Contents
INTRODUCTION.. 3
CHAPTER I THE GIVEN REQUIREMENTS TO THE TRANSLATOR.. 5
1.1 Steps to Translation Quality. 5
1.2 The Ethics of Translation. 7
CHAPTER II THE TRANSLATION ETHICS. 11
2.1 General ethics principles. 11
2.2 Simultaneous Interpretation: Language and Cultural Difference. 16
CONCLUSION.. 28
BIBLIOGRAPHY.. 31
CHAPTER I THE GIVEN REQUIREMENTS TO THE TRANSLATOR
1.2 The Ethics of Translation
... If these first four essays alert us to the responsibilities of the translator and the reader, the final two examine more closely the status of the “original.” What do we mean when we speak of the original language text and its relation to the translation? Must these be seen as a hierarchy, with the original as the ethical and epistemological reference point for evaluating subsequent renditions? As the essays by Jonathan Abel and Emily Apter show, instances in literary history clearly undermine this common assumption as they point to new and different conceptions.
Jonathan Abel argues, for instance, that translated and translation ought to be viewed as part of what Jean-Luc Nancy would call a community, a single ontological order, in which any assumption of a “sacred” original is eliminated. This is especially important in considering a work such as Genji monogatari with its complex textual history. Here, scholars do not have only one original, but rather several. Moreover, Abel effectively shows that Murasaki’s classical Japanese enjoys a range of very different translations into modern Japanese, “in which style is always foregrounded, in which change is assured and in which the original text is far from sacred.” With its historically multiple “origin” and its varied subsequent renditions, translation and translated are best viewed as a “being in common,” a “literacy communism” inviting a careful analysis of similarities and differences.
Similarly questioning the status of the original, Emily Apter insists that all translations are in some sense “forgeries,” since they pretend to a contract of delity they never keep. True, pseudotranslations, such as those by Pierre Lous and Kenneth Rexroth, put the original dramatically into question since these poems never even try to transcribe an original, but only pretend to do so. Yet as Apter brilliantly shows, such examples are not just exceptions to a more general rule. Viewing them as effects of “textual cloning” allows her to broach broader ethical issues surrounding textual reproduction. She claims, in fact, that such apparent “forgeries” reveal a “technology of literary replication that engenders textual afterlife without recourse to a genetic origin.” They thereby substantiate Benjamin’s understanding of translation as that which “usurps the place of the original while ensuring its afterlife.” In this sense, the final essays in this section articulate the importance of translation not only as a means to promote cultural understanding and ethical self-reflection. ...
CHAPTER II THE TRANSLATION ETHICS
2.1 General ethics principles
... The considerations here (accountability for a sub-contractor’s work, the need for the client’s permission, and the disclosure of information to the sub-contractor) [6c) i)] are the same as those confronting the translator in Example 5.
In this instance, the solicitor would also be within his/her rights to seek their own substitute through another agency or freelancer.
Example 5
During a parent-teacher interview at a secondary school you realize that you are not familiar with a particular core subject which students need to pass. The parents of the student for whom you are interpreting need to be advised that their child is failing this subject. You know that there is no equivalent in your language for this particular subject. What do you do?
It is imperative in this situation that you ask the teacher for clarification [5.b) ii)] as the future of the student is at stake and the parents need to know exactly what help is required for the student’s progress.
If you are not familiar with the education system of the State you are working in, you must prepare yourself accordingly before the interview takes place and be familiar with the terminology which is appropriate to the setting and situation.[3.c)]
The accuracy of the information you need to interpret to the parents is very important therefore you need to be competent in the terminology and subject matter. You must not under any circumstances omit information just because you are not familiar with the equivalent terminology in the LOTE or the English language [5.a) iv)].
Example 6
A teacher asks you to contact parents who do not speak English and encourage them to attend a parent-teacher night. The teacher also asks you to take home to the parents their child’s school report and explain it to them. What do you do? ...
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001); also Globalization and its Discontents (New York: New Press, 1998).
2. Neal Sokol, “Translation and its Discontents: A Conversation with Ilan Stavans,” The Literary Review 45 (3), spring 2002, p. 554.
3. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983) ...
