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Introduction: texts and contexts
In this chapter we will be working with the theme of identifiable people and places. The most important area of work for translators that involves specific geographical locations is tourism. These locations will frequently be significant cities, and the museums, galleries and historical buildings in them. The texts chosen for translation in this chapter represent different approaches: one that aims to capture the atmosphere and history of a city and another that aims to use very few words to convey all that is on offer in a new museum. Audiences for tourist material translated into English are many and varied. Those being targeted via the internet may well not be native speakers of English, and you are translating with a screen display in mind. Paper brochures and information sheets may be aimed at more specific audiences: visitors to museums can often choose between materials in a number of languages. Translators of tourist materials require different kinds of knowledge: topographical information will enable them to navigate a place; architectural and historical information will enable them to understand what it is they are seeing; cultural information will help to give them a sense of the rich visual, written and musical culture of Flanders and the Netherlands.
The first text is web-based and was written to introduce a poem about the Dutch city of Utrecht composed by Onno Kosters for the website www.citybooks.eu/. It is a contemporary text, though it also looks back to the history of Utrecht. In a similar way, the second text, which is also taken from a website, introduces the new Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp, which presents the history of the city. Since both texts deal with real places, it is very important that translators do some preliminary research using the internet. Web-based resources are too numerous to list, and should be approached critically unless they are official websites of institutions. Information should always be cross-checked using more than one source before you include it in your translation. In the case of Utrecht and Antwerp, you should use the municipalities’ own websites first: http://www.utrecht.nl/smartsite.dws?id=13353 and http://www.antwerpen.be/. As in the case of Antwerp, not all cities have information available in English, so you can add the official tourist site to see how they refer to themselves in English, for example: http://www.visitantwerpen.be/bze.net?id=1470. Maps are also an important tool of the trade available to all through the internet, so a good translator will make sure that s/he uses names and terms that English-speaking readers will be able to find on a map. In the case of the second text, the actual website of the museum can be used to give you a good sense of the surroundings that are referred to in the text, e.g. de stad, de stroom, en de haven – the website makes it clear that we are dealing with a large river and port. Such knowledge subtly informs the way you translate.
As this is the opening chapter, and as all the chapters follow the same model, here is our approach in outline: we break up the translation of our texts in stages. Once you have gained more experience, you may want to develop your own set of actions, which may well be differently structured. The steps we use are as follows.
1 The first stage combines an initial read-through of the text with research and reflection on your target audience.
2 The next stage involves analysis of linguistic features of the text, or word and sentence meaning.
3 The final stage involves an assessment of the style of writing, and the importance of style for the target text and its audience.
4 Produce your first draft of the translation.
5 Read through and revise.
Text 1: Alles en niets
The first text in this chapter is best understood in the context of the project of which it is part. It aims to provide web-based literary pieces that are mainly about European cities by a number of European writers, each writing in his or her own language with a translation in English or French. The stories are presented both for listening and reading. The extract below is actually the introduction to a collection of poems inspired by the city of Utrecht.
Alles en niets
To sympathise with the pains of love, you must share in its feelings.
Belle van Zuylen aan James Boswell, 15 juni 1764
‘Herinnert ge u dien laatsten avond niet’
sprak ze ‘toen ik uw tranen heb ontzien
en zonder meer de wereld achterliet?’
Martinus Nijhoff, Awater
(‘Bij helder weer is de toren vanaf een afstand
van vijftig kilometer zichtbaar.’)
Alles en niets bestaat uit negen met elkaar verweven gedichten, die zelf telkens uit twee ‘hoofdstukken’ bestaan: een verhalend gedeelte en een reflectie.
Rode draad is het ontstaan van het landschap waaruit Utrecht zou verrijzen, en de stichting en ontwikkeling van de stad en haar omgeving. We volgen Utrecht vanaf de Romeinse tijd via de storm in de 17e, de liefde in de 18e en de stadsuitbreidingen van 19e eeuw naar het heden. In een visioen wordt ons ook een blik gegund in de toekomst, meer precies het jaar 2108, als de wijk Ondiep een paradijs is geworden en de hoogste wolkenkrabber van Nederland, de Belle van Zuylen, toch gebouwd blijkt te zijn.
