22 THINKING ITALIAN TRANSLATION

If translation loss is inevitable even in translating single words, it is obviously going to feature at more complex levels as wellÐin respect of connotations, for example, or of sentence-structure, discourse, language variety, and so on. There is no need to give examples just now: many will arise in Practical 2, and plenty more later on, chapter by chapter, as we deal with these and other topics. For the moment, all we need do is point out that, if translation loss is inevitable, the challenge to the translator is not to eliminate it, but to control and channel it by deciding which features, in a given ST, it is most important to respect, and which can most legitimately be sacrificed in respecting them. The translator has always to be asking, and answering, such questions as: does it matter if `I like this wine' does not reflect the nuance between `Mi piace questo vino' and `Questo vino mi piace'? Does it matter if an intralingual TT of the extract from Macbeth on p. 10 loses the richness of Shakespeare's metaphor? Does it matter if `hostess' is exotic in Italian and not in English, and sounds different in each? If È nato con la camicia' is phonically, rhythmically, grammatically, lexically and metaphorically completely different from `He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth'? There is no once-and-for-all answer to questions like these. Everything depends on the purpose of the translation and on what the role of the textual feature is in its context. Sometimes a given translation loss will matter a lot, sometimes little. Whether the final decision is simple or complicated, it does have to be made, every time, and the translator is the only one who can make it.

PRACTICAL 2

2.1 Translation loss

Assignment

(i)You have been commissioned to translate for publication in the United Kingdom the book from which the following ST is taken, adapting it to take into account the impact of Soviet and Russian terms in the West as a whole, not just in Italy. Discuss the strategic decisions that you have to take before starting detailed translation of this ST, and outline and justify the strategy you adopt.

(ii)Translate the text into English, omitting Il 5±7 (from `Benché' to `1193').

(iii)Paying special attention to cases where you managed to reduce signif icant translation loss, discuss the main decisions of detail you took, explaining

PRELIMINARIES TO TRANSLATION AS A PRODUCT 23

what the loss was and how you reduced it. (Number these points in the TT and in (iii), as you did in Practical 1.1.)

Contextual information

The text is taken from a glossary of Soviet and Russian terms that have become part of the Italian language. The glossary is over 200 pages long, and is as much an introduction to recent history as it is an essay in lexicography. This extract is followed by examples of the use of ` ernòbil' in Italian as a noun meaning `sudden disastrous event'. (NB Misprints in the original have been corrected here.)

ST

ERNÓBIL. Italianizzazione di ernóbyl', nome di una località nell'óblast (grande unità amministrativa e territoriale) di Kíev, situata al confine con la Bielorussia, in cui il 26 aprile del 1986 esploseÐcon conseguenze devastantiÐ un reattore della centrale nucleare, la quale era in funzione dal 1978. Benché la 5 città sia stata costituita solo nel 1941, il luogo in cui sorge viene identificato con quello del villaggio di ernóbyl' menzionato nelle Cronache fin dal 1193. [¼]

Le dimensioni bibliche della tragedia di ernóbyl' indussero alcuni ad associarla alle allucinanti visioni allegoriche contenute nell'Apocalisse attribuita 10 a S.Giovanni, laddove, nell'ottavo capitolo, vengono descritti i flagelliÐ annunziati dal suono delle `sette trombe'Ðche colpiranno l'umanita, chiari segni dell'ineluttabile giustizia divina. In particolare venne ricordato il passo in cui si parla del funesto suono di tromba del terzo angelo quando `dal cielo cadde una grande stella ardente come una fiaccola', chia mata Assenzio, la quale investì la 15 terza parte delle acque dei fiumi e delle sorgenti trasformandole in assenzio e `molti uomini morirono perché queste si erano fatte amare'.

Apocalittico, l'evento, lo fu davvero. L'equilibrio ecologico ne risultò sconvolto. Né la scienza è in grado di indicare i limiti temporali dei suoi effetti, 20 lenti e devastanti sull'uomo e sul mondo animale e vegetale. Dal fungo atomico alto circa un chilometro e mezzo levatosi nel cielo al momento dello scoppio del reattore, si formarono nubi cariche di radioattività, che a causa dei venti si propagarono rapidamente portando la contaminazione anche in zone distanti migliaia di chilometri dal luogo del disastro (malgrado ciò abbiamo 25 visto moltiplicarsi in Italia il numero dei comuni alle cui porte campeggiavano cartelli con su scritto `Comune denuclearizzato': ingenuo tentativo di esorcizzare il `diavolo atomico', che non conosce frontiere).

(Nicolai 1994:45±6)

24 THINKING ITALIAN TRANSLATION

2.2

Degrees of freedom; translation loss

Assignment

For each of the following STs,

(i)Give five TTs, one corresponding to each of the five points from `Literal' to `Free' in the scale given on p. 16.

(ii)For each TT, show how far it is a gist translation or an exegetic translation.

(iii)For each TT, write notes on the major elements of translation loss incurred, and suggest circumstances in which these might matter.

ST(a)

(Contextual information. The text is a proverb.)

Ad ogni uccello suo nido è bello.

ST(b)

(Contextual information. The text is from Primo Levi's Se questo è un uomo, an account of his imprisonment in Auschwitz. A trainload of deportees has just got out onto the platform. The `decina di SS' are waiting for them.)

Una decina di SS stavano in disparte, l'aria indifferente, piantati a gambe larghe.