IDENTIFICATION, SOLUTION AND ANALYSIS OF

TRANSLATION DIFFICULTIES ARISING FROM

THE TRANSLATION OF “TO THE NEW

WORLD”, A BELIZEAN CREOLE AND ENGLISH

SHORT STORY BY SIR COLVILLE YOUNG

RESEARCH PROJECT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF

QUINTANA ROO

BY: DANIEL JESUS RANGEL SALA

ABSTRACT

The research here presented dwells on the translation difficulties arising from a bilingual short story in Belizean Creole and English. It is believed that literary translation is seen as one of the most difficult; moreover, the translation of these specific texts are not common among literary translations and a translation for this short story by Sir Colville Young has not been published nor attempted in a research. The translation difficulties will be isolated and solved by the use of three specific tools which will grant the translation validity. It is the purpose of this research to help translators identify the possible difficulties they might face when dealing with these types of literature and how they can possibly solve them effectively.

BACKGROUND

It is due to translation being a tool of

cultural, literary, religious, scientific and

political transcendence that the researcher

has decided to focus on the analysis of the

translation of a selected short story as object

of research.

RATIONALE

Due to the degree of difficulty literary

translations pose, it was decided to base the

research on the difficulties and possible

solutions to these during the process of

translating a Belizean author‟s short story.

OBJECTIVES

By providing a complete translation of one of

Young‟s short stories, the researcher hopes

to delve into the linguistic richness of

Belizean literary English, isolating the

metaphors, expressions, phrases or words

which pose themselves challenging for the

researcher and potentially challenging for

other translators and propose a solution to

these translation problems.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What linguistic issues will arise during the translation process? How will those linguistic issues be solved? What resources would be appropriate to resort to?

How challenging will the Belizean Creole/English be regarding the conveyance of meaning of the short story in Mexican Spanish?

How different will the choices from the translator-researcher be from those selected by the consultants in the questionnaire?

RELEVANCE

This research will prove useful to other

translators, especially the ones who wish to

work in translating literary texts such as short

stories or novels; moreover, this thesis will

shed light on possible approaches a

translator can take when dealing with words

or phrases specific to Belizean Creole or

Belizean English.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

There are several renowned authors who have proposed (sometimes similar) translation methods or strategies that are useful when encountering difficulties from one language to the other; Vinay and Darbelnet, authors whose strategies are widely accepted and on which the researcher bases its translation methodology on; Vazquez-Ayora, whose work was based on Spanish and English and American Joseph L. Malone, among others (Pym, 2010, pp.16-17). Proceeding with the methodology of Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet, as written by Venuti(2000, pp.84-93), there are two methods to choose from when translating, one of them is direct translation and the other is named oblique translation. Direct translation covers three procedures, „borrowing‟, „calque‟, and „literal translation‟; oblique translation include „transposition‟, „modulation‟, „equivalence‟, and „adaptation‟.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE (2)

This is a first for translating a literary text with a sociolinguistic approach to problem solving in the English language major here in the University of Quintana Roo; however, the researcher did come across one particular thesis for a Master‟s degree which provides a similar approach and could contribute to the current thesis; the thesis consists of the translation of two short stories by Dorothy Parker and thus dwells in the literary field the researcher seeks to work with. Beside this thesis, the researcher came across a monograph for a bachelor´s degree consisting on the translation of four tales by Eleuterio Llanes Pasos; his work “Cuentos de cazadores” is especially interesting because it deals with Mayan folklore and thus includes a few Mayan phrases and words, similar to what the researcher will be dealing with in translating “To the new world” by Sir Colville Young.

METHOD: PARTICIPANTS

The participants will be English Language

major graduates who will help the

researcher-translator by solving the surveys

proposed in the research. The assessors will

also be involved during the problem-solution

stage and will certainly aid by proposing a

solution in the survey.

INSTRUMENTS

The instruments to solve the arising

translation issues will be the following: A

Belizean Creole to English dictionary from

the „National Kriol Council‟, a Belizean

English dictionary from Roger Blench (2013)

from the Kay Williamson Educational

Foundation in Cambridge, UK, and a survey

designed by the researcher-translator.

