THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY oOo GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON STRATEGIES OF TRANSLATING RELATIVE CLAUSES IN THE NOVEL “LIFE OF PI” BY TRINH LU (LITERATURE PUBLISHING HOUSE, 2012) Supervisor NGU[.]
OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
Rationale
Language is so much more than just a tool allowing us to communicate It is the expression of culture, society, and beliefs Thousands of cultures exist around the world, all expressing the specifics of their daily lives through their own languages.
Classics and masterpieces can be enjoyed by people around the world But, perhaps it is even more important that translation helps preserve literature While the language might not be widespread, translation offers the works a much larger audience for many years to come All of this is possible thanks to translation The very existence of world literature stands upon translation.
English and translations are also, they are not simply languages; they have become lifestyles they are languages that are dynamic and are continuously evolving in the translation process, we have to pay attention not only to grammar, structure, vocabulary, and pronunciation but also the culture of the new language It is easy to make mistakes and often find a lot of difficulties in translation and when dealing with grammar.
On the other hand, I found many Vietnamese learners are experiencing a lot of difficulties when learning to use English relative clauses, special in translation text. They make many mistakes in making clauses containing relative clauses such as lack of relative pronouns, lack of subject-verb agreement
Translation is more than just changing the words from one language to another Translation builds bridges between cultures Translators are people who have a near-perfect understanding of both the source language and culture and the target language and culture They may use a few more words, or perhaps even change the wording of a whole paragraph, but the meaning of the original will get through It is the same with the translation on relative clauses in literary works. Because of the above mentioned reasons, my final thesis is entitled “ A study on strategies of translating relative clauses in the novel “Life of Pi” by Trinh Lu It is a famous literary work and is sold more than ten million copies worldwide
This study will give some strategies for translating relative clause fromEnglish into Vietnamese The study confirms that translators need more than language skills: in addition to general and sometimes specialized knowledge, they need analytical, research, So, to help people who are learning English have deep understanding of translating relative clauses in English as well as in Vietnamese I hope this study will help all concerned understand and use English relative clauses more easily I also hope that this study will be useful for them when translating relative clauses in English into Vietnamese and vice versa.
Previous studies
Linguistic typology of the English and Vietnamese languages is different As a result, there are some ways of rendering English relative clause into Vietnamese. And the question is how to transfer English relative clause into appropriate and natural Vietnamese version That is the reason why some people have conducted studies or reports on this issue These studies have shown common ways of translating relative clause from English into other languages Therefore, I would like to refer to these studies as reference materials for my graduation paper.
Firstly, this is “A Study of Translation of Relative Clauses from English into Thai ” conducted by Ph.D, Nattharath Leenakitti and Ph.D, Nattama Pongpairoj. Leenakitti candidate in the English as an International Language Program, Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand She received her M.A in Translation from the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University.
Nattama Pongpairoj, the corresponding author, is an associate professor in the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand She received her B.A (English) (first-class honors) from Chulalongkorn University, M.A (Linguistics) from the University of Oregon, and Ph.D (Linguistics) from the University of York.
This research investigated translation strategies used in translating English relative clauses with the relativizers ‗who,‘‗which,‘ and ‗that‘ into Thai To analyze the data, a framework for the analysis was constructed based onChesterman‘s (1997) translation strategies, supported by Nida‘s (1964) andSaibua‘s (2007) translation adjustment techniques The findings confirmed that the two main strategies used in translating the English relative clauses into Thai are literal translation and translation adjustment While literal translation suggested parallel syntactic structures between the English and Thai relative clauses, translation adjustment underscored distinctions between the two languages The findings confirm the hypothesis and have implications for the study of the relative clause structure and its translation strategies.
The second study-“Relative clauses: Structure and variation in everyday English Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.” is conducted by Andrew Radford
Andrew Radford is lecturer in Linguistics in the School of English & American Studies at the University of East Anglia (1975–76), Lecturer in Linguistics in the Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages at the University of Oxford (1976–78) and Professor of Linguistics of Essex University
Andrew Radford's study use novel examples from live, unscripted radio/TV broadcasts and the internet, it will help us to reconsider the nature of everyday English and its complex interplay of syntactic, pragmatic, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors Uncovering unusual types of non-standard relative clauses, Andrew Radford develops theoretically sophisticated analyses in an area that has traditionally hardly been touched on: that of non-standard (yet not clearly dialectal) variation in English Making sense of a huge amount of data, the study demonstrates that some types of non-standard relative clauses have a complex syntactic structure of their own in which the relation between the relative clause and its antecedent is either syntactically encoded or pragmatic in nature, while others come about as a result of hypercorrection, and yet others arise from processing errors.
