A Literary Translation in the Making
by Claudine Borg,
published by Routledge, 2023
Bringing together cognitive translation studies (CTS) and literary translation, the new academic publication A Literary Translation in the Making: A Process-Oriented Perspective by Claudine Borg interrogates existing assumptions in CTS.
The work also sheds light on the value of a combined look at both cognitive and social processes in literary translation.
Receiving her PhD in translation studies from Aston University in the UK, Borg records how a literary translation takes place. She offers a unique model that allows for a greater understanding of the actions, decisions, motivations and work practices of individual translators, as well as of their interactions with other participants in the practice of a literary translation.
Anthony Aquilina’s authentic notes
Borg does this exhaustively with the full cooperation of Anthony Aquilina who offered his time and personal records on an applied commitment when translating one of many known literary works from French into Maltese. Borg’s book, in fact, offers ample samples of his notes, drafts and corrections that form the process of publishing a translation from one language into another.
Translator Anthony AquilinaAquilina was chosen for this case study as he has academically established himself as a literary translator, besides taking on board other types of translations such as film subtitles.
His translating commitments are not exclusive to French oeuvres; he has also brought famous works into Maltese from Italian and German, including non-literary works. Aquilina is a former full professor of translation at the University of Malta.
A tool for translators
This 234-page book is a hands-on tool for translators as it features not only research on the theoretical framework and context of translations but also discusses methods and data analysis methodology. The book accompanies the whole process of a literary translation from the handwritten first drafts to the published version, including decision-making and underlying motivations of the translator.
This manual features several interesting excerpts from the actual translation into Maltese of Aquilina’s work of Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s philosophical novella Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran, published in France in 2001.
Author Claudine BorgThe practising reader of this volume also finds images illustrating excerpts in Maltese of several portions of the translator’s work in various stages of the making of the final product. Borg diligently takes the welcome opportunity to speak about Malta’s scene of the book market and literary translation, offering not only historical information about Malta’s old native language but also about the island’s efforts to spread its wings out to other markets in different languages and vice-versa.
The author of this handbook, besides promoting in a readable-style the growing presence of this academic discipline – as the publishers indeed do – winds up her elaborations by evaluating her findings, highlighting implications resulting from the scientific observation of the translator’s behaviour when embarking on important tasks such as literary translations. The publication also features several pertinent appendices, a bibliography and index for quick references.