ABSTRACT Adversity explicitation is the verbalization of the covert adversity textual meaning in translation. This paper reports a case study of the Chinese stereotypical adversative 但 “but” as the translation explicitation from the source language of English. The study is carried out on corpora of three different genres: international legislation, financial editorial, and public speech. The quantitative results show adversity explicitation as genre-general as well as genre-specific. The qualitative analysis then attributes genre-specific adversity explicitations to the “imported” intersubjectivity argumentation in international legislation and to the hybridization of this discourse meaning with lexico-grammatical and pragmatic features of the target language. Genre-general adversity explicitations are attributed to English–Chinese contrasts in information structuring. Chinese adversity explicitations can be the choices by the translator to recreate the topic continuity and asymmetric information structure in discourse. The findings of this study suggest how discourse context decides the language pair-specific type of explicitation. It is argued that a motivated and adequate explanation for translation explicitation should be in the framework of cross-linguistic contrasts in genre norms and information structure.

ABSTRACT This article examines Su Manshu’s poetry translation against the backdrop of the critical transitional phase from classical to modern Chinese literature by introducing “stylistic interference” as both a theoretical framework and a methodological lens for analysis. Drawing on Geoffrey Leech’s stylistic theory and Sherry Simon’s notion of creative interference, this study posits stylistic interference as a deliberate act of alteration – one that reframes the original stylistic features, often at the expense of the formal integrity of the source text. Through close textual analysis, the article delineates three principal modes of stylistic interference: omission, transformation, and the introduction of new stylistic deviations. This study argues that Su Manshu leveraged these modes to simultaneously engage with Western poetic structures while reaffirming classical Chinese aesthetics. By so doing, this study proposes that stylistic interference operates not merely as a strategy of poetic domestication but as a constitutive means of asserting creative agency. This theoretical thinking moves beyond traditional binaries of fidelity and rewriting, contributing to translation studies and stylistics by advancing a systematic framework for examining stylistic transformation as creative rewriting in the act of poetry translation.

ABSTRACT The formation of a salient national identity has been a paramount goal for Iraqis since it binds them together. Therefore, Iraqi National Identity (INI) has received increasing attention from researchers. However, INI remains a noticeable gap from the perspective of translated poetry. To fill this gap, this qualitative study explores the representation of INI in Al-Sayyab’s poetry through translation. Al-Sayyab is purposely chosen because he identifies with INI in his poetry. Of particular significance in his identification is the deliberate use of an idiosyncratic language which is a blend of standard and vernacular. Such a rich cultural content presents a unique challenge as it can be considered a condensed representation of Iraqiness, requiring therefore a comprehensive set of translation strategies to be transferred effectively. To demonstrate that the challenges of this peculiarity culminate in translation, eight extracts translated from Al-Sayyab’s Diwan have been selected as the data. Aixelá model is adopted to examine how translation can efface or recreate INI. The study concludes that when translating INI into English, translation did not function as a means to reproduce the voice of Iraqiness uttered by the poet. Rather, translation has shown an overriding tendency towards not representing INI.

ABSTRACT In today’s digitally mediated world, international advertising campaigns increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to create, adapt and deliver persuasive messages across cultural and linguistic boundaries. The paper explores how AI is reshaping the discourse of global advertising and what this means for linguists, translators, and intercultural communication specialists. From transcreation to cultural misfires, the study examines real-world cases where slogans or brand names succeeded – or spectacularly failed – to resonate with their intended audiences. Drawing on such examples from both recent and more dated campaigns, the paper addresses the linguistic and extralinguistic strategies used in localisation, highlighting both the potential and the pitfalls of algorithmically driven communication. Ethical questions surrounding content authenticity, cultural sensitivity, and the role of human oversight in AI-generated messaging are also discussed. Emphasis is placed on best practices that integrate technological innovation with linguistic expertise and intercultural awareness. The paper concludes with reflections on the future of international advertising and the critical role of applied linguistics in navigating this evolving terrain.

ABSTRACT The interview focuses on Tony Blishen’s approach to translation and the strategies he employs in translating Chinese literature, including Chinese classical poetry, prose, the 17th-century Chinese classic on material culture Zhangwuzhi: Treatise on Superfluous Things and Ma Yuan’s post-modern novella No Sail on the Western Sea. The conversation is enriched with philosophical contemplations, drawing on Daoist concepts of change and non-change, Confucius’ and Wang Bi’s views on image, word, and sense. These philosophical perspectives are applied to practical translation scenarios, addressing issues such as context and expansion, voice and style, cultural customs and values. The discussion also zooms in on specific challenges in translating works on material culture, such as the perception of space, the preference between essence and appearance, and the distinction between action and contemplation. The translator’s general approach, “suit the words to the sense,” and strategies like equivalence of image and controlled expansion are highlighted. The interview concludes that a successful translation must contain the qualities of imagination, visualization, context, and expansion in the appropriate quantities.

ABSTRACT Cross-lingual learning provides an excellent chance for knowledge transfer across multiple languages. However, the substantial resource disparity between high- and low-resource languages creates considerable issues. This study focuses on two Indic language families, Indo-Aryan, and Dravidian, as well as a definitely endangered low-resource language that often lacks the extensive training data available in high-resource languages, such as English. We present a unique approach termed Resource-Aware Multimodal Translation (RAMT), which combines large language models with vision-based character recognition to improve translation efficacy across a range of resource levels. RAMT uses the Continuous Wavelet Transform to translate low-resource text into a spatial representation, enabling a plug-and-play training process. This method streamlines the training process across multiple languages, reducing reliance on large datasets and enhancing model portability. In addition, our method captures sequential dependencies and spatial properties in the text, which improves stroke extraction and inter-character interactions. Empirical assessments of seven languages demonstrate considerable gains in both performance and processing speed, demonstrating RAMT’s usefulness in bridging the resource gap in cross-lingual applications. Our findings demonstrate that this integrated technique promotes more equitable language processing solutions, paving the way for improved access and comprehension in low-resource linguistic environments.

ABSTRACT Jeremy Tiang is a Singaporean writer, playwright, and literary translator based in New York who has translated contemporary writers from across the Sinophone world and received international acclaim, including being longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize. This interview centers on Tiang’s translation strategies and the publishing process. It exhibits the artistry involved in introducing Chinese literature to the Anglophone world across diverse genres and accommodating the idiosyncratic styles of different writers. Tiang elaborates on inhabiting the dual identities of writer and reader as the foundation of literary translation, the challenges of introducing unfamiliar contexts to new audiences, and the interplay of translatorial, authorial and editorial interventions in text and paratext. His reflections provide valuable insights for scholars interested in contemporary Chinese literary translation, addressing theoretical concerns such as translation action theory, the publishers’ consideration of economic and social capital, and the practical aspects of translation.