Strategies for translation: Discursive Strategies

In order to understand what the discursive strategies refer to, it is necessary to be

familiar with the applied linguistics domain, more concretely, discourse analysis:

A brief definition of Discourse Analysis:

One starting point is the following quotation from M. Stubbs' textbook (Stubbs
1983:1), in which discourse analysis is defined as (1) concerned with language use
beyond the boundaries of a sentence/utterance, (2) concerned with the
interrelationships between language and society and (3) as concerned with the
interactive or dialogic properties of everyday communication.
The term discourse analysis is very ambiguous. I will use it in this book to refer
mainly to the linguistic analysis of naturally occurring connected speech or written
discourse. Roughly speaking, it refers to attempts to study the organization of
language above the sentence or above the clause, and therefore to study larger
linguistic units, such as conversational exchanges or written texts. It follows that
discourse analysis is also concerned with language use in social contexts, and in
particular with interaction or dialogue between speakers. (Stubbs 1983)

Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August

28, 1963
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed
the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon
light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of
withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of
captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still
not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by
the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years
later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of
material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the
corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have
come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

Translation
Hace cinco años un gran americano, en la cual su sombra permanece
simbólicamente en nosotros, firmó la Proclamación de Emancipación. Esos
momentos se convirtieron en una luz de esperanza para millones de esclavos
negros quienes habían sido quemados por las flamas de la injusticia. Se convirtió
en un día de júbilo después de una interminable noche de cautiverio.
Pero cien años más tarde, nos enfrentamos a la trágica realidad de que las
personas, hombres y mujeres de origen negro todavía no son libres. Cien años
después, la vida de un negro es tristemente paralizado por las esposas de la
segregación y las cadenas de la discriminación. Cien años mas tarde, las mujeres
y hombres negros viven en una isla solitaria de pobreza en medio del inmenso
océano de la prosperidad material. Cien años más tarde, las personas de raza negra
todavía languidecen en las esquinas de la sociedad norteamericana y se encuentra
en el exilio de su propia tierra. Así que nosotros hemos venido aquí, hoy para
dramatizar tal indignante situación.

The strategies used: dialogic properties of everyday communication and beyond

the boundaries of the utterance
Suggested links for comparison:

https://www.um.es/tonosdigital/znum7/relecturas/Ihaveadream.htm
https://www.marxists.org/espanol/king/1963/agosto28.htm
Next, you will find different discursive phenomena that occur when translating a
text of this nature. Discursive strategies are vast and cannot be limited to only a
couple. Some examples of what you have done with Luther King’s: