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“Translating the Other’s Voice: When is Too Much Too Much”
The authors advocate that consideration be given to Caribbean context and language when Caribbean texts are translated into other languages spoken in the Caribbean. However, translation theorists - feminist translation theorists, in particular - seem to have gone overboard. This article discusses translation practices against the background of recent experiences in translating Haitian, Jamaican and Guadeloupean texts. The first part of the article discusses the ideological and linguistic background of translation in the Caribbean. The second part examines translators’ choices since the 1945 translation of Jacques Roumain’s Gouverneurs de la rosée to the 2010 translation of Olive Senior’s Discerner of Hearts. The third part discusses the translator’s choices in the face of the demands of the text, editors and publishers. The authors question how far a translator can, or should go into making transparent, or ‘authentic’, the language of a text originally written in a multilingual context, but which, in giving voice to the Other, does not always use his or her native tongue. Issues revolve around faithfulness, historicity, respect of the author’s choices, and translation ethics, against the background of the complex Caribbean linguistic context.
Ideological background of translation in the Caribbean
Indeed, because of its colonial history and geography, the Caribbean is a linguistically fragmented space. Since the eighties, the region has been trying to become more integrated
The researchers’ analysis of the translated texts shows a balance between considerations given to readers’ needs
and respect for the authors’ text.
Recognising Outstanding Researchers 2016