Romanian Translation Research Articles

Os Estudos da Tradução na Romênia e suas relações sincrônicas e tardias com os Estudos da Tradução na Europa: algumas linhas de pesquisa

Este artigo tem como foco explorar alguns aspectos relacionados aos estudos da tradução contemporâneos na Romênia, além de identificar influências, convergências e divergências entre as várias linhas de pesquisa presentes na Europa Ocidental, Central e Oriental, e os estudos da tradução na Romênia. A tentativa de oferecer uma tipologia dos trabalhos de estudos da tradução existentes dentro e fora do espaço em questão é acompanhada pelo exame de fatores que levam à escolha de línguas não nativas para a publicação de tais trabalhos.

Passion, Duty, and Fame: Women Translators of Cuore into Romanian (1893-1936)

The second half of the nineteenth century saw a proliferation of translations from romance languages into Romanian as a consequence of the economic and cultural development of the Romanian society. In this context, 1893 saw the publication of the first Romanian translation of De Amicis’s Cuore (Heart): An Italian Schoolboy’s Journal, by Clelia Bruzzesi (1836-1903). The twentieth century brought five other versions, two of them signed by women translators: Sofia Nădejde (1856-1946) in 1916 and Mia Frollo (1885-1962) in 1936. Until recently, Cuore was part of the primary school curriculum in Romania, so the text left a mark on the cultural history of the country. This paper aims to raise awareness of the often neglected translation activity of women and to reveal Bruzzesi, Nădejde and Frollo’s place in society as well their motivations and the public reception of their translations.

Um olhar sobre as pesquisas romenas em História da Tradução

Neste artigo, pretendemos apresentar um panorama da história e historiografia da tradução em romeno, no conjunto das múltiplas abordagens das quais a história da língua, a história da literatura e história das práticas artísticas e culturais podem ser objeto. Para fazer este sobrevoo, estabelecemos como referências: a tradução como ato, os atores da tradução (parcialmente elencados em listas e/ou indiretamente ordenados em dicionários e listas de obras traduzidas) e a tradução como resultado. Nossa intenção é destacar a utilidade das pesquisas em história da tradução romena, que servem principalmente para revelar o papel que a tradução tem desempenhado na autodeterminação linguística e administrativa e, consequentemente, na construção do passado nacional.

De Gherasim Putneanul à Bonifaciu Florescu ”“ un siècle de traductions roumaines de la littérature française

L’article qui suit se veut une présentation générale de ceux qui se sont impliqués dans la réalisation des traductions à une époque décisive pour la modernisation culturelle et politique de la société roumaine. Dans la deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle, la Valachie et la Moldavie s’ouvrent vers l’Occident, et surtout vers la France, d’où l’Illuminisme rayonne dans toute l’Europe. Par conséquent, une pléiade de personnalités religieuses et laïques traduit des écrits à caractère moralisateur, voire scientifique. Le siècle suivant représente l’un des plus riches chapitres de l’histoire des traductions roumaines. C’est à la même époque qu’on recense les noms des premières traductrices. Dans l’effort d’intégrer la culture roumaine parmi les autres cultures importantes du continent, les traducteurs deviennent des créateurs de la langue et des modèles littéraires, des formateurs du goût et les promoteurs des idées nouvelles dans la société roumaine.

Collocation and connotation in chapter “Scylla and Charybdis” of James Joyce’s Ulysses. An analytical study of the Romanian translation

The present article was written as part of the PhD dissertation entitled “An analysis regarding the evolution of James Joyce’s writing style in ‘Dubliners’, ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ and ‘Ulysses’ and the strategies of translating it into Romanian”. The research starts from the hypothesis that a perfect rendition in a different language of a literary text of this type is nothing more than a utopia. However, a translator should always intend to achieve an equilibrium between the author’s intentions, the form, the content and the target culture. In “Ulysses”, James Joyce experiments with language, abandoning the definition of sense and revolutionises the art of expressing thoughts through words. The current work will concentrate on the thorough analysis of adjectival and adverbial collocations conceptualized in the ninth chapter of “Ulysses”. Our purpose is to investigate how Mircea Ivănescu’s Romanian translation deals with collocations and especially with those that typically represent Joyce’s authorial style. Mircea Ivănescu (1931-2011) is a Romanian poet and the sole translator who accomplished the difficult task of translating the entire novel, although there had been various attempts at translating only chapters of it. It is an approved work of translation, having received both praise and critical appreciation. After more than three decades from this chapter’s translation, our research aims for a further exposition of the similarities and distinctions between the source language text and the target language translation.