PROCEDURE

The researcher will translate the short story

“To the New World”, one of seven short

stories in the book Pataki Full: Seven

Belizean short stories by Sir Colville Norbert

Young. Taking into consideration that the

book has never been translated, there are no

references on previous translation

approaches or methods used for Sir Young‟s

literary style.

PROCEDURE (2)

During the translation process, different

translation difficulties are expected to arise in

the shape of

words, phrases, expressions, idioms, and so

on, along with similar structures in Belizean

Creole; these translation difficulties will be

isolated and dealt with using the instruments

already mentioned

PROCEDURE (3)

The surveys are meant for individual translators or specialists in any of the languages involved in order to help in the problem-solving aspect of the translation where needed; moreover, they are part and parcel of the problem-solving perspective the researcher holds and will eventually help in providing the desired result in terms of translation quality. This tool was selected mainly because the researcher has read short stories like “New York to Detroit” and “The Lovely Leave”, from Dorothy Parker, translated from English to Spanish (Peña, 2007) and found that the translator‟s use of the survey helped in deciding whether certain translation difficulties could be solved the way the translator thought viable or with the help of fellow translators.

DATA ANALYSIS

Once the translation problems have been

dealt with by using the tools already

mentioned, the translator-researcher will

analyze the data, the solution of the

translation problems, and make conclusions

based primarily on the data coming from the

surveys which helped with the problem-

solving stage.

REFERENCES

Biguenet, J., & Schulte, R. (1989). The craft of translation. Chicago, United States of America: University of Chicago Press.

Blench, R. (2013, March 13). A dictionary of Belize English. Retrieved September 17, 2013, from http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/English/Belizean%20English%20dictionary.pdf

Creole - National Institute of Culture and History. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2013, from http://www.nichbelize.org/iscr-institute-for-social-cultural-research/creole.html

DeGraff, M. (1999). Language creation and language change: Creolization, diachrony, and development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Delisle, J., & Woodsworth, J. (Ed.). (1995). Translators through history. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Landers, C. E. (2001). Literary translation: A practical guide. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

REFERENCES (2)

Mesthrie, R. (2000). Introducing sociolinguistics. Philadelphia, United States of America: J. Benjamins.

National Kriol Council (2011). National Kriol Council - Who We Are. Retrieved September 17, 2013, from http://nationalkriolcouncil.org/the_council/who_we_are

Newmark, P., & Moya, V. (2006). Manual de n (5th ed.). Madrid, Spain: tedra.

Paz, O. (1990). n: literatura y literalidad (3rd ed.). Barcelona, Spain: Tusquets.

Peña, A. (2007). Análisis de estrategias utilizadas en la traducción del inglés al español de dos cuentos cortos de Dorothy Parker, “New York to Detroit” y “The lovely leave”(Master´s thesis).Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco.

Pym, A. (2010). Exploring translation theories. London, England: Routledge.P.16-17.

Rosas, A. V. (2006) The translation of four tales taken from the book “Cuentos de cazadores” by Eleuterio Llanes Pasos, with a detailed analysis of the techniques used by the translator(monografía). Universidad de Quintana Roo, Chetumal, Quinana Roo.

APPENDIX A (EXAMPLE OF AN ELEMENT OF THE

SURVEY)

1. “But Benito is blood,” Cristobal had replied. “De man is me own born bredda…”

(“To the New World”, page 28)

“______________” Cristobal contestó. “El hombre es mi hermano biológico”

a) Pero Benito es sangre

b) Pero Benito es de mi sangre

c) Pero Benito es familia

d) Pero Benito es pariente

In case of a different translation suggestion, write it down below:

e) ________________________________________________

PROJECT TIMETABLE

Activity Jan Feb March April May Jun Juli

Introd. I

Translat. I I

Data

Col.

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Surveys I I

Data

Analysis

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Discus. I

Conclus. I

1st Draft I I

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Final

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