Idyassine 1 Mohamed Idyassine Professor Benoudi Translation & intercultural communication February 7th 2011 Influence, Identity and

Power in Cross-cultural Translation.

In the world of today, Translation has become one of the most successful means of bringing cultures and civilizations together. Translators struggle through the processes of translation to promote mutual understanding between readers from both source cultures and target cultures. The Romans discovered the creek culture by means of translation; most of the Islamic and Arabic literature was translated for the Europeans during the 19th century era. Indeed, translation has granted cultures all over the world easy access into one anothers scholarship and scientific findings.

Translation is mostly encouraged for this unique and rewarding purpose. Muhammad the profit has encouraged Muslims to learn languages so as to be able to understand and translate much of the others scholarship and literature for one probable reason: to avoid their evil side or aggression . Later; European Imperialism might have also helped in promoting mutual understanding among cultures of the world in the beginning; but afterwards, it has established a framework of relations where some cultures are dominant while others remain subordinate. This unbalanced relationship affects much of the translators translation either consciously or unconsciously. Meaning of the source text should always meet the expectations of the target dominant cultures readers; whereas meaning in the source text of the dominant culture will sometimes offend readers of the translation from the dominated cultures. This dilemma brings about a lot of controversy among most professional translators and researchers mainly those who share Saids orientalist assumptions and Bhabas Dislocation of cultures theory. Faiq 2005 says: when cultures cross and mingle through

Idyassine 2 translation. These pasts come face to face and struggle for power and influence becomes inevitable. by saying this, Faiq postulates that in any translation situation, the translator will not only have to find word for word equivalents; he should also have to deal with the influence of the culture for which he is translating. The translator must recognize the existing relation of the source text culture to the target text culture and act accordingly. If both cultures were equal which is can never be the case, the translator would not have to exert manipulation or subversion or power on his text or the reader for whom he is writing. But if; for example, an Arab translator is translating a text into English, he must either aim for conserving his true identity or manipulate the truth and identity so as to appeal to the target readers by further confirming their exotic view of the orient. In both cases, the translator must exert power on his source text or most devastatingly on his arguments.

Power in translation is primarily a pragmatic variable which means the degree to which the text producer can impose his own plans and self-evaluation at the expense of the text receivers plans and self-evaluation (Brown and levinson, Qt in Basil 1997). Power is indeed a simple variable in the theory of politeness; but this may also entail that a writer or counter-arguer or a translator makes concessions in order to sound polite to a superior reader. In pragmatics, to be polite is to be credible; therefore writers or translators should cede power of their arguments in order to be polite. Such concessions when made by translators imply a loss of identity or truth especially in translation situations where two different cultures with different pasts and status cross and mingle.

Translator in these situations of imbalance and inequality between the culture of the source text and the culture of the target text are required to manipulate the text and/ readers in order to assimilate to the dominant culture or the hegemonic culture all that is foreign to it. This was generally the case for translators in post-colonial Arab countries; because, the so called dominant and hegemonic western cultures seem to impose drastic measures of acceptance on the Arab writings eligible for

Idyassine 3 translation into western languages. The orient has nothing to contribute to European modernity; apart from the exotic and erotic images of orient sexuality and hareem.

Translation from it (the Arab world), therefore remains the prisoner of nineteenth century images and representations, which also negatively affect most of the intercultural encounters between the two worlds today. (Faiq 2004) Faiq in this quotation supposes that translation of the Arab texts is very much influenced by the colonial past. Translators are encouraged by Western publishers to confine themselves to translating genres that foster and feed the images and the representations of the orient in the Occident. Examples to support this contention are numerous; most Arab writers; mainly female writers; who deal with the issues of sexuality and gender are easily given more chances of being translated into many other languages. For this unique reason; they can appeal to the western readers and make them feel superior, democratic and liberal. On the contrary; Arab masterpieces which deal with Islam are censured for reasons of Islamic fundamentalism or extremism.

