Ilda POSHI

ilda.poshi1982@gmail.com

CULTURE - SPECIFIC ITEMS AND LITERARY TRANSLATION

Abstract
In most societies literary translation is of vital importance for the very progress of the human
society. Meanwhile, within this field, translation of culture -specific items is the challenging task
to be performed by a translator. Translation is mainly concerned with a multitude of human
relationships, involving the transposition of thoughts expressed in one language by one social
group into the appropriate expression of another group. It entails a process of cultural de-
coding, re-coding and en-coding. More and more each day cultures are brought into greater
contact with one another and the translator is greatly entailed with numberless of multicultural
considerations. Therefore, they influence us when we are trying to comprehend a text before
finally translating it. This is because we are not just dealing with words written in a certain time,
space and sociopolitical situation but in a certain "cultural" aspect that should be taken into
account. This whole process is reflected before the eyes of the target reader and it should make
him feel the text credible. Thus, in the present paper attempts are made to explore the concept of
literary translation. Finally, the discussion is restricted to culture-specific items, presenting the
possible relevant solutions.
Keywords: literary translation, culture-specific items, source language, target language,
visibility and invisibility of the translator

1. INTRODUCTION

Translation is a widely spread phenomenon and so widely differently understood. This is why we
all have bumped into different definitions and each reflects a specific core model based on one or
more theories. On the other side, as translation is a process that is evolved between humans –
humans of different or same cultures, the term 'culture' addresses three relevant specifications
within the human cycle:
a) 'personalization' – we are individuals, we think and function as such using language;
b) 'collectiveness,' - we think and function always in a social context in the same language
or in different languages; 'expressiveness,' – an essential part of the language, it is the way
society expresses itself in relation to its
c) individuals and their thoughts and functions,
According to the American theorist Lawrence Venuti, translation is "a process by which the
chain of signifiers that constitutes the source-language text is replaced by a chain of signifiers in
the target language which the translator provides on the strength of an interpretation" (Venuti
1995: 17). Its aim is: “to bring back a cultural other as the same, the recognizable, even the
familiar; and this aim always risks a wholesale domestication of the foreign text, often in highly
self-conscious projects, where translation serves an appropriation of foreign cultures for
domestic agendas, cultural, economic, and political.” (Venuti 1995: 18)
In Venuti's view, the viability of a translation is established by its relationship to the cultural and

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social conditions under which the translation is produced and read.
2. LITERARY TRANSLATION

Of all the types of translation, literary translation has engaged the most persistent minds of
theorists such as Landers, Bush, Lambert, Newmark. All have been concerned with the process
of literary translation, the translator, the reader. They have come up to several considerations
about this type of translation and especially treating it indispensably related to culture.
 According to Landers, literary translation “lets one consistently share in the creative
process of translation” (Landers 2001: 4-5); "literary translation entails an unending skein of
choices" (Landers 2001: 9).
 According to Bush, literary translation is "an original subjective activity at the center of a
complex network of social and cultural practices" (Bush 1998: 127).
 According to Lambert, "a published translation is the fruit of a substantial creative effort
by the translator, who is the key agent in the subjective activity and social practice of
translation."
 Newmark concedes that “it usually happens that the literary translator first has to deal
with words set on the page by an author ‘who may be dead physically or metaphorically and now
lives in the variegated readings by a host of readers of the source language’ ” (Newmark 1998:
117).

First, literary translation has to do with a text, which in turn implies reading, repeated research
and enables the translator to identify patterns important for the process of conveyance.
Therefore, literary translation is an imaginative rewriting of the existent patterns making new
ones in a different language based on a personal reading, interpreting and activity of the
translator, based on what he believes it is the intention of the original author.

Second, the previously mentioned idea means that, the process of literary translation is different
from translator to translator, because what one translator imagines to convey is inevitably
different from what another does. Moreover, the process is influenced by the particular work
chosen for translation. Thus, the reader is introduced to several versions, imaginary thinking and
activity and can create an idea of how much has one translator been accurate and used language
elegantly; how and how much has one tried to overcome the linguistic barriers maintaining the
individuality of the source text author and the target text normal usage of language; how
selective has one translator been in finding a representative work for translation or how much
particular is the archetypal use of language or the feeling it invokes in the source culture.