In Other … Romanian Words. Practical Considerations on Translating

The present article evolved from a series of short Romanian translations based on the German version of Adam Fletcher’s book entitled “How to be German in 50 new steps/ Wie man Deutscher wird. In 50 neuen Schritten” (2016). Spanning more than three months, the outcomes of the translating process were rendered concrete with the collective contribution of five Erasmus students[1] at Leipzig University, Germany, all of whom (their teacher included) are native speakers of the Romanian language. Frequently employing a combination of free and formal translation-styles, the team of translators-to-be strove to retain all the meanings, be they propositional or expressive, presupposed or evoked, or those generated by idioms, fixed expressions and non-equivalence in the original text. They provided alternative translations, mostly differing on the levels of lexis, grammar and register, but eventually negotiated the best one, which naturally became the final translated text, as much as possible freed from any traces of “translationese” and suitable for any authentic contemporary sample of Romanian language.
 
 [1] I am grateful to Patricia Gheorghe and Ramona Băcănaru (Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest), Andreea Tufeanu (University of Bucharest), Denisa Urs and Paula Heredea (University of Oradea), for their major role throughout the whole process of translation and for all their pertinent observations on the source and target texts.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Romanian knee disability and osteoarthritis outcome score for joint replacement (KOOSJR)

AimTo perform validation of the Romanian Knee disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for Joint Replacement (KOOSJR).MethodNinety-six patients (101 knees) with advanced osteoarthritis (OA) scheduled for total knee replacement completed Romanian translations of KOOSJR and IKDC (International Knee Documentation Committee – subjective knee form) and Euroqol EQ-5D-5 L, and the treating physician completed the original knee society score (KSS).ResultsAverage age was 66.4 (range 50–83) years and male to female ratio 1:3.76. There was moderate correlation between the test-retest (average 4 days) KOOSJR (r = 0.618, n = 45) and IKDC (r = − 0.671, n = 99), weak between KOOSJR and EQ-5D-5 L Index (r = − 0.431, n = 100) and VAS (r = − 0.364, n = 99) and very weak to KSS score (r = − 0.133, n = 98) and function (r = − 0.072, n = 97) For the first KOOSJR, Cronbach’s alpha was 0.816 and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) 0.816 (95% CI 0.755–0.866) for average measures. For the retest, Cronbach’s alpha was 0.841 (95% CI 0.760–0.903) for averages.ConclusionThe Romanian Knee disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for Joint Replacement (KOOSJR) is a valid, reliable, consistent and reproducible clinical score for patients with OA requiring arthroplasty.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Romanian International Knee Documentation Committee-subjective knee form.

AimWe aimed to translate and cross-culturally adapt the International Knee Documentation Committee—subjective knee form (IKDC) in Romanian.MethodThe original (US) IKDC—subjective knee form was translated according to recommended guidelines. Validity was tested using Spearmans’s correlation coefficient between score sand test-retest reproducibility. Reliability and internal consistency were determined using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).ResultsA total of 106 data sets were available for processing. The average age was 52 years and the male to female ratio was 40:66. Fifty-five subjects repeated the form after an average of 4 days. There were no floor or ceiling effects (range 3.4–74.7). There was a strong correlation between the first and repeated administration of the IKDC—subjective knee form (r = 0.816, n = 50) and moderate compared to Tegner-Lysholm knee rating scale (r = 0.506, n = 102), KOOSJR (Knee disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for Joint Replacement, r = − 0.622, n = 96), EuroqolEQ-5D-5L Index (r = 0.633, n = 100) and visual analogue scale VAS (r = 0.484, n = 99). Internal consistency was moderate with Cronbach’s alpha 0.611 (n = 102) and ICC 0.611 for average measures (95% CI 0.493–0.713).ConclusionThe Romanian translation of the IKDC—subjective knee form is a valid, consistent and reproducible outcome measure in patients with knee pain and dysfunction.

A személynevek Anonymus Gesta Hungarorumának angol és román fordításaiban

The Gesta Hungarorum is a valuable source of the early history of Europe and Hungary. As a result, several translations in addition to the Hungarian have been published: Romanian, German, Slovak, Polish, Catalan, English, Russian, etc. While some questions regarding the translation of the personal names used by Anonymous are predictable, a comprehensive understanding can only be reached through a complete comparison of all data. Thus, data collection is the first step of research. The current study examines the use of personal names in the English and Romanian translations. Aspects connected to translation are systematised based on the various levels of their context. A detailed analysis of the data brings new aspects to the fore that highlight questions connected not only to the text of the Gesta itself but translation in general. Thus this study is useful not only to a small group of scholars but any who face challenges in the translation of names.

