The contextual analysis of prison diary first pafge of the diarytranslated by aileen palmer and dang the binh in dell hymesmodel of context

The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ DECLARATION The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of the Diary’ translated by Ailleen Palmer and Dang The Binh in Dell Hymes’ model of context I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor Hanoi, 15 April, 2016 Student Mai Quỳnh Ly Supervisor Nguyễn Văn Quang Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Ph D Nguyen Van Quang for his full support, expert guidance, understanding and encouragement throughout my study and research Without his patience and expert guidance, the thesis may not be completed Thanks also go to my fellow graduate students at Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University, especially my numerous friends who helped me throughout this academic exploration Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ TABLE OF CONTENT PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Aim and purpose of the study Scope of the study Research questions Method of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review 1.1 The concept and role of context in discourse 1.2 Models of context 1.3 Dell Hymes’ model of context 12 Chapter 2: The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Dairy’ translated by Aileen Palmer and Dang The Binh 2.1 The contextual analysis 13 2.1.1 Addressor and Addressee 13 2.1.2 Audience 17 2.1.3 Topic 21 2.1.4 Setting 23 2.1.5 Channe 24 2.1.6 Code 25 2.1.7 Message form 26 2.1.8 Key 29 2.1.9 Purpose 31 Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ 2.1.10 Event 33 2.2 Conclusion 33 Chapter 3: ‘Prison Diary – Beginning Diary’ translated by Christopher Henkins, Tran Khanh Tuyet and Huynh Sanh Thong 3.1 Addressor and Addressee 35 3.2 Audience 36 3.3 Topic 37 3.4 Code 38 3.5 Message form 39 3.6 Key and Event 39 3.7 Purpose .39 PART C: CONCLUSION 41 Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ Part A: Introduction Rationale: President Ho Chi Minh is not only a revolutionary but also a talented writer with a remarkable number of works which are still judged master pieces of art, some of which are still being translated into several languages Among them, “Prison Diary” has been translating the most, into different languages such as: English, French, Laos,… However, it is a challenge to translate a poem successfully, Ho Chi Minh’s poems are not exceptions Therefore, “Prison Diary – first page of the diary” translated by Aileen Palmer and Dang The Binh were choosen to be contextually analysized to see how successful the two versions achieved due to the fact that Aileen Paulmer were the first foreigner and Dang The Binh were the first Vietnamese translating this poem into English Furthermore, Aileen Palmer’s version was used as the source text by many other translators to be translated into many other languages which directly influence the spread and comments of ‘Prison Diary – the first page of the diary’ Aims and purpose of the study: As mentioned in the rationale, this thesis will analysize the two versions of “Prison Diary – first page of the diary” by Aileen Paulmer and Dang The Binh to see how succeful the poem is translated by the two translators With Dell Hymes’ model of context, the thesis is hoped to present the strong points and weak points of each version which can give further informations to people who would like to use one of this two versions for their further study or as their source language text in their translating progress Moreover, according to Dell Hymes’ model of context, another more successful Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ translated version of “Prison Diary – first page of the diary” will be introduced in the thesis as another options for the reader Scope of the study: In term of contextual analysis, there are three models of context from Firth, Halliday and Dell Hyme that are widely introduced to English advanced learners The thesis introduces these three models and explain the reason of choosing Dell Hymes’ model to analysize Then, the two translated versions of ‘Prison Diary – the first page of diary’ will be analysized basing on Dell Hymes’ model of context with comparation as well between two versions Research questions: The thesis will focus on the following questions as below: - Why Dell Hymes’model of context was choosen? - What are the strong points of Aileen Paulmer and Dang The Binh’s version? - What are the weak points of these two versions? - What are the figures that each version achieved more successfully? - In which figure that the version had done better than the other two version? - What does the third version can better to achieve the elements totally? Methods of the study: This thesis was being done by using library research I use some books and many other resources as references that I think related to the subject matter that is being analysized Those books relate to translation, discourse analysis and context analysis that are written by