The hurdle of translating idioms: translating Mthembu’s UMamazane into English

Abstract

Translating idioms between languages that are culturally diverse is no easy task. This is mainly due to the fact that idioms are culturally bound and it is rare that an idiom in one language has an equivalent idiom in another language. Translators often have to make use of various translation strategies at their disposal to circumvent this hurdle. One of the scholars who have formulated translation strategies to help deal with this challenge is Baker, who devised six translation strategies specifically for the translation of idioms. The present study, therefore, seeks to determine which of these six strategies the translators of the isiZulu novel UMamazane utilised in their translation of idioms in the novel, which was translated into English by AT Cope and DM Mzolo. The descriptive translation studies (DTS) framework, which advances the notion that translations are facts of the target culture and that any translation is governed by norms, is used. The findings reveal that the translators employed ‘translation by paraphrase’, ‘using an idiom of similar meaning and form’, ‘using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form’ and ‘borrowing the source language idiom’ as translation strategies.