ETI 305--Literary ETI 305--Literary Translation ITranslation I

Translating Children’s Translating Children’s LiteratureLiterature

Translating Children’s LiteratureTranslating Children’s Literature• Most of the challenges of translating

literature for adults – e.g., fluency, accuracy, register, flexibility, a feeling for style, an appreciation of nuance, and transparency – are also present in translating children’s literature.

• Additional concerns that should be kept in mind when translating children’s books include – whether the translation will be read by children

or read to children – the age group of the target reader.

Translating Children’s LiteratureTranslating Children’s Literature• When translating for children, take into

consideration– Illustrations and their relationship with the content– proper names that indicate a feature of the characters– words formed in imitation of natural sounds– wordplay

• Handle certain subjects such as death, illness, divorce, and family strife with extreme care.

• Vocabulary and tone are crucial; you may have to consciously reduce your range of words, depending on the age group you are translating for.

Translating Children’s LiteratureTranslating Children’s Literature• One of the purposes of literature for children is

to encourage (and sometimes teach) them to read

• Rhyme is an important aid to memorization, so it is important to find functional equivalents in the target language.

• You may have to exercise greater freedom with text (sometimes, major changes, omissions/additions and adaptations may be necessary.)

Translating Children’s LiteratureTranslating Children’s Literature

• Adjust the text to make it appropriate and useful to the child, in accordance with what society regards as educationally "good for the child.“

• You may also have to adjust the plot, characterization, and language to prevailing perceptions of the child's ability to read and comprehend in the target culture.

• In order to be accepted as a translated text for children, the final translated product must adhere to these two principles, or at least not violate them.

Translating Children’s LiteratureTranslating Children’s Literature• Gulliver’s Travels (1726) by Swift, originally a political

satire, was transferred either into the model of fantasy or adventure (because of the popularity of fantasy and adventure and the lack of satire as a genre in children's literature).

• The transformation of the Lilliputian people into the dwarfs of the fantasy story exemplifies the model's manipulation of the text.

• While the original text emphasizes the similarity between the people of Lilliput and the people of Gulliver's country (who differ mainly in size but resemble each other in other respects --which then becomes the core of the satire), translators deliberately make every effort to blur the similarity and create an opposition that does not exist in the original.

Translating Children’s LiteratureTranslating Children’s Literature• In the original, the "good" features of Lilliputians are only part

of their characterization and are accompanied by harsh criticism; however, translators tend to include only the "good" features, thus changing the characterization altogether.

• The criticism of the strange relations between parents and children and the absurd manners of burial of the original are totally omitted in translations, while good manners and high morality are retained.

• The simplest manipulation of the text is done by deleting/altering undesirable elements or whole paragraphs (e.g. Gulliver saves the palace from the fire by urinating on it in the original text; this scene is either omitted in some translations or he extinguishes the fire either by throwing water on it/blowing it out in some others.

Translating Children’s LiteratureTranslating Children’s Literature• Adaptation to reduce complexity

• In the original Alice in Wonderland, Carroll intentionally made it impossible to determine whether things happen in a dream or in reality. Since such a complicated presentation was not acceptable to the translators, some solved the problem by motivating the whole story as a dream.

• Ideological adaptation

• Having found Defoe's views on the bourgeois ethos and colonialist values controversial, Campe made some alterations: In Rousseau’s translation, for instance, Robinson Crusoe arrives at the island with all the symbols of Western culture (weapons, food, the Bible) and manages to cultivate nature. In Campe's translation, however, he reaches the island naked and possessionless (he even has to spark the fire by rubbing stones).