I would like to write about the experience I
had working on the essay for the module Process and Product. When I started the
MA in literary translation, I had a fixed idea on what was a translation and
what was not. In my naïve opinion, translations had to be perfect mirroring
reproductions of the source text and it was not the translator’s job to include
her or his subjectivity. After spending two semesters working on translations,
I slowly realised that the perfect translation was impossible. The awareness of
this impossibility became the liberating factor that allowed me to call my
children’s short story adaptation of Jacques Attali’s book, A brief history of the future a
translation. Why? Because it was apparent to me that the process of my
adaptation was identical to the process of any other translation. Even though
the target text was far more creative than any target text I had ever done, I
have never written a more meaningful and purposeful translation.
Attali is a French economist and author, he
wrote in this book, published in2006, about the next fifty years of the planet.
He explains basically what will happen according to him, what plausible future
our behaviour is leading to. But he also makes clear that there is no way to
know for sure what is awaiting us but he writes: ‘Finally, I want to believe
that the horror of the future predicted here will contribute to make it
impossible.’ (personal translation from Attali 2006: 391) In my researches I
discovered that three French men have written a series of graphic novels
adaptation for adults from Attali’s book. They created a whole story line with
plot and characters but it is all based on the future Attali describes.
Somehow, this very economical, political book had become very accessible even enjoyable
and Attali’s words had spread. When I read the book with the intention of
translating it, it seemed evident to me that I wished to translate it for
children and therefore I would have to make it accessible to them.
What better audience than children? They will
be the first affected with what will happen and yet they are so hard to address
to with such complex issues. However, Jean Boase-Beier and Michael Holman
(1998: 17) wrote in The Practices of
Literary Translation: Constraints and Creativity that ‘the constraints
imposed by the presence of a source text empower and enhance the creativity of
the translation act by placing the translator in a position of striving to
overcome them.’ For this challenging translation, I had to produce a voice and
a story that would be enjoyable and relevant for readers between the ages of 11
and 13 and to keep real traces of Jacques Attali’s work. So I created the story
of Amy a 12-year-old living in 2073 on what is left of England who finds in her
granddad’s study a mysterious paper diary. This discovery leads to a
conversation between the little girl and her grandfather about his life and the
adventures he had as a transhuman (Attali’s concept of an altruism movement
which will help the world to survive what he calls the ‘hyperempire’ and
‘hyperconflict’). Papy, the granddad was born in 2001, which is approximately
the year of birth of the readers, so there is a double connexion between the
readers and both characters. I had to explain, with accessible words, concepts and
ideas from the source text. Papy’s character was very useful as he allowed me
to employ words and structures of sentences that 12 year old would not say but
would understand. He was definitely a bridge between the source text and the
target readers.
In this exercise, maximal relevance was
required, as Boase-Beier defines it, ‘Maximal relevance, when applied to the
reading of a literary text, suggests that the way the text is formulated will
be seen by the reader as especially significant.’ (2006: 49) Even though relevance was a challenge, I also
had constraints from the source text and the author’s intentions, as well as
having to take into account my target readers’ background and expectations. All
the difficulties encountered in the process of this piece of work made me view
literary adaptations as translations more than ever before.
Charlotte Laruelle translates from English into
French, currently doing the MA in literary translation at UEA. Contact:
charlotte.bdf@hotmail.fr
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