CHAPTER 3: Pre-translation: analysis of the source text
3.4 Intratextual factors
3.4.2 Presupposition
68
contemporary South Africa (Kovacevic, 2007). Kovacevic (2007) notes that these strategies have not been successful in helping to empower black people or redistribute wealth, but have, to date, only succeeded in benefiting an elite few. In Kaburu, there are several instances where the characters discuss these issues. Examples include Father’s comparison between the seventeenth-century French Huguenots and contemporary South Africans, who emigrate because they feel persecuted (Opperman, 2008:8). Father’s reference to name changes (Opperman, 2008:17) and Bertus’ remarks about the strategies employed by the current South African administration to right the wrongs of the past through Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment (Opperman, 2008:64). The rendition of these units will be discussed in chapter 4 of this dissertation.
69
is unfamiliar with South African history or items that are culture-specific to South Africa will be unable to fully understand these references. Where the target language audience is presupposed to be ignorant of the information necessary to understand a reference, an elucidating strategy should be employed by the translator. This strategy can differ for each unit and may include adding footnotes, addenda or even linguistic units.
Larson (1984:431) explains that culture is “a complex of beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules which a group of people share”. In a literary text, culture-specific signs can include anything that forms part of the daily lives of the characters in the text in that particular country and culture. A culture-specific sign can relate to food, sports, units of measurement, brand names, famous citizens, music, place names, history, legal references or common pastimes.
In Kaburu, there are many examples of such cultural references. Some of these references will be familiar to English-speaking South Africans and to frequent foreign visitors to South Africa but others, especially historical references, will be unfamiliar to both visitors and tourists, and might even be unknown to certain groups of South Africans.
When the translator produces the target text, it is important that he or she has a clear target language audience in mind. This will inform decisions about whether or not to add information to the target text in the form of footnotes or a glossary. If the play is performed, the director or producer can decide whether this additional information needs to be communicated to the audience and, if so, how. Decisions about additional information are based on what the translator presupposes the audience to know or not know about the source language culture and history (which also form the setting of the play). Larson (1984:436) points out that the target language audience will “decode the translation” on the basis of their own culture and experience, not on the basis of the source language culture.
The translator has to keep this in mind during the translation process in order to better help
70
the target language audience understand the content and intention of the original text (Larson, 1984:436-437).
As stated previously in this dissertation, the hypothetical target language audience for this study is a domestic audience of mixed nationalities, consisting primarily of South African English speakers who will see the performance in South Africa. This hypothetical audience may also include internationals residing in South Africa for any length of time, people who have family members in South Africa (and therefore have an interest in South African culture), and descendants of South Africans who have emigrated and no longer use Afrikaans as their first language. The assumption is that this audience has some, but not extensive, knowledge of South African culture.
As a sender, Opperman presupposes that his audience has knowledge of the wars to which characters in the play refer, namely, the Boer War (1899-1902) and the (Angolan) Border War (1966-1989). He also assumes that his audience knows of certain historical figures, including President Paul Kruger, and certain culture-specific items (such as the Kruger National Park, Chubb, Affirmative Action (AA) and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE)).
However, these items are very culture specific, and the translator will assume that the target language audience may not fully appreciate their connotative value. The culture-specific references that the target language audience can be presupposed to be familiar with are references to things that any citizen or tourist will encounter regularly in everyday conversations or the media. For instance, any visitor will be familiar with Johannesburg International Airport because all international flights pass through this particular airport and many places indicate both names, Johannesburg International, and OR Tambo. The target language audience is also expected to be familiar with the currency of South Africa, namely the South African rand, and with the fact that Limpopo is a province. If the target language
71
audience is not familiar with the names of all the provinces, the word ‘province’ will clarify the meaning of this unit. The audience may not know that Limpopo is the northern-most province of South Africa; however, this fact is not relevant to understanding the play and therefore requires no further clarification. The word braai (‘barbeque’) is part of South African English and very commonly used by all South Africans. Tourists and visitors are likely to be familiar with this term because ‘braai’ is a very popular culinary activity in South Africa. Other culture- specific references that the target audience is presupposed to understand, regardless of their culture-specific quality, are Woolies-pies and rooibok. The word ‘pies’ explains the food type, ‘Woolies’ is the name of a chain of supermarkets and the word ‘springbok’ is very familiar to everyone simply because it is the name of South Africa’s rugby team. This team is known internationally after they won the World Cup in 1995. It is presupposed that the audience will be able to deduce that a rooibok must be an animal similar in kind to a
‘springbok’.
The rendition of references to historical events and political issues which are thematically significant in the play, but are probably unfamiliar to readers or the postulated audience, may require careful analysis by the translator in order to preserve as much as possible of their connotative value. They are listed below, because these references require further research on the part of the translator as reader and they are crucial to understanding the themes of the play. However, since their target language rendition involves lexical choice, they are discussed as part of the production phase in the next chapter. Historical references prior to 1994 are discussed in section 4.2.1. In 1994, the first democratic elections were held in South Africa and a new dispensation, often referred to as the ‘new South Africa’, came into being. References to socioeconomic and political issues associated with this new era in South African history are discussed in section 4.2.2, because rendering these units is a production challenge. The historical references in 4.2.1 include Republiekdag (Opperman,
72
2008:54), ou vlag (Opperman, 2008:54), Kruggerand (Opperman, 2008:9), Wildtuin (Opperman, 2008:17), Oom Paul (Opperman, 2008:10), laers (Opperman, 2008:25), voorvaders (Opperman, 2008:8), and Zulu-impi (Opperman, 2008:8). References to current socio-political issues include Chubb (Opperman, 2008:25), Mbata/Botha (Opperman, 2008:17), and references to South Africa’s wars (Opperman, 2008:48). These references often have connotative meanings that the translator should take into account when producing the target language rendition; I shall elaborate on these meanings in section 4.2.2 and discuss the renditions selected for the target text.