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M. CRISTINA SOUSA–MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL SHOULD WE TRUST THE TRANSLATOR AT ALL?
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL, CAN WE TRUST THE
TRANSLATOR AT ALL?
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M. CRISTINA SOUSA
University of Salford, UK
The inclusion of Cultural References is very important in all types of translation,
but particularly so in the case of Children’s Literature. This paper focuses on this
relationship with examples from Joan Aiken’s The Willoughby Chase Series.
Readership is a crucial factor in all types of fiction, as the writer creates a text with a
particular reader in mind. The translator also translates with a particular reader in mind.
This conditions the decision-making process and consequently it also conditions the style
in which the text is written. This conditioning is different according to the reader and
arguably greater when the reader is a child, because of the lack of experience and
knowledge which are characteristic of children, and because they often also lack, as Göte
Klingberg points out, certain knowledge of the foreign culture which is seen as a
prerequisite for understanding the story. In Klingberg’s view, when dealing with cultural
values different from those of the reader, translators and publishers decide whether such
values should be passed on to the reader, and consequently whether to delete or to change
them (1986: 10).
Klingberg highlights two different practises when translating for children, one
which adheres closely to the SL text, and another which revises the text in order to bring it
closer to the reader. He justifies both practises with different aims in mind. The first one is
justified to him when the aim of translating is to make more literature available to children
and/or to further their international outlook and understanding, as he believes that
removing the peculiarities of the foreign culture (or changing source culture elements for
target culture ones) does not further the reader’s knowledge of the foreign culture or his
interest in it. As to the latter translation practise, Klingberg justifies it by bringing two
pedagogical aims into discussion: giving the readers a text that they can understand, and
contributing to the reader’s set of values (ibid.). Furthering children’s international outlook
and understanding via translated literature can also be classed as pedagogical because it
teaches them that there are other cultures which should be valued and other people with
different sets of values who must be recognised and respected. This learning would also
contribute to the readers’ set of values. The two translation practises described by
Klingberg must not be completely divorced from one another. If used in conjunction with
one another, they can complement each other. The aims indicated can co-exist when
producing a text. It is possible to produce a TL text that includes peculiarities of the
foreign culture that are easy for the reader to understand and that contribute to his set of
values. Like the writer, the translator must address his reader as an equal, even when
writing for young and inexperienced readers.
Current practises may be seen to follow the communicative approach as posited by
Hatim and Mason in as much as they are oriented towards the needs of the TL reader. The
position children hold in society is crucial to their status as readers. Children are aspiring
adults who are nurtured and protected by parents, teachers, etc, during their formative
years. Their status as readers is different from that of adults. Children are developing