THE SLANG USED BY JAMES JOYCE IN THE CHAPTER ‘CIRCE’ FROM ULYSSES: A CHALLENGE OF TRANSLATION FOR MIRCEA IVĂNESCU

This paper researches how slang is transferred from a source text into a target text, using the example of the chapter ‘Circe’ from the Irish novel Ulysses by James Joyce and the challenges faced by the translator Mircea Ivănescu when rendering English and Irish slang in Romanian. In addition, the paper deals with a view on structural perspectives of slang in Ulysses, the composition of which began in 1914. It was published in 1922 and is considered to be one of the most difficult works of literature to read. The range of styles that the writer uses is one of the reasons that the book is held up as one of the key texts of literary modernism, a movement characterised by overturning traditional manners of writing. Joyce fills his narratives with some of the most imaginative uses of language in his devotion to portray the grandeur of ordinary life and what goes on in his characters’ minds moment by moment, a style emblematising his signature: the stream of consciousness. The Romanian translator, Mircea Ivănescu, is a postmodernist poet who prefers to employ an ordinary language in his writings. Moreover, he is a self-taught man of letters who did not even receive a degree in the languages he translated. However, ‘Ulise’ is an acclaimed Romanian translation and critics have repeatedly praised Ivănescu’s skills and use of language. This paper focuses on the choices made in the process of cultural transposition of slang and on the changes in form and structure of words and expressions when rendered from one language to another.

Internal and External Reference in the Romanian Translations of Some of Agatha Christie’s Titles

Internal and External Reference in the Romanian Translations of Some of Agatha Christie’s Titles

The ITRO/ROHIST Project: Digitalizing Romanian History and Histriography of Translation itro.info.uvt.ro

Abstract Building on the rapidly increasing necessity to make information available in electronic, searchable format in all walks of life, the ITRO/ROHIST project, coordinated by the ISTTRAROM-Translationes research centre, seeks to collect and digitize information on the history and historiography of Romanian translation, in order to offer researchers and the general public access to valuable information in these areas. It also aims to shed light on the role and place of Romanian translation history and historiography on the international stage. This article presents what has been achieved so far in the project (regarding the content of the database and the technical aspects behind its setting up) and speaks about short and long-term plans to carry it on.

Proper names in marginal notes to a 17th century Romanian translation of the Old Testament (ms. no. 4389 B.A.R.)

Translating proper names in earlier Romanian versions of the Bible raised different challenges. Some of them were solved in the main text, some other in marginal notes. Such notes are to be found in the second complete translation of the Old Testament into Romanian, kept in the manuscript no. 4389 from the Romanian Academy Library and dated in the second half of the 17th century. The marginal notes from this old Romanian translation refer to the relation of the text with its Slavonic source, in terms of correcting the translation errors, with the secondary sources (in Latin, Romanian, and Greek), pointing to some denomination models different from the main source, and with the linguistic norm of the translated text, in terms of grammatical and lexical adaptations to the system and vocabulary of Romanian. This article explores the strategies related to the translation into Romanian of biblical names based on their treatment in the marginal notes of the mentioned text; it also aims at clarifying, as far as possible, the sources and how the translator relates to them.

Lucian Blaga – the translation theorist

Our research focuses on the metatexts signed by Lucian Blaga as a translator. We prove that, due to the preference of Blaga for ethnocentric translation and his philosophy on poetic translation seen as interpretation, he is a translation theorist. The premise on which we base our research is represented by the remark belonging to Sean Cotter, according to which, in the case of Blaga, translation is a manner of challenging the linguistic policy imposed in Romania during the 1950s by the new regime. In this regard, we analyse the dichotomy margins vs centre in translation and the importance of the translation process in Romania during that decade. The pattern suggested by Lawrence Venuti in nowadays Translation Studies is reversed in the case of the translation subjected to our study: the translator abandons its “invisibility”, while ethnocentric translation becomes, in itself, a technique of resistance. The analysis of certain metatexts signed by Blaga proves that he had a modern philosophy on translation, which allows us to consider him a translation scholar avant la lettre. Thus, a careful analysis of metatexts signed by translators of that period would contribute to a greater visibility of trends existing in Romanian Translation Studies.

