4.Literary Translation as a Language Exercise

 

Introduction

 Translation as an exercise occupies an important place in language learning. The occasional use of mother-tongue is different from following the translation method of teaching. Translation method is considered as wasteful and out of date. Distinction has to be made between the use of the mother-tongue as a teaching technique and translation as a skill. Translation is a complex skill. It involves high level understanding and command of two languages. Translation is helpful in teaching word-order, idioms and grammatical constructions. It can be used to test the comprehension of the pupils or to test their vocabulary. It helps in learning many current English uses. Translation is an art and it is aimed to render the sense of the language into another.

 Readers of literary fiction have high expectations. They demand a book to be rich, dense and multidimensional, capable of weaving magic and changing something, no matter how small, about the way they perceive themselves. They also want to be entertained, but on an intelligent level. An author who can create such fiction must have insight, a mastery of language, a compelling sense of rhythm, idiom and nuance, and the ability to transform inspiration into a stunning and transcendent work of art. When literary works are translated, the translator’s job is to recreate this work of art sensitively and seamlessly in such a way that it is true to the original, as well as being equally enchanting, poetic and perceptive. Grace, beauty, colour and flavour must be captured, and the resulting work must also be capable of being understood by its new audience, and make sense one very level. A translation should have the same virtues as the original, and inspire the same response in its readers. It must reflect cultural differences, while drawing parallels that make it accessible, andit must achieve a fine balance between the literal and the suggestive, the story and its melody. Itshould be read by readers in its new language with the same enthusiasm and understanding as it wasin the old.

 Stages at which Translation is taught

The value of translation at the early stage is an exercise in comprehension. But the teacher should not ask pupils to translate all sentences or paragraphs into the mother-tongue. Oral translation should be stressed in this stage. At the middle and high school stages, oral translation should always precede written translation and students’ translation should be compared with original pieces. At the middle stage, different kinds of sentences, involving the use of different pronouns and tenses should be set for translation into English. At the high school stage, simple stories and continuous passages should be set for translation. Translation from mother-tongue into English is an exercise in controlled composition. Therefore it should not be attempted during the early stage of teaching English.

 Grading of Translation Exercises

There is need to grade properly the translation exercises. Translation should be idiomatic and not literal. The improperly selected and ungraded exercises may encourage literal translation. A practicing exercise in translation should have sentences of one pattern. Only then, it can provide ample practice in translation. When translation is introduced in the fourth year of teaching English, we should start it with properly controlled patterns. In the first stage of teaching, no new structural or vocabulary item , which the learner has not already mastered, should be introduced. The sentences should be properly graded. Such properly controlled translation pattern practice is of great value in fixing them permanently in their minds. The passage set for translation should be in accordance with the pupils’ vocabulary and their knowledge of grammar.

 Translation from English into the mother-tongue is easier, safer and of more practical value than the translation from the mother-tongue into English. The pupil is more familiar with the idioms and structures of his mother-tongue. He is not likely to commit many mistakes as he does in English. It is of more practical value as we can translate standard books in humanities and sciences from English into one’s own mother-tongue.

 Translation as a language learning tool

Translation has not always enjoyed a good press. Indeed, at the height of what we can call the "communicative" period, it was actively discouraged by many practitioners and regarded asa hindrance to second language fluency rather than an aid to language learning. In the brave new world of the Communicative Approach, translation(and the use of the mother tongue in general) came to be regarded as a relic of the past, a symbol of the bad old days of Grammar Translation, an echo of those long forgotten secondary school lessons when paragraphs of English prose were translated into Latin for no apparent purpose other than as an intellectual exercise. Such a view, however, takes no account of individual learning styles. Some learners appear to need to be able to relate lexis and structures in the target language to equivalents in their mother tongue. This also gives them the opportunity to compare similarities and contrast differences. Put simply, they need the reassurance of their mother tongue in order to make sense of the way the target language operates.

 Conclusion

And so the role of a translator is many-faceted. He or she must hear the music of the original, and replay it for a new audience; a good translation sings, and displays a rhythm that not only reflects the original text’s origin but also beats to a new drum. A translator is both reader and writer; a translation is undoubtedly one person’s subjective reading of the source text, and, inevitably, it is reflected through that translator’s subjectivity. No two translators, like no two readers, are the same. Words have different resonances and connotations for everyone, and when a translator works, he or she dredges up expressions, interpretations, vocabulary and insight from a host of subconscious pools of language and experience.

 References

Jijan, E K. Teaching of Translation as an exercise.TELC. Pg.22

 Valentino, Russell Scott. Translation and the Teaching of Literature. Words without Borders. July 21, 2009. https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2009-07/translation-and-the-teaching-of-literature/

 - Submitted by Ms.Aardra A P.