German Translation Research Articles

Translation, Cultural Adaptation and Content Validity of the Persian Version of the Structured Cognitive Training Program “NEUROvitalis”

Introduction: The older adult population is growing worldwide, particularly in Iran, leading to a decline in cognitive function. Cognitive training effectively enhances these skills. NEUROvitalis is a structured cognitive training program incorporating psychoeducation with individual and group cognitive tasks. It accommodates up to eight participants aged 50 and above, spanning 12 sessions over six weeks. This study aims to prepare translation, cultural adaptation, and content validity of the structured cognitive training program “NEUROvitalis Materials and Methods: We conducted this methodological study using a standard forward- backward process. Subsequently, German translators checked the accuracy of the translation. We assessed the fluency and comprehensibility of translated material. Twelve Tehran University of Medical Sciences assessors scored each psychoeducational component, pamphlet, group game and individual exercise on a 5-point visual scale. The content validity index (CVI) was then calculated. Results: Atotal of 12 participants (eight females, four males, aged 23–41, mean age 28.83±6.23) were included in the evaluation of comprehensibility and fluency. The CVI ranged from 0.8 to 1, which successfully validated the program’s comprehensibility and fluency. Conclusion: The current study’s results indicate that the Persian version of the structured cognitive training program “NEUROvitalis” can be a proper, valid and comprehensive tool for cognitive training in Persian-speaking individuals aged 50 years and above

German translation and linguistic validation of the HAND-Q

German translation and linguistic validation of the HAND-Q

Predicting the risk of subsequent progression in patients with systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease with progression: a multicentre observational cohort study.

Predicting the risk of subsequent progression in patients with systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease with progression: a multicentre observational cohort study.

Continuous glucose monitoring in the management of gestational diabetes in Switzerland (DipGluMo): an open-label, single-centre, randomised, controlled trial.

Continuous glucose monitoring in the management of gestational diabetes in Switzerland (DipGluMo): an open-label, single-centre, randomised, controlled trial.

Safety and effectiveness of MVA-BN vaccination against mpox in at-risk individuals in Germany (SEMVAc and TEMVAc): a combined prospective and retrospective cohort study.

More than 115 000 cases of mpox have been confirmed since the onset of a global outbreak in 2022. In addition to global transmission of clade II monkeypox virus (MPXV), the recent spread of clade I has caused a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The third-generation smallpox vaccine modified vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic (MVA-BN) was recommended for at-risk populations in 2022, despite a scarcity of data on safety and effectiveness against mpox. We did a prospective, multicentre, observational study, enrolling men who have sex with men and transgender people aged 18 years or older with changing sexual partners in Germany (Safety and Effectiveness of MVA-BN Vaccination Against MPXV Infection [SEMVAc]) between July 7, 2022, and Dec 31, 2023, evaluating safety and reactogenicity of one and two doses of subcutaneous MVA-BN. Vaccine effectiveness was estimated using risk ratios from the Kaplan-Meier estimator in an emulated retrospective target trial (Emulated Target Trial for Effectiveness of MVA-BN Vaccination Against mpox Infection in At-risk Individuals [TEMVAc]) from 3027 vaccinated individuals matched (1:1) to 3027 unvaccinated controls. SEMVAc and TEMVAc were registered in the HMA-EMA Catalogue, EUPAS50093, and the German Clinical Trials Register, DRKS00029638, and are complete. 6459 individuals were prospectively enrolled in SEMVAc. Adverse reactions were infrequent (first dose: 0·35% [95% CI 0·20-0·60] and second dose: 0·14% [0·06-0·33]). Local reactions were more frequent after the first dose (70·2% [95% CI 68·5-71·8]) compared with the second dose (56·8% [54·6-59]), as were systemic reactions (first dose, 22·3% [95% CI 20·9-23·9]; second dose, 17·6% [15·9-19·4]). In TEMVAc, 16 mpox cases were reported in vaccinated individuals versus 32 cases in matched unvaccinated individuals (median follow-up 55 days [IQR 23-89]). Effectiveness by 14 days or later after one dose was 57·8% (95% CI 11·8 to 83·0) overall, 84·1% (42·0 to 100) in people without HIV, but 34·9% (-72·8 to 79·0) in people living with HIV. Breakthrough infections were associated with reduced symptoms, compared with infections in unvaccinated individuals. MVA-BN vaccination was safe and well tolerated. One dose of MVA-BN offered protection against mpox but effectiveness was reduced in people living with HIV. Although randomised controlled trials remain the preferred approach for assessing vaccine efficacy, combining prospective and retrospective study designs can be valuable during dynamic public health emergencies. European Medicines Agency. For the German translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Provision of a German translation of the Inappropriate and Excessive Guilt Scale for the assessment of proneness to inappropriate and excessive feelings of guilt in children and adolescents

To provide a German-language translation of the Inappropriate and Excessive Guilt Scale (IEGS) for assessing proneness to inappropriate and excessive feelings of guilt in children and adolescents (7-16 years).Implementation of a multi-stage translation process according to established international criteria with two certified translators, including a standardized evaluation by interviewing N=10 children and adolescents.After revision of four of the 24 items, the translation of the IEGS was found to be generally well understood by the target group; however, younger children required more support in completing it.The German translation of the IEGS may be suitable for use in practice. The next step required for this is the provision of specific norm values, especially for the assessment of corresponding feelings of guilt in the context of depressive disorders.

Is culture translatable? On the Polish novel Chłopi by Władysław Stanisław Reymont translated into German by Jean Paul d’Ardeschah as a dialogue of Polish and German cultures

The article is an attempt to extend knowledge on the translation- and culture-related factors determining the translatability of Polish culture-bound items into German. It was analysed whether and under what circumstances culture-bound items typical of Polish peasant culture are translatable into German without losing their source connotations and relation to the source culture. The analysis encompassed 96 Polish culture-bound items excerpted from Chłopi by Władysław Stanisław Reymont and their equivalents excerpted from its German translation Die Bauern by Jean Paul d’Ardeschah. It was assumed that the culture-bound items could be successfully rendered into German by employing the strategy of cultural translation, which involves applying specific translation techniques. The study undertook qualitative analysis of techniques employed by the translator in his rendition of culture-bound items. The analysis also concerned the equivalence of connotations established using German elements. It was ascertained that the strategy of cultural translation made it possible to achieve a high level of translatability of Polish peasant culture. Its applicability in the translation process was determined by the translator’s initial aim and the intensity of transfer between the source and the target culture.

Shaping a sociocultural attitude through multilingual intercultural communication

Foreign language learning significantly promotes the learner's intercultural communication. His/her intercultural skills expanded in this way become an important instrument in shaping his/her socio-cultural world view. The foreign language skills to be acquired enable unmediated access to information from original sources in a foreign language. In this way, the recipient safeguards his/her consciousness against the influence of arbitrary manipulation of information during its translation. In this article the author compares several passages from the original work by the worldfamous British publicist Alexander Werth “Russia at War 1941–1945” with the Russian (1967) and the German (1965) translation. Using the example of numerous comparisons, the author concludes that the exclusion of parts of sentences, full sentences and paragraphs with heavy content severely impairs the content of the Russian-language translation and undermines the expressiveness of the original. The use of almost synonymous but meaning-distorting individual words also fulfills the same negative function. The exclusions and distortions in the translated text considered in the article concern historical and political realities, events, politicians, generals as well as ordinary people. The author of the article explains the exclusions and distortions noted as the ideologically and politically motivated efforts of the Soviet-Russian editors of the translation to whitewash the most sensitive episodes of Soviet-Russian history, camouflaging themselves with the recognized reputation of Alexander Werth. Despite the proclaimed efforts of the Soviet-Russian editors of the translation not to compromise the original content, the translation has deliberately compromised the meaning. The author of the article considers the topic to be relevant because unaltered reprints appear repeatedly in today's Russia and significantly distort readers' opinions. Moreover, this translation and its reprints are often used as a source for scientific research, which hardly contributes to the academic integrity of this research. Therefore, the author considers it important to educate foreign language learners that their acquired foreign language knowledge and skills can positively contribute to their socio-cultural and academic integrity.

Трансформация постановок «великих трагедий» У. Шекспира на российской сцене XIX – середины XX в.

The aim of the study is to study the process of formation and transformation of stage interpretations of Great Tragedies by W. Shakespeare in Russia from the end of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century, determining the key stages of their development, as well as in revealing the relationship between the historical and cultural context of the era and the aesthetic principles that formed the theatrical embodiment of these works. The article considers and highlights various stages of mastering the plays of the English playwright W. Shakespeare in Russia. For example, early stage (late XVIII – early XIX centuries): the first adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays through French and German translations, their influence on Russian culture. Then we can highlight the stage of the middle of the XIX century, when interest in W. Shakespeare thanks to translations, romantic and realistic trends, the growing social role of the theater. The contribution of Russian cultural figures such as A.S. Pushkin, V.G. Belinsky, and others to the interpretation of Shakespeare’s texts is also reflected. The next stage is the be-ginning of the 20th century, when a philosophical rethinking of the playwright's creative legacy takes place, new detailed and poetic translations appear, the theater turns to psychological realism (Moscow Art Theater, K.S. Stanislavsky) and carries out innovative productions. The post-war period is associated with the overcoming of ideological restrictions, the emergence of new interpretations of tragedies of W. Shakespeare (N.P. Okhlopkov, G. Kozintsev) and the reflection of the trend of influence of Western directors on the Russian (Soviet) theater, in particular P. Brook. The scientific novelty consists in the systematization of the stages of adaptation of the plays of W. Shakespeare in Russia with an emphasis on the relationship between theatrical practices and historical events, analysis of little-studied aspects, such as the role of translations and the influence of politics on the rep-ertoire (for example, the ban on Hamlet in the 1930–1950s), coverage of innovative approaches of directors (K.S. Stanislavsky, G. Craig, Yu. Lyubimov), who combined classics with modernity. As a result, key trends in Shakespeare’s interpretation were revealed: from romanticization to philosophical and political reading. It is shown how social changes (revolutions, the Thaw) influenced the interpretation of tragedies. The role of crea-tivity of W. Shakespeare is emphasized. W. Shakespeare in the formation of the Russian theatrical language, combining tradition and experiment.

“MİRZƏ ŞƏFİNİN NƏĞMƏLƏRİ”NİN MÜƏLLİFLİYİ MƏSƏLƏSİ: BUSTAN ƏFƏNDİNİN FƏLSƏFİ ETİRAFLARI KONTEKSTİNDƏ

It is a rare phenomenon when two different authors who lived at the same time are always remembered at the same time years later. Considering that these authors represent completely different cultures and geographies, the question takes on an even more interesting form. In this regard, the literary connections between the Azerbaijani poet Mirza Shafi Vazeh and the German translator Friedrich Bodenstedt are significant events in the history of world culture. Having met Mirza Shafi in Tbilisi, Bustan Efendi (F.Bodenstedt), took lessons from him in Azerbaijani and Persian languages. Returning to Germany, F.Bodenstedt, under the influence of the good impressions made on him, described the oriental image of Mirza Shafi, in all its subtleties, in his memoirs “A Thousand and One Days in the East”. In his works “Songs of Mirza Shafi” and “From the Accounts of Mirza Shafi”, he brought the Azerbaijani poet worldwide fame by translating numerous poems of Vazeh. In the explanatory part of the last work, F.Bodenstedt, confessing to the authorship of all the songs, contributed to the emergence of the question of plagiarism. At first this moment perceived ambiguously in the German scientific community gave rise to doubts and then led to the birth of a number of controversial questions around the literary connections between Mirza Shafi and F.Bodenstedt. Upon careful analysis of the author’s philosophical confessions creates a different impression. Without extracting F.Bodenstedt’s confession out of the general context and directly relying on the logic of the German translator the question of plagiarism takes on a different character. In his confessions Bustan Efendi not only introduces Mirza Shafi as his teacher, but also particularly emphasizes that his unusual oriental spirit is reflected in all the songs. He repeatedly notes that the songs owe their origin to Mirza Shafi. Since F.Bodenstedt could not fully reveal the deep content of Vazeh’s poems in his translations, he focused more on preserving the artistic form of his teacher’s oriental poetry. In his philosophical confessions he notes that a literal translation would be uninteresting and also incomprehensible to the German reader. F.Bodenstedt emphasizes the impossibility of translating an Oriental text while preserving all its colorful shades. With his translations from the legacy of the Azerbaijani poet Mirza Shafi, the German translator played an unprecedented role in passing on this legacy to his direct heirs.

