tc dokuz eylül university institute of social sciences translation and ...

the footnote that both March Hare and the Hatter are idiomatic phrases that describe
madness in English, e.g. as mad as a hatter. Ardıç’s version was translated from
French, so in his text another example is given from that language: “there is an
expression in French, that is, liar like a dentist” (menteur comme un arracheur de
dent), which, however, does not seem to have anything to do with the context. It
might have been translated into French in such a way to describe one of the two, the
March Hare or the Hatter as they also keep telling lies or pretending. Perhaps the
French translation used the dentist character in place of one of them in order to
culturally have the equivalent of the expression in the British culture. In the Turkish
translation translated from French, Nurettin Ardıç writes the explanation both from
the direct source and the intermediate language – French and English, possibly
translating directly from French as well as checking out the original source text.
Another type from the mad trio is the Dormouse that keeps sleeping and wakes up
every once in a while to eat or say something. Its name in the target language brings
to mind only the rodent animal, whereas its intended name originates from the Latin
verb “dormire” meaning to sleep (Maatta, 1997). All these three characters
representing madness with their words and actions form the fifth chapter in the story
that is titled as “A Mad Tea-Party”. As can be seen, these three names constitute
wordplay in the source language, while only one of them, the March Hare provides
the same association in the target language though the other two are also translatable,
non-proper names.
Another name that represents its character is the Cheshire Cat that has a
grinning expression on its face. The quote "Everyone in Wonderland is mad,
otherwise they wouldn't be down here" said by the Cheshire Cat can be given an
existential meaning. Is it that everyone alive is mad being alive, or everyone
dreaming him or herself away is mad due to the escape from reality? Cheshire is the
name of courtships near Manchester in England, from which it takes its name, and
there is an idiom in British culture, “to grin like a Cheshire cat”, although it is not
known where it originated from (Toral Barda, 1998; 125). As seen in the table, the
most common translation has been the literal one, while there are others, such as
Ankara Kedisi by Oral, Vankara Kedisi by Çakmakçı and Uyar, Van Kedisi by Beşli,
Mater, Cins Kedi by Yeğinobalı, Sırıtkan Kedi by Asımgil, Chester kedisi by Ardıç,
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