Deviating from the standard in IT translation

Deviating from standard:
hosting the foreign in Italian
translation
Mario Nappo - Università degli studi di Milano

SOURCES
 BERRUTO, G., Sociolinguistica dell’italiano contemporaneo, NIS, Roma, 1987.
 CAVAGNOLI, F., La voce del testo, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2012, pp. 75-94
 HUMBOLT, W. VON., “Introduzione alla traduzione dell’Agamennone” in
NERGAARD, S., a cura di, La teoria della traduzione nella storia, Bompiani,
Milano, 1993.
 SCHLEIERMACHER, F, “Sui diversi metodi del tradurre” in NERGAARD, S., a cura
di, La teoria della traduzione nella storia, Bompiani, Milano, 1993, pp. 143-153.

SELECTING CRITERION
Transparent text
Translucent
text
Opaque
texts
The Catcher in the Rye,
Salinger
The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, Twain
• Miguel Street, Naipaul
• A Ballad of a Happy
Prostitute, Nze
• My Brother, Achebe

Representing otherness
 According to scholars such as Lawrence Venuti and philosophers such as
Friederich Von Humboldt, translation reaches its highest levels if it makes
the reader feel the text belongs to a different cultural system.
 These differences come out especially when the source text is not written
in what is considered to be standard English and when it deals with
characters and lands that are considered to be distant and far from the
mother country.
 To face the trial of the foreign also means to experience the other within
oneself, hence the guiding principle the translator must try to comply
with is to receive the foreign as such.

Translation strategies
 1- The translator leaves the writer alone as much as possible and moves
the reader toward the writer. (foreignization)
 2- The translator leaves the reader alone as much as possibile and moves
the writer toward the reader. (domestication)
"What have you got to eat?"
"I can give you any kind of sandwiches,"
George said. "You can have ham and eggs,
bacon and eggs, liver and bacon, or a steak."
"Give me chicken croquettes with green peas
and cream sauce and mashed potatoes.”
(The Killers, Ernest Hemingway)

 1 – Foreignization
“Cosa c’è da mangiare?”
“Tutti i tipi di sandwich” disse George “uova e prosciutto, uova e bacon, fegato e
bacon oppure una bistecca”.
“Dammi crocchette di pollo coi piselli, salsina e purè”
 2 – Domestication
“Cosa c’è da mangiare?”
“Tutti i tipi di panini” disse George “uova e prosciutto, uova e pancetta, fegato e
pancetta oppure una bistecca”
“Dammi crocchette di pollo con piselli, salsina e purè”.
In the first case, translators deal with readers that have a propensy for letting go
of their own domestic space; they are prepared to embrace a different cultural
system.
In the second case, translators deal with lazy readers that are not willing to let go
of their own cultural system; they read just to fill some time by enjoying the
story.
TARGET AUDIENCE

“The trial of the foreign”
 The foreign is linguistically represented when the source text, along with
standard English (which in novels usually corresponds to the third person
omniscient narrator), is contaminated by the presence of
- Dialects
- Foreign words
- Different languages (e.g. pidgin, in case of postcolonial novels)
The representation of otherness often deals with the reproduction of
orality, hence there could be elements like jargon and devices such as
variatiation of register which contribute as well to represent the foreign or
at least something that differs from the standard variety of English.

The foreign in Italian rendering
There are several common mistakes that might be made when Italian translators
face a source text that deviates from the standard in order to represent otherness:
• Rendering a dialect into another dialect: e.g. translating the
dialect of Glasgow into an Italian dialect, such as napoletano or
romanesco.
• Highlighting the difference: foreign words, a jargon or a variation
of register in the source text might be highlighted (for instance by
the use of italics) in the target text.
• Exoticization: the language of the foreign is translated by using
stereotypes, especially when there are Afro-American characters.
• Erasing: deviations are perceived as grammatical errors (or even
unnoticed!) so they are rendered in standard English.