The last one is “Understanding relative clauses: A usage-based view on theprocessing of complex constructions” by Dr D (Daniel) Wiechmann - University of Amsterdam
Daniel Wiechmann’s Understanding Relative Clauses presents an extremely detailed and methodologically interesting quantitative corpus analysis of one of the most debated syntactic structures in the field of (psycho)linguistics,namely, relative clause constructions (RCCs) Wiechmann’s analysis, conducted from the usage- based/cognitive construction grammar perspective aims to detect entrenchedRCCs in a statistically sound way, relate these detected patterns to each other,suggest what the patterns reveal about the psycho linguistic processing of RCCs and attempt to bridge the gap between grammatical description and language processing by suggesting ausage-based constructivist hypothesis as to reasons behind processing ease/difficulty.
Aims of the study
This study is aimed at exploring strategies for translating relative clauses in the novel “Life of Pi” by Trinh Lu
- Introduce relative clauses, identify and classify relative clauses in the work" Life of Pi"
- The theories that are relevant to relative clause
- Research and analyze strategies for translating relative clauses in the work
"Life of Pi" by translator Trinh Lu
- Suggest some suggestions with the hope to avoid the errors or confusion during translating relative clauses and improve the quality of translation copy
I hope this study can provide readers with overall comprehension of knowledge relating to relative clauses and support them to translate it effectively.
Research Subjects Research subject of study is strategies of translating
Research subject of study is strategies of translating relative clauses in the novel
“Life of Pi” by Trinh Lu
I choose this book and the translation copy of Trinh Lu because the translation methods offered in this translation copy of the novel ensure the accuracy compared to the original It also has been evaluated by many other reputable translators and publishers.
Scope of the study With the limitation of time and space, in this paper, I just
With the limitation of time and space, in this paper, I just focus on the key points of relative clauses and some main strategies of translating relative clauses in “ Life ofPi" by Yann Martel and compared it with the translation copy of Vietnamese “Cuộc đời của Pi” by Trinh Lu (Literature Publishing House, 2012)
Hopefully, my study will partly help learners of English have better insight into this part and use it effectively.
Research methodology
The study is conducted with the combination of the following methods:
A qualitative descriptive approach to data collection and analysis is used in this research as well The data are taken from the novel- Life of Pi by Yann Martel and its translation by Trinh Lu The novel is read thoroughly in both the English and Vietnamese versions to get the understanding of the content as a whole The next step is identifying the data, collecting the data, replacing them on the paper, selecting the data that are going to be analyzed, marking the sentences containing relative clauses, and analyzing the methods that are used in the process of translating relative clauses from English into Vietnamese In this present research, I limit the analysis by only analyzing relative clauses from chapter one to chapter five The contrastive analysis approach is also employed to find out the differences and similarities in structures or style of relative clause structure between English and Vietnamese Especially, to study the English-Vietnamese translation of relative clause, the following steps are carried out:
A sample survey does not cover all of the units on the whole Therefore, I choose five chapters in this novel to save time, effort and expense The overall sample is the novel- Life of Pi and the translation of Trinh Lu.
After selecting the sample, the researcher will conduct the data collection from the materials which are chosen.
After selecting typical relative clauses, I find out the methods that are used in each sentence Then, I give comments, the advantages and disadvantages of the translation methods.
Organization of the study
My graduation paper is divided into four chapters:
- The first chapter is overview of the study including rationale, previous studies, aims of the study, research subjects, research methodology and organization of the study.
- The second chapter is about literature review The researcher will present theories related to theoretical background It focuses on the concepts of translation, relative clause in English as well as different translation methods used by professional translators.
- The third chapter shows the research findings of the study including the analysis, assessment about translation methods used in the novel
- The last chapter presents recommendations and suggestions for the problems which researcher found out.