Censor by western publishers and mainly by some Arab rulers regulates free exchange of influence between cultures that translators try to conserve. Both parts try to defend their own cultures against the Evils; some oblivious or enthusiastic translators may introduce into their culture. However; some translators manage to translate the source text and conserve much of it is meaning which can influence the target readers. In such cases, we can think of translation as a significant site for raising questions of representation, power and historicity (Thomas 1998; Cited in Faiq 2005).

So far; the academic definition of translation has been established as the main means through which texts of one culture are made available to another therefore it should in theory , be the site of a potentially fruitful clash of different cultures and particularly vital in the case of translation

Idyassine 4 from those supposedly weaker and subordinate cultures into dominant ones (Faiq 2004) he gives the example of translation from Arabic into English and French.

According to the same translation scholar, the translated texts undergo manipulation and subversion of many of its linguistic as wall as their cultural aspects. Manipulation and subversion causes the loss of fidelity and equivalence of the target text to the source text linguistic and overall cultural aspects. To most veteran translators; who still view translation as the transfer of text from one language to another, such a huge shift from fidelity and equivalence to manipulation and subversion of the linguistic and cultural traits of the source text is chocking. (Faiq 2005)

The tendency of translators to make concessions in favour of the dominant cultures readers has become very rampant. Consequently; texts lose their identity through the act of translation. During the post-colonial era, Arab scholars tried to evoke questions of identity in literature and politics, but with some reluctance in translation. Some of the post-colonial renowned authors write in languages of the west, regardless of the pride most of their contemporaries take in celebrating national identity. Faiq 2005 labelled this category after Beaugrande as the native foreigners because they fit Saids model of the orientalist in every aspect except in the fact that they are indigenously Arabs/Muslims. These writers adopt the same representations of the west in their writings. Their acts of translations do not promote or foster pride in national identity nor do they pave the way for some exchange of influence between the source culture and the culture for which they write. Instead; their writings broaden the gap between the otherness of the other and the self, and feed the fixed models of representation. Among the members of this category of writers is Taher Benjelloun. He mainly writes in French for a French society; that would no accept him if he dose not write about sex, sexuality and exotic aspects of his mother culture. His prominent work la La Nuit Sacre appealed to the western readers; because it helps them identify themselves as democratic and liberal and consolidate their views of

Idyassine 5 the Moroccan culture as superstitious and gender biased. Benjelloun according to Faiq 2005 deserved the position of le Doyen of the Native foreigners. La Nuit Sacre was written in French language but when translated into Arabic language it has been subject to manipulations and subversions so as to appeal to the Arab readers rather than offending them. Benjelloun is but one example of the native foreigners who write not to empower their own culture over other cultures or of the sake of some exchange of influence between his culture and the western culture, apparently dominant. He writes only to fit the straitjacket that the dominant culture has tailored for him. In such cases, the act of writing or translation is subject to the power and hegemony of the dominant cultures.

To conclude, professional translators are required to think of effective ways to deal with the problem of the relation between translation and cultural representations in translation. Accordingly; translators should be equipped with a thorough knowledge of both the source text culture and the target text culture they are translating for. Furthermore, manipulations and subversions must not affect those cultural aspects of the source text during any act of translation. Finally; translators should take into consideration the influence of both cultures on each other and try to pave the way through translation for more exchange of influence between the two cultures. In doing so; translators will enable translation to regain the position it has always enjoyed before imperialism: A site for exchange of scholarship and mutual understanding between peoples of the universe.

Works cited Basil, Hatim ( et al).The Translator As Communicator. London. Routledge:1997 Faiq, Said (2005). Cultural dislocation through translation. Identity and Representation in Intercultural Communication. (Ed) S. Faiq (2005),Special issue of Intercultural Communication Studies, Vol. XIII: 4, pp. 57-74). Trinity University: IAICS.

Idyassine 6 - - - . (Ed.). (2004). Cultural Encounters in Translation from Arabic. Clevedon & New York: Multilingual Matters. Thomas, S. (1998).Translating as Intercultural Conflict. In S. Hunston (Ed.), Language at Work [British Studies in Applied Linguistics 13], 98-108. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.