Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Línguas Aplicadas
General Translation
PORTUGUESE - ENGLISH
SPRING SEMESTER 2009
Tue. 10.30-12.30 Classroom: 206.A
Wed. 13:30-15:30 Classroom: 211
Teacher:
Elena Zagar Galvão
[email protected]
[email protected]
Webpage: web.letras.up.pt/egalvao
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Work in pairs and decide:
Who wrote the message?
 For whom?
 Where?
 When?
 Why?

FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
This Is Just to Say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
William Carlos Williams, "This is Just to Say" from The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Volume I, 1909-1939,
edited by Christopher MacGowan. Copyright © 1938, 1944, 1945 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. Used by
permission of the publishers.
http://www.favoritepoem.org/poems/williams/
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão



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The same text as poem:
different choices
Different context (author, audience, situation)
Different purpose/function
Different reading/interpretation
Different TT objectives (skopoi)
 Poem is to be translated for publication in a
collection of poems by modernist writers;
 Poem is to be translated for a lecture on W.C.
Williams (given in Portuguese to an audience who
is not familar with the English language) and
distributed as handout to serve as a window onto
the original
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Ao sermos apresentados ao “mesmo” fragmento,
agora rotulado de poema, o que antes era prosaico
passa a ser poético. Como leitores do poema,
membros de uma comunidade cultural para a qual o
texto se enquadra dentro das convenções literárias
estabelecidas, aceitamos o desafio implícito de
interpretá-lo poeticamente e passamos a procurar um
sentido coerente para ele. Passamos a pensar, por
exemplo, nas possíveis implicações da oposição entre
o acto de comer as ameixas e as relações sociais que
esse ato viola. Oposição essa que não se resolve
pacificamente:
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
ao mesmo tempo em que o poema, pela sua própria
razão de ser, reconhece a prioridade das regras,
através do pedido de perdão, afirma também que a
experiência sensual imediata é importante
(principalmente pelas suas últimas palavras “so sweet
and so cold”) e que as relações pessoais (a relação
entre o I e o you) devem antecipar um espaço para tal
experiência.
Enquanto que a tradução do texto/bilhete não nos
trouxe maiores dificuldades, a tradução do
texto/poema nos obrigaria a tomar várias decisões
nada fáceis.
Rosemary Arrojo, Oficina de Tradução
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
If Translation were an animal . . .
it would be . . . because. . .
Complete this sentence individually.
Create a Word file to write this
sentence/paragraph and, when you’re
finished, place it in the Temporary Flupserv
folder (Flupsrv 23).
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Dictionary of Translation Studies
(Shuttleworth and Cowie 1997:181)
Translation. An incredibly broad notion which can be
understood in many different ways. For example,
one may talk of a translation as a process or a
product, and identify such subtypes as literary
translation, technical translation, subtitling and
machine translation; moreover, while more
typically it just refers to the transfer of written
texts, the term sometimes also includes
interpreting.
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
What is Translation? (1)
a)
b)
a process by which a spoken or written utterance
takes place in one language which is intended or
presumed to convey the same meaning as a
previously existing utterance in another language
(Rabin 1958)
the transfer of thoughts and ideas from one
language (source) to another (target), whether the
languages are in written or oral form . . . or whether
one or both languages are based on signs (Brislin
1976ª)
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
What is Translation (2)
c) a situation-related and function-oriented complex
series of acts for the production of a target text,
intended for addressees in another culture/language,
on the basis of a given source text (Salevsky 1993)
d) Any utterance which is presented or regarded as a
‘translation’ within a culture, on no matter what
grounds (Toury 1995).
(quoted in Pöchhacker, Franz. Introducing Interpreting Studies, 2004: 11-12)
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
The basic conceptual ingredients
contained in the various definitions of
Translation are:
an activity consisting (mainly) in
 the production of texts which are
 presumed to have a similar meaning and/or
effect
 as previously existing texts
 in another language and culture

(Pöchhacker, Franz. Introducing Interpreting
Studies, 2004: 12)
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The illusion of a
fixed object of study
There cannot be an objective definition
fixing, once and for all, the ‘true meaning’
or ‘essence’ of what we perceive or believe
something (in this case translation) to be
like.
(Pöchhacker, Franz. Introducing Interpreting Studies, 2004: 13)
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Translation: key concepts
TRANSLATION
WRITTEN
ORAL
Interpreting /
Interpretation
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TRANSLATION
Process (translating)
Product (translation)
General subject field
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
TRANSLATION
The process of transferring a written text
from SL to TL, conducted by a translator,
or translators, in a specific socio-cultural context
The written product, or TT, which results from
that process and which functions
in the socio-cultural context of the TL
.
Cognitive, linguistic, visual, cultural and ideological
phenomena which are an integral part of Translation
as process and product.
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Roman Jakobson, “On Linguistic
Aspects of Translation”, 1959
TRANSLATION
INTERLINGUAL
INTRALINGUAL
INTERSEMIOTIC
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EXAMPLES (1)
Interlingual
You Are Irreplaceable: Change the Way You Look at Your Life
(Paperback) by Augusto Cury
Intralingual
CHANGE website (learning disabilities)
http://www.changepeople.co.uk/default.aspx?page=9539
Harry Potter for Americans
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/help.html#british
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/help/british/sb-b.html
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Examples (2): Intersemiotic
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Examples (3): Intersemiotic
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Some acronyms
SL
 TL
 ST
 TT
 TS

We’ll add to this list as we go along.
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Useful sites:
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International Federation of Translators (FIT):
http://www.fit-ift.org/
European Society for Translation Studies (EST):
http://www.est-translationstudies.org/ (very good resources
section)
American Translation Association (ATA)
http://www.atanet.org/
Institute for Translators and Interpreters (ITI)
http://www.iti.org.uk/indexMain.html
The Nairobi Recommendation (1976), The Translator’s Charter
(1994 Ed.) http://www.jrdias.com/PDF/Translation-NairobiCharter.pdf
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Useful sites (contd):
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European Standard (Translation services, 2004)
http://www.jrdias.com/PDF/prEN-15038.pdf
Helping translators do better business
http://www.translatortips.com/
John Benjamins publishing company
http://www.benjamins.nl/
St. Jerome Pubishing
http://www.stjerome.co.uk/
Rodopi (publishing comp)
http://www.rodopi.nl/
Routledge publishing company
http://www.routledge.com/
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Useful sites (contd):


Multilingual matters
http://www.multilingual-matters.com/
The Translator Interpreter Hall of Fame
http://www.tihof.org/tihof.htm
And many more, which you should
add to your list as you find them
while navigating on the net
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão