THE BLANKET OF DARKNESS: PROBLEMS IN TRANSLATING FROM A BANTU LANGUAGE INTO ENGLISH

Abstract

Working within the parameters of fidelity to the original text, and naturalness in the receptor language, an attempt is made to show how communicative adequacy can be achieved in the translation of a text from Tsonga to English. From the novel “Ndzi tshikeni!” by B.K.M. Mthombeni, a passage is chosen consisting of stretches of narrative separated by two prayers. The translation is traced through three stages (i) a basic one-to-one formally equivalent version, (ii) a linguistically congruent version and (iii) a dynamically equivalent version. The problems encountered in the translation process are examined under four headings -