Translation and Cultural Identity: Romanian Culturemes in the Works of Ion Creangă and Mihail Sadoveanu Anca MUREŞANU Universitatea „Lucian Blaga” din Sibiu, Facultatea de Litere şi Arte Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Letters and Arts Personal e-mail: [email protected] Translation and Cultural Identity: Romanian Culturemes in the Works of Ion Creangă and Mihail Sadoveanu Abstract: Identity has always been viewed as a key notion in translation studies. Time and again people assume that national identity is homogeneous and that it manifests itself in a particular language and culture. Nowadays, translation takes place in such a context where identity, culture or tradition is no longer homogeneous. In the process of translation – since so many new traditions and cultures are brought into focus – identities are slowly fading out or removed to make way for new ones. Translation allows existing identities to open up as host languages and cultures and it makes the creation of new areas of identity easy, the result resting upon the translator’s ability to bridge cultural differences. This present article provides a glimpse into the labor the translators go through when it comes to maintaining and negotiating meaning, identity and cultural differences between two languages. Keywords: translation, culture, identity, culturemes, culture specific items. Citation suggestion: Mureșan, Anca. “Translation and Cultural Identity: Romanian Culturemes in the Works of Ion Creangă and Mihail Sadoveanu”. Transilvania, no. 3 (2021): 41-46. https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2021.03.06. Nowadays, identity is a key term in recent cultural the readers who may not share the same set of attitudes, studies. Before approaching the issue of cultural beliefs or who may not be governed by the same set of identity, one has to explain the term “culture”, since this rules. Vermeer sees cultures as consisting of “everything concept is essential to understanding the implication for one needs to know, master and feel, in order to assess literary translations. Newmark (1988) views culture as where members of a society are behaving acceptably in “the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar their roles” (Katan, 2009: 82). to a community that uses a particular language as its It is obvious that the cultural identity of any society at a means of expression” (94). According to the American given point is made up of a number of concepts and factors scholar, Larson (1984), definition of culture is “a complex working together to build meaning in that particular of beliefs, attitudes, values, rules which a group of culture for each of its members. Notwithstanding, people share” (431). She deems that a translator needs to the same concepts and elements may have different identify the set of beliefs, rules and values of the source meanings for people belonging to the same group and language society so that he/she may really understand for those who belong to different cultural groups. The the source text and render it as accurately as possible for key concept about cultural identity is the awareness 41 TRANSILVANIA 3/2021 TRANSILVANIA of the features, characteristics and peculiarities that the differences between cultures. Some words, phrase define a person or group. All these further complicate the or expressions are so deeply rooted in and specific to process of translations. Munoz-Calvo and Buesa-Gomez the culture that produced them that they may have no (2010) states that “translators need cultural literacy, equivalent in the target culture. Based on their local communicative language competences and cross-cultural situation, language, religion and historical background, competence as well, because they have to interpret each society constructs its own culture. Consequently, socio-cultural meaning in cross-cultural encounters, each culture is accepted and respected along with its contributing to the transfer of knowledge across cultures restrictions. As such, these restrictions in translation and to cultural development as well” (2-3). are one of the particular characteristics of culture. Castro-Paniagua (2000) considers that a translator Behaviors deemed acceptable will fluctuate from place “needs to have a deep knowledge of the cultural frames to place. Currently, the key issue in translation is no [he or she] will be handling” (24). Thus, a translator doubt influenced by different cultural norms governing “must adequately transmit and adapt [the] message the source language and the target language and it is up across cultures” (24). In particular, the translation of to the translator to choose the norms that take priority literary texts requires such cross-cultural competences over others. The translator decides whether the cultural so as to transfer the shades of cultural identity. Special norms of the SL and that of the TL are essential to be attention is required when translating literary texts considered. In fact Nida (1964) stresses that “differences since a translator has to transfer culture specific items between cultures may cause more severe complications from one language to another as accurately as possible. for the translator than do differences in language Abbasi et al (2012) define translation as “not just a literal structure” (130). recasting of a work from one language to another, but Whoever takes upon himself/herself the task of also an adaptation of one culture’s values and biases translating literary texts has to be extra careful to the into another” (86). Literary texts abound in words and way CSIs are transferred from the source language to the expressions that reflect the culture of that particular target language. The more similar the two cultures are, nation. In this case, the process of translation is further the easier the translation is since the translator deals complicated by the presence of culture specific items. with fewer cultural discrepancies. Conversely, a bigger Language and culture are intertwined; the meanings of a gap between the two cultures can lead to a profound particular language represent the culture of a particular discrepancy between the source text and the target nation. Language is in fact the verbal expression of text. The abundance of culture-specific items, aesthetic culture: “language is part of culture” (Vermeer, 1989: 4). features, specific values, makes literary texts more Daghoughi (2016) also states that “Language and culture challenging to translate than other types of texts. There are closely related to and also inseparable from each are certain words and phrases that are so embedded other” (March 21, 171). Lotman (1978) asserts that “no in the culture that produced them that they have no language can exist unless it is steeped in the context of correspondent in the target language, the translation of culture; and no culture can exist which does not have which results more often in a cultural gap. at its centre, the structure of natural language” (211-32). Professor Georgiana Lungu Badea (2004) states that For the well-known translation theorist, Susan Bassnett a translation is an act of culture where the translator (1980), language is “the heart within the body of culture” speaks on behalf of somebody else, providing a glimpse (13-14). She emphasizes the need to take into account the of a foreign culture without being able to replace – interdependence between language and culture when through translation – the author’s historical and cultural translating. experience. Hence, beyond the inevitable equivalence of In opposition to the views expressed by the above- meaning, the translation aims at rendering – more or mentioned critics is that of Peter Newmark (1988) who less inspired – what is considered almost impossible to does not “regard language as a component or feature translate from the source culture to the target culture of culture” (95). For Newmark, Vermeer’s view implies system (20). She views culturemes as statements that that translation is impossible, whereas for the critic, carry cultural information, cultural units or words to accurately render a text from the SL into the TL is deeply rooted in the source culture (25). She distinguishes part of the translator’s mission to achieve and facilitate between cultural, historical and literary culturemes (26) communication between two cultures. In spite of the According to Lungu-Badea, culturemes exist both in oral divergent opinions – should language be considered part and written communication. Used voluntarily or not, of culture or not – the notion of culture is of paramount they are sometimes difficult to spot even by the receivers importance when taking into account the implications belonging to the same linguistic area as the transmitters. for the act of translation and the two concepts seem The relative and monocultural nature of the culturemes to be inseparable. Probably the most serious problem makes them difficult to spot. Therefore, it is all the more for translators – the ones that have caused the most difficult for translators to spot them as the difficulty to widespread confusion among readers – arises from find a correspondent in the target language is added to 42 this translation problem (30). superstitions, etc. Masters of the spoken language, both The critic offers the following classification of writers use a linguistic universe that consists of archaic, culturemes: from a formal point of view – simple (clacă regional and liturgical terms. – a voluntary gathering of peasants to help one another)