Of “You” and “Thou,” Lips and Pilgrims in the Translation of Romeo and Juliet’s “Shared Sonnet”: A Hands-On Perspective

Abstract It is not a recent discovery in the field of language history that the address pronouns thou and you were not, in Shakespeare’s time, used indiscriminately. If the speaker did have a choice between the two forms, that choice was by no means random, idiosyncratic or arbitrary, but always dictated by the social, relational or attitudinal context of a speech act. Nonetheless, all 20th-century Romanian translations of Romeo and Juliet (and of other Shakespearean plays) – from Haralamb Leca’s rather loose rendering (1907) to Ștefan-Octavian Iosif’s and to Virgil Teodorescu’s more refined versions (1940 and 1984, respectively) – seem to ignore the difference in associative meaning between the two forms, which is sometimes essential for a correct assessment of the relationships between characters. The latest Romanian translation of the play, which we have jointly submitted for publication within the Shakespeare for the Third Millennium project (William Shakespeare. Opere XIII, 2018) acknowledges the importance of the various associative meanings that the two pronouns carry and strives to restore these meanings to the text, though not without difficulty, given the rather restrictive form of the original, i.e. iambic pentameters, often with strict rhyme schemes. Thus, focusing on the well-known “shared sonnet” as one of the most relevant instances of pronoun alternation in the play, our paper discusses the uses of you and thou in Early Modern English and sets out to assess how much is lost in 20th-century translations, to show how our own translation restores the associative meanings of the two pronominal forms and finally to exemplify how we managed to overcome translation difficulties entailed by the metrical and stylistic demands of the text.

Mircea Ivănescu – a Romanian poet rendering the style of James Joyce’s Ulysses. The concept of fidelity in translating the overture from “Sirens”

The following paper deals with a view on the concept of fidelity in literary translation with an analysis of the Romanian poet Mircea Ivănescu’s work on the overture of episode eleven: “Sirens” from James Joyce’s “Ulysses”. Mircea Ivănescu is a postmodernist poet who prefers to employ an ordinary language when writing. Moreover, he is a self-taught man of letters who didn’t even get a degree in the languages he translated from. When speaking of his work as a translator his attitude is often sceptical. However, “Ulise” is an acclaimed Romanian translation and critics have repeatedly praised Ivănescu’s translation skills and use of language. For that reason, the paper focuses on the concept of fidelity in translation and on the effort of the Romanian poet to efficiently render Joyce’s writing style in the target language and at the same time to preserve the original meaning of words. The paper is not intended to elicit the imperfections of the translation but rather to illustrate the intricacy of the task, the problems of non-equivalence that are difficult to avoid by any literary translator and some potential approaches. 

Two Snails Stuck to My Cheeks

Two Snails Stuck to My Cheeks Matei Visniec (bio) Translated by Adam J. Sorkin (bio) and Lidia Vianu (bio) When I shook hands with himhis hand remained in my handthat’s how he is, generous, I told myselfas I tried to get rid of his warm handthat grasped my own ever more tightlywhen he tapped me on the shoulderhis other hand remained stuck to my shoulderand when he came near to kiss mehis lips remained like two snails stuck to my cheekshis sternum detachedand remained stuck to my chestbecause that’s how he is, in any embrace he gives his alland when he looks into your eyesat the next instant his eye-sockets are empty it’s true that we’d been very closebut never did I imagine thatI’d see him flayed right before my eyeswith his heart tumbling down to my feetjust because we were going to say goodbye [End Page 288] Matei Visniec Poet, playwright, novelist, and journalist, matei visniec was born in Romania but left in 1987, and since the 1990s he has lived in Paris, working at Radio France Internationale. He writes poetry and fiction in Romanian, but drama, now, in French. Visniec has published five collections of poetry, six novels, and more than fifty plays; he has been recognized by major awards in Romania and France. How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental Patients and Other Plays is a selection of his plays in English. Adam J. Sorkin adam j. sorkin has published more than sixty books of Romanian translation. His recent books include The Hunchbacks’ Bus by Nora Iuga, longlisted for the National Translation Award in Poetry (Bitter Oleander, co-translated with Diana Manole); Syllables of Flesh by Floarea Tutuianu (Plamen, with Irma Giannetti); A Deafening Silence by Magda Cârneci (Shearsman, with Madalina Banucu and Cârneci); and The Return of the Barbarians by Mircea Dinescu (Bloodaxe, with Lidia Vianu). Sorkin is Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Penn State. Lidia Vianu lidia vianu is professor of Modernist and Contemporary British Literature at Bucharest University, where she also directs the publishing house Contemporary Literature Press. She has been Fulbright professor at the UCal Berkeley and SUNY Binghamton. Author of more than twenty books of literary criticism, she has translated over seventy books into English and Romanian, among which Marin Sorescu’s The Bridge, translated with Adam Sorkin, won the 2005 Poetry Society (U.K.) Prize for European Poetry Translation. Copyright © 2019 The Massachusetts Review, Inc