many scholars and I also browse some opinions about Prison Diary, Prison Diary – First page of the Diary from the internet to add my understanding In doing the analysis, I some steps as follows: Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ 5.1 Data collecting: For the first step, I read Dell Hymes’ model of context to know about the criteria which will be used to analysize the two texts, especially the definition of each criteria Then, I read Prison Diary – First Page of the Diary poem to get a full understanding of what is written I did not only read the tranlation versions of the poem by Ailleen Palmer and Dang The Binh but also read the original text of the poem which is in classical Chinese The primary source of the data is the poem itself I underlined and collected the words, the phrases of the translation versions that may need to be analysized or be different in meaning with the original classical Chinese version Furthermore, due to the characteristic of Dell Hymes’ model of context elements, several information relating to Ho Chi Minh, Prison Diary, Prison Diary – First Page of the Diary translation versions of Aileen Palmer and Dang The Binh, Tang Dynasty poetry was collected 5.2 Data selecting: The second step is selecting the data All the information that I had collected were being selected and only the very significant data or relevant data were used in the progress of making the analysis of the thesis 5.3 Data analyzing: The last step is analyzing the data I used the descriptive method Descriptive method is a method of analysis by describing and analyzing the data and then giving interpretation and explaination All the selected data were being analysized to prove what are being written in the objective of this thesis and finally I can draw the conclusion for this thesis Design of the study: Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ Part B: Development Chapter 1: Literature review: 1.1 The concept and role of context in discourse: According to Oxford Dictionary, from late Middle English, ‘context’ comes from Latin ‘contextus’ which is – together and texere – to weave ‘Context’ means the situation in which something happens and that help you to understand it In other words, the words that before or after a word, phrase or statement and help you to understand its meaning From the definition of ‘context’, it is obvious that context plays a very important role in discourse analysis “Apart from a very small number of discourse kinds which consist of only one word, phrase or sentence, almost all sentences other than the first one are put in relation to each other.”In “Lectures on Discourse Analysis” (2014: 27), Dr Ho Ngoc Trung defined that ‘context refers to the situation giving rise to the discourse, and within which the discourse is embedded’ The context helps you to interpret or understand the utterance more accurately and securely In translating a text from a language into another language, the first task that the translator has to is to analyse the context which the text occurs in 1.2 Models of context: Linguists have introduced a number of models for contextual analysis In chapter of the book ‘Lectures on discourse analysis’, Dr Ho Ngoc Trung has presented three models of context from J.R Firth, Dell Hymes and Halliday which “are relevant and useful to the translator at work” All of these three models are listed as the table below: Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ J.R Firth Dell Hymes Halliday 1.The relevant of 1.Addresser and 1.The field of participants: persons, addressee: the discourse: personalities, the verbal participants and non – verbal action of the participants 2.The revelant objects: 2.Audience: the 2.The tenor of the surrounding objects overhearers or discourse and events unintended addressees 3.The effect of the 3.Topic: what is talked The mode of verbal action: what about or written about discourse: changes were brought about by what the participants in the situation had to say 4.Setting: the time and place of speech event 5.Channel: the way in which a message is conveyed from one person to another 6.Code: a term which is used instead of language, Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ speech variety, dialect 7.Message form: the form of the text 8.Key: involves evaluation of the text 9.Purpose: the outcome which the participants wish to happen as a result on the communicative event 10 Event: tell us about the nature of communicative events within which a text may be embedded In ‘Translation: theory and practice’, page 42, Dr Ho Ngoc Trung states that “Halliday’s model seems to be the most comprehensive and most powerful one” Therefore, a detailed introduction of two models will be listed in the table below: Halliday’s model Field of discourse: refer to what Dell Hymes’ model 1.Addressor and addressee: Addresssor is happening, to the nature of the refers to the speaker or writer who social ation that is taking place: produces the utterance, and addressee what is is that the participants are refers to the hearer or reader who