Florea (Gheorghe)_Georgiana_1Master_LLE_optional

Love and translation look alike in their grammar. To love someone implies transforming
their words into ours. Making an effort to understand the other person and, inevitably, to
misinterpret them. To construct a precarious language together.
Andrs Neuman

I decided to translate this excerpt due to the fact that I always enjoy reading a good love story book
that centers on an upper-class couple's impending marriage questioning the assumptions and morals of
1870s New York society. The title is an ironic comment on the polished outward manners of New York
society when compared to its inward machinations. I think that this quote represents exactly what
translating a text is all about, just like our feelings.
Language has certain features like meaning, reference, truth, verification, speech acts, logical
necessity etc. It is through these feature that the linguists try to understand the what and the how of
the text. Any language uses a particular set of signs and symbols to convey a particular meaning or
idea. Beyond doubts language is the most vital component in translation. Translation can actually be
understood as transferring the meaning or the idea from one language to another. It thus becomes
imperative for a translator to understand the meaning of the source text (text to be translated) in the
context in which they are said or written. Different languages give different ways to look at the world
but translation provides us the opportunity to explore and interact with these different views of the
world. Translation refers to carrying the meaning of a text from one language to another. This process
involves interpretation of meaning of the text and producing the same meaning in another language.
There has been a historical debate in the field of translation between word to word (literal) and sense
to sense (free) translation. Linguistic approach can enter both these aspects of translation. However
the sense to sense translation is understood to actually carry to the same meaning as of the source
text. So the translator is expected to maintain a linguistic equivalence between the source and the
target text. Doing so involves an understanding of grammar, convention, idioms, etc in the social,
political, economic and cultural context in which the text is written.
To my mind, translating a text is like playing with structures in the structural and syntax level. From a
lexical point of view there is not much room to work with, but it is always a good idea to try to
achieve fluidity by changing word categories. By this I mean changing verbs to nouns or adjectives to
nouns, switching around the sentence order, or unifying similar concepts that may be separated. I think
that a literary translator must be proficient in translating humor, cultural nuances, feelings, emotions,
and other subtle elements of a given work. Conversely, there are those who allege that literary
translation is impossible, as with the case of translating poetry.
In addition, the importance of context in the understanding of a sentence is therefore emphasized. The
excerpt offers us the possibility of applying the pragmatic approach to translation in order to achieve a
pragmatic equivalent effect between source and target texts; that is, to reproduce the message carried
by the source language itself, as well as the meaning carried by the source language within its context
and culture. The emphasis of this except is on the overall message that needs to be conveyed. Thus the
translator, instead of paying attention to the verbal signs, concentrates more on the information that is
to be delivered.

According to W.v. Humboldt, translation is placed within a linguistic philosophical framework, and he
believes that the inner form of each language is a linguistic reflection of extralinguistic reality which I
think that the excerpt offers, too. The semantic approach of A. Ljudskanov revisits the issue of
translatability, based on the principle of information invariance people smiled a little at the
hackneyed sentiments and clap-trap situations. The excerpt is intended to achieve a communicative
aim, to build an idea of the main characters.
On the basis of the theoretical considerations, the following terms are employed in the present work as
tools: cohesion and coherence of the text involved, intention meaning that there are revealed some
intentions that we can infer from the text. The text is accessible to the reader. I also think that the idea
of the text is conveyed precisely in every detail, especially when Romanian language standards do not
permit the translator to place a word in the same position or use it in the same function as in the
original text. The ideas of the text are formulated by complex structures which are paraphrased by a
simpler form or a single word with a similar meaning into Romanian.
Moreover, concordance of translation is also available in this text He felt himself drawn to her by
obscure feelings. The informative character of the text is full of details Newland Archer could not
pretend to anything approaching the young English actors romantic good looks, and Miss Dyas was a
tall red-haired woman of monumental build whose pale and pleasantly ugly face was utterly unlike
Ellen Olenskas vivid countenance. I also think that the text is relevant, the reader clearly understands
the message. There are also some translation techniques that are met in this text such as the antonymic
translation Archer had left her with the conviction that Count Olenskis accusation was not
unfounded. Here and there when translating the text, I felt the need of changing he grammatical form
of the translated sentences.
To sum up, the text had a rather easy level of translation, it did not deal with so many translation
problems. In my opinion, this is a succesful case when Romanian managed to cope with the translation
of an English literary text which did not imply such a rich vocabulary in describing situations and
characters.