Personages in Alles en niets zijn de stad zelf en Martinus Nijhoffs Utrechtse held Awater uit het gelijknamige gedicht, gepubliceerd in 1934. Hoofdrollen zijn evenwel weggelegd voor de schrijfster Belle van Zuylen en de Schotse biograaf James Boswell, die elkaar in 1764 in Utrecht leerden kennen. Er ontstond een relatie, waarvan de precieze aard onbekend is gebleven. Uit de correspondentie tussen de twee is evenwel af te leiden dat er in elk geval van Boswells kant van verliefdheid sprake was. Deze werd door Belle van Zuylen (door Boswell ook ‘Zélide’ genoemd) nooit helemaal beantwoord. Alles en niets citeert onder meer uit de briefwisseling tussen de twee en brengt hen in heden, verleden en toekomst tot leven.
Source: Onno Kosters, Alles en niets. citybooks 2010. Online at: http://www.citybooks.eu/nl/steden/citybooks/p/detail/alles-en-niets (accessed 18 November 2013).
1. Translation strategies and techniques
Before you start, here is a simple technique you might like to use: if you have access to a scanner or photocopier, make a copy of the text so that you can highlight things, colour code or simply write notes. It helps to engage actively like this with the text you are about to translate. Below are two key questions to help you make a first analysis. The first concerns background knowledge relevant for understanding the text, while the second involves reflection on your target audience.
i. What are the first things that you notice about the text?
– It looks varied, with a quote, a poem, a line between brackets, and two paragraphs.
This suggests that the translation will need to adopt different voices and modes of writing. NB: In this case, we do not expect you to translate the poem, though we have included a previously published translation in the sample translation on page 15.
– It is describing a poem on the website as well as the city of Utrecht.
Research is needed both on Utrecht, depending on how much you already know, and into the rest of the website from which the passage is taken.
– It mentions three names – Martinus Nijhoff, Belle van Zuylen and James Boswell – as well as the more mysterious Awater.
Background research improves the confidence with which you approach a translation, so do a search for the names to find out whether they refer to real historical people. Taking the example of Martinus Nijhoff, googling this name produces two rather different results, one of which is the name of a Dutch publishing house and the other of a Dutch poet. The text provides two different kinds of information, which makes it clear that we are dealing with the poet – first of all, his name appears underneath the poetry quotation at the top of the document and, second, in the main part of the text the figure ‘Awater’ is described as Martinus Nijhoff’s held (‘hero’) in the gedicht (‘poem’) of the same name.
ii. What do you know about the target audience for your translation and how will it affect your translation?
Here is another simple technique to help you decide how to pitch your translation – that is, what adjustments to make for your target audience: if you do not have a specific translation brief, e.g. from an agency, it is best to give yourself one. This will guide many of your translation decisions and ensure consistency.
The brief for this particular text is to translate it for a non-Dutch-speaking European audience who have found the citybooks online and would like access to them. In this case, it is worth noting that English will not be everyone’s first language. What are the important differences between the source text (ST) audience and the target text (TT) audience? There is one big difference: that the ST audience can be expected to be familiar with Dutch culture and know something about Utrecht, which is an important city in the Low Countries. This means that you must try to imagine yourself in the new reader’s position, with the result that you may have to provide additional information for readers less familiar with the source culture. Take the example of de wijk Ondiep: your research should have told you that this is a part of the city where there have been riots. This knowledge helps to explain why the writer of the piece might want to imagine that it een paradijs is geworden. You could consider adding some background information, perhaps by inserting an adjective to give ‘the troubled district of Ondiep’ rather than the more neutral ‘district of Ondiep’.
2. Text and language
This step is crucial since it determines the accuracy of your translation. You will find a bibliography of reference works, including grammars, at the back of the book.
i. Words and expressions
Go through the text and highlight all the unfamiliar words and all those you recognise but are uncertain about. Here are some examples of tricky words, together with suggestions for approaching them.
Verweven: in the translation dictionary you will find this word given as the infinitive of a verb meaning ‘interweave’. However, it behaves more like an adjective in the sense that it appears before gedichten. If you look up verweven in a Dutch-only dictionary, it should tell you that the past participle has the same form as the infinitive. In other words, verweven can also me...
