A study on common strategies to translate culture specific items in vietnamese festivals

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON COMMON STRATEGIES TO TRANSLATE CULTURE-SPECIFIC ITEMS IN VIETNAMESE FESTIVALS SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN NINH BAC, MA STUDENT: LE HOANG HAI ANH YEAR OF ENROLMENT: QH2009 Hanoi, May 2013 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG THỦ THUẬT PHỔ BIẾN TRONG CÁCH DỊCH CÁC THUẬT NGỮ ĐẶC THÙ VĂN HÓA CHỦ ĐỀ LỄ HỘI VIỆT NAM Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS Nguyễn Ninh Bắc Sinh viên: Lê Hồng Hải Anh Khóa: QH2009 Hà Nội, tháng - 2013 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Lê Hoàng Hải Anh, class QH2009.F.1.E25, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Date: 24/4/2013 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is my pleasure to thank those who make this thesis possible First and foremost, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Nguyễn Ninh Bắc, M.A, lecturer of Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU This thesis could have probably not completed without his patient, enthusiastic and instructive supervision and encouragement I also would like to express my sincere thanks to all the lecturers in the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education for devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and deepen my knowledge, especially on the major of translation and interpretation over the past four years My special thanks go as well to the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education for giving me the opportunity and permission to implement this thesis Besides, I am heartily thankful to my classmates, who have enthusiastically supported and provided me with valuable suggestions I am also deeply indebted to my family for their constant encouragement during the time Lastly, I would like to offer my regards and blessings to all the readers of this paper I appreciate all the constructive comments on it and hope that my study will be useful for those who also take interest in this subject Lê Hoàng Hải Anh ii ABSTRACT In the context of rapid and strong integration, the translation of books on Vietnamese culture to a global language as English plays an important role in promoting the image as well as cultural identity of Vietnam to the world However, translators who are trying to this have usually encountered with problems of transferring Vietnamese culture-specific words and phrases; thus it has never been an easy task As a result, serious studies on how to accomplish and better this work are necessary and have certain significance As one of many attempts to explore the translation of Vietnamese books on culture, this paper seeks to explore the strategies to deal with culture-specific items in the translation of Vietnamese festivals The study is conducted to find out the most common as well as effective strategies to help translators in general and those who take interest in translating Vietnamese festivals in particular To obtain the intended goal, the researcher firstly collects the samples from bilingual series on festivals by Hữu Ngọc and Lady Borton, including “Tết Nguyên đán – Vietnamese Lunar New Year”, “Tết Trung thu – Mid-autum festival” and “Lễ hội mùa xuân miền Bắc Việt Nam – Spring festivals in Northern Vietnam” Through the deep analysis and synthesis of the samples and data, the research identifies the strategies to deal with the stated problem, and bases on the calculated statistics to detect the strategies that are applied most frequently Each strategy presented is exemplified and analyzed carefully to facilitate readers‟ comprehension Lists of samples and their translation are also provided as a source of reference for those who are interested in this subject iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements i Abstract ii List of tables and figures iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Significances of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 An overview of the rest of the paper CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Translation 2.1.1 Definition of translation 2.1.2 Translation methods 2.2 Equivalence in translation 2.2.1 Nature of equivalence 2.2.2 Typologies of equivalence in translation 11 2.3 Culture and translation 14 2.3.1 Culture-specific items 14 2.3.2 Common problems in translating non-equivalences 15 2.3.3 Common strategies to deal with culture-specific items 18 iv CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Sampling 21 3.2 Data collection procedure 21 3.3 Data analysis procedure 22 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research question 23 4.1.1 Strategies applied to translate cultural items in “Ecology” 24 4.1.2 Strategies applied to translate cultural items in “Material culture” 26 4.1.3 Strategies applied to translate cultural items in “Social culture” 32 4.1.4 Strategies applied to translate cultural items in “Organization, 35 customs, and ideas” 4.1.5 Strategies applied to translate cultural items in “Gestures and 37 habits” 4.2 Research question 39 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION Major findings of the study 41 Limitations of the study 42 Suggestions for further study 43 REFERENCES 44 APPENDIX v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Page Figures Figure 1: Translation methods in Newmark‟s theory (1988) Figure 2: Ratio of culture-specific items in each sub-culture 24 Tables Table 1: Quantity and ratio of culture-specific items in each sub-culture 23 Table 2: Translation of culture-specific items in sub-culture “Ecology” 25 Table 3: Translation of culture-specific items in group “Festive objects” of 28 the sub-culture “Material culture” Table 4: Translation of culture-specific items in group “Housings” of the 30 sub-culture “Material culture” Table 5: Translation of culture-specific items in group “Foods” of the sub- 31 culture “Material culture” Table 6: Translation of culture-specific items in group “Work” of the sub- 33 culture “Social culture” Table 7: Translation of culture-specific items in group “Leisure” of the 34 sub-culture “Social culture” Table 8: Translation of culture-specific items in the sub-culture 35 “Organization, customs, and ideas” Table 9: Translation of culture-specific items in the sub-culture “Gesture 38 and habits” Table 10: The quantity of culture-specific items with existing English equivalents and the frequency of strategies applied in the translation of culture-specific items in Vietnamese festivals vi 39 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the rationale as well as the aims and objectives of the study are stated In addition, the significance, scope as well as the organization of the thesis are also presented 1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study Thanks to recent advances, particularly achievements in information technology revolution, international integration has become increasingly fast and strong, affecting all aspects of a country in both positive and negative ways The sound proactive integrating policies have brought us considerable attainments in various fields, including economy, politics, diplomacy and culture However, besides opportunities, integration also brings great challenges to our country; one among which is the fact that "boundaries are disappearing and distinctions are being lost" (Karamanian, 2002) To be more specific, it is the concern that Vietnamese culture - our national identity - might be dissolved in the flush of other cultures, which will intrude our country in the integration Translation, since long time ago, has played an important role in the development of human race In the modern context of globalization, when the demand for international communication and cooperation become greater than ever, the position of translation accordingly increases as it serves as the bridge between cultures However, in our specific case, translation also has a much more vital implication In the need of culture preservation resulting from national identity concern, it holds true that the translators must convey as fully and exactly Vietnamese cultural values as possible This way translation will not merely be the language transfer but the conveyance of Vietnamese soul and culture - a powerful measure to preserve, introduce and ultimately develop the image of Vietnam to the outside world As a result, the issue of how to translate Vietnamese culture-specific items has long been paid attention However, due to the subtle complexity of a 2000year-old culture as well as the requirement of cultural knowledge for translators, the translation of Vietnamese culture-specific terms into English with their fully communicative and cultural connotation has never been an easy task It is even more problematic in case of translating Vietnamese festival-culture items because of the big gap in vocabulary and non-equivalence between two languages, causing many difficulties for translators and translators-to-be to transfer them All these reasons bring this research into beings The aspiration for selfimprovement, as well as to support translators, novice translators and those who interested in translating cultural issues serves as the inspiration of this research Besides, the interest in researching Vietnamese culture, here from a translation approach, partly encourages the researcher to conduct: “A Study on Common Strategies to Translate Culture-specific Items in Vietnamese Festivals" 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study By researching the methods and strategies to reach equivalent effects in the translation of culture-specific items of Vietnamese festivals, the study aims at identifying the strategies employed by the translator in dealing with culturespecific items of Vietnamese festivals The second purpose is to identify and attest the most common strategies in translating culture-specific items in of Vietnamese festivals Finally, from the picture of current issue, the researcher hopes to suggest some implications for translating culture-specific items in general On this ground, the study seeks the answers for the following questions: What are the strategies to translate culture-specific items in Vietnamese festivals? What are the most common strategies to translate culture-specific items in Vietnamese festivals? oral traditional art like “ca dao”, is only for children Both the two words are generalized as “folk music” whose meaning covers both “ca dao” and “đồng dao” In the book “Wandering through Vietnamese Culture” written by himself, “khai bút” used to be translated by Hữu Ngọc as “opening the pen brush” (Ngo, 2012) Perhaps that translation has not been satisfactory to him, so this time he and his partners have changed it into “inauguration of the pen-brush” by applying translation by paraphrasing From the researcher‟s perspective, this version is more successful than the old one; as “khai bút” is the traditional custom of