The Art of Translation

Niektóre luki i translatorskie przesunięcia w tłumaczeniu na angielski Soli ziemi   [Some lacunae and translation shifts in an English translation of the novel The Salt of the Earth by Józef Wittlin]. In: Józef Wittlin, pisarz kulturowego pogranicza. Lublin, Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, 2017: 61-78.

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Abstract

The novel Sół ziemi [The Salt of the Earth], the first part of an intended, but never to be completed Homeric trilogy about The Patient Infantryman, was published in Poland in 1935.

It was awarded the Wiadomosci Literackie [Literary News] and the Zloty Wawrzyn [Golden Laurel] prizes. In 1939 it was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Sół ziemi has been translated into a number of languages.

The present paper investigates the English translation by Pauline De Chary, published by Sheridan House in New York in 1941[1].  Cases of translation shift and their perceived impact on the author’s intentions in the sphere of characterisation, stylisation etc. are described.

For reasons of space, the investigated text is limited to the Prologue (Wittlin 1941:7-31).

Translational phenomena treated here include omission, misapprehension, misinterpretation, over-interpretation and semantic or stylistic broadening and narrowing.

The analysis is informed by Jiří Levý’s theories regarding a three-stage translation process (apprehension – interpretation – restylisation) and common translational tendencies (“…occurring  principally as a result of shifts in three directions: a) between general and specific denominations; b)between stylistically neutral and expressive denominations; and c) between repetition and variation of vocabulary”)[2]

The translator’s strategy of lexical choice on a spectrum between general and specific denominations is found to generally favour the former, and stylistically neutralised denominations are more commonly chosen than greater expressivity.

Cases of omission and some of the translation shifts identified in this study are considered to represent an impoverishment of the author’s intentions, and therefore a certain restriction of the cultural transfer which is by definition the translator’s task.

[1] Wittlin, Joseph (1941). Salt of the Earth: a novel. Translated by Pauline De Chary. New York, Sheridan House.

[2] Levý’, Jiří. 2011. The Art of Translation. Translated by Patrick Corness. Edited with a critical foreword by Zuzana Jettmarová. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins. pp. 31, 114. NB: The issue of repetition and variation of vocabulary is not addressed in the present article.