An Annotated Translation of Narayan's Novel The Guide

371 Pages·2011·1.78 MB·Portuguese

UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL
INSTITUTO DE LETRAS
PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM LETRAS
LITERATURAS DE LÍNGUA INGLESA

An Annotated Translation of Narayan’s Novel
The Guide

Tese submetida à Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul para obtenção do grau de
Doutor em Letras na ênfase Literaturas de Língua Inglesa

Doutoranda: Larissa Rohde
Orientadora: Profa. Dra. Sandra Sirangelo Maggio

Porto Alegre
Maio, 2011
FICHA CATALOGRÁFICA

ROHDE, Larissa
An Annotated Translation of Narayan’s Novel The Guide

Larissa Rohde
Porto Alegre: UFRGS, Instituto de Letras, 2011. 371 p.

Tese (Doutorado – Programa de Pós-graduação em Letras)
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.

1. Literatura de língua inglesa. 2. Tradução Anotada. 3. R. K. Narayan. 4. The
Guide
Agradecimentos:

Profª Sandra Maggio, pela confiança, generosidade e atenção.
Membros da banca examinadora, pelo interesse na leitura do trabalho.
Régis Pizzato, pela paciência e formatação gráfica.
CAPES, pela concessão de auxílio financeiro.
Agradeço também aos professores e colegas que, direta ou indiretamente,
colaboraram para a realização desta pesquisa.
RESUMO

Esta tese consiste em uma tradução anotada do romance O Guia (1958), de R.
K. Narayan. A tese apresenta uma discussão crítica de aspectos práticos e suposições teóricas
subjacentes ao processo de tradução. Nas últimas décadas, a área de estudos da tradução
expandiu-se e apropriou-se de vários significados, e atualmente vai muito além da dimensão
textual. O conceito de tradução hoje engloba não só aspectos linguísticos como também
questões culturais e históricas. As notas, portanto, dividem-se em duas categorias distintas: a)
notas em português sobre expressões e palavras culturalmente específicas, que tem por
objetivo fazer uma ponte entre barreiras culturais em relação ao leitor brasileiro,
suplementando o texto traduzido; e b) notas sobre o processo de tradução como tal, discutidas
em relação ao processo de análise e tomada de decisões do tradutor. Obras traduzidas
desempenham um papel fundamental na propagação de tendências literárias no mundo todo,
como demonstra o recente influxo de obras dos chamados escritores da diáspora a partir de
regiões antigamente sob domínio colonial europeu. R. K. Narayan foi o primeiro escritor de
língua inglesa profissional bem sucedido na Índia moderna, e abriu caminho para a literatura
Indiana de língua inglesa contemporânea. O objetivo da tese se desdobra em dois eixos. Em
um nível pragmático, o propósito principal é oferecer uma tradução informativa de O Guia
para o meio acadêmico brasileiro. As notas explicam as escolhas feitas pelo tradutor e
esclarecem as diversas questões culturais envolvidas na tradução. Em um nível analítico, o
objetivo é pesquisar a dinâmica do processo tradutório, bem como os elementos que
interagem nas tomadas de decisão e subsequente re-estruturação do texto na língua de
chegada. A tese está dividida em três blocos, As Premissas, O Processo e O Produto. O
primeiro bloco tem dois capítulos: A Cena Literária, um estudo introdutório sobre a vida do
autor e contexto de sua obra, e A Cena nos Estudos de Tradução, que aborda alguns
pressupostos teóricos, privilegiando a tradução orientada para o texto de partida. O segundo
bloco, O Processo, apresenta a análise da tradução e o conjunto de estratégias empregadas.
Este bloco tem dois capítulos: Notas sobre Aspectos Culturais, que traz a análise dos dois
tipos de notas e Notas sobre o Processo de Tradução, o qual se compõe das seguintes seções:
O Nivel Textual apresenta uma leitura crítica do romance, com ênfase na análise literária do
processo de tradução, e também discute a presença da ironia e o papel do narrador. As seções
O Nivel Sintático e O Nível Lexical complementam a discussão. O resultado final da pesquisa,
a tradução anotada para fins acadêmicos, compõe o terceiro bloco. A tese é uma contribuição
aos estudos de tradução no meio acadêmico brasileiro.

