Translating Nouzha Fassi Fihri's La Baroudeuse: A Case Study in ...

a character's speech, the translator maintained the decision to respect the high
register of the original, which denotes respect for the character who tells the tale
and for the wisdom it conveys. Translating this tale into a more colloquial register
would have altered the author's counter-discursive decision. Distinguishing the
speech of the slave from that of the master would have implicitly confirmed social
and political distinctions that the original text subverts. The translator chose rather
to closely replicate this aspect of the original text.
In other passages, however, the translator did revise dialogue to tilt toward
readers' voice expectations. In response to the passage in example 9, readers
indicated a desire for the dialogue to convey individual personalities.
9 o: Nous ne pouvons plus reculer désormais. Fini le temps des
revendications réformistes. L'objectif est à présent l'indépendance et
l'unification du pays. (18)
9 i: We can't turn back now. The time for demands for reforms is past.
Now the independence and unification of the country is the goal.
9 f: We can't turn back now. It's too late for reforms. Now we are fighting
for independence and the unification of the country.
In the original text and initial version, individuals discuss ideological and political
issues using journalistic language. Having townsfolk speak as knowledgeably
about current events as do journalists and politicians suggests a diminution of
power differentials between the man on the street and those in influential
positions and implies unity of voice, the people speaking as one. Because
discussions with readers and other translators heightened the translator's
awareness of expectations concerning voice differentiation in narrative fiction,
this dialogue was revised in the final version to sound more like the speech of
townsmen participating in a heated political debate. However, some of the
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