after suffering from a terminal disease for which medicine was of no avail. On this sad occasion, Mr Khalid SLIMANI would like to extend his condolences to the family of the deceased, asking God to be merciful on him, to grant him access to His paradise and to give his family patience and solace. «We are to God and to Him we shall return».
Comment: The student has translated the verses of the Koran and the appeal to God.
Translation B of Text 3: (a covert translation) Deaths:
TAHIRI Mohamed, aged 76 after a long illness
Comment: The student does not begin and end his translation with verses from the Koran. He also does not make the appeal to God.
Something else is also missing in this translation, namely the date of death, which is normally present in an English death announcement genre. With regard to the post-test translations of the dynamic texts (4 to 9), the testees managed, on the whole, to translate the dynamic words and expressions in texts 4, 5 and 6 allowing the reader, to a certain extent, to have a glimpse of the mixing of genres and the hijacking of words. As for texts 7, 8 and 9 the testees were simply not able to relay the Koranic style of the text, nor the rhymed words of al-maqaamaat. This was quite
understandable given the complex nature of these texts.
Nonetheless, by being aware of the complexity of these texts and by admitting their inability to translate them as they should, the students came to appreciate the limitation of their translations and to recognize the daunting task that faces the translator in his or her work. This in itself is an important outcome that is in line with the goals of the translation training experiment.
Evaluation:
Compared with their pre-test translations, the post-test translations of Texts 1, 2 and 3 produced by the students are far better. On the whole, they all demonstrate a certain degree of awareness of the requirements of translating particular speech genres; the students seem to know what they are doing while translating whether overtly or covertly. As a consequence, they all received better marks.
Interview:
All the testees were asked one main question: What differences did you find between your pre-test and post-test translations? Their answers can be summarized as follows:
Before the lecture and the overt-covert exercises, we did not have a clear idea of how best to translate these speech genres. Subsequently, however, we felt we could deal with the translation of genres more confidently. We now know that different languages do not always share the same language and structural features for a particular genre. Because of this, we need to read more widely and familiarize ourselves with the various texts representing different ST and TT genres. More specifically, we need to be aware of those TTs within a given genre which are parallel to some STs within corresponding genres.
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