Palavras-chave:
R. K. Narayan – O Guia – tradução anotada – crítica literária
ABSTRACT

This dissertation consists of an informative annotated translation of R. K.
Narayan’s novel The Guide (1958). The dissertation provides a critical discussion of practical
aspects and underlying theoretical assumptions to the translating process. The field of
translation studies has in the last decades taken on many meanings and now encompasses
realms beyond the textual dimension. Translation today is as much about the translation of
cultural and historical contexts and concepts as it is about language itself. The notes therefore
fall into two distinct categories: a) notes in Portuguese about culturally specific phrases and
words, which aim at bridging cross cultural barriers to the Brazilian reader and supplement
the text translated; b) notes about the translation process itself discussed in the light of the
process of analysis and decision making. Translations have played a critical role in spurring
literary trends all over the world, as the recent influx of the so called "diaspora writers" from
European colonial backgrounds attest. R. K. Narayan was modern India's first successful
professional writer in English and cleared the path for contemporary Indian fiction in English.
The objective of the dissertation is twofold. On a pragmatic level, the main objective is to
provide the Brazilian academy with an informative translation of The Guide. The annotations
are used to explain the choices made by the translator, and to clarify the manifold cultural
issues involved in the translation. On an analytical level, the objective is to research the
dynamics of the translation process, observing the nature of the elements that interact in the
moment of the translator's decision and in the subsequent restructuring of the translated text.
The dissertation is divided into three major blocks, The Premises, the Process and the
Product. The first block contains two chapters: The Literary Scene, an introductory study of
Narayan’s life and context of writing and The Translation Studies Scene, which deals with
selected theoretical points and states the preference for a source text oriented approach. The
second block, The Process, is the analysis of the translation of the novel itself and the set of
strategies employed. This block has two chapters: Notes on Cultural Aspects presents an
analysis of the two kinds of notes and Notes on the Translation Process, which is divided into
the following sections. The Textual Level presents a close reading of the novel, points out to
the importance of the literary analysis to the translation process, as well as discusses instances
of irony and the role of the narrator. The sections Syntactic Level and Lexical Level
complement the discussion. The final result of the work, the annotated translation itself,
which is intended for academic research purposes only, is presented in the third block. The
dissertation aims at contributing to the ongoing Brazilian studies of translation.

Key words:
R. K. Narayan – The Guide – annotated translation – literary criticism
TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... ....7

1. THE PREMISES ................................................................................................. ..15
1.1 The Literary Scene .......................................................................................... ..15
1.1.1 The Author ............................................................................................ ..21
1.1.2 The Novel ............................................................................................. ..28
1.2. The Translation Studies Scene ....................................................................... ..32

2. THE PROCESS ................................................................................................... ..39
2.1. Notes on Cultural Aspects ............................................................................. ..41
2.1.1 Names of Food ...................................................................................... ..47
2.1.2 Names of Historical People .................................................................. ..56
2.1.3 Names of Characters ............................................................................. ..60
2.1.4 Names of Gods ..................................................................................... ..61
2.1.5 Names of Places .................................................................................... ..63
2.1.6 Names of Plants .................................................................................... ..68
2.2 Notes on the Translation Process .................................................................... ..70
2.2.1 Textual Level ........................................................................................ ..71
2.2.1.1 Irony ......................................................................................... ..78
2.2.1.2 The Narrator ............................................................................. ..83
2.2.2 Syntactic Level ..................................................................................... ..87
2.2.3 Lexical Level ........................................................................................ ..94
2.2.3.1 Repetition ................................................................................. 101
2.2.4 Notes on technical and graphic issues .................................................. 104

3. THE PRODUCT .................................................................................................. 110

CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 354

BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 360

ANNEXES ................................................................................................................ 368
Annex A: Map of India .............................................................................................. 369
Annex B: R. K. Narayan – Chronology of first editions ........................................... 370
INTRODUCTION

The proposed dissertation consists of an informative annotated translation of R.
K. Narayan1’s novel The Guide (1958). The dissertation provides a critical discussion of
practical aspects and underlying theoretical assumptions to the extent of their usefulness to the
translating process that resulted in the annotated translation of the novel.

The understanding of the field of translation studies has in the last two decades
taken on many more meanings and now encompasses realms beyond the usual textual
dimension. Translation today is as much about the translation of cultural and historical
contexts and concepts as it is about language itself. The notes therefore fall into two distinct
major categories: a) notes in Portuguese about selected culturally specific phrases and words,
which aim at bridging cross-cultural barriers to the Brazilian reader and supplement the text
translated; b) notes about the translation process itself discussed in the light of the process of
analysis and decision making inherent to the act of translating. The dissertation aims at
contributing further elements to the ongoing Brazilian studies of translation.