engaged in, in which the language receives or decodes the utterance Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 10 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ authorities In other poems in Prison Diary, Ho Chi Minh did called himself as ‘free guest’, ‘honoured guest’ ‘And I was thrust into jail as an honoured guest’ It is not an expression of evading the reality but the highest manifestation of disregarding to the reality, escaping from the deficient circumstances The resilent and indominatble of a soldier was emphasized to remind other soldiers who were in the situation be stronger, have more faith in his own ideal But, above all, ‘The First Page of Diary’ sent the message of encouragements to other injustice prisoners whom Ho Chi Minh met in Koumintang jails The message was shown in the last three words ‘自由時 – the day of freedom’ The starting point of the poem is the jail, but the finish point of the poem is the day of freedom This expression was like a fire which light up the dark time of people who were arrested in Koumintang jails other than just showing Ho Chi Minh’s desiration of freedom for himself and for Vietnamese people These three words is like a light of hope that Ho Chi Minh fired brightly for others, present positiveness and the love for life which not many prisoners can think of Therefore, a successful translation in Key element have to deliver these two message in his or her translation Regarding to Aileen Palmer’s and Dang The Binh’s translation, because of the missing of the reason ‘to spend the time’ which was mentioned in 2.1.3 Topic, which means a half of his mental lesson message was not sent to the target text’s readers completely In term of the encouragement message by the three last words of the poems, in spite of some controversial factors of the last two lines in Aileen Palmer’s translation, the phrase ‘bring nearer the day of freedom’ did represented the encourage message from Ho Chi Minh’s poem that can be considered as a succeed for Aileen Palmer in Purpose element Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 31 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ Regarding to Dang The Binh’s translation, the expression ‘the wait for freedom’ is a precise translation of the last three words ‘‘自由時 – the day of freedom’ However, ‘Singing may ease the wait for freedom’, the word ‘ease’ did erased all of the encouragement message from the phrase ‘the wait for freedom’ The word ‘ease’ can be considered as a bowl of cold water that Dang The Binh poured to the fire of hope that Ho Chi Minh lighted up to encourage other imprisoned communist soldiers In conclusion, in translating progress, both Aileen Palmer and Dang The Binh did not translated all of the message from the source text by missing the word ‘消 – to eliminate, disappear,vanish’ which contain the meaning of composing verse to spend the time‘ However, with the thrid and the fourth line despite the controversial point, Aileen Palmer delivered the encouragement message through the expression ‘bringing nearer the day of freedom’ On the other hand, Dang The Binh did not deliver the message or even erased all of the message because of the word ‘ease’ Hence, in this element, Aileen Palmer did not achieve the Key element totally but more successful than Dang The Binh’s translation 2.1.9 Purpose: Basing on the content of the poem, the composing reason and circumstance was represented that both Aileen Palmer and Dang The Binh translated basically successfully with several mistake that mentioned in previous sections However, with Ho Chi Minh’s composing perspective, the main purpose of the poem was the message of encouragement that Ho Chi Minh sent to other injustice prisoners and communism proganda purpose that he sent to other communist soldiers These messages was indirectly shown in the composing reasons which are ‘does not know what to in jail’, ‘composing verse to spend the time’ and ‘recite and wait for the Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 32 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ day of freedom’ From these reasons, the beauty of a resilent, deliberate, positive soldier was portrayed which is the inspiration for soldiers that never surrender to the circumstance As mentioned before, both of the translations did not deliver the reason ‘composing the verse to spend the time’ which is a part of the image of the soldier in Ho Chi Minh’s poetry Hence, both of the translations miss one of the purpose of the source text Additionally, another purpose of ‘the First Page of Diary’ is the hope that Ho Chi Minh wanted to send to his readers by the last three words in the source text The poet Trung Thong Hoang, after reading Prison Diary, wrote: ‘I read hundreds poems hundreds fine expressions The light radiate the young spirit The poems of Uncle Ho, the steel poems But still have the endless immense love’ (Read Uncle Ho’s poems) The light in Trung Thong Hoang’s poem definitely is the light of hope, of ideal that Ho Chi Minh always turn on at the end of his poem In ‘The First Page