Vietnamese people – to start to write some first words at the beginning of a new year in an anticipation of scholastic achievements, it is essential to evoke the sense of “newness” and the new translation has attained that Applied the same strategy is the case of “hát giao duyên” – “exchange love ditty”, with “ditty” means short songs The reason why it is not translated using loan word is it is not a kind of musical art, but merely a popular custom for entertaining purpose in traditional festivals The final item discussed in this sub-culture is “phồn thực”; “phồn” means “many” while “thực” refers to the fertility Understanding the meaning of this word as well as the fact that it is kind of faith/belief, the translators use term “fertility cult” to denote it 4.1.5 Strategies applied to translate cultural items in the sub-culture “Gestures and habits” The translations of specific-items of this category are presented in the following table: Table 9: Translation of culture-specific items in the sub-culture “Gesture and habits” 37 Source-text word Công kênh Translated word Carry Applied strategy Translate using a more general word Phá cỗ Enjoy a banquet Translate by paraphrase using related words Lên đồng Enter trances and practice Translate by paraphrase using possession by spirits unrelated words The quantity of culture-specific items belonging to this sub-culture is much fewer comparing to other category, but there are still matters that are discussionworthy Firstly, “công kênh” causes such a challenge to translate it concisely into English; it depicts the action that one person is carried solemnly on the hands or shoulders of one or more person Thus, ultimately the translators determine to use the most typical feature of this action as “carry” to translate it The word “phá” in “phá cỗ” might confuse the foreigners who try looking up this word in the dictionary “Phá” here does not mean “destroy”, but refers to the action of enjoying the Mid-autumn festival banquet Paraphrasing “phá cỗ” as “enjoy a banquet” is thus a reasonable solution “Lên đồng” is another interesting case in this category Not only there is no equivalent for it in English, it is also quite hard to paraphrase it concisely As a result, in order to help the reader imagine how this activity is carried out, the best solution is to use such a long description as “enter trances and practice possession by spirits” 4.2 Research question 38 What are the most common strategies used for translation of culture-specific items in Vietnamese festivals? After analyzing the collected data and identifying the translating strategy of each culture-specific item in the research material, the researcher has listed all the applied strategies as well as their frequency Table 10: The quantity of culture-specific items with existing English equivalents and the frequency of strategies applied in the translation of culture-specific items in Vietnamese festivals Culture-specific equivalents items Translation strategy with existing English Quantity/Frequency 22 Translate by a more general word (superordinate) Translate by a more neutral/less expressive word Translate by substitution cultural Translate using a loan word or loan word plus explanation 19 Translate by paraphrase using related or unrelated words Translate by omission 21 Translate by illustration a It can be inferred from the statistics that Vietnamese culture-specific items that own equivalents in English account for a small proportion (about one-third of 39 the whole) The majority of these items (50/72) require the translators to apply one strategy or another to transfer them into English As can be seen from the table, translating by paraphrase using related or unrelated words is the most common strategy with the frequency of usage up to 21 times The next comes translation using loan word or loan word plus explanation with 19 times used Translation by a more general word is utilized with the third highest frequency Apart from these strategies, translation by a more neutral/less expressive and translation by cultural substitution are also applied, but with extremely small proportion (once for each) It can be also seen that only out of strategies listed in chapter II are actually used in the research material; translation by omission and by illustration are not applied The above result is rational, as culture-specific items are hard to fully transfer into English It is quite difficult to seek a cultural substitution for them because of the culture difference Translating using superordinate and translating by less expressive word are also not commonly applied, as they not facilitate the readers‟ comprehension Translating by omission is not a good choice, as it does not preserve the specific cultural features of the content, thus making no contribution into promoting the culture As a result, it is understandable that translating using loan word and translating by paraphrase are the most prevailing strategies because they have overcome the shortcomings of other strategies 40 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION In the previous chapters, the introduction, the literature review, the implementation as well as the results and discussion have been reported in great details In this chapter, a summary of findings together with limitations and suggestions for further study are put forward 5.1 Major findings of the study Culture and translation are two closely related fields yet have posed many challenges on