Difference in association. About bridging the cultural gap when translating Ibsen's En folkefiende
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3351Keywords:
Ibsen in Translation, Japanese, En folkefiende / An Enemy of the People, Cultural gap, Translation problems, Swearwords, Hierarchy in languageAbstract
Ibsen-In-Translation aims at translating Ibsen’s work simultaneously into the languages of: Classic Arabic, Chinese, Egyptian, English, Hindi, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. During the translation of En Folkefiende the group met twice to discuss problems and help eachother’s understanding of the play. This article aims at pointing out some of the common translation-problems the eight translators encountered, and to mention specific problems I encountered in the process of translating the play into Japanese.
During our two meetings, I saw that some problems were language-specific, and that some were common to more of us. We also discovered that some words and expressions are so rooted in the Norwegian culture and that a literal translation of such words and expressions create different associations in the target language. Among the problems we had in common, there seemed to be two main categories. 1: Concepts related to Christian values, and 2: Concepts related to the Norwegian societal organization of the time. Christian values-related problems consisted of translating swearwords, translating the concepts and the associations related to the words ”temperance”, ”atheism” and ”openmindedness”. As for the problems relating to societal organization and political ideology in Norway of the time, concepts relating to the term ”borger” was a challenge for many of us. As for me specifically, I also had the added challenge of fitting the relatively democratic language of Ibsen into the Japanese hierarchical language system.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Forfattere som publiserer i dette tidsskriftet aksepterer følgende vilkår:
- Forfattere beholder copyright og gir tidsskriftet retten til første publisering samtidig som verket lisensieres med en Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International lisens som tillater andre å dele verket, forutsatt at verkets forfatter og første publisering i tidsskriftet erkjennes.
- Forfattere kan inngå separate, ikke-eksklusive avtaler om annen distribusjon av tidsskriftets publiserte utgave av verket (f.eks. egenarkivering i et vitenarkiv eller publisering i en bok), så lenge førstepubliseringen i tidsskriftet erkjennes.
- Forfattere tillates og oppmuntres til å gjøre verket tilgjengelig på nettet (f.eks. i et vitenarkiv eller på andre nettsider) før og under innlevering, da dette kan lede til nyttige menings- og kunnskapsutvekslinger og til tidligere og mer sitering av det publiserte verket. (Se The Effect of Open Access).