Linguistic (Non-cultural) Translation

Source Text Target Text

Dokuma ustası ağayı, yeğeni Camgöz Sadığın tezgâhına götürdü. (p.21)

The weaving supervisor took the boss over to the machine ‘Glass-eye’ Sadik was working on. (p.25)

Sadık is a character who works at the cotton factory, and he is weaving supervisor’s nephew. As his uncle is a close employee of Kadir Ağa, he also supports Ağa and tries to convince other workers to rebel against Numan Şerif Bey. He is also a friend of Deveci Çopur Halil, Pockmark Halil in TT, and helps him to have Cemile. Sadık is known with his nickname “Camgöz”, .i.e. “Glass-eye” in TT. In SL “camgöz” refers to a type of shark which lives close to shore, and it is also a nickname used for prankish or mischievous children. Sadik as a character in the book is a sneaky and mischeovus person. As the TT reader can perceive that the CSI “Sadık” is a proper male name in SL, translator transfers it as “Sadik” by replacing “ı" with “i" because of phonological differences between two lamguages. However, he employs the linguistic (non-cultural) translation strategy for the nickname “Camgöz” by translating it as “Glass-eye”. Although reading this CSI in their own language can help TT readers to read it easily, it may be difficult to grasp its reference to the character of person who holds the nickname as there is not any cultural reference belonging to the TL. Therefore, by applying the linguistic (non-cultural) translation strategy, translator proposes a more comprehensible but still an ufamiliar reference for the TT readers which is an example to foreignization strategy at the macro-level.

Example 8

Source Text Target Text

“Hökümat nikahı da kıydıracak dedin mi?”

“Dedim.”(p.51)

“Did you tell her that we’d do a proper government registry wedding too?”

“I did.” (p.60)

In Turkey couples get married with two different ceremonies which are civil and religious wedding ceremony. Civil ceremony is carried out by an officer entitled to do government registry, and it is the only ceremony recognized by the government of Republic of Turkey.

On the other hand, the religious ceremony, i.e. “imam nikahı”, is conducted by an “imam”

who can be defined as the preacher and clergyman of Islam. Until the adoption of civil law in Turkey, couples could get married only with the religious ceremony, “imam nikahı”. However, with the adoption of civil law, the official registry has become mandatory to be recognized as a family in front of the governmental bodies. It has been also enforced by the law that couples can have their religious wedding ceremony done as long as they are officially married and can submit their marriage certificate.

As the religious ceremony is not recognized by the government and does not bring about any legal responsibilities such as alimony payments or inheritance for men against their wives, men, especially in rural areas, prefer to get married with a religious ceremony.

Therefore, in the example above, Deveci Çopur Halil, i.e. Pockmark Halil the camel owner in TL, proposes a governmental registry to Cemile so that he can express his sincerety and love to her. For the ST readers, the utterance “Hökümat nikahı da kıydıracak dedin mi?” bears all the references to the ways of marriage in Turkey explained above and significance of an official marriage proposed by a man from countryside. Translator employs the strategy of linguistic (non-cultural) translation and translates it as “Did you tell her that we’d do a proper government registry wedding too?” Although the linguistic transfer of the CSI can be understandable for the TT readers at a word-for-word level, they may not comprehend the message of cultural reference represented by governmental and religious wedding ceremonies for the ST readers.

Therefore, despite the denotative transfer of the CSI into the TT, connotative relation can be incomprehensible for the TT readers. In other words, it is an unfamiliar and foreignized reference within the TT readers’ context.

Example 9

Source Text Target Text

“Onun öyle cadı bir annesi var ki…”

“Ben onun annesini de bilirim, babasını da…”

“Her mother’s a real witch…”

“Don’t worry, I know who her mother is, and her father…”

“I know you know them, but did you also know that they won’t let their

“Tabi bilirsin ama, beş yüz lira almadan kızını vermiyeceğini de biliyor musun?” (p.115)

daughter marry unless they get five hundred liras for her?” (p.134)

In the example above there is another practice as a tradition used during marriage in SL culture, especially in the rural areas of Turkey. Before giving the permission to their daughter to get married, bride’s family claims a certain amount of money or any other valuable things such as land or cattle. Although it used to be widely used in country sides in the past, it is completely forbidden in today’s Turkey. In the excerpt given above Cemile talks to his brother Sadri about the girl whom he wants to marry, and she mentions the money that the girl’s family may demand for their marriage. She utters “beş yüz lira almadan kızını vermiyeceğini de biliyor musun?” Translator applies the linguistic (non-cultural) translation strategy and transfers it as “but did you also know that they won’t let their daughter marry unless they get five hundred liras for her”. Although it may seem to be a comprehensible utterance in terms of denotative correspondence in TT, getting money for someone’s own daughter’s marriage from the grooms family can be difficult to grasp. Therefore, translator applies the strategy of foreignization at macro-level and keeps the tradition as a CSI unfamiliar for the TT readers’ context.

3.7.1.4. Intratextual Gloss