Editorial intervention in translation: An experimental approach

Abstract Before publication, a translation may go through various intermediate stages and involve external agents other than the author and translator, such as editors or proof-readers. The role of different agents in translation has attracted increased attention in recent years, and studies have found that editorial intervention significantly affects translated language: Bisiada (2018b) finds extensive editorial changes to nominalizations in translation manuscripts while Kruger (2017) finds evidence that translation properties might result from editing rather than translating. In this study, we used German translated texts that were produced in two lab experiments, reported in Heilmann et al. (2021) and Heilmann et al. (2022), and asked professional German editors to edit them. The original English texts that the translations were based on included two different kinds of stimuli, namely non-agentive constructions and of-NPs, which, for the most part, were translated rather literally by the German translators even though previous corpus analyses had revealed a variety of non-literal translation strategies. Changes made to these stimuli by the editors were tracked, categorized, and statistically analyzed with the help of linear mixed models. The analyses show that editors are in fact more likely to change the complex stimuli that remained mostly unchanged in the German translations. While the kinds of changes made by the editors did not mirror the corpus results perfectly, the frequencies of complex stimuli after the translations had been edited were very close to frequencies reported in corpus-based studies like Freiwald (2016).

PARTICULARITIES OF REPRODUCING EMOTION CONCEPTS OF THE UKRAINIAN “CULT OF SUFFERING” IN THE GERMAN LINGUO-CULTURE: A CORPUS-BASED STUDY

The proposed article is devoted to the development of the methodology that can serve to identify cases of incorrect rendering of EC names in Ukrainian-German and German-Ukrainian translations of literary works. The aim of the study is to test this methodology on the example of “sad and wistful” ECs of the Ukrainian “cult of suffering” – сум, смуток, туга, журба, жаль, скорбота, печаль, зажура, хандра, and бентега. The sample of linguistic material consists of 1384 parallel contexts selected on the basis of the data from the Ukrainian-German parallel corpus, which is a part of the ParaRook parallel corpus group. The tested research methodology is based on the procedures of a number of methods of linguistics and translation studies: definitional analysis, contextual analysis, comparative analysis, translation analysis, statistical analysis The analysis of the sample material and the comparison of dictionary definitions of Ukrainian lexemes сум, смуток, туга, журба, жаль, скорбота, печаль, зажура and their German equivalents Trauer, Traurigkeit, Wehmut, Kummer, Heimweh, Sehnsucht, Weltschmerz, Melancholie, Betrübnis, Jammer revealed that the explanatory dictionaries do not provide full information about (a) the linguo-cultural specificity of the studied lexemes (e.g., Sehnsucht, Weltschmerz, Heimweh), (b) arousal and valence of the emotion they denote (e.g., Wehmut, Melancholie), (c) their relevant meaning, (d) stylistic labelling, as well as (e) frequency at the current stage of language development (only corpus data helped to determine the rare usage of the German lexeme Betrübnis). This means that the use of dictionary material cannot fully ensure the identification of the best translation equivalents in the target language. The comparison of definitions did not provide, in particular, a proper idea of the semantic shades that distinguish very similar words – Trauer, Traurigkeit, Kummer, and Jammer. The fact that in German-Ukrainian and Ukrainian- German translations, the lexeme Trauer is used mainly to convey the semantics of sadness, melancholy or sorrow remains unexplained, but according to the dictionary entry, this lexeme contains mainly semantic shades of mourning. This means that using only dictionary data does not ensure objectivity in determining the best translation equivalents in the TL. This is the reason for the semantic loss of German/Ukrainian ECs during their transfer to the Ukrainian/German-speaking society. It is established that the most frequent cause of semantic losses is the failure of translators to take into account the deeper meanings of the EC that create a peculiar emotional atmosphere of the SL text. At the same time, translators often focus on finding interlingual equivalents, forgetting that interlingual equivalence does not always ensure intercultural equivalence. The fact that the attempt to find intercultural equivalents requires considerable intellectual effort means that translators deliberately simplify their task by only partially conveying the emotional palette of the source text, thus depriving the Ukrainian/German recipient of the slightest idea of the specifics of the emotional world of Germans/Ukrainians. The differentiation of those ECs of the source culture whose name definitions are very close to each other is a particular problem for the recipients of the target culture. The distinction between such words is based on the frequency indices of the occurrent forms of the query words Trauer, Traurigkeit, Kummer and Jammer that made it possible to determine the dominant meanings of the close German ECs trauer, traurigkeit, kummer, and jammer, and helped to establish differences in the conceptual structures of the latter. The developed research methodology made it possible to determine the level of equivalence of those German ECs that are most often used to reproduce Ukrainian “sad and wistful” ECs, and vice versa. The criteria for the proposed equivalence – close, sufficiently close and admissible equivalences – are based on the premise that there is no complete equivalence among ECs, even in closely related cultures.