translators Therefore, this minor study was conducted in hope of contributing to overcome language barrier between Vietnamese and English in terms of culture transposition With exhausted analysis of the collected data, the researcher has come up with some major findings to answer the research questions as follows: Firstly, among seven translation strategies that have been introduced in Chapter 2, only five strategies are actually employed in Hữu Ngọc and Lady Borton‟s books, namely translate by a more general word (superordinate), translate by a more neutral/less expressive word, translate by a cultural substitution, translate using a loan word or loan word plus explanation and translate by paraphrase using related or unrelated words The detailed analysis of examples for each strategy is provided to facilitate the readers‟ comprehension, especially those who want to use this research as a reference Secondly, through the synthesized statistics, the researcher has found out the most common applied strategies, namely translate using a loan word or loan word plus explanation and translate by paraphrase using related or unrelated words Compared with other researches on similar topic, specifically “Some common strategies to deal with non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes” (Phạm, 2011) and “A study on methods and strategies in Vietnamese-English translation of culture-specific items” (Ngo, 2012), this study has arrived at the same result of which translation strategies are used most frequently This similarity not only consolidates the reliability of this study, but 41 also implies the strategies to deal with culture-specific items in general, not only ones on the themes of costumes or festivals It seems that translating using a loan word or loan word plus explanation and translating by paraphrase using related or unrelated words are the most effective strategies to deal with culture-specific items in general 5.2 Limitations of the study This study is conducted under the constraint of time, limited scope and other objective factors; as such, it is unavoidable that it still has some limitations Firstly, the content of three books chosen as samples has not fully covered all the festivals in Vietnam As can be seen from their titles, “Tết Nguyên đán – Vietnamese Lunar New Year”, “Tết Trung thu – Mid-autum festival” and “Lễ hội mùa xuân miền Bắc Việt Nam – Spring festivals in Northern Vietnam”, it is obvious that these books have just focused on the some nationwide and Northern festivals, yet have not mentioned about many festivals which are specific for other regions of the country Though the books have provided various and comprehensive samples on every sub-culture of the theme “festivals”, the data could have been more diversified and representative if bilingual books or translated books on other festivals were available Secondly, the research has just only investigated the translation strategies utilized by Hữu Ngọc, Lady Borton and their group of translators Though Hữu Ngọc and Lady Borton are experienced and prestigious experts in the field of culture and culture translation, their choices of translation strategies not represent all the choices of other translators of this field Besides, the study would be more profound if additional analyses of some minor problems on the authors‟ translation are provided Despite the successful translation of culture-specific items, their work exposes some seemingly unavoidable imperfections, for example the inconsistency of translated version While searching the books, more than one time the researcher could find two or 42 more translations of a single Vietnamese word For example, the word “sớ” was translated as both “poem” and “sacred plea”; but based on the rational consideration, the researcher decides to cross out “poem” and only confirms “sacred plea” as the English word for “sớ” Since the researcher is fully aware of these limitations, most of the findings are considered initial findings, offering the opportunities for further research in the future to validate them 5.3 Suggestions for further study As aforementioned, the limitation of this research lies in the limited number of bilingual or English translated materials on “Vietnamese festivals” theme Therefore, further studies could employ more materials if they are available in the future In addition, further researches can be conducted on different subjects, not only festivals Secondly, further researches on the same topic can investigate additionally other translators‟ works besides Hữu Ngọc and Lady Borton‟s to have a more objective and representative findings, if the time and length limit of the paper allow Last but not least, the research topic – translation of culture-specific items – can be also explored from an alternative approach, such as translation quality assessment 43 REFERENCES Foreign authors Baker, M (1992) In other words: A course book on translation London: Routledge Broek & Raymond, V D (1978) The Limits of Translatability Exemplified by Metaphor Translation Translation Theory and Intercultural Relations, Poetics Today, p 38 Catford, J.C (1915) A Linguistic Theory of Translation: an Essay on Applied Linguistics London: Oxford University Press Gambier, Y (2007) Doubts and Directions in Translation Studies The Netherlands: John Benjamins Halverson, S (1997) The Concept of Equivalence in Translation Studies London and New York: Prentice Hale International Hatim, B & Munday, J (2004) Translation: An