Microsoft Word Revised Syllabus Ver doc

 
 

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153 
LESSON - V 
PLACE OF STYLE IN TRANSLATION 
Though the style in which a message is conveyed is as important as the meaning part 
of the message, the style in which that message is conveyed is more important. Transferring 
the verse style into prose style or prose style into verse style or explicating what is said 
implicitly or implicating what is told explicitly in the source material are not advisable.
In Tamil poetics, we know pretty well that the meter used in parani literature is 
different from those used in other literary works. The change in style is brought out in 
translation would fetch good name to the translator. In the same manner in prose style also 
every author uses his own style of description and these features are popularly known as 
author's signature. If these author's signatures could be brought into translation, this will lead 
to successful translation.
Practically, however, these are too delicate and intricate jobs to be achieved that only 
a very few translators succeed in their mission. The number of meaning difference between 
the equivalents, the special connotation that had been attributed by the society to some of the 
lexical items, the rhyming, more than one way of segmenting the phrases and thereby arriving 
at different meanings to one and the same phrase or word, etc., are too difficult to be 
translated in an alien language. In these contexts foot notes may be used to describe the style 
employed in the source material. Especially, when there is punning, it has to be explained 
with the help of a foot note so that the readers of the translation may have a complete and 
comprehensive understanding of the translation.
From the above discussion on translation, the following points emerge:
1.
The message conveyed in the source material has to be preserved and not the structure 
in which it is said.
2.
The meaning conveyed by the message has to be translated and not the style.
3.
The closest and most natural equivalents should be employed in preference to the near 
equivalents.
4.
The translation must be readable in the target language.
All these make the process of translation complicated and cumbersome. In order to 
overcome these problems we have to decide which item one has to give priority in the course 
of translation.