German translation, transcultural adaptation and test-retest reliability of the headache screening questionnaire.

German translation, transcultural adaptation and test-retest reliability of the headache screening questionnaire.

Ervin Bauer and the foundations of theoretical biology.

Ervin Bauer and the foundations of theoretical biology.

A novel diagnostic score for diagnosing arginine vasopressin deficiency (central diabetes insipidus) or primary polydipsia with basal laboratory and clinical parameters: results from two international multicentre prospective diagnostic studies.

A novel diagnostic score for diagnosing arginine vasopressin deficiency (central diabetes insipidus) or primary polydipsia with basal laboratory and clinical parameters: results from two international multicentre prospective diagnostic studies.

CHRONOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF GOSPEL PARABLE DISCOURSE

The article is devoted to the category of the chronological perspective in the Gospel parables as a set of temporal objects depending on the point of view of the observer and referentially addressed to the semantic core of “time” / “Eternity”. The relevance of the research is due to the need for a complex study of the linguostylistic features for the representation of the chronological picture of vision to identify the pretative originality of the Supreme point of view. The theoretical foundations of the study are related to the conceptual provisions of the theory of interpretative perspectivation and chronological perspective. We conducted our study on the material of the gospel parable discourse in Russian and German translations. For the identification of the linguostylistic parameters of the chronological picture of vision were the methods used: the perspectivation method, the descriptive-analytical method, the semantic-contextual method, the comparative method. We found the following linguostylistic tendencies: at the stage of the field the globalization of the chronological picture of vision leads to the thematization of temporal objects at the worldly level and eternal symbols at the sacred-religious level of the evangelical parable discourse. At the stage of the angle of vision the aspectualization of the chronological perspective leads to the specification of the temporal objects: 1) the transience of visible time; 2) the finiteness of visible time. At the stage of the focus of chronological vision the focalization of aspects leads to the accentuation of ideas: the occurrence of an important event for a person as the discovery of time about himself; the idea of time as a spiritual action; the idea of the spiritual eternity of the eternal symbol of the Word of God.