The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger, 1951
 If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want
to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like,
and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and
all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going
into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores
me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two
hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.
They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father.
They're nice and all--I'm not saying that--but they're also touchy as
hell.
 Contractions, foul language, colloquialisms, reiterations.
 No deviations as far as the syntax is concerned.

The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger, 1951
 Se proprio volete saperlo, forse vorrete che cominci da dove sono nato, e
com’è stata la mia infanzia del cavolo, e che lavoro facevano i miei e
tutto, prima della mia nascita, e tutte quelle stronzate alla David
Copperfield, ma a me non mi va per niente. Prima cosa, è di una noia
mortale, e seconda, ai miei gli verrebbero un paio di emorragie per uno
se raccontassi qualcosa di personale su di loro. Sono molto permalosi,
specie mio padre. Sono carini e tutto – non dico il contrario – ma sono
anche permalosi da far schifo.
 Redundancy of pronouns, repeated use of ’e’ conjunction, polyvalent
‘gli’, colloquial language.
 CRAP  “stronzate” NOT “fesserie, scemenze”  percieved as
vulgar, particularly in 1950s US  qualitative impoverishment.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain, 1884
 “You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name
of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was
made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things
which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never
seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or
the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly -- Tom's Aunt Polly, she is -- and
Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is
mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before”.
 Written in the Midwest dialect, 1st person narrator, illiterate.
 mainly  maybe  mostly : The narrator loses rhythm. He softens his own
utterances by using adverbs accurately ordered.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain, 1884
 “Voi non mi conoscete a meno che non avete letto un libro che si chiama
Le avventure di Tom Sawyer, ma fa lo stesso. Quel libro l’ha scritto il
signor Mark Twain, che ha detto la verità, in genere. Un po’ di cose le ha
pompate, ma in genere ha detto la verità. Fa niente. Non ho mai visto
nessuno che non dice palle, prima o poi, a parte zia Polly, o la vedova, o
forse Mary. Zia Polly, – sì la zia di Tom – e Mary e la vedova Douglas
sono tutte in quel libro, che di solito è un libro vero, solo un po’ pompato,
come dicevo prima ”.
 Without (prep.) NOT Unless (conj.)  deviating from the standard too by using
the indicative. Huck is illiterate: if the translator used Italian subjunctive he/she
would erase the deviation.
 NATURALIZATION:
che non dice palle  che non dica bugie
un po’ pompato  un po’ esagerato Mario Nappo - Università degli studi di Milano

Postcolonial writing and translation
 Postcolonial writers take the language of their colonizers (English, in this case)
and turn it on its head.
 Their language is contaminated: they twist the English language spoken in the
Mother Country around by counterposing their native language to it. This
leads to many hybridisation phenomena.
 They want to stress the difference between the Received Standard English and
their native language even as an act of defiance.
 Along with Standard English they write in dialect, make the language sound
spoken instead of written, use native words which are almost incomprehensible
to readers because they are deeply-rooted in author’s native land.
 Translators MUST take these points into account and try to render that act of
defiance in the target text.

Italian rendering of postcolonial texts
 It is assumed that deviations must not be ignored or
standardized. Translators must pay respect to the cultural
belonging of the author.
 In order to make the readers feel the foreign, when
translating the language of a postcolonial author (a pidgin, a
creole, a dialect) the resources available to the translator are
found in the registers present in the oral form of the
receiving language, in colloquial and informal language and
in deviations from the standard language to which oral
language is susceptible.
 When translating a novel by a postcolonial author, the
greatest challenge is to avoid reducing the language
variance of the text

Linguistic devices: deviating from the Italian
standard language
 Favour paratactic structures and avoid the more complex hypotactic structures as
much as possible
 Opt for verb tenses that are closer to those used in oral language (passato prossimo
instead of passato remoto)
 Dislocation (left and right) of pronouns (Il giornale lo compra lui)
 Overuse the pronouns che and gli
 Avoid the use of subjunctive in favour of indicative; Verbs that require the use of
subjunctive (penso, credo) should be avoided as well in favour of colloquial
expressions such as ”mi sa che" followed by indicative: penso che sia giusto  mi sa
che è giusto)
 Use conditional simplified forms (se lo avessi saputo, sarei venuto  se lo sapevo,
venivo)
 Use aphaeresis (questi  ‘sti) and contractions (sono fatto così  son fatto così)
 Privilege verbs with a more general meaning, such as fare.
 Use various forms of imperfect tense (e.g. courtesy: vorrei una birra  volevo una
birra)

