LESSON 5

Homework:

Translation of L’elisir d’amore:

CONTEXT:

L’elisir d’amore, rappresentano, per la prima volta, il 12

maggio 1832 al Teatro della Canobbiana di Milano (oggi

Teatro Lirico), riscuote, fin dalla prima sera, uno

straordinario favore di pubblico e critica che si ripete per

tutte le trentadue repliche. Senza dubbio una delle opere

più raffinate, soprattutto per la scrittura orchestrale, di

Gaetano Donizetti che, con questo titolo, trova una

personale elaborazione dello stile comico, tramite

l’introduzione dell’elemento sentimentale, elemento che,

estraneo all’imperante opera seria rossiniana, riconduce

piuttosto al filone larmoyant dell’opéra-comique

francese.

2. Translate this part of the plot of Donizetti’s L’elisir

d’amore.

The sound of a trumpet announces the arrival of Dr

Dulcamara, a charlatan who awakes the interest of the

naive peasants by offering amazing powers. When the

doctor has finished his routine, Nemorino shyly asks if he

sells the elixir of love described in Adina’s book. Taking

advantage of his innocence, Dulcamara sells him a bottle

of Bordeaux for a gold coin, all the money Nemorino has,

warning him that it will take twenty-four hours until it

has any effect.

How are you going to translate the non-finite, tenseless,

adverbial clauses that elaborate on the event in the main

clause?

Annuniciato dal suono di una tromba arriva il dottor

Dulcamara, un ciarlatano che enumera a gran voce i suoi

poteri taumaturgici, destando meraviglia tra i contadini.

Quando il medico ha terminato la sua declamazione,

Nemorino gli chiede timidamente se venda l’elisir d’amore

descritto nel libro di Adina. Intuita l’ingenuità del

ragazzo, Dulcamara prontamente gli rifila una bottiglia di

Bordeaux al prezzo di uno zecchino, tutto quello che il

poverino possiede. Lo avverte però che l’effetto

desiderato si potrà osservare solo il giorno dopo.

Annuniciato dal suono di una tromba arriva il dottor

Dulcamara (passive verb form)…

The sound of a trumpet announces the arrival of Dr

Dulcamara (active verb form)…

…un ciarlatano che enumera a gran voce i suoi poteri

taumaturgici, destando meraviglia tra i contadini.

…a charlatan who awakes the interest of the naive peasants

by offering amazing powers.(No translation of ‘i suoi’

or of ‘a gran voce’: so there is less elaboration here

than in the Italian version = strategy of condensation,

see lesson 1).

Intuita l’ingenuità del ragazzo, Dulcamara

prontamente gli rifila una bottiglia di Bordeaux al

prezzo di uno zecchino, …

Taking advantage of his innocence, Dulcamara sells

him a bottle of Bordeaux for a gold coin,… (no

translation of ‘prontamente’ ) …..tutto quello che il poverino possiede. Lo avverte

però che l’effetto desiderato si potrà osservare solo il

giorno dopo.

…all the money Nemorino has, warning him that it will

take twenty-four hours until it has any effect.

(‘Nemorino’ substitutes ‘il poverino’/ no new sentence /

no translation of ‘però’)

1. A manual for using a fridge:

Function: To give the reader instructions about how it

works.

Language: The arrangement of the words and sentences

should take a preferred or expected form in order to ensure

maximum ease of understanding:

2. The plot of an opera:

Function: To summarise what happens (who does what to

whom, where, when and why). To facilitate

entertainment.

Language: must use the appropriate tenses and aspects.

Making a translation fit the expectations of different

audiences (e.g., readers of the Bible, readers of an

instruction manual, spectators of an opera) is what

the American theorist Lawrence Venuti (1995: 21)

calls ‘domesticating translation’ or

‘domestication’.

The Unit of Translation (HM Unit 3)

The classical debate about literal and free translation

is ‘linked to different translation units, ‘literal’ being

very much centred on adherence to the individual

word, while ‘free’ translation aims at capturing the

sense of a longer stretch of language. This longer

stretch can be a clause, sentence or even the whole

text. (HM: 17)

Vinay and Darbelnet reject the word as a unit of translation.

Instead, they define the unit of translation as ‘the smallest

segment of the utterance whose signs are linked in such a

way that they should not be translated individually’ (HM

18, 137-141).

Instead of defining the unit in terms of syntax (a word, a

clause, a sentence), they define it in terms of meaning,

reasoning or intonation (H&M: 138).

- Also, the lexicological units described by Vinay and

Darbelnet contain ‘lexical elements grouped together

to form a single unit of thought’. (HM 18)

- E.g., bacon and egg uova e pancetta; please per

favore; certainly senz’altro; chips patate frite

- What do you notice?