“Die Internationale”: from Protest Song to Official Anthem and Back

The fate of the German translations of “L’Internationale” reflects some of the fates of the German left. Several translations were produced around 1900, before the Emil Luckhardt version would become canonized shortly after the First World War. When compared to a more scholarly translation–of which the very first one, by Sigmar Mehring, is a good example–, Luckhardt’s is much less faithful to the Pottier original, but still quite effective. It is also less ideologically radical, so that it was acceptable within many strands of the German left. After the establishment of two German states following the Second World War, and even after the German unification in 1990, the song became a point of dispute for the left, even if at the same it also lost much of its original message in popular culture. This article examines the possible reasons for the lasting success of Luckhardt’s translation, its shifts in relation to the source text and some of the contexts in which it has been used.

Von Sprache zu Sprache: Winkler Translating Rübner Translating Himself

Abstract In his 1957 Hebrew language poetry collection, Ha’esh ba’even (The Fire in the Stone), Tuvia Rübner included a poem dedicated to his sister who was murdered in Auschwitz. A close reading of this poem shows its strong connection to German poems he published in various collections during the 1990s, some of which were written shortly after he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine from Bratislava in 1941. Such dwelling between languages comes to the fore in Manfred Winkler’s German translation of Rübner’s Hebrew poem. Focusing on this poem, while employing theories from translation and memory studies, this article examines the relationship between literary self-translation and the working-through of trauma. I argue that the oscillation between German and Hebrew encapsulates the transition between reflection and experience, as well as the enactment and the mourning, of the terrible loss. In analyzing Winkler’s translational choices, the article sheds light on Rübner’s “self-translations,” while calling attention to Winkler’s own engagement with both languages in dealing with the horror of the Holocaust.

Japanese Version of the Experience of Groove Questionnaire (EGQ-JA): Translation and Validation

The groove experience has been defined as a pleasurable urge to move that is induced in humans while listening to music. In the past, the intensity of this experience has been measured in various ways. In 2020, the English language Experience of Groove Questionnaire (EGQ-EN), with two scales and six items, was proposed as a concise, valid, and reliable psychometric inventory for measuring listeners’ urge to move and pleasure, followed by a German translation (EGQ-DE) in 2021. This study presents a Japanese version of the Experience of Groove Questionnaire (EGQ-JA). The items were carefully translated from English into Japanese. A listening experiment was conducted to investigate the psychometric properties of the EGQ-JA. The results show that the EGQ-JA replicates the two-factor structure of the original EGQ-EN and the EGQ-DE. Both scales had high internal consistency and good criterion-related validity. The EGQ-JA facilitates groove research among Japanese-speaking populations. This study also established the convergent criterion validity of the EGQ-JA scales with existing measurement scales, such as the Multiple Mood Scale and a nori item. Its equivalence with the English and German versions makes cross-cultural comparisons possible, and, thus, promotes culturally diverse research on the groove experience and music perception.

„WHEN HITLER STOLE PINK RABBIT” (1971, 2009) VON JUDITH KERR (1923-2019): EINE VERGLEICHENDE UNTERSUCHUNG DER IDIOME UND KULTURSPEZIFIKA IN DEN LITERARISCHEN ÜBERSETZUNGEN DIESES WERKES

Considering the fact that the translation of literary or poetic texts is generally regarded by translation theorists as a difficult, if not impossible task, the aim of this article is to examine some of the problems of equivalence in literary translation. In this paper, practical examples will be used to illustrate the differences between the German translation Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl (1973, 2013) and the Portuguese translation Quando Hitler roubou o coelho cor-de-rosa (1992, 2022) and the original work When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (1971, 2009) by Judith Kerr (1923-2019), originally published in exile in England in 1971.2 Of particular interest is the way in which the target language is taken into account in the respective translation, not only on a lexical-semantic level, but mainly on a cultural level in relation to food, institutions, writers/novels, conventions and emotions. Finally, it is necessary to verify whether the word choice of the translation into the corresponding target languages, in this case German and Portuguese, is actually the appropriate one in each situation, taking into account the meaning given in the source language in English. The purpose of this paper is merely to illustrate the choices made by each translator. It is by no means intended to categorise a translation as wrong or right, but rather to indicate which translation deviates more or less from the original meaning.