Advanced Resource Book London & New York: Routledge Jakobson, R (1959) On Linguistic Aspects of Translation, in Venuti, L (ed.) The translation Studies Reader London and New York: Routledge, pp.113-118 Karamanian, A.P (2002) Translation and Culture Retrieved March 4, 2013, from www.baspeech.com.ar Koller, W (1977) Redensarten: Linguistiche Aspekte, Vorkommens-analysen, Sprachspiel Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Munday, J (2001) Introducing Translation Studies New York: Routledge Newmark, P (1988) A Textbook of Translation London and New York: Prentice Hale International Newmark, P (2006) Approaches to Translation Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Nida, E (1975) The Componential Analysis of Meaning The Hague: Mouton Nida, E & Taber, C (1969) The theory and practice of translation Leiden 44 Venuti, L (1995) The Translator's Invisibility - A History of Translation Routledge, London and New York Venuti, L (2001) The Translation Studies Readers London: Routledge Yowell, Y.A & Lataiwish, M.S (2000) Principles of Translation Libia: Dar Annahda, Alarabiya Vietnamese authors Huu, N.& Borton, L (2008) Lễ hội mùa xuân miền Bắc Việt Nam – Spring Festivals in Northern Vietnam Hanoi: Thế Giới Publishers Huu, N.& Borton, L (2008) Tết Nguyên đán – Vietnamese Lunar New Year Hanoi: Thế Giới Publishers Huu, N.& Borton, L (2008) Tết Trung thu – Mid-autumn Festival Hanoi: Thế Giới Publishers Le, HT & Nguyen, NB (2008) Lecture - Introduction to Translation and Interpretation Studies, PowerPoint Slides, University of Languages and International Studies, VNU, Hanoi Theses Pham, THC (2011) Some common strategies to deal with non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes (Graduation paper) University of Languages and International Studies, VNU, Hanoi Ngo, TH (2012) A study on methods and strategies in Vietnamese-English translation of culture-specific items (Graduation Paper) University of Languages and International Studies, VNU, Hanoi Dictionary and other references Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (3rd ed.) (2008) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 45 APPENDIX Glossary of culture-specific items in sub-culture “Ecology” Word (Page) English equivalent Cau (25) Areca Chuối ngự (25) Royal banana Dâu tằm (25) Mulberry Hoa ban (25) Ban flower (Bauhinia) Hoa đại (25) Frangipani Hồng (25) Persimmon Lá dong (25) Dong leaves Lá gáo (25) Gáo leaves Mơ (25) Apricot Râm bụt (25) Hibiscus Glossary of culture-specific items in sub-culture “Gestures and habits” Word (Page) English equivalent Công kênh (38) Carry Lên đồng (38) Enter trances and practice possession by spirits Phá cỗ (38) Enjoy a banquet 46 APPENDIX Glossary of culture-specific items in sub-culture “Material culture” Group Word (Page) English Word (Page) equivalent Chuông (26) Bell English equivalent Đàn nhị (27) Two-stringed violin Music instrument Cồng (26) Gong Phách (27) Phách castanet Đàn nguyệt (27) Đàn nguyệt Trống (26) Drum Pháo đất (28) Clay (Moon-shaped lute) Câu đối (28) Parallel sentences Festive objects firecracker Cây nêu (28) Nêu pole Quẻ (28) Bill of fate Đèn kéo quân Running-horse Sớ (28) Sacred plea (28) lantern Hoành phi (28) Red-paper Tò he (28) Rice figurine Vàng mã (28) Vocative banner Hương trầm (28) Sandalwood offerings Housings Kiệu (27) Palanquin Bến Thiên Trù Thiên Trù Đền Trình Trình (Self- (30) (The Kitchen (30) presentation) of Heaven) Wharf 47 Temple Chùa (30) Pagoda Đình (30) Communal house Đền (30) Temple Miếu (30) Shrine Đền Lý Bát Lý Bát Đế Đế (30) (Eight Lý Dưa hành (31) Pickled onion Oản (31) Cone-shape Kings) Temple Bánh dẻo (31) Soft moon cake Bánh nướng (31) Baked moon cake Foods sticky-rice cookie Cốm (31) Young green rice 48 Trầu (31) Betel nut APPENDIX Glossary of culture-specific items in sub-culture “Social culture” Work Leisure Word (Page) English equivalent Chủ tế (33) Cantor Giải oan (33) Clear bad luck Ông đồng bà cốt (33) Medium Ông từ (33) Custodian Quan huyện (33) District head Tu hành (33) Lead a monastic life Bịt mắt bắt dê (34) Blind man‟s bluff Chọi gà (34) Cockfighting Cờ người (34) Human chess Đánh đu (34) Swinging Tung (34) Throwing a cloth ball 49 APPENDIX Glossary of culture-specific items in sub-culture “Social culture” Word (Page) English equivalent Âm dương (35) Yin yang Bạch Lệ Đại Vương (36) Bạch Lệ Đại Vương (the God of Farming) Ca dao (36) Folk music Cao Sơn Đại Vương (36) Cao Sơn Đại Vương (the God of Mountains) Chèo (35) Chèo popular opera Đồng dao (36) Folk music Hát chầu văn (35) Chầu văn music Hát cô đầu (35) Cô đầu singing Hát giao duyên (36) Exchange love ditty Hát quan họ (36) Quan họ singing Hát xẩm (35) Xẩm singing Khai bút (36) Inauguration of the pen-brush Nam mô a di đàPhật (36) Nam mô a di đà Phật (Salutations to the Buddha Amida) Phạt vạ (36) Punish Phồn thực (36) Fertility cult Thủy Bá Đại Vương (36) Thủy Bá Đại Vương (the God of Water) 50 51 ... language emphasis Target language emphasis Word-for-word translation Adaptation Literal translation Free translation Faithful translation Idiomatic translation Semantic translation Communicative... the study Thanks to recent advances, particularly achievements in information technology revolution, international integration has become increasingly fast and strong, affecting all aspects of a. .. research aims at supporting translators -to- be of Translation and Interpretation Division - ULIS - VNU as well as novice translators and anyone who has the same interest in culture translation