of Diary’, the light is the last three words At the time of writing Prison Diary, Ho Chi Minh was arrested in Koumintang jail, but he always keep the faith in the day of freedom,not only for himself, but also for Vietnamese people From the prison to the day of freedom, the expression is the light that he sent to all of injustice prisoners who may lost their desiration for the day of freedom Like Trung Thong Hoang said, the poems of Uncle Ho are the steel poems but still have the immense love ‘The First Page of Diary’ is not an exception Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 33 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ Therefore, the two translations have to represent or deliver the light from Ho Chi Minh original source text into the target text As mentioned before, in Aileen Palmer’s translation, despite the controversial problems about the last two line, the expression ‘bring nearer the day of freedom’ did represent the light of Uncle Ho’s poem which can be considered as a successful point of the translation On the other hand, in Dang The Binh’s translation, in spite of putting the word ‘freedom’ at the last like the image of Uncle Ho’s light, the word ‘ease’ did eclipsed the light of the source text which is an unfortunate weak point of the translation In conclusion, both Aileen Palmer and Dang The Binh made an incompeted translation of the encouragement message by missing the word ‘to spend the time’ in the third line However, Aileen Palmer did a successful attempt to represent Uncle Ho’s light in her translation, while, Dang The Binh using the word ‘ease’ did not completely ‘translate’ the light in his target text 2.1.10 Event: Prison Diary is not only a valuable literature work but also a valuable moral lesson for people By writing poems, Ho Chi Minh presented his will which sent out a strong message for his people, his other communist soldiers not during his time but also now, in our recent time Several poems from Prison Diary including First Page of Diary and some other works are being taught at schools in Vietnam Therefore, the event of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ is moral lessons which presented by his metaphors From this point, Aileen Palmer and Dang The Binh did not complete the event element due to the missing content which were mentioned in other sections in their translation Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 34 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ 2.2 Conclusion Overall, in both Aileen Palmer’s and Dang The Binh’s translations, there are several misuse words or controversial expressions that lead to the lack in different element of Dell Hymes’ model of context In Aileen Palmer’s translation, those words like ‘habit’, ‘captive’, the rhetorical question in line two and the controversial translation of the last two lines affected minally the result of the translation in term of the addresser and addressee, topic, setting, message form, key and purpose element of Dell Hymes’ model of context Meanwhile, Dang The Binh’s translation with some misuse words like ‘give myself to’, ‘a captive’ and ‘ease’ as well as the rhetorical question in line two did not achieve several elements of Dell Hymes’ model of context in which the word ‘ease’ could be considered as the biggest mistake of Dang The Binh during the translating progress With a detailed analysis and strict comparasion of the two translation basing on Dell Hymes’ model of context, with a minally more successful in elements like audience, code, key and purpose, Aileen Palmer is most likely to be the translator who did better at translating the work ‘the First Page of Diary’ as compared to Dang The Binh Chapter 3: ‘Prison diary – beginning the diary’ translated by Christopher Henkins, Tran Khanh Tuyet and Huynh Sanh Thong: After listing of all weaknesses of both Aileen Palmer’s and Dang The Binh’s translation, a question was raised to find another better, more successful translation of ‘the First Page of Diary’ as compared to the other two translations among a great number of translations of ‘the First Page of Diary’ After reading and briefly analyzing, the translation of the group of Christopher Henkins, Tran Khanh Tuyet Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 35 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ and Huynh Sanh Thong was chosen as the better translation that can be introduced to all readers and poetry lovers The translation of the group of Christopher, Tran Anh Tuyet and Huynh Sanh Thong was printed in ‘Prison Notes of Phan Boi Chau’ which was a part of the serie ‘South East Asia Translation Series volume 1’ published by Ohio University press.Among three translators, Huynh Sanh Thong was famous for his researches and promotion of Vietnam literature in the USA, especially for his translation of ‘Kieu Story’ which was received widely by poetry lovers ‘I’ve never cared for humming verse But what to in jail? I’ll hum some verse to pass long days I’ll hum and wait till the freedom comes.’ In order to indicate this translation is more successful than Aileen Palmer’s and Dang The Binh’s translation, an analysis of the translation will be listed as below, basing on Dell Hymes’s model of context 3.1 Addresser and addressee: In this element, the translation must be written by common words, simple expressions so that the target text can be understood by most of people Therefore, the phrasal verb ‘care for’ in the first line – as mentioned in 2.1.1 - is not suitable to be used in the translation eventhought ‘care for’ is a common phrasal verb However, there is no more of words or expression that violate the addresser and addressee element except the phrasal verb ‘care for’ It is obvious that the translation of the three translators completed the addresser and addressee element better than the other two translations Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 36 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ 3.2 Audience: In Uncle Ho’s poetry lovers’ opinon, the artistic value and the image of the resilent, indominatcle but still deliberate, positive soldier are the two main factors that create Uncle Ho’s poetry The artistic value of ‘Beginning Diary’ is that the poem was written by common, simple writing style but still follow the strict discipline of Tang dynasty’s classical quatrain Moreover, as compared to the classical Tang poetry, Ho Chi Minh poetry has the difference because he often uses words that have no classic reference which can serve successfully his communist revolution proganda purpose The translation of Christopher Jenkins, Tran Anh Tuyet and Huynh Sang Thong used common, simple words which can be considered to have the closest meaning with original text According to the criteria of the Tang poetry like the seven – syllable – four – line quatrain, Luật (Sound) – Niêm (connection) – Vần (Rhythm) will be listed at 3,7 Message form In term of content, the translation surmounted the weakness of both Aileen Palmer’s and Dang The Binh’s translation which will be presented in the next element 3.3 Topic As mentioned in 2.3, ‘the First Page of Diary’ or ‘Beginning Diary’ was written about the composing reason and circumstance Ho Chi Minh showed two reasons for composing Prison Diary that are ‘does not know what else to in jail’ and ‘these long day reciting verse to spend the time’ In Aileen Palmer’s and Dang The Binh’s translation, as the missing of the word ‘消 – to eliminate, disappear,vanish’, the latter version was not translated completely, while in the third translation, the reason was clearly represented by the phrase ‘to pass long days’ About the circumstance of the composing, it was indicated by the word ‘jail’ in the second Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 37 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ line of the translation The translation of Christopher Jenkins, Tran Anh Tuyet and Huynh Sang Thong not only achieved successfully the topic element but also completed the composing reason of the Prison Diary which was incompleted in the other two translations 3.4 Code: Similar to Aileen Palmer, the three translators used the original Chinese text as the source text Using the Chinese text helped the translators to represent the author’s ideas more precisely and avoid the misuse words or controversial expressions As compared to Aileen Palmer’s translation ‘these captive day I’ll spend in writing poems/ And, singing these, bring nearer the day of freedom’, the translation of the three translators translated successfully the source text without making any controversial facts of content ‘I’ll hum some verse to pass long days I’ll hum and wait till freedom comes’ 3.5 Message form ‘I’ve ne|ver cared for hum|ming| verse But what to in jail? I’ll hum some verse to pass long days I’ll hum and wait till free|dom comes’ The poem was written in classic Tang poetry seven – syllable – four – line quatrain in which a poem contains four lines, each line has seven syllable, the rhythm is at the firt,the second and the fourth line of the poem It can be seen that the translation did not represent the Tang poetry quatrain despite a great amout of effort The Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 38 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ number of syllables in one line and the certain number of each line’s syllable was not represented in the translation ( – – – 8.) However, the term of Vần(Rhythm) appeared in the translation with the word ‘hum’ in line three and four as the second syllable in both lines It is can be seen as the winning point for Christopher Jenkins, Tran Anh Tuyet and Huynh Sanh Thong Even though the translation could not represent the original message form which show most of the artistic value of Uncle Ho’s poetry, with a great effort, the translation still stay closed to the original form and created the rhythm which, compared to Aileen Palmer’s and Dang The Binh’s translation, is a point that the other two transltion can not achieve 3.6 Key and Event As mentioned in 2.9 while analysizing the two translations of Aileen Palmer and Dang The Binh, ‘the