The challenges of translating poetic text: the case of Paul Sozingwa’s Wimbo wa Lawino

dc.contributor.authorPemba, Hilda
dc.date.accessioned2016-06-08T00:34:47Z
dc.date.accessioned2020-01-07T15:53:18Z
dc.date.available2016-06-08T00:34:47Z
dc.date.available2020-01-07T15:53:18Z
dc.date.issued2010
dc.descriptionAvailable in print formen_US
dc.description.abstractThis study examines the challenges of translating poetic text using Wimbo wa Lawino as a case study. The researcher first read the texts thoroughly and then identified twenty-one stanzas, which in the researcher’s perception exhibited “marked” translation. The researcher subsequently employed correlation qualitative design to characterize the texts as cases of overtranslation, undertranslation and mistranslation. She then presented the stanzas to different categories of respondents to judge and classify the texts along three criteria namely: overtranslation, undertranslation and mistranslation. Respondents were also asked to comment on the structure of target language text (TLT) and identify the causes of “marked-ness” of the translation along three criteria namely: linguistic, cultural and aesthetic value. The findings showed that respondents judged seventeen stanzas as “marked” translation while four stanzas were judged as “unmarked” translation. The researcher then selected thirteen stanzas that had been agreed upon by at least eight five percent of respondents to be involved in the analysis of the study. The findings also revealed that the translator had succeeded to maintain the structures of the source language text (SLT) to some extent especially in terms of chapters and subchapters. The translator however failed to maintain the structure of stanzas, verses and the number of words within stanzas and verses due to a number of factors including variation between English and Kiswahili, overtranslation, undertranslation and mistranslation. The study therefore concludes that Wimbo wa Lawino sounds more like a prose text than a poem due to failure to maintain the poetic features of the SLT such as verses and the number of words within stanzas and verses. It recommends that the translator of poetry should be well equipped with poetic forms of both SLT and TLT before embarking on poetry translation.en_US
dc.identifier.citationPemba, H (2010) The challenges of translating poetic text: the case of Paul Sozingwa’s Wimbo wa Lawino master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam. Available at http://41.86.178.3/internetserver3.1.2/detail.aspxen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/2164
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Dar es Salaamen_US
dc.subjectQualityof Wimbo wa Lawinoen_US
dc.subjectTranslating poentryen_US
dc.subjectEnglish to Kiswahilien_US
dc.subjectKinondoni municipalityen_US
dc.subjectTanzaniaen_US
dc.titleThe challenges of translating poetic text: the case of Paul Sozingwa’s Wimbo wa Lawinoen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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