- The last part of the study “Conclusion” summarizes what is addressed as well as what is not in the study, implications of the study to the translation relative clause in “Life of Pi” and some suggestions for further study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
An overview of translation
Translation is the act of transferring the linguistic entities from one language in to their equivalents in to another language It is an act through which the content of a text is transferred from the source language in to the target language (Foster,
1958) The language to be translated is called the source language (SL), whereas the language to be translated into or arrived at is called the target language (TL) The translator needs to have good knowledge of both the source and the target language, in addition to a high linguistic sensitivity as he should transmit the writer's intention, original thoughts and opinions in the translated version as precisely and faithfully as possible.
One of the most prominent definitions of translation is stated by Ghazala
(1995), "translation is generally used to refer to all the process and methods used to convey the meaning of the source language in to the target language" (P.1. Ghazala's definition focuses on the notion of meaning as an essential element in translation That is, when translating, understanding the meaning of source text is vital to have the appropriate equivalent in the target text thus, it is meaning that is translated in relation to grammar, style and sounds (Ghazala, 1995).
Translation is a process and a product According to Catford (1995), translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL) ", (p 20) This definition shows that translation is a process in the sense that is an activity Performed by people through time, when expressions are translated in to simpler ones in the same language (Rewording and para-phrasing) It can be done also from one language into another different language Translation is, on the other hand, a product since it provides us with other different cultures, to ancient societies and civilization life when the translated texts reaches us (Yowell and Mutfah, 1999).
For example (Eg) if using Indonesian as a source language and English as the target, “kambing hitam" becomes the source text whose lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation and cultural context are analyzed in order to determine its meaning It is not always translated as ‘black goat’ in English language If it means ‘a goat which is black’, the phrase can be translated as ‘a black goat’ However, if it has a specific meaning ‘a person who is blamed for something that someone else has done’, it will be equivalent with the English phrase
In spite of the differences in these definitions, there are still common features which can be realized as the notion of movement between languages, content and the responsibility to find equivalents that preserve the attributes or characteristic features of the original text It is such an idea of equivalence that we are going to discuss hereafter
Equivalence was first seen as a functionalist concept : a text snippet has the same function in the source text and the target text In the case of Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet (1958), equivalence was a translation process which corresponded to cultural adaptation For Roman Jakobson (2000, p 114), equivalence was a concept of capital importance when it came to establishing a link between two texts : “Equivalence in difference is the cardinal problem of language and the pivotal concern of linguistics “
Nida (1964) strongly advocates dynamic equivalence rather than formal equivalence As he puts it, formal equivalence means closest possible match of form and content between ST and TT, or a means of providing some degree of insight into the lexical, grammatical or structure form of a source text Meanwhile, dynamic equivalence is the principle of equivalence of effect on reader of TT or the same effect on the TL receivers as the source text has on the SL receivers
In A Linguistic Theory of Translation, John Catford produced another definition of equivalence (Catford, 1965, p 20) His method was to change part of a sentence in the original, or just a word of it, to see what was changed in the translation for that same part of text The modified part was then the equivalent He applied this method only to simple examples, however, as pointed out by Mary
Snell-Hornby (1988, p 19-20), and his concept of equivalence remained rather vague and difficult to circumscribe, which Snell-Hornby did not fail to mention. Koller (1979) presents five types of equivalence as follows
- Denotative equivalence: This orients towards the extralinguistic content transmitted by a text.
