Translating Reality by Rose Marie Caruana discusses contemporary translation techniques and the literary strategies involved to depict reality in a novel, with reference to Francis Ebejer’s Requiem for a Malta Fascist and its recent translation into Maltese by Charles Briffa. Four main approaches are taken to discuss reality. First, linguistic reality investigates language in its functional mode. The second approach tackles perceived reality and explores language from its communicative aspects. The third approach elaborates on the aspect of contextual reality and finally the dimension which the bi-lingual author and translator themselves brought to the reading experience is integrated. Throughout this study, similarities and dissimilarities are observed in the manipulation of language through the medium of English and Maltese. Equivalence and divergences in resonance arising from the translation process are explored, especially in view of the fact that the indigenous reality being portrayed is linked to the language of translation rather than to the original language it was written in. The translation process is finally viewed from the perspective of the authentication process.
About the author…
Rose Marie Caruana was born in Rabat in 1958. She graduated with a first class degree in English in 1979 and enjoyed a career in administration before opting to become a full time housewife and mother. She has travelled widely and together with her husband Albert and two daughters Colette and Janelle, has spent considerable periods of time living in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Australia. Turning back to academic study she recently graduated with distinction, from the post graduate diploma in translation in 2006 and master in translation in 2007. Midsea Books published her translation of Immanuel Mifsud’s short story The Black Night of the Shearwaters in 2006. Her translation of Oliver Friggieri’s novel Jasmine Blossoms for all Time is due to be published soon.
“Rose Marie Caruana’s work is steeped as much in literature as in linguistics and revels in Maltese and English in equal measure.” – Prof. Oliver Friggieri.