1 On Graham Greene's advice, the author's full name - Rasipuram Krishnaswarmy Iyer Narayanswarmy - was
shortened to R. K. Narayan. Greene was the first one to encourage him in England and prefaced many of his
novels.
8

Translation has played a critical role in the development of literature
throughout history. These influences are rarely one-sided, as the effects of French translations
in the Brazilian literary system testify. Translations have also played a critical role in spurring
new literary movements all over the world, as the recent influx of the so called “diaspora
writers” from European colonial backgrounds can attest. Ideas about translation and the role
of the translator, in their turn, have changed significantly over time. In different historical
periods, translators have been seen as little more than go-betweens pouring words from the
vessel of one language to the vessel of another; however, this view undermines the enormous
role that the translator plays in shaping the text. The translator is typically faced with the
question of whether to modify the cultural world of the text in order to make it accessible to
the target culture or to attempt to bring the readers toward the culture that produced the text.
The different responses of the translators to these issues have a large bearing on the way the
target audience sees the world of the text and regards the culture that produced it.

In the guise of introductory remarks I see it fit to add some rather personal
notes on the background of this research. The origin of my interest in the practice of
translation can be traced back to my teenage years, when I first realized that the Russian
novels I was then reading in Portuguese, and that appealed so much to me, had not been
translated directly from Russian to Portuguese, but from French to Portuguese. At the time of
this "discovery" I felt somehow cheated, and made a vow to learn Russian and French in order
to read the original works, to see if there were any differences in the way they affected my
reading. The unavailability of classes and constraints of time prevented me from going
beyond basic lessons of Russian; I turned to studying French, German and English instead.
That early interest in both literary writing and in translation has never faded though. Throughout
9

all my subsequent readings, whenever faced with a translated text, I kept the habit of wondering
– and often trying to reconstruct – what this or that phrase was like in the source text.

In 2004 I resumed formal studies of literature; the object of my master's thesis
was the work of V. S. Naipaul, a contemporary British writer of Indian descent. During the
course of that research, I got acquainted with and fascinated by Indian literature written in
English, and its disputed stand in mainstream English Literature. I then read Narayan's
Bachelor of Arts, a novel whose theme and plot are connected to two of Naipaul's novels
studied. My interest in translation issues has been further fostered as a corollary of my activity
as a substitute professor of English Literature here at this university. Often students brought to
class Portuguese translations of the readings required, and issues stemming from this fact
never failed to arouse questions about literary translation, the extent to which translated texts
are re-creations, or the issue of the "translator’s invisibility", to use a catch-phrase that now
pervades many writings about translation.

In our post-graduate programme here at UFRGS we count with an active line
of research named Relações Interliterárias e Tradução which contemplates and encompasses
research stemming from the three major fields of literature studies, namely: Literaturas
Brasileira e de Língua Portuguesa, Literatura Comparada and Literaturas Estrangeiras
Modernas and its associated Literaturas em Língua Inglesa. This dissertation discusses how
the reading of criticism about the author affects the role of translator and how it can be an aid
to the understanding of the subtleties of the source text. The translator is to take into account
all previous knowledge gained from the critical analysis of the author’s works in order to
begin the translation process. There are lexical items whose referents lie outside the
experience of the target reader. There are passages whose effects depend not on a literal
10

understanding of the words, but on the cultural connotations of a particular word, phrase, or
action. There are puns and other constructions that exploit the phonetics of a particular word
or phrase. These issues are examined in the context of Narayan’s Indian background,
Hinduism, traditional Indian social practices and the British Empire. I attempted to identify
the obstacles that translators face in translating text rooted in Indian culture, and the strategies
used to overcome these obstacles.

R. K. Narayan's literary achievement needs to be highlighted at this point. He
was the first modern Indian writer in English to make a full-time career out of literature. He was
modern India's first successful professional writer in English. When Narayan started writing in
the 1930s, he had no literary forebears or peers to relate to. In many ways, further explained in
section 1.1.1, Narayan cleared the path for modern Indian fiction in English; there has been
since then a remarkable flourishing of literary talent of Indian origin. Successful and, in some
cases, world-renowned writers of Indian background have dealt with imaginative themes in
diverse ways in varied voices and different styles. The translation is preceded by a study in
which the following topics are examined: the chronology and the classification of Narayan’s
novels, their originality and stand in the Indian English literary system. In addition to providing
an introduction to Narayan’s life and works as well as a brief account of his biography, this
section also touches on the main trends in Narayan’s critical fortune.

Section 1.1.2 provides an introductory overview of the novel’s plot and narrative
techniques. There are several editions of The Guide available from English academic and
commercial publishing houses. The text that shall be used for the dissertation is the Penguin’s
classics edition2, as this series is widely acknowledged for its professionalism and accuracy.

2 Narayan, R. K. The Guide. New York: Penguin Classics, 2006.