English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

English - Essay Example Generally, when a writer produces a work, it comes in market in its original form and then it is presented to any other entity with its right and license to translate it to other languages to get it a place on international level. Such translations get feedback comprising of appreciations and loopholes both by the people having command on both original and translated languages which helps later to consider the drawbacks and produce better translations in future (Kovac, M., and Wischenbart, R., 2012). Translation of books into English language was not always appreciated as in Australia many authors did not like the Australian stories translated into English with so many changes in the text and wanted the youth to read original version of the stories (Nick Earls, ABC Premium News, 15 July 2009 i Allington, D., 2012). African writers also prefer to write in their own language and want Africa to be the centre of their literature. By doing this they do not aim to refuse the English stream rather they only wish to see things from African perspective. Ngugi is of the view that the Oral Tradition is important but it cannot replace the Modern African Literature. To remain loyal to the literature is to stick to the history and assimilate and embrace the traditional thoughts and so not losing the roots (Ngugi, 1986, p. 94-5). In the clip we observe South African writers’ reasons behind choosing language as a medium of their writing. Hambidge prefers to write in Afrikaans as it is connected to her identity. Moreover, she can express her thoughts and emotions in her own language in the best possible way. Magona and Ndebele see Afrikaans as the language of oppressed nation. Ndebele opts English for her writings as it is a language of opportunity and fame for its being international language Magona, though, prefers to write in English but she feels that she cannot write like Jane Austen and it involves both conscious and unconscious factors which shape thought language (U214, DVD 3, Clip 20.1, ‘Choosing to write in English’). While translating a language into English, problems may arise at lexical level. There may not be an alternative word available and a set of words express the meanings so it lengthen the sentence. For example in Russian language there is no separate word for ‘cloud’ rather there are words for different kinds of clouds so it makes the translator to interpret the kind of clouds relying on the context and present a different expression from the original sentence. This does not mean that Russian language is richer than English and provide finer details regarding vocabulary. In some other cases, Russian language has no separate word for ‘arm’ or ‘hand’ rather there is a single word ‘ruka’, so every time the translator encounters this word, he faces difficulty in interpreting that whether the writer is talking about ‘arm’ or ‘hand’. These pro blems are solved by using other words such as ‘fist’, ‘palm’ or ‘from shoulder to fist or wrist’ but it results in comparatively longer sentence. So, such lexical gaps between languages make it difficult to create a perfect translation (Cook, G., 2012). Cook observes the difficulties that become a challenge while translating other languages into English. Referring to the translation of the Chinese film ‘