- Connotative equivalence: This respect indicates that individual expressions in the textual context do not only have a denotative meaning but also additional values which mean various or synonymous ways of expressions
- Text-normative equivalence: This has to do with text-type specific features or text and language norms for given text types To put it another way, the SL and
TL words are used in the same or similar context in their respective languages
- Pragmatic equivalence: This means translating the text for a particular readership, i.e the receiver to whom the translation is directed, and to whom the translation is tuned in order to achieve a given effect
- Formal equivalence: This aims to produce an “analogy of form” in the translation by exploiting the formal possibilities of the TL or even by creating new forms if necessary
Baker, M (1992) approaches the concept of equivalence differently by discussing the notion of non-equivalence at word level and above word level, grammatical equivalence, textual equivalence, and pragmatic equivalence
- Non-equivalence at word level means that the target language has no direct equivalent for a word which occurs in the source text Common problems of non- equivalence then involve such cases as culture-specific concepts, the SL concept is not lexicalized in the target language, the SL word is semantically complex, the SL and TL make different distinctions in meaning, the TL lacks a superordinate, the TL lacks a specific term (hyponym), differences in physical or interpersonal perspective, differences in expressive meaning, difference in form, differences in frequency and purpose of using specific forms, the use of loan words in the source text - Non-equivalence above word level is closely related to the differences in the collocational patterning of the SL and TL, which create potential pitfalls and can pose various problems in translation
- Grammatical equivalence is more concerned with the differences in the grammatical structures of the SL and TL, which often result in some change in the information content of the message during the process of translation This change may take the form of adding to the target text information which is not expressed in the source text
This can happen when the TL has a grammatical category which the SL lacks. Likewise, the change in the information content of the message may be in the form of omitting information specified in the source text If the TL lacks a grammatical category which exists in the SL, the information expressed by that category may have to be ignored
- Textual equivalence is achieved through the realization of cohesion, or cohesive devices such as reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion from the source text into the target text
An overview of relative clauses
Clauses are the foundation of English sentences A clause is a part of a sentence having its own subject and predicate, Eg: The sentence ‘Mary has a friend who is rich’ contains a main clause and a subordinate (relative) clause.
There are two types of clauses: dependent and independent An independent(main) clause is a complete thought that can stand alone as a sentence A dependent(subordinate) clause is an incomplete thought that cannot stand alone as a sentence
Dependent clauses can often be identified by words called dependent markers, which are usually subordinating conjunctions If a clause begins with one of these words, it is dependent and needs to be attached to an independent clause (Common dependent markers: after, as, although, because, before, even though, if, once, rather than, since, that, though, unless, until, when, whenever, whereas, while, among others)Note: Just because an independent clause can stand on its own doesn’t mean it has to For instance, one or more independent clauses can be added together to form a compound sentence, and independent clauses can be added to dependent clauses to form complex sentences
Full sentence: Although it is raining, I am going out for a run.
Dependent clause (incomplete thought): Although it (subject) is raining (predicate)
Independent clause (complete thought): I (subject) am going out for a run (predicate).
Relative clause is a part of a sentence that contains a verb and is joined to the rest of the sentence by a word such as ‘who’, ‘which’ or ‘that’ and gives additional information about someone or something Some grammarians call it adjective clause or attributive clause For example, in the sentence ‘The girl who is wearing the blue dress is my sister’, the relative clause is ‘who is wearing the blue dress’.
We can use relative clauses to combine clauses without repeating information.
In addition, relative clauses can be added to nouns in just about any part of a sentence at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of sentences
There are two types of relative clause: one type refers to a noun or noun phrase (these are defining and non-defining relative clauses) and the other type refers to a whole sentence or clause, especially in speaking.
Definition: Defining relative clauses give essential information to define the subject we're talking about For this reason, they're sometimes called essential relative clauses, because the information they provide is essential to understanding the meaning of the sentence.
Unlike a non-defining relative clause, we need to know the information included in the defining relative clause in order to make sense of the rest of the sentence.
People who like books often go to the library.
In this sentence, 'that like books' is the relative clause It's classed as a defining relative clause because this information is essential for clarifying the meaning of the sentence If we remove this relative clause, the sentence reads like this:
People often go to the library.
The sentence still makes sense grammatically, but the meaning of the sentence itself changes We need the clause 'who like books' because it defines the subject, the 'people', that we're talking about Without the defining relative clause, the sentence is vague and unclear - who are these 'people' we're talking about?
- The relative pronoun stands in place of a noun This noun usually appears at the beginning of the sentence: The book which you lent me was very interesting
- “Who, whom and which” can be replaced by that This is very common in spoken English
- The relative pronoun can be omitted (ứ) when it is the object of the clause:
Eg: The girl that John loved was very beautiful
OR The girl John loved was very beautiful.