First Page of Diary ’ was written about the composing reason and circumstance of the Prison Diary as well as the poem itself Ho Chi Minh also sent an moral message for other communist soliers as well as the light he gave to other injustice prisoners, to people who were suffering inside Koumintang jail With the present of the word ‘消 – to eliminate, disappear,vanish’ , the pcture of the soldier who is resilent, indominatable but can still keep his deliberation, positiveness, love for life was translated completely which was not in Aileen Palmer’s and Dang The Binh’s translation Moreover, the light he gave to other people through his expression ‘自由時 – day of freedom’ a the end of the poem This is the light, the specific characteristic of Ho Chi Minh’s poetry that can not be missed And the three translators did not fail this aspect which was presented in the phrase ‘till freedom comes’ Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 39 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ Additionally, with the success of representing all of the composing reasons, the three translators also achieved the Event element which was not achieved by the other two versions due to their lacking of content In conclusion, with the excellent of representing the two key characteristics of Ho Chi Minh’s poems, Christopher Jenkins, Tran Anh Tuyet and Huynh Sanh Thong did completed the key element successfully 3.7 Purpose With the excellent in the Topic and Key element by translating successfully the message and the light that Ho Chi Minh sent to his addressees, it is obvious that the translation of the three translators not only completed the element but completed the element more successful than the other two translations Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 40 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ Part C: Conclusion ‘In this world, not many political leader can be good at politic, army and foreign affair but also excellent in composing literature works like the president Ho Chi Minh’ said Ms Lady Borton after reading and translating several poems of Uncle Ho Ho Chi Minh success in not only his communist career but also his literature career with a great number of literature works are highly evaluated by both inside and outside the country In his literature heritage, Prison Diary is one of the most famous and successful work that now still is one of national treasure of Viet Nam The poems collection now are still being highly eveluated by many poetry lovers, translators and writers and are still being translated into different languages The poems collection is highly evaluated for its artistic and content value in which ‘the First Page of Diary’ is not an exception As its own title, ‘The First Page of Diary’ is the first poems of Prison Diary writing about the composing reason and circumstance That the Prison Diary was written during the time Ho Chi Minh was arrested in China from1942 to 1943 and was written because Ho Chi Minh ‘does not know what else to in jail’, ‘reciting to spend the time’ However, that composing reason and circumstance portrayed the picture of a resilent, indominatable, never surender the circumstance but still keep his deliberation, positiveness and love for life Moreover, by his excellent in literature, Ho Chi Minh despite his own difficulties in jail, still gave the light of hope, of freedom to other communist soldier, to other injustice prisoners That is the valuable aspects that Prison Diary are widely loved by poetry lovers Since 1960s, Prison Diary was being translated into different languages and Aileen Palmer is the first person who translated the collection into English Moreover, Aileen Palmer’s translation was used as the source text by other translators like the Myanmar poet Maung Sawa Yi (the whistle in the jail – 1966), the Laos linguist Thoong Cham Onmanixon in Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 41 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ 1977… It can be said that Aileen Palmer’s translation played a big role in promoting Prison Diary to our abroad friends during the early time of the publishment of Prison Diary In 1980, another version of English translation of Prison Diary was introduced to poetry lovers The author of these translations was Dang The Binh, the first Vietnamese attempted to translate Prison Diary into English The fact that Aileen Palmer and Dang The Binh is the first foreigner and the first Vietnamese who translated Prison Diary into English intrigued the researcher about which translation is more successful To find out the answer, a contextual analysis was carried out to analysize and compare the two translations The reason of choosing the method of contextual analysis instead of other methods is due to the fact that context plays an important part in the interpretation of discourse There is a dialectical relationship between context and discourse Therefore, in translating a text from one language into another, the first task the translator has to is to analyse the context in which the text occurs