The Translation of Cultural Specific Items in the Persian Translation of Disney's Animated Classic <i>Cinderella</i>

Abstract

Cinderella is a folk tale representing a component of unfair subjugation and victorious reward. There are various versions of Cinderella throughout the world. The main character is a young girl living in abandoned conditions that are changed to incredible fortune. Walt Disney produced <i><i>Cinderella</i></i> (1950), an animated musical fantasy film, based on the fairy tale of the same name by Charles Perrault. Translation has played a significant role in intercultural communication, and the translation of cultural specific items, the distinctive qualities of a particular culture, is the most important part of the process of translation. Culture-specific items are notions that are specific for a specific culture which may refer to realms such as plants, animals, food, accommodation, vacation, politics, and religion. The purpose of this paper was to compare and contrast the cultural specific items in English version of Walt Disney’s <i><i>Cinderella</i></i> (1950) and their translation into Farsi in the light of Peter Newmark’s suggestions about the translation of CSIs. The study gains significance as the findings can shed more light upon the translation procedures of cultural specific items in Farsi translation of Walt Disney’s <i><i>Cinderella</i></i> (1950) in the light of theories of Peter Newmark (1988). The findings of the research paper show that the translator of <i><i>Cinderella</i></i> has applied the procedure of addition, deletion, cultural equivalent and paraphrase more than the other procedures.