A translation of Frans Sammut’s "Il-Gaġġa"

Abstract

The principal objective of this study is to translate from Maltese into English some excerpts from the novel Il-Gaġġa, written by Frans Sammut in 1971. Sammut is a modern novelist, who moved from the traditional techniques of Romantic writing in Maltese literature. He uses various examples of figurative language, especially metaphors. In translating them, one had to be careful in order to stay faithful, while accurate, to the original, while keeping the form as much as the meaning of the novel. His language can be rich and ornate, to the extent that one might see it as too formal and distinctive from everyday conversations, on the other hand it is sometimes also very similar to discursive language. A translator should read and analyze the text thoroughly, before starting the process of translation. This helps to ensure that the source text has been appropriately understood. One cannot translate Sammut before first understanding the social and political issues of his time and what had influenced him throughout his life to write such a novel. Peter Newmark, a renowned translation theorist, argues that the main task of a translator is to understand the source text in order “…to determine its intention and the way it is written for the purpose of selecting a suitable translation method”.1 Therefore, this study starts with a brief description of Sammut and his work and proceeds with a brief overview of the Maltese literary scene during the years Sammut had written this novel. It then continues with some information about the novel and the style Sammut used to write it. After analyzing the techniques used by Sammut, can the translator feel somewhat prepared to try and reproduce the author‟s work along with his techniques, while trying to evoke the same response as that of the source audience in the target one.