By Rushali Chanana

The selected English text is an excerpt from the novel ‘Divergent’ by Veronica Roth, which is a fictional trilogy followed by two books namely, Insurgent and Allegiant. At 31 years of age, she is an American novelist and short-story writer. The Divergent series was her debut, and also a New York Times bestseller.

SOURCE TEXT:

The test begins after lunch. We sit at the long tables in the cafeteria, the test administrators call ten names at a time, one for each testing room. I sit next to Caleb and across from our neighbour Susan. Susan’s father travels throughout the city for his job, so he has a car and drives her to and from school every day. He offered to drive us, too, but as Caleb says, we prefer to leave later and would not want to inconvenience him. The test administrators are mostly Abnegation volunteers, although there is an Erudite in one of the testing rooms and a Dauntless in another to test those of us from Abnegation because the rules state that we can’t be tested by someone from our own faction. The rules also say that we can’t prepare for the test in any way, so I don’t know what to expect.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:

Le test commence après le déjeuner. Nous nous asseyons aux longues tables de la cafétéria, les administrateurs de test appellent dix noms à la fois, un pour chaque salle de test. Je m'assois à côté de Caleb et en face de notre voisine Susan. Le père de Susan voyage à travers la ville pour son travail, donc il a une voiture et la conduit à l'école et en revient tous les jours. Il nous a également proposé de nous conduire, mais comme Caleb dit, nous préférons partir plus tard et ne voudrions pas le gêner. Les administrateurs de test sont pour la plupart des volontaires de l'Abnegation, bien qu'il y a un Erudite dans l'une des salles de test et un Dauntless dans une autre pour tester ceux d'entre nous de l'Abnegation, parce que les règles stipulent que nous ne pouvons pas être testés par quelqu'un de notre propre faction. Les règles stipulent également que nous ne pouvons en aucun cas nous préparer au test, donc je ne sais pas à quoi m'attendre.

NOTES:

Abnegation, Erudite, Dauntless: Names of factions, in the context of the novel.

STRATEGY:

To translate this text from English to French, I have used the strategy of a literal translation. This is because the text is a very basic one. It does not require any changes in the sentence structure. There are no culture-specific elements, and it pleasant to read in a simple tone. Thus, I believe that literal or word to word translation suits the text and does justice to what the author wishes to convey and creates the same environment. According to Wikipedia, the literal translation is a translation of a text done by translating each word separately, without looking at how words are used together in a phrase or sentence.

PROS OF LITERAL TRANSLATION:

1. It is easier and time-saving. Every translator can agree that word to word or literal translation, is simpler to do than sense to sense translation, and consumes less time, as one does have the task of changing the sentence structure, and of searching equivalents in the target language, to make the text more pleasant and appealing for the reader.
2. Often, the literal translation uses basic vocabulary, thus it has a wider range among people, making it accessible to a large audience. This fact is especially helpful for new language learners to get into the habit of reading texts in a foreign language and achieving comfort in the same.
3. Frequently, literal translation positively influences the target language, the literal translations of foreign phrases and idioms can enter a language and become part of its lexicon. For example, words like RSVP and déjà vu are originally French words, but now have a place in English vocabulary.

CONS OF LITERAL TRANSLATION:

1. Many times when a text is translated literally, there is a loss of beauty and the original text loses its flavour. It is not satisfying to devour and there is no flow while reading. This is where sense to sense translation should come in and improve the standard of the text.
2. There are always some words that are very culture and language-specific. These cannot be translated to a target language without these cultural aspects losing their essence and importance.
3. Every culture and language has a specific way of expressing meaning, using phrases, words, and idioms. These differ from language to language. When a piece of text is translated literally, the meaning of these is lost in the process, thus a word to word translated text can convey the wrong meaning or no meaning at all.

CONCLUSION:

There are several strategies today, regarding how to translate a text, word to word, sense to sense, or even a mixture of both. Literal translation further has many types too. It is important to remember that each has its pros and cons, and various advantages as well as disadvantages.

Here are some key points which a translator must be aware of and follow:

• A translator should have a thorough knowledge of both, the target as well as the source language. Efficiency in both is a must. Or else, the true meaning and flavour which the author wishes to convey will be lost.
• Apart from language, it is very necessary to be aware of the cultural practices of the country to which the language belongs. Every culture is unique, and without knowledge of their rites and rituals and thought process, a translator cannot do justice to the text.