Transferring culture : Alan Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country in Zulu

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the strategies used to transfer aspects of culture in the translation of an English novel into Zulu. For this purpose, C.L. S. Nyembezi' s Zulu translation, Lafa Elihle Kakhulu ([1957] 1983), and Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country ([ 1948] 1966) were used. In the study a cultural model for translation, used within the descriptive translation studies paradigm, was adopted in order to conduct a comparative analysis of proper names, terms of address, idiomatic expressions, figurative speech and aspects of contemporary life. It was found that Nyembezi mainly used cultural substitution, transference, domestication, addition and omission as translation strategies. The findings also showed that in resorting to these strategies certain rnicrotextual shifts resulted in macrotextual modifications of the translated novel as a whole. The macrotextual elements of the translated text most affected by microtextual shifts are characterisation and focalisation which, in turn, influence style and theme.