چکیده:
Every happening in one's life may be regarded by her/him as a
leading phenomenon to other happenings. This leading
phenomenon which can anticipate the subsequent happenings
is called SIGN. Signs are unique for every group of human
being and hence culture-specific. This is even true for every
individual. Signs permeate in every aspect of universe. Among
these fields, children's literature is studied in this article,
especially in the field of translating this kind of literature
which consists of transferring cultural and visual aspects.
According to the model of 'Semiotic Entity as a Unit of
Translation', proposed by Hatim and Mason (1990), this article
aims at identifying the process of translating cultural signs in
children's picture books. Also this article investigates a) The
relationship between the words and pictures as two aspects of
semiotics in children's picture books b) The process of
transferring this relationship into the target language and c)
According to the concept of culture specific "Horizontal
elongation" proposed by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006), the
direction of the ‘given’ and ‘new’ information in visual
communication (here in pictures) is analyzed in two Western
and Persian cultures. To achieve these aims, one of
Silverstein's poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends collection
and its Persian translations by Hirmandi (2010) and Morad
Hosseini (2007) were analyzed.
The results showed that both translators had identified the
semiotic entity in "Identification" procedure but had failed to
successfully transfer the intentions of the message. In addition
none of the translators had respected the relationship of
complementary aspects of words and the picture. In terms of
"horizontal elongation", as there were no contributing art
directors in both translations to manage the culture specific
directions, the message which is emitted by this visual aspect,
is not conveyed in the translated texts.
It is suggested that translators get specialized acquaintance
with the art of illustration and visual literacy in children’s
literature to make a better interpretation of picture books and
publishers use the art directors as the managers of their
artworks.
خلاصه ماشینی:
"Vandergrift (2009) states that the translation of children’s books from other languages enhances the number of excellent literary works for young people, introduces them to life in other cultures, and makes an international perspective and an understanding of both the uniqueness and the universality of human experience.
" Signs in children’s literature are seen not only in words but also in visual aspects as, the typography of words, the overall format of the book and the most importantly in the pictures, which may be culture-specific.
While the reindeer shouts 'gee' when she/he receives the flea, in the picture the reindeer and Santa are looking angrily at each other and as Macdonald (2003) says it is not clear that whether the shout is of happiness or of distress and the falling star adds to the doubt; but equivalents used by the translators, may make the reader to believe that the shout is of happiness: Table 4: Translators’ Equivalents (رجوع شودا به تصویر صفحه) Therefore as the poem does not clearly state its moral message, and as realizing some aspect of the poem needs prior cultural knowledge, it seems that translators should have taken some alternative procedures.
In the original text (an originally American children’s poem), according to the left- right direction of written form, the reindeer is positioned on the left page as the ‘given’ information and the Santa on the right as the ‘new’ one (his reaction and attributes are ‘new’ in comparison with what children have fostered from the original myth)."