Lecture 3: Food and Culture in Translation Plan

Lecture 3: Food and Culture in Translation
Plan:
1. National picture of the gastronomic world
2. Gluttonic discourse and translation
3. Translating concepts related to food and national cuisine
4. Gluttonic discourse in Uzbek and world literature
As the boundaries of modern translation studies have expanded, it has become common today to study lexical units in specific fields that were previously difficult to translate. One such type of study is discourse analysis, and it is no exaggeration to say that discursive research, which covers all linguistic phenomena in a particular field, makes the work of literary translation easier day by day.
Since the advent of humankind, food has been our daily need, the main means of sustenance. From the earliest stages of human evolution, the process of preparing and consuming food, which has become an everyday physiological phenomenon, occupies a certain linguistic “territory” in language. The concept of “food” plays an important role in the national linguistic picture of the world (NLPW) of each nation.
In linguistics, the study of linguistic notions related to food is called ‘gluttonic discourse analysis’.
The root of the term gluttonic is derived from the Old French and Middle English words glutonie, from the Latin gluttire – ‘swallow’, the root of which – gula means ‘throat’. The term 'gluttony' refers to the whole process of food, from finding it to processing semi-finished products and making edible products.¹ The study of the linguistic aspects of the gluttonic discourse helps to shed light on the linguoculturological features of gastronomic realities and to determine the place of this discourse in the life, worldview, and literature of the nation. Gluttonic discourse is found not only in the social strata of society but also in the literature of the nation. Take, for example, the lexeme “tuz” – “salt”. Uzbek phrases such as “tuz yemoq” – “Shu kampirning... tuzini ko‘p yedik”. (Ravshan); “Xo‘sh, nima bo‘pti? Axir tuz ichgan joyingning farzandi-ku. Bir kun tuz yegan joyingga qirq kun salom deganlar” (P.Tursun, O‘qituvchi); “tuz(im) ko‘r qilgur” (qarg‘ish) – “Odamgarchilikni ham bilmaydi bu tuz ko‘r qilgur!” (A.Qodiriy, Obid ketmon); “tuzini ichib tuzlig‘iga tupurmoq” – “Sendaqa, hukumatning tuzini ichib, tuzlug‘iga tuplaydigan nontepki kerak emas” (S. Ahmad, Hukm) are used not only as "salt" in English, i.e. the main spice that adds flavor to food, but also as a product of national and cultural consciousness, a lexeme to express a deep respect for the values. If such examples are translated into English word-for-word, the receptor doesn't understand the meaning. The name of each dish has a special place in the national literature. While gastronomic realias (i.e., national food names specific to only one language) contain extralinguistic information about the culture of that people, the food names (salt, bread, water, meat, etc) that form the core of the vocabulary of all languages can also sometimes have a national and cultural character. The food can have an informative character that speaks not only about the current social situation of the people but also about certain pages of their history. For example, the Uzbek phrase "tuz sepganday" is not found in European languages. - “Shilinib ketgan chap tizzasini tuz sepganday achishib azob berayotgan qo‘llari bilan siypadi” (A.Ko‘chimov, Baland tog‘lar ostida). Maybe the phrases such as "tuz sepgandek achishmoq" and "yarasiga tuz sepmoq" entered the language when in the old schools in order to make the student literate, they were hit at their heels with a stick and salt was sprinkled on their wounds. Words that do not have a national color (tuz) in such dictionaries cannot be translated directly into a foreign language when they have a phraseological character. Similarly, in English literature, there are words that are difficult to translate into a second language through a dictionary even though they are not a realia of gluttonic discourse, the true meaning of these lexemes can be understood only when the gluttonic discourse of the source language is analyzed. For example, in the following passage from English literature, a piece of paper with a recipe left by a mother for her daughter is compared to a work of art that is very sacred, an example of inspiration for her daughter.
“A square cream-colored paper cut from a school exercise book, pale brown lines criss-crossing it; ruled it red down the left-hand side. My mother’s handwriting, shrunk down to fit into the small space.[…]. She had written me a letter. A recipe that began: my dear Jeannette. A recipe that was a love letter from my mother to me and no one standing in between to stop her words darling across the sea. No one to catch her words, intercept them. Her message reached me. (227)
My mother had written a recipe like poem, a song. Each word, each ingredient, in its right place; chosen and measured. Cooking, speaking, writing meant selecting. This not that. But also: this and that. Judge well, mix well. Don’t waste food. Don’t waste your words. The art of using leftovers out of waste scraps make something beautiful and new. (Michele Roberts, 228).
In this passage, the mother's recipe is so artistically described that it is as if a piece of cream-colored paper cut from a school exercise book is a sacred amulet for her daughter. The author uses a number of stylistic devices commonly used in English fiction, such as simile and parallelism. If we translate this work into Uzbek, we have to understand the linguistic and cultural aspect of the case, that is, in English culture the recipes that are inherited from mother to daughter, from generation to generation is the pride of a family, a notebook or a piece of paper with this recipe is valuable to the owner as a unique gem. A similar situation can be seen in the Eastern Asia the example of a small notebook in TV series "Jewel in the Palace", which tells Jang-geum the secrets of cooking left by her mother. As the protagonist reads her mother's notebook she searched every corner of the palace, she takes notes on the preparation of each meal as a priceless possession and tears well up in her eyes. If the translation does not overlook even the smallest semiotic concept of gluttonic discourse, along with the original meaning, the spiritual state of mind and culture of the nation will reach the reader. After all, only a translator armed with all the information can skillfully use the wide range of methods to render the source text in the TL.