English
Domestication vs Foreignization in “Drink”
Chidelia Edochie’s fictional short story “Drink” is a story about an immigrant graduate student adapting and assimilating into a different culture. The fictional short story does not specify the graduate student’s home or receiving country. The source text (ST) has many lexical and semantic equivalences; however, since the student’s home country remains a mystery, I want the reader in the translated text (TT) to travel to the unknown country as I did in the ST.
In the ST, the student expresses her tactile sense toward an older graduate man that asked her on a dinner date. While translating the ST, everything seemed to fall into place when translating the following line, “[h]is fingers were so white, and soft as dough, and I actually thought […],” (Edochie 126) since there is a lexical and semantic equivalence in Spanish. However, not so much on the line that followed, “Oh! this man must be sweet, sweet like dough” (Edochie 126). This is where the challenge arose. As a bilingual English/Spanish translator and Mexican national, I attempted domesticating the ST to a Mexican and Mexican American audience according to the Arizona State University and Arizona geographical demographics, given that in the mentioned culture, per personal experience, dough is not sweet. As I brainstormed and consulted various resources on how I could translate this line, I decided not to use a domestication strategy in the ST. Domestication is a practice that “conform[s] to the TL [target language] culture values” (Munday 228). Therefore, since the ST sent me abroad to the unknown student’s home country, I wanted the reader to experience the same effect it had on me and “sen[d] the reader abroad” (Venuti 15).
Venuti’s stance on foreignization influenced my decision as a translator. According to Munday, Venuti views foreignization as a “strategic cultural intervention’ which seek[s] to ‘send the reader abroad’ by making the receiving culture aware of the linguistic and cultural difference[s] inherent in the foreign text” (qted. in Munday 226). As previously mentioned, even though the graduate student's home country is unknown in Chidelia Edochie’s fictional short story, I did not want to remove but “highlight the foreign identity of the ST” (Munday 226).
Domestication and foreignization are strategies that can be controversial in translation. By domesticating the text, the reader will not question or wonder how dough tastes in another country compared to their cultural experiences and can bring strangeness to the TT. By foreignizing the TT, the graduate student’s culture in the short story is not replaced and makes the reader experience the source culture, which is a beautiful thing, that I did not want to get lost in translation.
Edochi, Chidelia. “Drink” Hayden’s Ferry Review, Spring/Summer, 2011, pp. 126-127.
Munday, Jeremy. Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. 4th ed., Routledge, 2016.
Venuti, Laurence. The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2008.
About the Translator:
Laura Dicochea is a Ph.D. student in the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, focusing on transnational students in México and the United States and Spanish sociolinguistics. Her MA studies focused on Spanish sociolinguistics and Applied linguistics. She holds a translation certificate from the University of Arizona and has been translating for three years in the medical and legal field and, more recently, literary translation for the Thousand Languages Project.
Translations:
"Drink" by Chidelia Edochi (Spanish)
"The Writer As Witness: An Interview with Demetria Martinez by Argie J. Manolis (Spanish)
With grateful acknowledgment to translation reviewer: Edgar Olozagaste Méndez
Español
Extranjerización y Domesticación en “Trago”
El cuento ficticio de Chidelia Edochie “Trago” es una historia sobre una estudiante inmigrante de posgrado que se adapta y asimila a una cultura diferente. El cuento ficticio no especifica el país de origen o de acogida del estudiante de posgrado. El texto fuente (TF) tiene muchas equivalencias léxicas y semánticas; sin embargo, dado que el país de origen de la estudiante sigue siendo un misterio, quiero que el lector del texto meta (TM) viaje al país desconocido como lo hice yo en el TF.
En el TF, la estudiante expresa su sentido táctil hacia un hombre mayor de posgrado que la invitó a cenar. Mientras traducía el TF, todo parecía encajar al traducir la siguiente oración, “[s]us dedos eran tan blancos y suaves como la masa, y pensé […]”, (Edochie 126) ya que hay un léxico y equivalencia semántica en español. Sin embargo, no tanto en la oración que le sigue, “¡Oh! este hombre debe ser dulce, dulce como la masa” (Edochie 126). Y aquí es donde surgió el desafío. Como traductora bilingüe de inglés/español y de nacionalidad mexicana, intenté evitar domesticar el TF dirigido a una audiencia mexicana y mexicoamericana de acuerdo con la demografía geográfica de Arizona State University y Arizona; dado que, en la cultura mencionada, por experiencia personal, la masa no es dulce. Al explorar ideas y al consultar varios recursos sobre cómo podría traducir esta oración, decidí no domesticar el TF. La domesticación es una práctica que “se ajusta a los valores culturales de la LM [lengua meta]” (Munday 228). Por lo tanto, dado que el TF me envió al extranjero, al país de origen de la estudiante, un país desconocido, quería que el lector experimentara el mismo efecto que tuvo en mí y “envia[r] al lector al extranjero” (Venuti 15).
La postura de Venuti sobre la extranjerización influyó en mi decisión como traductora. Según Munday, Venuti ve la extranjerización como una "intervención cultural estratégica" que busca "enviar al lector al extranjero", la cual hace que, la cultura receptora sea consciente de las diferencias lingüísticas y culturales inherentes al texto extranjero" (citado en Munday 226). Como mencioné anteriormente, aunque el país de origen de la estudiante de posgrado es desconocido en el cuento ficticio de Chidelia Edochi, no quise eliminar sino “destacar la identidad extranjera del TF” (Munday 226).
La domesticación y la extranjerización son estrategias que pueden ser polémicas en la traducción. Al domesticar el texto, el lector no cuestionará ni se preguntará qué sabor tiene la masa en otro país en comparación con sus experiencias culturales y puede traer rareza al TM. Por lo tanto, al extranjerizar el TF, la cultura de la estudiante de posgrado en el cuento no se reemplaza. Por lo contrario, hace que el lector experimente la cultura de origen, lo cual es algo hermoso, algo que no quería que se perdiera en la traducción.
Edochi, Chidelia. “Drink”. Traducido y editado por Laura Dicochea, Hayden’s Ferry Review, 2011.
Munday, Jeremy. Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. 4ta ed., Routledge, 2016.
Venuti, Laurence. The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation. 2da ed., Routledge, 2008.
About the Translator:
Laura Dicochea is a Ph.D. student in the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, focusing on transnational students in México and the United States and Spanish sociolinguistics. Her MA studies focused on Spanish sociolinguistics and Applied linguistics. She holds a translation certificate from the University of Arizona and has been translating for three years in the medical and legal field and, more recently, literary translation for the Thousand Languages Project.
Translations:
"Drink" by Chidelia Edochi (Spanish)
"The Writer As Witness: An Interview with Demetria Martinez by Argie J. Manolis (Spanish)
With grateful acknowledgment to translation reviewer: Edgar Olozagaste Méndez