Both of these sentences are correct, though the second one is more common in spoken English
- “Whose” is used for things as well as for people
Eg The car whose windshield is cracked is his
- “Whom” is very formal and is only used in written English You can use who/that, or omit the pronoun completely: The teacher whom/who/that/ứ I was hoping to see wasn't on duty
- “That” normally follows words like:
+ All, any, only, the first, the last, and sometimes follows: It is/it was
Eg: I have said all that I want to say
Any paper (that) you read will give you the same story
She is the only girl that can be the winner
It is her sister who chooses a T-shirt for her
It was the first time that Mary heard about the Vung Tau
+ Indefinite pronouns: no one, nobody, nothing, someone, somebody, anything…
Eg: She likes everything that she sees in that shop
It was not for nothing that he studied carpentry
Other materials can refer this kind of clause as non- restrictive clause, parenthetical clause, amplifying clause), non- essential clause
Definition: Non-defining relative clause provides interesting additional information which is not essential to understanding the meaning of the sentence It tells us more about someone or something, but do not define it It isn't essential for understanding who or what we are talking about.
Person Thing Place Time Reason
Subject Who/that Which/that Where When Why
Object Who/whom/that Who/that
Diagram 1: Relative pronouns in non - defining clauses
Eg My grandfather, who's 87, goes swimming every day.
The house, which was built in 1883, has just been opened to the public
Punctuation: Correct punctuation is essential in non-defining relative clauses.
If the non-defining relative clause occurs in the middle of a sentence, a comma is put before the relative pronoun and at the end of the clause If the non-defining relative clause occurs at the end of a sentence, a comma is put before the relative pronoun.
Eg My grandmother, who is dead now, came from the North of England
- We always use a relative pronoun or adverb to start a non-defining relative clause: who, which, whose, when or where (but not that) We also use commas to separate the clause from the rest of the sentence.
- We can use who to talk about people, which to talk about things and whose to refer to the person or thing that something belongs to.
Eg.Yesterday I met my new boss, who was very nice.
The house, which is very big, is also very cold!
- My next-door neighbour, whose children go to school with ours, has just bought a new car.
- We can use which with a preposition to talk about places and times In these cases it's more common to use where or when instead of which and the preposition.
Eg City Park, which we used to go to, has been closed down.
City Park, where we used to go, has been closed down.
December, which Christmas is celebrated in, is a summer month for the southern hemisphere.
December, when Christmas is celebrated, is a summer month for the southern hemisphere.
- However, when we use which without a preposition, we can't use where or when.
Eg Centre Park, which we love, is always really busy on Saturdays.
February, which is my favourite month, lasts 29 days this year.
- In non-defining clauses, you cannot use ‘that’ instead of who, whom or which
- You cannot leave out the relative pronoun, even when it is the object of the verb in the relative clause:
Eg We stopped at the museum, which we had never visited before
We stopped at the museum, which have the famous foods
-The preposition in these clauses can go at the end of the clause
Eg I’ve just come back from London, which John lives in
This pattern is often used in spoken English, but in written or formal English you can also put the preposition before the pronoun
Eg Stratford-on-Avon, about which many people have written, is Shakespeare’s birthplace
Non-defining clauses can be introduced by expressions like: all of, many of, (a) few of, both of, each of, either of, half of, many of, most of, much of, etc + relative pronoun
Eg He picked up a handful of stones, one of which was sharp
The relative pronoun which at the beginning of a non-defining relative clause, can refer to all the information contained in the previous part of the sentence, rather than to just one word
Eg She’s studying to become a doctor, which is difficult
(= the fact that she become a doctor is difficult)
Translation Studies is a field of study that deals with the theory, description, and application of translation Because it examines translation both as an interlingual transfer, and as an intercultural communication, Translation Studies can also be described as an inter-discipline which touches on other diverse fields of knowledge, including comparative literature, cultural studies, gender studies, computer science, history, linguistics, philosophy, rhetoric, and semiotics.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Overview Life of Pi and the translation "Cuộc đời của Pi" by Trinh Lu
On June 25, 1963, Yann Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain, to Canadian parents When Martel was a young boy, his parents joined the Canadian Foreign Services, and the family frequently moved, living in Alaska, France, Costa Rica, Ontario, and British Columbia Martel went on to study philosophy at Trent University in Ontario, where he discovered a love for writing After graduating in
1985, Martel lived with his parents and worked several odd jobs while continuing to write fiction He published a collection of short stories, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, in 1993and a novel, Self, in 1996, but neither book received much critical or commercial attention In 2002, however, Martel’s international literary reputation was sealed with the publication of Life of Pi, a runaway bestseller that went on to win the prestigious Man Booker Prize (awarded each year to the best English-language novel written by a Commonwealth or Irish author)and had since been translated into thirty languages Fox 2000 pictures bought the screen rights to Martel’s novel, and a feature film was expected in 2008.