Third, what the translator aims at is publication. Hence, we should think of an existent market
for that literary translation. When we rewrite a chosen source-text, we want it to be seriously
reflecting the thought, emphasis, style or rhythm and sound, if it is poetry. Thus, we aim at
producing new patters with the same moral and aesthetic power of the ST, pleasing while read,
informative and functional but most importantly accurate and economically written. This means
that all patterns, involved in a ST, entering the process of transference from one language /
culture to another, should not be neither overestimated nor underestimated. They should meet the
same rates of function, accuracy and aesthetics of the ST patterns. Particularly, when it comes to
elicit all the connotations, poly-semantic words and expressions, adapting cultural metaphors or
transforming fictional proper names maintaining their meaning and morphological features.

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Finally, we can’t always define the conditions the translation process will take place, be evolved
or investigated. There are many literary works which are imported from one language / culture to
another so, we should employ in studying systematically the core issues in the development of
literatures. Literary translation is not an exact science, like math, it does not have the right
answers built on formulas. It is mainly of subjective essence and as such it must be considered
open to several alternatives and each alternative is assigned as the solution to one problematic.
Many are the problematic of translation. We all should seek for publication. Translating for
pleasure is one thing, but if we are dedicated to our work we should share this with our target
readers or critics; we should fulfill the need to get an analysis of the strategies we have followed
or explain the dynamics of culture and traditions, we need to relate to the target reader in seek of
communication, discourse and descriptive research. Therefore, we can create a profile of the
literary work translated in a new established environment, watch it grow up or understand how
much of the problematic it occupies and if it incites interest to the target reader, critic and to the
theory of translation as a whole. All cultures have norms and models. We should make these
norms and models meet to understand the real dynamic change of language. One literary
translation is a cultural product of a certain era, evolved in a significantly changing environment,
influenced by cultural factors.

3. CULTURE-SPECIFIC ITEMS IN LITERARY TRANSLATION

Many theorists have been engaged in defining culture, it relation to the translated text and
treating the culture-specific items.
 In 1984 Larson defines culture as "a complex of beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules which
a group of people share" (Larson 1984: 431).
 In 1998, Newmark remarks that culture is "the way of life and its manifestations that are
peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression" (Newmark
1998: 94)
 Schmitt in 1999 maintains that culture is composed of "everything that a person should
know, be able to feel and to do, in order to succeed in behaving and acting in an environment
like somebody from this environment" (Schmitt 1999: 157 cited in Gambier, 2004: 33-4).
 In 1997, Shuttleworth argues that cultural translation is a term used to refer to those types
of translation which act as a tool for cross-cultural or anthropological research.
 According to Nida and Taber, cultural translation is "a translation in which the content of
the message is changed to conform to the receptor culture in some way, and/or in which
information is introduced which is no linguistically implicit in the original" (Nida and Taber
1969/1982: 199).
 Larson notes that "different cultures have different focuses. Some societies are more
technical and others less technical." This difference is reflected in the amount of vocabulary
which is available to talk about a particular topic (Larson 1984: 95).
 Newmark also introduced 'cultural word' which the readership is unlikely to understand
and the translation strategies for this kind of concept depend on the particular text-type,
requirements of the readership and client and importance of the cultural word in the text
(Newmark 1988: 96).
 Baker refers to such cultural words and concedes that the SL words may express a
concept which is totally unknown in the target culture. She points out that the concept in

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question may be "abstract or concrete, it may relate to a religious belief, a social custom, or even
a type of food." Baker then, calls such concepts 'culture-specific items' (Baker 1992: 21).
 Nord uses the term 'cultureme' to refer to these culture specific items. He defines
cultureme as "a cultural phenomenon that is present in culture X but not present (in the same
way) in culture Y" (Nord 1997: 34).
 Gambier also refers to such concepts as 'culture-specific references' and asserts that they
connote different aspects of life such as education, politics, history, art, institutions, legal
systems, units of measurement, place names, foods and drinks, sports and national pastimes, as
experienced in different countries and nations of the world. (Gambier 2004: 159)
 The point in regard to the systematic way of translating a literary text is that "in each
period of time the degree
 of loyalty with regard to interpretation and translation of literary texts varies regarding
the three points of author, reader, and the text." Therefore, the literary translator has to know
well the critical approaches as well as their underlying structure (Abassi 2005: 32).