On the translation-proper of toponyms in Romanian translations at the beginning of the 19th century

The translation of certain toponyms that had not yet been assimilated to the Romanian language at the beginning of the 19th century represented a real challenge for translators at that time. A first aspect to be considered here is the linguistic status as proper names and the possible translation options that could not be correlated to any tradition. A second aspect is the precarious stage of Romanian geographical terminology, reflected by the terminological variation for the same concept and the lack of semantic affinity, either real or related to the actual terminology. This article addresses mainly the first aspect mentioned above. The issues addressed are as follows: a concise presentation of the concept of proper names translation, the distinction between untranslatable and translatable or partially translatable proper names, the factors motivating the option of translating or not the translatable terms from a toponymic collocation. Our corpus reflects the incipient stage of the translation of translatable or partially translatable toponyms in Romanian, a stage in which the translator is free to decide upon translatability. Compared to the actual norm, the different choices from one translator to another or even those opted for by the same translator—especially the option of not translating toponyms that are nowadays translated in most languages—reveal the lack of importance of linguistic meaning (that is the lexical meaning of the etymon) of the proper name as far as its functioning was concerned, as well as the role of this non-functionality in identifying the linguistic status of a proper name.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Romanian Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for Joint Replacement.

Perform translation, cultural adaptation and psychometric testing of the Romanian translation of the Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for Joint Replacement (HOOS_JR). Assess construct validity, reliability, internal consistency and reproducibility. Adults with chronic hip disability prior or at a minimum of 3 months after surgery. Ninety-six patients (22 bilateral) with hip osteoarthritis or who had previous hip replacement or osteosynthesis for a fracture of the trochanteric region. Complete the HOOS_JR together with the Oxford Hip Score (OHS_RO), Harris Hip Score (HHS) and Euroqol EQ-5D. 57 patients repeated the HOOS_JR after 2 days. Convergent validity using Spearmans's correlation coefficient; Cronbach's alpha coefficient, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC, two-way mixed effects model) and inter-item correlation matrix and test-retest assessment after 2 days. The questionnaire had a high degree of reliability with a Cronbach's α of 0.923 at the initial completion and 0.924 at the second testing. The ICC was 0.923 for average measures for the first form and 0.910 for the second form. The two results were strongly, positively and significantly correlated (rs = 0.859; P < 0.001). The Romanian HOOS_JR strongly, significantly and positively correlated with the OHS_RO (rs = -0.880 initial and rs = -0.803 s; P < 0.001) and HHS (rs = -0.731 initial and rs = -0.654 s; P < 0.001) and moderately, significantly and positively correlated with the EQ-5D Index (rs = -0.580 initial and rs = -0.542 s; P < 0.001) and VAS (rs = -0.500 initial and rs = -0.690 s; P < 0.001). The translated HOOS_JR is a reliable, reproducible and valid measure of function in patients with chronic hip disability.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Romanian Oxford Shoulder Score.

The use of validated patient reported outcome scores is critical to the reporting and monitoring of the effectiveness of clinical treatment. The aim of this study was to translate and culturally validate the English Oxford Shoulder Score (OSS) to Romanian. Approximately, 125 patients with disorders of the rotator cuff and proximal humerus fractures completed the translated Oxford Shoulder Score (OSS_RO), the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (QuickDASH) and EuroQol 5-Dimension (EQ-5D-5L). The patients repeated the evaluation using the OSS_RO after 2 days. The OSS_RO had a high degree of internal consistency and reliability with a Cronbach's α of 0.954 at the initial completion and 0.945 at the second testing. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC, 2-way mixed effects model) was 0.953 (single measures) and 0.976 (average), P < .001. The OSS_RO was reproducible (Pearson's r = 0.953; P < .001). The OSS_RO was divergently valid with QuickDASH score (Pearson's r = -0.633 first and r = -0.672 second; P < .001) and convergent with the EQ-5D VAS (Pearson's r = 0.627 first and r = 0.640 second; P < .001) and the EQ-5D Index (Pearson's r = 0.759 first and r = 0.771 second; P < .001). Our study showed that the Romanian translation of the OSS is a reliable, reproducible and valid measure of shoulder function in patients with variable shoulder pathology.