1.2 The Novel “Life of Pi”
“Life of Pi” by Yann Martel is an enthralling novel about a boy's coming of age, a fascinating portrait of human-animal interactions, a mystical journey of multi-faith exploration, and a celebration of storytelling and the versatility of the imagination.
Pi Patel is the son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry, India He was given the full name of Piscine Molitor after a Parisian swimming pool frequented by a family friend But when kids at school took to calling him Pissing, he shortened it to Pi, that familiar figure for the ratio of a circle's circumference divided by its diameter.
At one point he says: "And so in that Greek letter that looks like a shack with a corrugated roof, in that elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe, I found refuge."
Although occasionally uncomfortable at school, Pi is incredibly happy at home surrounded by a veritable wonderland He learns that the zoo animals live by habit and, once their basic needs are met, are content to repeat the same rhythms and rituals every day Change the routine in the slightest way, however, and the animal will express confusion, anger, or retreat into a safe place He grows up knowing not to anthropomorphize — assign human characteristics — to the animals In one very scary scene, Pi's father demonstrates that animals are ferocious beasts who are driven by their hungers and passions He also teaches the boy about how a circus animal trainer is able to control large animals by assuming the position of the alpha male, demonstrating dominance and an ability to provide for their needs.
Pi's parents are secularists with no interest in religion This teenager, who is a Hindu, finds himself also attracted to Christianity and Islam Although he thinks that Jesus' ministry can't hold a candle to the exotic adventures of Hindu gods, his message of love seems very important He begins to meet regularly with a Catholic priest and soon asks to be baptized Pi finds Islam to be "a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion." After meeting a Sufi mystic in the market, he puts a prayer rug in the garden facing Mecca and prays five times a day However, once the local leaders of each religion discover what he is doing, they try to convince Pi that he must choose one over the others But this ardent teenager refuses to give up his multi-faith path of loving God.
All of this spiritual practice leads to a mystical experience which he describes this way: "I left town and on my way back, at a point where the land was high and I could see the sea to my left and down the road long ways, I suddenly felt I was in heaven The spot was in fact no different from when I had passed it not long before,but my way of seeing it had changed The feeling, a paradoxical mix of pulsing energy and profound peace, was intense and blissful Whereas before the road, the sea, the trees, the air, the sun all spoke differently to me, now they spoke one language of unity Tree took account of road, which was aware of air, which was mindful of sea, which shared things with the sun Every element lived in harmonious relation with its neighbor, and all was kith and kin I knelt a mortal; I rose an immortal I felt like the center of a small circle, coinciding with the center of a much larger one Atman had met Allah."
When Pi's father decides to leave India and move to Winnipeg, Canada, he closes the zoo and arranges to distribute its inhabitants to other facilities The family and some of the animals board a Japanese cargo ship Then the unexpected happens, and the boat sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean Pi makes it to a lifeboat where his only companions are a zebra, a hyena, a orangutan, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker The sixteen-year-old boy watches horrified as the war begins for supremacy between the animals In the end, of course, just he and the tiger are left. Luckily, the lifeboat is stocked with survival supplies and a detailed survival manual Pi sets up equipment to collect water, learns to fish and catch turtles, and makes a raft for those times when he needs to stay some distance from Richard Parker Everything he has learned about animals serves him well In shark-infested waters, with no land in sight, Pi attends to the needs of the 450-pound tiger This section of Martel's phantasmagorical novel is absolutely enthralling, a true adventure where Pi's physical prowess, intellectual courage, and spiritual perseverance are all tested At one point, he observes: "For the first time I noticed
— as I would notice repeatedly during my ordeal, between one throe of agony and the next — that my suffering was taking place in a grand setting I saw my suffering for what it was, finite and insignificant, and I was still."
