A Study of Thomas Tidholm's Translation of the Hitch Hiker's
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2005:087 C EXTENDED ESSAY A Study of Thomas Tidholm´s Translation of The Hitch Hiker´s Guide to the Galaxy Annika Riekkola Luleå University of Technology C Extended Essay English Department of Language and Culture 2005:087 - ISSN: 1402-1773 - ISRN: LTU-CUPP--05/087--SE Abstract The purpose of this paper was to determine whether Thomas Tidholm’s translation of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a near equivalent of the original text, especially regarding humorous material. For the study of this problem, the English text was read in parallel with the Swedish translation and the material was restricted to every tenth page. A number of linguistic areas were analyzed: proper names, invented words, metaphors, similes, additions, omissions, mistranslations and wordplay. Overall, the study shows that Tidholm’s translation is quite faithful to the original text and many linguistic features have been translated fairly directly. Although several mistranslations are found in the analysed material, they are not severely damaging to the text. The study also demonstrates that much of the humour is preserved or recreated in the translation. 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Aim.........................................................................................................................2 1.3 Method and material............................................................................................... 2 1.4 Outline .................................................................................................................... 3 1.5 Key to abbreviations............................................................................................... 3 2. Translation theory......................................................................................................... 4 2.1 History and definitions ........................................................................................... 4 2.2 Difficulties in translation........................................................................................ 5 3. Analysis of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy..................................................... 7 3.1 Proper names .......................................................................................................... 7 3.1.1 Personal names ................................................................................................ 7 3.1.2 Geographical names ........................................................................................ 8 3.2 Invented words/terms ............................................................................................. 9 3.3 Metaphors and similes.......................................................................................... 11 3.3.1 Metaphors ...................................................................................................... 11 3.3.2 Similes ........................................................................................................... 14 3.4 Additions .............................................................................................................. 16 3.5 Omissions ............................................................................................................. 17 3.6 Mistranslations ..................................................................................................... 18 3.7 Wordplay .............................................................................................................. 22 4. Summary and conclusion ........................................................................................... 25 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 28 1. Introduction 1.1 Background Translation enables a great number of people to gain access to a wide assortment of literary works from all over the world, thus pushing cultural horizons and expanding human knowledge and imagination. However, since translation involves the procedure of transferring a text from one language to another, i.e. from a source language to a target language (Munday 2001:5), this process is lined with several intricate difficulties. As there is no complete correspondence between any two languages, a word-for-word translation is next to impossible. Consequently, the translation will differ, more or less, from the original. The question is how, and to what degree? It can perhaps be argued that some works are, at least in certain aspects, more challenging to translate than others. One such candidate may reasonably be the cult classic The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams; profuse with humorous and satirical language, this science fiction novel also features a vast number of invented names and words, most of which are usually quite unlikely. Therefore, it is of special interest to determine whether the original impression of the novel, and especially its wit and humorous aspects, are retained in translation. At the time of the author’s demise in the spring of 2001, The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy had sold more than 14 million copies worldwide (Harris 2001). The classical book has also been adapted for the screen and will be shown on Swedish cinemas in July 2005. In this study, the Swedish translation of the first four parts of Adams’ novel will be analyzed: ‘The Hitch Hiker’s guide to the Galaxy’, ‘The Restaurant at the End of the Universe’, ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ and ‘So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish’. These have all been translated by Thomas Tidholm, a distinguished poet, playwright and author of children’s books (Berggren 2000). The fifth part of the novel, ‘Mostly Harmless’, will not be examined here, as the Swedish translation is made by another translator, Nille Lindgren. The 1 comparison will cover such qualities as meaning, form and effect in order to assess the correspondence between the original text and the translation. 1.2 Aim The aim of this essay is to determine how closely the translation keeps to the original and what dissimilarities there are. Special attention will be paid to the humorous aspects of the language in translation to establish whether the comic effect is preserved or lost. 1.3 Method and material The method chosen for this study is parallel reading; the original text is read in parallel with the translation while comparing the correspondence of form, meaning, effect etc. Furthermore, the material to be analyzed has been restricted to every tenth page, beginning on page 15 in the English version and on page 7 in the Swedish version. This has been done with the ambition to present an average of comparisons throughout the book. Particular focus for the study will be on such linguistic areas as: — Proper names — Invented words — Metaphors and similes — Additions and omissions — Mistranslations — Wordplay The primary sources for the analysis are The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Four Parts (1992), by Douglas Adams and the Swedish translation Liftarens Guide till Galaxen (2004). Secondary sources include various books on translation theory as well as some dictionaries, foremost the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2001). 2 1.4 Outline The study will begin with an introduction to translation theory where a brief history, definitions and difficulties related to the subject will be presented. This opening is then followed by the analysis, where each subsection will be introduced and the results and comments on the findings will be given. Subsequently, the study will be ended with a summary and conclusion. 1.5 Key to abbreviations ST: Source Text (English) TT: Target Text (Swedish) SL: Source Language (English) TL: Target Language (Swedish) HHGG: The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy LGG: Liftarens Guide till Galaxen LDCE: The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 3 2. Translation theory 2.1 History and definitions In order to evaluate any translation, it is vital to form a definition against which to measure the work. In the field of translation, however, there is no single definition that all scholars agree on, since in the course of time there have been an abundance of theories on the subject. The ‘word-for-word’ vs. the ‘sense-for- sense’ translation constitutes the oldest conflicting approaches, dating back to the days of Cicero (first century BCE) and St Jerome (late forth century CE) (Munday 2001:19). Yet, these approaches are still highly relevant and can be said to form the foundation of modern translation theory. They are often regarded as the forerunners of the ‘literal’ vs. ‘free’ and ‘form’ vs. ‘content’ methods (Munday 2001:20). Subsequently, these methods have undergone modifications to allow for specific circumstances, such as cultural adaptation, receptor orientation etc, and have branched out to form the contemporary approaches to translation. As a result of the numerous theories, there are practically equally many definitions of what constitutes a ‘good’ translation. Today, the most common approach is what Ingo, writer of several articles and books on translation, refers to as “to strike the golden mean”1 (1991:20); i.e. where preserved meaning and idiomatic language are of the highest priority. This, as Ingo remarks, is not to say that the translator has the right