Page 8 - Translation Journal July 2015
P. 8
ch both the source text and translated text can be systematically compared.
3. Methodology:
We adopted an analytic approach to study a postmodern literary work. In an exploratory content analysis, we looked for instances of the
main components of Steiner’s register model in selected parts of the novel. Sample sentences representative of the main components of
the target model were extracted and presented in the results. For feasibility matters, we could not analyze the whole text; therefore, we
acted selectively and our extracts belonged to different parts of the novel. ‘The road’ was our main material. It will be briefly introduced
below.
3.1. Source text (ST)
The award winning postmodern novel ‘The Road’ was written by Cormac McCarthey and first published in September, 2006 in English.
Its main characters are a nameless father and son. The genres of this literary work could be Fiction, Literary fiction, Apocalyptic and post-
apocalyptic fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative fiction. It was published in English.
The author is an American novelist, playwright and screenwriter born in 1933. He has written
ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western and post-apocalyptic genres. His novel ‘The
Road’ won Pulitzer Prize for fiction and MacArthur Fellowship.
The plot of the novel is about a father and son who walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape except
for the ash in the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast,
although they do not know what, if anything, awaits them there. It is a readable book because it is exactly what a book about our future
as human beings ought to be.
3.2. Translated text (TT)
This novel has been translated three times into Persian: in 2008 by Iraj Mesal Azar, in 2009 by Mohammad Reza Ghelichkhani, and in
2009-2013 by Hossein Noosh Azar. The last one was published three times.
Hossein Noosh Azar is an Iranian Writer and translator who lives in Germany. His translated book was published by Morvarid Pub. Co. in
Tehran. The translated book covers 274 pages.
4. Results:
We begin with drawing attention to the main components of register in Steiner’s model which are Field, Tenor and Mode. We should like
to present our analytic results in the same order.
4.1. Field
The first internal dimension Steiner (2004) distinguished was experiential domain, which as mentioned previously, had to do with the topic
or subject matter. Let’s consider the title of our target text:
ST: The Road
TT: جاده
The author chose the title ‘The Road’ the meaning of which is not understood until you manage to finish the whole story which shows
the main two characters (father and son) travelling along a road that is in fact the pathway of their life guiding them towards an unknown
future. Translator has used literal (word-to-word) translation of the title and is loyal to the inherent mystery and vagueness intended by
the original author.
As for the ‘tense’ of the text, it is observed that in all the source text, the descriptive parts except for dialogues are in past tense: simple
past, past perfect and past progressive. These are
best suited to narrative type texts. The target translation text is in: ماضی بعید و ماضی نقلی-گذشته ساده
Here are some sample extracts:
ST: in the dream from which he’d wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led
him by the hand
TT: ... خواب دیده بود که دست پسرش را گرفته است و.از کابوسی که دیده بود از خواب پریده بود
As for ‘paragraphing’, we could observe that the translator has exactly translated each paragraph from the source text to one paragraph.
However, we see that English texts are sometimes fraught with lengthy paragraphs. When they are translated into Persian they become
8 | Translation Journal - July 2015
3. Methodology:
We adopted an analytic approach to study a postmodern literary work. In an exploratory content analysis, we looked for instances of the
main components of Steiner’s register model in selected parts of the novel. Sample sentences representative of the main components of
the target model were extracted and presented in the results. For feasibility matters, we could not analyze the whole text; therefore, we
acted selectively and our extracts belonged to different parts of the novel. ‘The road’ was our main material. It will be briefly introduced
below.
3.1. Source text (ST)
The award winning postmodern novel ‘The Road’ was written by Cormac McCarthey and first published in September, 2006 in English.
Its main characters are a nameless father and son. The genres of this literary work could be Fiction, Literary fiction, Apocalyptic and post-
apocalyptic fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative fiction. It was published in English.
The author is an American novelist, playwright and screenwriter born in 1933. He has written
ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western and post-apocalyptic genres. His novel ‘The
Road’ won Pulitzer Prize for fiction and MacArthur Fellowship.
The plot of the novel is about a father and son who walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape except
for the ash in the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast,
although they do not know what, if anything, awaits them there. It is a readable book because it is exactly what a book about our future
as human beings ought to be.
3.2. Translated text (TT)
This novel has been translated three times into Persian: in 2008 by Iraj Mesal Azar, in 2009 by Mohammad Reza Ghelichkhani, and in
2009-2013 by Hossein Noosh Azar. The last one was published three times.
Hossein Noosh Azar is an Iranian Writer and translator who lives in Germany. His translated book was published by Morvarid Pub. Co. in
Tehran. The translated book covers 274 pages.
4. Results:
We begin with drawing attention to the main components of register in Steiner’s model which are Field, Tenor and Mode. We should like
to present our analytic results in the same order.
4.1. Field
The first internal dimension Steiner (2004) distinguished was experiential domain, which as mentioned previously, had to do with the topic
or subject matter. Let’s consider the title of our target text:
ST: The Road
TT: جاده
The author chose the title ‘The Road’ the meaning of which is not understood until you manage to finish the whole story which shows
the main two characters (father and son) travelling along a road that is in fact the pathway of their life guiding them towards an unknown
future. Translator has used literal (word-to-word) translation of the title and is loyal to the inherent mystery and vagueness intended by
the original author.
As for the ‘tense’ of the text, it is observed that in all the source text, the descriptive parts except for dialogues are in past tense: simple
past, past perfect and past progressive. These are
best suited to narrative type texts. The target translation text is in: ماضی بعید و ماضی نقلی-گذشته ساده
Here are some sample extracts:
ST: in the dream from which he’d wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led
him by the hand
TT: ... خواب دیده بود که دست پسرش را گرفته است و.از کابوسی که دیده بود از خواب پریده بود
As for ‘paragraphing’, we could observe that the translator has exactly translated each paragraph from the source text to one paragraph.
However, we see that English texts are sometimes fraught with lengthy paragraphs. When they are translated into Persian they become
8 | Translation Journal - July 2015