It results that, culture is essential to understanding all the implications of the literary translation.
The translator should be well aware of the beliefs, attitudes, values and rules of the source
culture , to understand them pro se and to adequately translate them in the target culture. But
translating culture-specific items is a complex experience; we should feel ourselves as being part
of the religious, political, historical and traditional customs and usage of the source culture.
Anyway, we should consider that even a source reader might not be acquainted with the cultural
ideas present in a translated text and thus feel its own culture foreign and consider the present
text a necessary pit of information and communication. As a result, the translation message can
produce the same mental reaction to different readers, the same or different physical or
emotional response due to a foreign stimulus of the source text to them, same or different
cultural experiences meet and change the way the reader reacts or behaves in relation to the
message conveyed. So the translator should convey culturally the content and the intent of the
source message no matter if the receptor reader will decode it according to its own experience or
culture.

Also, the translator should know that if both cultures are similar the probability to find a proper
equivalent is higher than in the case of different cultures. So the translator should be careful in
not distorting the meaning of a cultural term, especially in the case of metaphoric, idiomatic or
proverbial use. There are cases when cultural achievements have been made by one or more
cultures, and this cannot be adequately transferred into another culture where this achievement is
not present. But anyway, there are other components besides culture, such as extra contextual
distinguishing components which remind us of the motivation and the linguistic level of
readership. These are important as well, but persisting on culture-specific items means just
recognize that there are elements deriving from a cultural approach significant in translating
literary texts and in the process of communication.

Finally, the translator must be not only bilingual but bicultural, if not indeed multicultural to
succeed in the cultural transposition of a literary work. In this way the literary text translated
becomes a magnum opus which can even surpass the original in terms of quality, but that
remains an exact replica of the original indeed. This does not mean that it is imperfect, on the
contrary, it makes the text accessible to the target reader and expands new boundaries of

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language. Reshaping without remaining stubbornly faithful to the original language, avoiding
redundancy, makes the literary work respire and present itself without frustration to the target
reader. The target reader then accepts the literary work gradually. It is its own culture that will
provide the appropriate state of naturally embracing the unfamiliar text, because what is more
important than the translation theory is the intuition and sense of language. The literary translator
will just be the hawk-eyed editor especially with the culture-bound wording. Culture-specific
items are a bulk of independently cultural structures which evolve in the course of historical,
political and traditional development of a society; they enrich the language and therefore the
texts where language is used; they help overcome linguistic and aesthetic boundaries between
languages and nations; they make people come out of strictly-framed formations and help them
communicate and emphasize remarkable ideas about ways of accepting one onus: interrelate and
procreate words, feelings… cultures.

REFERENCES

Abbasi, P. and H. V. Dasjerdi (2005) "Literary Translation: Challenges and Choices." In:
Translation Studies, 3, h. 10, 29-48.
Baker, M. (1992) In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London and New York:
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Bassnett, S. (1992) Translation Studies. London: Routledge.
Bush, P. (1998) "Literary Translation." In: M. Baker, ed. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation
Studies, London: Routledge, 127-130.
Gambier, Y. (2007) Doubts and Directions in Translation Studies, The Netherlands: John
Benjamins.
Lambert, J. (1998 )"Literary Translation."In: M. Baker, ed. Routledge Encyclopedia of
Translation Studies. London: Routledge, 130-134.
Landers, Clifford E. (2001) Literary Translation: A practical Guide, New Jersey University
Press: Multilingual Maters.
Larson, Mildred L. (1984) Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross-Language
Equivalence. Lanham and New York: University Press of America, Inc.
Newmark, P. (1988) A Textbook of Translation. New York and London Prentice- Hall.
Newmark, P. (1998) More Paragraphs on Translation. New Jersey University Press:
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Nida, E.A. and C. R. Taber (1969) The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Nord, C. (1997) Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained.
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Venuti, L. (1995) The Translator's Invisibility. A history of translation, London and New York:
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