Page 9 - Translation Journal July 2015
P. 9
longer. Therefore, the translator could have broken the paragraphs into smaller ones. That is what the translator had not taken into
account. See the following example:
ST: When he woke…..into the dark (one paragraph consisting of 15 sentences)
TT: ) خط72( ناپدید شد...وقتی در تاریکی
The second internal dimension of Field that Steiner distinguished was goal orientation. And it implied both the author’s and translator’s
goal and its function in the source and translated texts. Steiner talked about 2 types of goals: long term and short term.
The author of the source text in this research (McCarthy) seems to seek for a long-term goal since his novel is not for commercial purposes.
It aims to touch deep human thought and prospects. It is timeless. Its theme refers to all human beings at all times. The translated text
seems to have managed to convey the same theme.
The main 3 goals followed in both source text and translated text were found to be: description, narration and exposition. This is in line
with the genre of the text: a literary work, a novel, a fiction. Both the source and translated texts are full of descriptive words: adjectives,
adverbs, etc. See the following extracts:
ST: on the far shore a creature that raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool
and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders
TT: در کرانه دیگر دریاچه موجودی بود که پوزه کف کرده اش را از درون یک حوضچه مرمری بیرون
. سفید رنگ و کور مثل تخم عنکبوت به نور خیره ماند،آورد و با چشمانی مرده
The third internal dimension of Field pinpointed by Steiner has been social activity. By social activity Steiner implies the function of the text
in a given culture or context. Steiner enlists some of these functions: production, exchange, communication, reproduction, consumption,
etc.
The original text here is seen to serve 2 purposes in the original context of culture: 1. entertainment, 2. thought elicitation and awareness
raising (since McCarthy is famous for these and has won a number of prizes for these qualities)
The translator seems to do a real translation and not a reproduction of the text, since he seems to be very loyal to every single statement.
4.2. Tenor
Tenor of discourse is concerned with the relationship between participants. The first sub- variable he distinguishes is agentive role.
Agentive roles refer to those roles played by participants: author-reader and translator-reader. Now let’s consider this variable in the
source and translated texts.
In ST: Author-reader → thought provoker-thinker
describer-analyzer
In the TT: Translator-reader → describer-analyzer
It is evident that if the translator used shorter paragraphs, he would give more chances (at the intervals between paragraphs) to readers
to wait and analyze the content.
The next sub-variable of Tenor, in Steiner’s words is social roles. By social roles Steiner means
participants’ (author, translator, reader) age, gender, ethnicity, social class, etc.
It was observed that the ST was addressed to all human beings regardless of age, gender, time span, geography, etc. Both young
generation (son) and old generation (father) were involved. Both
genders were involved. The characters have been chosen to be anonymous intentionally so that they could represent all post-war human
beings, and their fate be that of all humanity.
In the TT the same pattern persists all throughout the translated text. It attests to the translator’s awareness of and faithfulness toward
author’s intentions.
Social distance is yet another sub-variable of Tenor as specified by Steiner by which he refers to the amount of shared contextual space
between participants (author/translator and reader). The shared contextual matter between author/translator and readers is humanity or
a life all human beings share. One way for its revelation could be through forms of address. In both the source text and translated version
of ‘The Road’, we see that addressing was both direct and short as in the following examples:
Translation Journal - July 2015 | 9
account. See the following example:
ST: When he woke…..into the dark (one paragraph consisting of 15 sentences)
TT: ) خط72( ناپدید شد...وقتی در تاریکی
The second internal dimension of Field that Steiner distinguished was goal orientation. And it implied both the author’s and translator’s
goal and its function in the source and translated texts. Steiner talked about 2 types of goals: long term and short term.
The author of the source text in this research (McCarthy) seems to seek for a long-term goal since his novel is not for commercial purposes.
It aims to touch deep human thought and prospects. It is timeless. Its theme refers to all human beings at all times. The translated text
seems to have managed to convey the same theme.
The main 3 goals followed in both source text and translated text were found to be: description, narration and exposition. This is in line
with the genre of the text: a literary work, a novel, a fiction. Both the source and translated texts are full of descriptive words: adjectives,
adverbs, etc. See the following extracts:
ST: on the far shore a creature that raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool
and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders
TT: در کرانه دیگر دریاچه موجودی بود که پوزه کف کرده اش را از درون یک حوضچه مرمری بیرون
. سفید رنگ و کور مثل تخم عنکبوت به نور خیره ماند،آورد و با چشمانی مرده
The third internal dimension of Field pinpointed by Steiner has been social activity. By social activity Steiner implies the function of the text
in a given culture or context. Steiner enlists some of these functions: production, exchange, communication, reproduction, consumption,
etc.
The original text here is seen to serve 2 purposes in the original context of culture: 1. entertainment, 2. thought elicitation and awareness
raising (since McCarthy is famous for these and has won a number of prizes for these qualities)
The translator seems to do a real translation and not a reproduction of the text, since he seems to be very loyal to every single statement.
4.2. Tenor
Tenor of discourse is concerned with the relationship between participants. The first sub- variable he distinguishes is agentive role.
Agentive roles refer to those roles played by participants: author-reader and translator-reader. Now let’s consider this variable in the
source and translated texts.
In ST: Author-reader → thought provoker-thinker
describer-analyzer
In the TT: Translator-reader → describer-analyzer
It is evident that if the translator used shorter paragraphs, he would give more chances (at the intervals between paragraphs) to readers
to wait and analyze the content.
The next sub-variable of Tenor, in Steiner’s words is social roles. By social roles Steiner means
participants’ (author, translator, reader) age, gender, ethnicity, social class, etc.
It was observed that the ST was addressed to all human beings regardless of age, gender, time span, geography, etc. Both young
generation (son) and old generation (father) were involved. Both
genders were involved. The characters have been chosen to be anonymous intentionally so that they could represent all post-war human
beings, and their fate be that of all humanity.
In the TT the same pattern persists all throughout the translated text. It attests to the translator’s awareness of and faithfulness toward
author’s intentions.
Social distance is yet another sub-variable of Tenor as specified by Steiner by which he refers to the amount of shared contextual space
between participants (author/translator and reader). The shared contextual matter between author/translator and readers is humanity or
a life all human beings share. One way for its revelation could be through forms of address. In both the source text and translated version
of ‘The Road’, we see that addressing was both direct and short as in the following examples:
Translation Journal - July 2015 | 9
