At the turn of the year, this is the second article in a series celebrating the 70th anniversary of the publication of Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” (1954 – 1955).
Attercop (public domain image)
In a previous article, Normalising translation in film, we discussed flattening in film translation. Flattening refers to the process of simplifying or reducing the complexity of the original text in translation. This can involve removing cultural nuances, idiomatic expressions, or stylistic elements to make the translation more straightforward and easier to understand. It is similar to internationalisation, the process of removing idiosyncracies from an original text, and domestication, the adaptation of a translation to make it more familiar to the target audience. While this can make a text more accessible, it can also result in a loss of the richness and depth of the original text. This notion is most often discussed with reference to literary and audiovisual translation, that is, the translation of aesthetic texts. And in this context it is often accepted that most translations are flatter than the corresponding original text (see Berman 1985).
How could it be otherwise? Translators, however, are often resourceful. In this article we consider the translation of texts that stretch translators to the limit: Hemingway’s interlingual English, interpreting in general, Proust and Tolkien.
Interlingual strangeness in Hemingway
Strange literary texts are almost inevitably flattened in translation, it would seem. Consider the foreignised dialogue in For whom the bell tolls, Hemingway’s Spanish Civil War novel. Throughout this work, Hemingway resorts to English dialogue that mimics Spanish grammar, presumably to give us a “flavour” of Spanish expressions (See Davis, 2023). Taking examples from the opening dialogue, we read
“That is simple,” the old man said. “From where we are going, it will all be downhill to the bridge. But now we must climb a little in seriousness to get there. Are you hungry?”
“Yes,” the young man said. “But we will eat later. How are you called? I have forgotten.”
Here “in seriousness” could be considered a literal translation of “en serio”. It hardly makes sense in English. A more typical English expression might be “we must climb a bit to get there”, with characteristic understatement. Then again, the strange expression “How are you called?” mimics “¿Cómo te llamas?” in Spanish. The effect on the reader of such verbal acrobatics is impossible to gauge. Some readers might appreciate it, others will find it annoying. Continue reading →
