Madagascar: Problems faced and techniques applied.

At first I had to understand the text in order to know how I might translate it. Then the problems appeared with the colloquial expression, idioms and native words. For instance: “En Tana me familiaricé con la moneda local” “pousse-pousses” and “taxi-brousses” or metaphors like: “La luz sesgada del atardecer alarga las sombras y embellece los troncos rojizos, mientras una carreta avanza por el camino”

Also the article has some proper names and words in French  and English that I thought was correct to write exactly what it says for instance:: Sainte-Marie, trekking, Le Petit Prince, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and so on.

I had to use different techniques to translate the text. Both The Direct Translation Techniques and Oblique Translation Techniques are really useful at the time to translate the text. There are parts of the text that the translation is in the same order or there are others win which the words or statement has to be translated as similar as is possible.

Examples:

• Borrowing technique: trekking
• Literal Translation: Justo a la entrada de Morondava un cartel anuncia - At the entrance of Morondava there is a poster announces

I think the method of translation that worked mostly was: Communicative translation: “it attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership” (1988b: 45-47). 

The translation procedure that I worked for culture-specific concepts (CSCs) was:

Through-translation: it is the literal translation of common collocations, names of organizations and components of compounds. It can also be called: calque or loan translation. (Newmark, 1988b:84)

Example: “pousse-pousses”; “taxi-brousses”

The strategies for translating the proper name was using the name, adding some guidance.

By: Paula González