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Dennis Tedlock. 1. Author Information. Distinguished Professor, McNulty Professor of English, Research Professor of Anthropology, and American Studies affiliated faculty, University at Buffalo of the State University of New York Ethnographer, linguist, poet, translator, and
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1. Author Information • Distinguished Professor, McNulty Professor of English, Research Professor of Anthropology, and American Studies affiliated faculty, University at Buffalo of the State University of New York • Ethnographer, • linguist, • poet, • translator, and • photographer.
Importance • Dennis Tedlock (born June 19, 1939)received his Ph.D. in 1968 from Tulane University. In 1986, he won the PEN Translation Prize for his book Popul Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life, and in 1997 was the joint recipient of the American Anthropological Association President's Award, along with his wife, Barbara Tedlock. • Proponent of dialogical anthropology.
In the article Tedlockdeals with… • If a poem is supposed to consist of exactly the right words and no others, then there are multiple worlds in which poems are never quite finished, or closed. • In some of these worlds poets use writing, but there is nothing about writing, […], that requires a text to be fixed for all times and places. Writing, like speaking, is a performance.
In the article Tedlock deals with… • The sounding of different voices does not require putting multiple poets on the same bill, but takes place in the poem at hand. If the poem is written there may be multiple graphic moves in the same text, and these need not be in synchrony with the voices.
In the article Tedlock deals with… • He notes that a given word exists in an environment of other words that could have been used to refer to the same object, and these other words may come to the mind of the hearer or reader.
In the article Tedlock deals with… • To clarify this point, Tedlock gives an example from a distich from the opening of the Popol Vuh (Council Book). e.g. : “Here we shall inscribe We shall implant the Ancient World.”
In the first line, the authors use the word “inscribe” directly to refer to writing without any figurative meaning. • In the second line, the authors use the word “planting”, however not in the sense of sawing seeds that will become something else, but in the sense of transplanting something that is already a plant in its own right. • Thus, “planting” is paired with “writing” in the distich to refer to the same object, with planting it its figurative usage.
A parallel poetics stands opposed to the literary project of protecting poems against the “heresy of paraphrase” by treating them as if they were Scripture, composed of precisely the right words and no others. • A parallel poetics is one in which a poem not said in any other way is not a poem in the first place. • In the poetics of parallelism, variation is not something that waits for a later performance of the same poem, but is required for the production of this poem in the first place.
In the article Tedlock deals with… • So according to Tedlock, since poetics is something that always stands ready, once something has been said, it is always inevitable to say it in other ways. He criticizes what he calls as “Western commodification of words”, the tendency for word-for-word transposition.
In the article Tedlock deals with… • In the Mayan case not even writing carries with it a need for exact quotation. When Mayan authors cite texts, they construct paraphrases. Here, he gives as an example the texts in three seventh century temples at the site of Palenque, in Chiapas Mexico. Although some stories told in these texts overlap from one temple to the other, not a single sentence in these overlapping parts is repeated word-for-word.
In the article Tedlock deals with… • Translation, especially the translation of poetry has for long caused anxiety. • The examples Tedlock presents from the translation of Mayan poetry in this article however display that the popular notion of the untranslatability of poetry does not apply.
In the article Tedlock deals with… • Robert Frost phrases this notion of the enmity between poetry and translation by saying “Poetry is what gets lost in translation”. • On the other hand, Octavio Paz counters this view by saying “Poetry is what is translated”. • In the article, Tedlock takes Paz’s statement a step further by saying “Poetry is translation”.
In the article Tedlock deals with… • Translation into another language is a continuation of a process which has already been performed in the poem itself. • “A poem not said in any other way is not a poem in the first place.”
The Impact of Culture in Translation Some Examples
Example 1 An example from McDonald’s is an ice cream adds.The image emphasized in the source text is “smile”. The word is used three times in the original text: “We’ve got a sundae smile for you.” “Sundaes are so rich and creamy they’ll make you smile when you eat one.” “And smile.”
Whenwehave a look at the translatedversion of the sameadds, it is seenthat the image “smile” is replaced by the image “cool” in the targettext. “McDonald’s’dan size tatların en serini: Sundae/Dondurma.” “McDonald’s’ın besleyici, lezzetli Sundae/Dondurmasıyla kendinize bir serinlik keyfi yaşatın!”
The reason for such a change in the presentation of the addsmay be the habit of people of the targetculture to typically consume ice cream in the summer months to cool off. It is also noteworthy that the words “rich” and “creamy” are rendered as “besleyici” and “lezzetli” in the Turkish version. The word “nutritious” is most probably included to the target text to attract the consumer, i.e., Turkish parents.
Let’s analyze a film which started to be on in 2004 called Shrek II. Though it’s an animation appealing the children Shrek II contains too many jokes or wits and themes for the adults, too. The film makes many written or verbal implications for many different popular cultural elements at the same time. • Let’s embody the issues stated here by having a look at some of the examples from the film.
In order to make the film more humorous or make it closer the cultural issues; it can be seen that different things than the original text are seen in the target text. e.g.: English: Wow! Turkish: Anauuuu! English : Swimming pools, movie stars! Turkish : Yüzme havuzuuu, film yıldızlaruuu! English : Hey waiter! How about a bowl for the steed? Turkish : Hey garson! Bir tabak versene bana lan. • These items may arise from the limitations or directions of the film makers to the translators or it may be the translator’s own wish or it may also be the preference of the voice actor at the time of doubling.
e.g.: English: Hey man, you may want to get your fine Corinthian footwear and your cat cheeks out of my face. Turkish: Hey sıpa, çizmelerini ve tüylü kedi poponu yüzümden çeker misin lütfen? • The expression of “Fine Corinthian” in the English version makes a reference for the car called Chrysler Cordoba (in the adds of the car the expression of “fine Corinthian leather” is used) but since the expression does not have any sense for Turkish people the translator do not use the expression in the target language.
e.g.: English: Then how do you explain Sergeant Pompous and the Fancy Pants Club Band. Turkish: Peki o halde bu Kibirli Albay ve Züppeler Kulübü Bandosu nedir? • Here is made another reference for the Beatles’ song called “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and there is a similarity between the English version of the expression and the pronouncing the name of the song. But this similarity do not exist in the target language and the expression are not used in the target culture.
Asit can be seen in the examples some of the expressions peculiar to the source culture and the film character (Peri anne) herself do not exist in the translated version. e.g.: English: Oh, shoot. I don’t think they can hear us, pigeon. Turkish: Oh yapma. Bizi duyabileceklerini hiç sanmıyorum.
e.g.: English: Your fallen tears have called to me So, here comes my sweet remedy I know what every princess needs For her to live life happily Turkish: • Ağlayan sesini duydum • Ve hemen uçup geldim • Güzel prensese gerekenler • Fazlasıyla bir bende var • Some minor cultural differences are reflected in this poet at the same time.
Let me point some other examples from the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ children story book in which you can encounter a lot of cultural calibrations. • e.g.: • the cultural elements of units of measurement;
currency units: • foods and drinks:
Celebrations and leisure time activities • Lesson names