Linguists have offered a number of models for contextual analysis such as: Malinvowski’s, Hymes’, Firth’s or Halliday’s Among these models, Dell Hymes’ model was chosen to be the measure of analyzing and comparing two translations because of its clear ten elements: addresser, addressees, audience, topic, setting, channel, code, message form, key and purpose which help the researcher not to be confused by elements like other models.Chapter of the thesis was used to analysize two translations basing on Dell Hymes’model of context Overall, both of the two translation has mistakes on words, expressions that lead to the violation of the target text toward elements of Dell Hymes’ model Firstly, Aileen Palmer misused words like ‘habit’, ‘captive’ and made a controversial expression ‘These captive days I’ll spend in writing poems/ And, singing these, bring nearer the day of freedom’ which cause the violation to the addresser and addressees, topic, code element of Dell Hymes’model of context Moreover, with the failure of writing the Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 42 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ targert text in the seven – syllable – four – line quatrain, the original message form, and having no rhythm in the translation between lines, Aileen Palmer’s translation did not achieve the message form element as well which is the aspect that indicated Uncle Ho is excellent in writing literature work As well as Aileen Palmer, Dang The Binh’s translation was analysized basing on Dell Hymes’ model that several criteria was violated Dang The Binh made mistake when he used the phrasal verb in the first line, the phrase ‘a captive’ in the second line, especially, the word ‘ease’ in the fourth line did violated the key and purpose element of Dell Hymes’ model And, just like Aileen Palmer’s translation, Dang The Binh’s translation was not be able to keep the original message form of the original text To conclude, Dang The Binh’s translation also violated the same elements as Aileen Palmer’s translation did After analysing two translations, the researcher attempted to compare these two to find out which version achieved more successfully than the other and in which element By achieving more successful in several elements like: code, key and purpose, Aileen Palmer’s translation is considered as the better version, However, both of the two translation still had mistakes that violate elements of Dell Hymes’model of context As a result, another question was raised that to find another translation of ‘the First Page of Diary’ that achieved more successfully After reading some others translations from, Keneth Rexroth, Steven Bradburry and the group of three translators Christopher Jenkins, Tran Anh Tuyet and Huynh Sanh Thong, the translation of the group of three translators Christopher JenKins, Tran Anh Tuyet and Huynh Sanh Thong did achieved the ten elements of Dell Hymes’model of context more successfully than Ailleen Palmer and Dang The Binh’s translation which was proved by the contextual analysis in chapter three of the thesis that the Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 43 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ translation from the three translators completed more successfully than the other two translation in elements like: audience, topic, key and purpose Futhermore, the third translation even achieved partly the message form element when attempting to create the rhythm for the translated text Among three translations mentioned in the thesis, the translation of the three translators is the most successful translated text However, the translations of three translators Christopher Jenkins, Tran Anh Tuyet and Huynh Sanh Thong still have some elements to improve to complete the element perfectly like the addresser and addressees, message form element Poetry translation always is a hard task for any translator because of its complex criteria With the love for Uncle Ho’poetry, for Prison Diary, the researcher hope that a more successful translation of ‘the First Page of Diary’ in English can be introduced to readers, poetry lovers Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 44 The contextual analysis of ‘Prison Diary – First Page of Diary’ REFERENCE English materials Brown G & Yule G (1983), Discourse Analysis, Cambridge: Cambrigde University Press Henkins C., Tran Khanh Tuyet & Huynh Sanh Thong (1980), Prison Notes of Phan Boi Chau, Ohio University Press Dang The Binh (1985), Prison Diary, Foreign Language Publishing House Ho Ngoc Trung (2014), Lectures on Discourse Analysis, Vietnam Educational Publishing House Ho Ngoc Trung (2006), Translation: theory and practice, Vietnam Educational Publishing House Palmer A (1962), Prison Diary, Foreign Language Publishing House Vietnamese materials Ngô Văn Tuấn (30/08/2014), Vài nét lịch sử phê bình tiếp nhận ‘Nhật kí tù’, Báo Văn Nghệ Quân Đội Sources from Internet Ditichhochiminhphuchutich.gov.vn Oxfordlearnerdictionaries.com 10.Systransoft.com 11.Vnca.cand.com.vn 12.Wikipedia.com Mai Quynh Ly – K19A07 45