Is the Translator Always a Traitor to the Culture of the Source Text?

516 Words3 Pages
Is the Translator Always a Traitor to the Culture of the Source Text? A well-known Italian saying declares “Traduttore, Traditore” which means ‘Translator, Traitor’ implying that the translators are congenitally incapable of remaining faithful to the source text. People capable of reading texts or watching films in their original languages always complain about the quality of the translation found in books and subtitles. For them, the translators should be invisible, their work limited to conveying the meaning of the source text in a fluent and natural style. This attitude completely negates the translators’ essential intervention in the text. So, from a lay viewpoint since the translators get involved in conveying the meaning of words, they always betray the culture of the source text. This commonplace idea shows the layperson’s ignorance of the translator’s complex task. Is the translator really always a Traitor to the culture of the source text? Does he have to remain “invisible” to be faithful to the original text? As for the subtitles, in addition to following the dialogues and possessing a deep knowledge of the culture where the story is set, the translators subtitling a film have to work within the time limit of the scene and the viewers have to be able to read the entire translated speech during the scene in question. As a consequence, film translation is much more an adaptation than a simple transcription into the target language. The structure of a given language determines the way in which the speakers of that language view the world. Different languages reflect different values and cultures. Therefore, in an attempt to mediate different languages, values and cultures, translations nearly always contain attempts to “naturalize” the different culture to make it conform more to what the reader of the translation is used to. As a result,

More about Is the Translator Always a Traitor to the Culture of the Source Text?

Open Document