- The number of words and their order in the TL does

not correspond with those in the SL. The translation

unit is typically not individual words at all but small

chunks of language (communicating units of thought)

that build up into the sentence (HM 22).

However, a conventional grammatical analysis of the

units of translation can be useful. Analyse, i.e., define

grammatically, the units of translation in the following

text (seen in a train station). Each unit is on a different

line:

•Travelling from Heathrow?

•There are

•easy to follow instructions

•on the larger self-service touch screen ticket

machines.

ANSWERS

•Travelling from Heathrow? (Interrogative structure

functioning as a question)

•There are (existential verb group)

•easy to follow instructions (pre-modified noun

phrase)

•on the larger self-service touch screen ticket

machines. (Adverbial communicated with a

prepositional phrase. The prepositional complement

here is a noun phrase [machines] with extensive pre-

modification by other nouns and by one definite

article and adjective [the larger])

Now translate this text into Italian. Do the units and

their order remain the same or do they change? (You

might also want to read the analysis of the French

translation in HM: 21)

Travelling from Heathrow? (Interrogative structure

functioning as a question)

There are (existential verb group)

easy to follow instructions (pre-modified noun

phrase)

on the larger self-service touch screen ticket

machines. (Adverbial communicated with a

prepositional phrase.

•Translation requires attention to equivalence between

different units or grammatical levels = the rank scale

from morpheme, word, phrase (collocation or multi-word

unit), clause to sentence. See HM 22).

•Translation also requires attention to equivalence

between units of information that are new (the rheme)

and units of information that are already known (theme).

See concept box HM22-23. Note the concept of

‘communicative dynamism’: the communication is driven

by new information that is often, but not always, focused

towards the end of a sentence in English.

Example: Translate Jack paid the bill and since it was

expensive, Mary chipped in too.

SUGGESTED ANSWER:

Jack ha pagato il conto, e siccome era molto caro, ha

contribuito anche Mary.

Taylor 16: The fact that the bill was expensive is new

information (the rheme) and the sentence achieves

dynamism as it proceeds. This new information keeps the

reader interested. Note that in the final clause the newest

element (= Mary) is placed in absolute final position.

‘Mary’ in this position in the Italian translation is ‘an

example of subject in final position as opposed to a

grammatically acceptable, though stylistically less

common, position before the verb, as in English.

Translators need to be ‘aware of this kind of post-verbal

subject option, which is so frequent in Italian and so rare in

English’.

SUMMARY

Although Vinay and Darbelnet speak of lexicological

units that form units of THOUGHT (HM 18), ‘the unit

of translation is normally the LINGUISTIC unit which

the translator uses when translating (HM 25). Translation

theorists have proposed various units, from individual

word and group to clause and sentence and even higher

level such as text and inter-textual levels (HM 25).

…. advertisements, most particularly, and poetry need to

be translated at the level of the text (or even culture) and

not the word if their messages to function in the target

culture; and medicines […] must carry instructions […]

that satisfactorily alert the TT reader (HM 24)

Translate the following warning notice on a bottle of

medicine: Keep out of the reach of children

And translate the following parts of an advertisement for

diamonds (Taylor 293). (Remember that the purpose of

the text is to persuade the potential purchaser):

This Diamond of Venus is not out of your reach. Just ask

for it.

Just wait and see: a Damiani Diamond of Venus will soon

be yours.

ORIGINAL ITALIAN VERSION

Questo Diamante di Venere non è irraggiungibile. Basta

chiederlo.

Vedrete: presto uno di questi diamanti di Venere Damiani

sarà vostro.

COMPARE: what do you notice?

Questo Diamante di Venere non è irraggiungibile. Basta

chiederlo. Vedrete: presto uno di questi diamanti di

Venere Damiani sarà vostro.

This Diamond of Venus is not out of your reach. Just ask

for it. Just wait and see: a Damiani Diamond of Venus

will soon be yours.

Now translate this passage from a literary text. Think

about the appropriate unit of translation for words and

phrases that are obscure or ‘heavy’, and difficult to

translate.

This was the terrible thing, the quiet in the hopelessness.

To believe the human race lost and not to feverishly want

to do something about it, a desire in me, for example, to

be lost with it. I was troubled by abstract furies which

were not of the blood and I was quiet, I desired nothing.

It did not matter that my girlfriend was waiting for me: to

go to her or not or to leaf through a dictionary was all the

same to me; and to go out and see friends, to see the

others, or to stay at home was all the same to me.