constructing pathways to translation - Higher Education Commission

although it too changes as Languages changes. Infact, the inconstancy of a translated
work and the need to re-do it, to re-read and re-create, leads paradoxically not only to its
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survival but what
Walter Benjamin calls the eternal after life of a work of Art through
Translation- the raison de tre of Translation.
What is missing, what has always been missing, is the fair and rational approach to the
reading of Translation. The double authorship has confused the reader and the critic, who
needs to come to terms with enigma of originality
that has afflicted the criteria of
judgment. Literary theories, no doubt are intrinsic to Translation.
10.2.4 THE UNTRANSLATABILITY THEORY
The argument whether the translation has to be literal or free has been going on
since the first century B.C to the nineteen century. Many writers favoured some kind
of free translation: the spirit not the letter, the sense not the words, the message rather
than the form, the matter not the manner. In nineteenth century, the study of cultural
anthropology suggested that linguistic barriers were insuperable and language was
entirely the product of culture. Such arguments were theoretical, but now the context has
changed, yet the basic problem remains: which can be illustrated in the diagram
below:
Table 10.1.
SL EMPHASIS TL EMPHASIS
Word for word translation Adaptation
Literal translation Free translation
Truthful translation Idiomatic translation
Semantic translation Communicative translation
Kinds of Translations (Adapted from P. Newmark, 1986:45)
All such arguments have contributed to the notion of untranslatability. The theory of untranslatability
presupposes an equality, or even duplication, of the source and the target
text and hence the term ‘Fidelity’ has been closely associated with the act of Translation.
It is for the same reason, the issue of Equivalence is the most precarious issue in the
Translation. The theory of Equivalence has been given a very comprehensive treatment
in Literature review of the thesis, however some arguments are hereby presented for the
clarification.