Throughout his journey, Pi practices religious rituals — "solitary Masses without priests or consecrated Communion hosts, darshans without murtis, and pujas with turtle meat for prasad, acts of devotion for Allah not knowing whereMecca was and getting my Arabic wrong." But these provide a stay against despair and loneliness and his grief for his lost family The worst enemy is fear He observes:
"It is life's only true opponent Only fear can defeat life It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease It begins in your mind, always One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy Then, fear, disguised in the garb of mild mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy."
One of the things that makes Life of Pi such an extraordinary read is that it covers so many fascinating subjects with aplomb Martel provides overviews of animal behavior, survival at sea, the limits of reason, and a boy's coming of age. The novel is a work of spiritual adventurism, an expression of mystical awareness, and a salute to the ample powers of imagination and the versatility of storytelling. During his long stay aboard the lifeboat with the tiger, Pi notes: "My greatest wish
— other than salvation — was to have a book A long book with a never-ending story One I could read again and again, with new eyes and a fresh This ambitious novel is ssh understanding each time Alas, there was no scripture in the lifeboat." stuffed with ideas, interesting people, and exciting situations Each reader could spend quite a bit of time pondering the spiritual implications of the deep relationship that develops between Pi and Richard Parker over the course of their confinement together At first, the teenage is scared out of his wits that the animal will eat him Then he tries to keep the tiger happy with food, fresh water, and regular routines The final level of their interaction is a surprise that will only startle those who haven't had the delight of close mystical relationships with animals. Life of Pi is a multi-leveled exploration of the beautiful mysteries that light up our lives and have no rhyme or reason of their own Yet without them, we would be nothing more than wonder-deprived creatures.
Trinh Lu’s real name is Trinh Huu Tuan After graduating from the Mining Department of the Ha Noi University of Technology, he took a job at Radio Voice of Viet Nam in 1970 as an English program announcer for 16 years He moved toNew York in 1987 and worked in a number of positions after completing a master’s degree in communications at Cornell University In2002, his children had already gone to university; Trinh Lu decided his time in the US was through and he headed home Since then, he has embarked on a new journey, translating literature, and has already earned quite a reputation among Vietnamese readers Two years after Life of Pi took the Man Booker Prize, Trinh Lu earned the Ha Noi Writers’ Association Award for a Translated Book in 2004 and then won the Viet Nam Writers’ Association Official Award for a Translated Book in 2005.
1.4 Literary values of the novel “Life of Pi”
Strategies for translating relative clauses in the work “Cuộc đời của Pi” by
The first objective of the research is to investigate what types of relative clauses are used in the selected material Through the text analysis of the researcher, it is recognized that there are about 450 relative clauses used in the whole 100 chapters of " Life of Pi" Due to the scope of this paper, the research conductor does not pick up the entire relative clauses but some typical relative clauses expressions to present as evidences By the investigation, there are 117 relative clauses found in the first 5 Chapters of “Life” by Yann Martel into “Cuộc đời của Pi” by Trinh Lu. Here, I analyze in detail the strategies for translating relative clauses in this work.
Changing into compound sentence (55cG%) Using parenthesis “,” or hyphen “ – ” for explanation ) ( Marks employment ) (3c=2.6%)
Treating relative clauses as adjectives (3c=2.6%) Other flexible ways for translating (31c&.5%)
Table 1: Statistics the main strategies for translating relative clauses in the work " Life of Pi"
As can be seen clearly from the table, Trinh Lu has general patterns to use the reduction of relative clauses and other flexible ways of translating as the two main translation strategies The most dominant strategy is a reduction of relative clauses with approximately 83 relative clauses accounting for 73.5 percents of the total number of relative clauses The second most are other flexible ways for translating, which occupies for 26.5 percents with 31 times of use
In general, two types of strategies for translating relative clauses used quite regularly in the source text have fulfilled the initial objective to give the answer to the first research question They are likely to appear pervasively in the novel The combination of two types of strategies for translating relative clauses serves a substantial function in creating live and beautiful images for abstract concepts; thus they not only decorate the story but also enable humans to grasp the meanings of abstract notions via more concrete ones
English version Vietnamese translation by Trinh Lu
1 The lady who ran the place would tell me stories about the struggle to boot the British out.
Bà chủ đồn điền sẽ kể tôi nghe những câu chuyện về cuộc đấu tranh đánh đuổi người Anh.
2 In spite of the obvious, shining promise of it, there comes a moment when you realize that the whisper that has been pestering you all along from the back of your mind is speaking the flat, awful truth: it won't work.
