SECOND PAPER
Subject: Traducción de textos literarios 14231
Student’s
name: McCabe, Sarah
Title
of the paper: Translation of literary texts
Titles:
Abstract(s):
By
far and away the biggest hurdle I encountered in my translation of the
Shakespearean Sonnets was the consistent use of archaic language. I found various websites (e.g. http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/shakespeare_sonnets.htm)
extremely helping in understanding the meaning of many words and concepts
throughout. For a complete list of the
words I looked up and the main sources to which I referred, please refer to the
endnotes of each translation.
The
word choice causes me a series of problems.
The first stemmed from the descriptive or artistic language used. Many of the words had a great importance in
terms of the overall object and tone on each sonnet. It is for this reason that I concentrated so
closely on secondary sources, listing them wherever possible and attempting to
explain my own thought process.
In
areas, I attempted a more literal approach given the metaphorical significance
of certain words or phrases. In others,
where I felt the meaning could be better expressed in modern-day Spanish, I
looked for a suitable alternative. I
feel my chief concern was to convey the meaning of the sonnets, although I did
attempt to respect the rhythm wherever possible. However, it is my believe that as a
non-native Spanish speaker, I was limited in my vocabulary and as a result,
could be improved upon.
The
time of the play’s publication was the source of similar problems. Language was rather dated in various
areas. Again, a full list of notes and
sources may be consulted in the form of endnotes. Online dictionaries, such as http://www.m-w.com/spanish were a large
source of support.
Given
the descriptive nature of Shaw’s writing, he uses a great deal of adjectives to
describe a single noun. Again, as a
non-native speaker, I encountered difficulties in determining the order of such
words. Various websites (e.g. -http://spanish.about.com/library/weekly/aa091800b.htm)
were referred to in a bid to clarify such problems.
As
with any poetry, and as previously mentioned in relation to Shakespeare’s sonnets,
the selection and positioning of words is hugely important. I relied heavily on external sources such as www.wikipedia.org and www.googleimages.com to visualise certain
concepts.
In
addition, www.thesaurus.com enabled me
to introduce a degree of variety into my Spanish volcabulary
along with the likes of www.wordreference.com,
www.dictionary.com, and www.reference.com. When all else failed, I relied upon the
Collins English-Spanish Diccionario Bilingüe, 2005.