Miguel Street, V. S. Naipaul, 1986
One day I said to Popo, “Give me something to make”.
Un giorno dissi a Popo, “Mi dà qualcosa da fare?”
“What you want to make?” he said.
“Cos’è che vuoi fare?” disse.
It was hard to think of something I really wanted.
Era difficile pensare a cosa volevo fare veramente.
“You see”, Popo said “You thinking about the thing without a name”
“Vedi” disse Popo “Pensi alla cosa senza un nome”
Eventually I decided on an egg-stand.
Finalmente mi decisi per un portauovo.
“Who you making it for?” Popo asked. “Ma”. He laughed. “Think she going to use it?”.
“Per chi è che lo fai?” chiese Popo. “Ma”. Si mise a ridere. “Poi pensi che lo usa?”.

Effacement of the superimposition of
languages
 “Think she going to use it”  ”Poi pensi che lo usi?”
“What you want to make?”  “Cosa vuoi fare?”
 This is a deforming tendency that causes the most substantial translation loss. In a novel this
tendency arises whenever the standard language of the mother country interacts with the local
English: in Naipaul’s Miguel Street the English of the mother country is placed alongside the
English of Trinidad.
Ennoblement
“He said”; “I said”; “Popo said”; “Popo asked”.
 Elevating the register by rewriting the source text in an elegant style.
 Naipaul’s writing style is polished and simple. In this case all of the reiterations above must be
respected; translator’s task is to avoid the use of synonyms (domandare, proferire, enunciare)
and comply with the linguistic variety of the source text (chiedere, dire).

Miguel Street, V. S. Naipaul, 1986
A woman selling soft drinks passed in front of us.
Una donna che vendeva bibite ci passò davanti.
Hat said, “How you selling this thing you have in the glass and them?”
“Quanto me la fa quella roba lì col bicchiere e tutto?” chiese Hat.
The woman said “Six cents a glass”
“Sei centesimi a bicchiere” rispose la donna.
Hat said “I want the wholesale price. I want thirteen”
“Voglio il prezzo all’ingrosso. Ne voglio tredici”.
The woman said, “These children is all yours?”
“Son tutti suoi sti bambini?” disse la donna.
Hat said “What wrong with that?”
“Che cosa c’è che non va?” rispose Hat.
TO BE
OMISSION
• SINGULAR
instead of
plural (are).
• ZERO copula.

A ballad of a happy prostitute, Alfie Nze, 2007
 “But what did I say? I no remember wetin
I say, if you no wan continue I dey comot,
my boyfriend go soon come”
[…]
Who be the slave? Na you be slave,
I beg ni waste my time with this una slave nonsense!
Why you de ask me all this question, you come
fuck abi you wan play saviour?)
 “Ma cos’è che ho detto? Mica me lo ricordo,
se non vuoi che continuo la finiamo qui,
tra poco arriva il mio ragazzo”
[…]
Ma quale schiava? La schiava qui non sono io,
per favore non farmi perdere tempo con ste cazzate sulle schiave!
Perché mi fai tutte ste domande, se qui
per scopare o vuoi fare il salvatore?”
(translated by Marta Donati)

My Brother, Chinua Achebe, 1997
 Me no get dat chupidness, man.
Io una stupidata così non la becco di certo, per la miseria.
 Me hear you a come but me no think you a come fo’ true.
L’avevo sentito che venivi ma mica pensavo che venivi davvero.
 Me wek wutlessness ah me life, man.
La mia vita l’ho buttata via.
 Come on, man, yam up you food.
Su dài, bello, mangia tutto.
(translated by F. Cavagnoli)

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