Mặc cho những hứa hẹn sáng lạn và hiển nhiên của câu chuyện, sẽ đến lúc bạn chợt nhận ra những lời thì thầm vẫn luôn thôi thúc bạn viết nó ra bấy lâu nay lại rót vào tai bạn một sự thật rõ ràng và khủng khiếp, rằng câu chuyện hỏng rồi.
3 An element is missing, that spark that brings to life a real story, regardless of whether the history or the food is right.
Nó thiếu một thứ, cái tia lửa có khả năng thổi sự sống vào một câu chuyện, bất kể là các dữ liệu lịch sự hoặc ẩm thực của bạn đúng hay là sai.
4 I would have liked to say, "I'm a doctor," to those who asked me what I did, doctors being the current purveyors of magic and miracle.
Với những người hỏi tôi làm nghề gì, tôi đã muốn trả lời: “Tôi là đốc- tờ” Trong tâm trí tôi lúc ấy, bác sĩ là những người phân phát pháp thuật và phép lạ.
5 Then the elderly man said, "I have a story that will make you believe in God."
Rồi ông già bảo: “Tôi có một câu chuyện sẽ khiến anh tin vào Thượng đế.”
6 The voice that answered had an
Indian lilt to its Canadian accent, light but unmistakable,
Giọng trả lời rất Canada, nhưng vẫn nghe được âm sắc ấn Độ, nhẹ thôi nhưng không thể lẫn vào đâu được, như một thoáng like a trace of incense in the air hương nhang trong không khí.
7 He showed me the yellowed newspaper clippings that made him briefly, obscurely famous.
Anh cho tôi xem cả những mẩu tin, bài cắt trên báo đã có lúc khiến anh nổi tiếng, cho dù ngắn ngủi và mờ nhạt.
8 It was as I listened to that tape that I agreed with Mr.
Adirubasamy that this was, indeed, a story to make you believe in God.
It seemed natural that Mr.
Patel's story should be told mostly in the first person, in his voice and through his eyes.
Chính khi lắng nghe cuốn băng ghi âm đó tôi thấy đồng ý với ông lão Adirubasamy rằng quả thực đây là câu chuyện sẽ khiến cho bạn đọc phải tin vào Thượng đế.
Lẽ tự nhiên là câu chuyện của ông Patel phải được kể lại chủ yếu là theo ngôi thứ nhất - tức là bằng chính lời kể của ông và theo con mắt nhìn nhận của ông.
9 Lastly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to that great institution, the Canada
Council for the Arts, without whose grant I could not have brought together this story that has nothing to do with Portugal in 1939.
Cuối cùng, tôi xin bày tỏ lòng biết ơn chân thành của tôi đến với cơ quan vĩ đại, tức là Hội đồng bảo trợ nghệ thuật Canada, vì nếu không thể chắp nối được câu chuyện này, vốn chẳng dính dáng gì đến Bồ Đào Nha thời 1939
10 On the ground, it crawls to its next tree at the rate of 250 metres an hour, when motivated, which is 440 times slower than a motivated cheetah.
Dưới mặt đất, nó bò từ cây này sang cây kia với tốc độ hai trăm hai mươi mét một giờ nếu có lý do chính đáng, bốn trăm bốn muơi lần chậm hơn tốc độ duy chuyển có lí do của loài báo cheetah.
11 A sloth's hairs shelter an algae that is brown during the dry season and green during the wet season, so the animal blends in with the surrounding moss and
Lông culi là nơi cư trú của một loại tảo có màu nâu trong mùa khô và màu xanh lá cây trong mùa mưa, giúp cho nó lẫn lộn vào rêu lá xung quanh, trông như một tổ kiến hoặc tổ sóc, hoặc chỉ như một phần sần sùi của foliage and looks like a nest of white ants or of squirrels, or like nothing at all but part of a tree. một cái cây.
12 If I got none from the
Studies, it is simply because there are no student awards in this department (the rewards of religious study are not in mortal hands, we all know that) I would have received the
Toronto's highest undergraduate award, of which no small number of illustrious Canadians have been recipients, were it not for a beef-eating pink boy with a neck like a tree trunk and a temperament of unbearable good cheer.